1975 LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER 3.5 V8 CLASSIC

The first Range Rover prototype was built in 1967 with plate number SYE 157F. The design of the Range Rover was finalised in 1969. Twenty-six Velar-badged engineering development vehicles were built between 1969 and 1970 and were road registered with the number plates YVB151H through to YVB177H.

Though being chassis no. 3, YVB 153H is believed to have been the first off the production line as a vehicle in that colour was urgently required for marketing. (The Range Rover with chassis no. 1 was a green model with the registration "YVB 151H", and is now on exhibition at Huddersfield Land Rover Centre, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire). The Velar name was derived from the Italian "velare" meaning to veil or to cover. Range Rover development engineer Geof Miller used the name as a decoy for registering pre-production Range Rovers. The Velar company was registered in London and produced 40 pre-production vehicles that were built between 1967 and 1970. Conveniently the badging could be made up utilising existing letters from the words "Land Rover".

The Range Rover was launched in 1970. In the early 1970s, the Musée du Louvre in Paris exhibited a Range Rover as an "exemplary work of industrial design".