The Rover Company, long before it was part of British Leyland, the BL Group, the Rover Group and finally Jaguar Land Rover, had experimented with the combination of rugged versatility and opulent luxury that currently defines the modern Range Rover.

The first time they got this right was almost accidental, with the original Range Rover’s powerful V8 engine combining with a sturdy body that was suitable for driving both offroad and on-road that helped carve out an entirely new market of luxury SUVs.

What is perhaps even more remarkable is that the Range Rover Classic was not their first attempt, as Rover had tried a few times to convert the versatile 4×4 into a luxury car.

Aside from the Road Rover, a series of prototypes for a road car based on the Land Rover platform, there have been a few other attempts to turn a vehicle that was barely removed from the theatres of war into a more comfortable car.

The first attempt was as early as 1949, just a year after the launch of the Land Rover Series I, as Rover partnered with the luxury coachbuilder Tickford.

Tickford, best known today for their work with Aston Martin, Lagonda and Rolls-Royce from that era, opted to turn the Series I into a seven-seater (three in the front, four at the back) with a wooden frame, a one-piece windscreen and plush leather seats.

The resulting car looked remarkably close to a prototype of the later high-end Range Rovers starting in the 1980s, aside from the rear seating which gave away the roots of the Land Rover as an evolved military transport.

It was not a success, with less than 700 Tickfords made, only 50 of which were sold in the UK.

The problem was not necessarily the vehicle itself but the cost; the original Land Rover was exempt from Purchase Tax thanks to its utilitarian roots, but the same was not true of the Tickford, meaning that it was cheaper to buy imported than domestically.