1965 Land Rover SII: Reader Ride

By: Richard Cook, Photography by: Richard Cook

Date: 11.04.2016

It's had a few mods but this 1965 Land Rover SWB is fierce and fit for purpose

Richard Cook's 1965 Land Rover SII

This car goes by the name of Herbie the Hybrid and started life as a short wheelbase Series II. It’s probably passed through lots of hands over the years and a few people have made some big changes.

Somewhere around 1989 it got a shortened Range Rover chassis (down from 100 inches to 90) and fitted with a Holden engine – probably a Red motor. It was properly engineered and registered, but that wasn’t to be the last of the changes.

Some time later – not sure when – it was fitted with the Range Rover 3.5l V8 engine, Nissan four-speed gearbox via a Dellow bellhousing and Land Rover Discovery power steering. It also had the Supa Trik (of Dandenong) CAMS approved roll cage fitted. Clearly it was being set up for off road competition.

There have been some pretty serious people work on it over the years and it’s been well-engineered. There’s a twin battery set-up plus dual 100 litre fuel tanks, which may be just as well as the engine chews through the juice!

It’s a lot of fun to drive and listen to the V8.

(Richard is a member of the Naracoorte Historic Vehicle Club.)

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