Land Rover Celebrates 70th Anniversary in the Coolest Way Ever!
It certainly is a Land Rover Defender. However, it’s probably not the kind you were thinking of.
Stretching more than 820 feet across, an outline of a Land Rover Defender has been created in the most remote location yet; drawn in snow on the side of a mountain in the French Alps to celebrate the Land Rover brand’s 70th anniversary.
The unique piece of snow art was created to announce World Land Rover Day, celebrated on April 30, exactly 70 years since the original Land Rover was first shown to the world at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show.
The unique image is a tribute to the moment when the engineering director of Rover, Maurice Wilks, first sketched the shape for the original Land Rover in the sand of Red Wharf Bay, proposing the idea to his brother Spencer, the company’s managing director. The forward-thinking design was christened the ‘Land Rover’, the outline of which we now recognize as the modern-day Defender.
“Land Rover is an iconic brand around the world and the outline of the Defender is instantly recognizable,” said Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Prof. Dr. Ralf Speth. “To reach the landmark of 70 years is truly special and we will mark it with a year of celebrations that represents Land Rover’s ‘Above and Beyond’ spirit and honors the people behind the world’s favorite SUVs.”
Land Rover is inviting fans to join the celebration of World Land Rover Day with an online broadcast from the UK. The broadcast will feature the influential people who helped create the world’s most-loved 4x4s and the Land Rover brand’s most forward thinking technologies; spanning the brand’s original Series Land Rover and Defender origins, to the introduction of the Range Rover in 1970 and later the Discovery in 1989.
Snow artist Simon Beck, who specializes in creating geometric art on foot, braved sub-zero temperatures to create the 820 foot Defender outline almost 9,000 feet up on La Plagne in the French Alps.
To produce the high-altitude Defender, Beck walked 20,894 steps and 10.2 miles (16.5km) through the French Alps. He said: “Making my snow art requires endurance, accuracy and strength – all attributes shared with the Defender. Its iconic shape is so simple and recognized across the world; this must be the most recognizable piece of art I’ve ever made.”
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