Current Owner: Bastian Saeung Behrendt, Hamburg, Germany
Previous Owner(s): Carl Tonks, Willenhall; Dan Martin, Walsall
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Advertised for sale (as 86"!) in LRO July95. Result of sale not known.
I was contacted in January 2018 by Basti Behrendt, asking:
Hi — I am currently the owner of the SXF109. Would you happen to have any information about its long history? There are no documents so I am totally clueless ;)
All I knew is what is above, but shortly afterwards Basti posted on the LRSOC Forum:
Hi guys — I'm a big LR fan and just purchased my dreamcar, a Series 1 from 1957. Its original License Plate is SXF109, maybe someone is able to tell me something about its past, that would be awesome! That's one of the reasons I'm here, trying to get a lot of information about my Series 1's past ;) Currently fixing the bulkhead and planning adventures very soon. I'm excited to learn a lot from you guys ;) It was advertised as an 86", but from the things I read in this forum to this point, I'm starting to think that I got 2" more for my money.
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After posting these photos, Basti added:
I bought it from a nice guy who knew the Series 1 since he was a little kid (he just had it in his garage starting to strip everything off). He bought it 2 years ago, after the owner (his old neighbor) passed away. The old man had a lot of fun cruising through his fields and land, and we assume that he was the one who got it to Germany.
Clearly it would be great to know how this vehicle got from Walsall to Hamburg.
He also confirmed that the engine is a later 2.25l, with a Weber carburettor.
In April 2019 I received a very interesting email from Carl Tonks, who said: I'd contacted the previous owner to him that lived in the same town as me (Willenhall) — they had just kept it as a runaround so any parts that fitted were used, which made maintenance awkward. When I got it there was a hardtop fitted (Dan switched to soft-top) and it was running a 2.25 diesel Rover engine (not a Land Rover unit though I think?) I also fitted a Series 1 exhaust.
I fitted the newer front bumper after I drove through a gift shop (totally destroyed shop, but only bent the bumper!) Great to see pics of her — hope all goes well with endeavours.
It's always great to hear these little bits of history that have kept the 'character' of our vehicles over more than 6 decades. I was going to draw a veil over the gift shop episode, but Carl later volunteered what happened:
The irony of destroying the gift shop is that I skidded on a patch of oil, which was left from the previous week's oil change on the Landy! A valuable lesson on workshop safety.
That doesn't totally explain everything, but we'll let it pass!
[To add (or alter) information on this page, please contact me on sxf@teeafit.co.uk.]
Update
I owned SXF109 from 1990-92. I think I sold it to Dan. The engine was very ill and I needed a running car. This was my first car which I purchased from a guy in Kidderminster who was going to America on an American football scholarship.