109 Details and Specifications

According to the letter the previous owner received from Land Rover, our 109 was built at Solihull on or about October 15, 1977. The Certificate of Permanent Export from the British Department of Transport indicates the 109 was first registered in England on December 22, 1977 to a gentleman in Blakeney. Twenty-one years later, in April 1998, the 109 was sold to another gentleman in Southampton followed three years later by another sale, presumably to EH Landrovers of Chippenham Wilts. The Army Captain from whom we purchased the 109 bought it from EH Landrovers in May 2002 for 2000GBP while he was stationed in Germany.

He brought the 109 back to his base and drove it around Germany until he returned to the U.S. in June 2002 when he was reassigned to Fort Benning, Georgia. One of the last things he did before leaving Europe was to purchase a reconditioned transmission from Paddock Motors for a total of 746GBP delivered to Germany. The 109 was imported to the United States and arrived on a RORO ship at the port in Brunswick, Georgia on June 26, 2002.

The right rear quarter panel of the 109 still bears the mark ( a crease in the aluminum) from the day the previous owner collected it from the Port Authority. As the story goes, the 109 came off the RORO boat with some sort of ignition fault. When he jumped the contacts on the starter, he did not realize the 109 was in gear (reverse), so the original 2.6 liter engine fired up and immediately drove by itself, backward, across a parking lot and through a chain link fence! Welcome to the U.S.!

The U.S. Customs form indicates an assigned value of US$12,000 which is a pretty nice paper profit from a 2000GBP investment about two months earlier!

The 109 has the following notable features:
1. seats 12--3 in front, 3 in the middle row and 6 on the two bench seats in the rear.

2. the middle row is three separate seats that fold & tumble (70/30)

3. safari roof with roof vents

4. Salisbury rear axle

5. 1 ton springs

6. deluxe bonnet

Over the 5 years the Army Captain owned the 109, he made several improvements (in our opinion) including:

1. Fairey Overdrive

2. Full length galvanized roof rack/ladder

3. Belleview 6000lb winch with in-cab cable controls

4. Light bar with 2 floods and 2 pencil beams

5. Chevy 250 6 cylinder with Scotty's Adaptor

6. MAP freewheeling hubs

7. Bull Bar with stainless steel brush wires connected to the roof rack

8. Pair of sand ladders

9. Hi-Lift Jack

10. Optima Yellow Top Battery

11. 12" electric radiator fan