Super Cool: This Land Rover Series IIA Goes Up For Auction at Barrett Jackson

Rare Pickup version of Land Rover goes up for sale at B-J Northeast.

The upcoming Barrett-Jackson Northeast auction on June 21 and June 24 runs a little thin on Jaguars. A 1970 Jaguar XKE Series II probably highlights the listings and it looks a nice example. However we stumbled across something even cooler, and perhaps more valuable in the auction listings. This 1971 Land Rover Series IIA Pickup caught our eye not just because it’s super cool but also because few of these crossed the Atlantic.

British Leyland introduced the Series IIA in 1961 as an evolution of the beloved Series II. The IIA came to be recognized as perhaps the most recognizable all-wheel-drive vehicle of its era across the world. You won’t search long to find dozens of photos of Series IIAs traversing the rugged outbacks of Sub-Saharan Africa or Australia’s Outback. You likely can still find some off the beaten paths of those places, as well. A Series IIA also played a timeless role in the 1966 film Born Free.

Land Rover likely bothered to ship few Pickup versions to the United States, which was already flush with domestic pickup offerings. Typically, Series IIAs with Soft Tops or Safari Roofs bring the largest dollar figure, but a stake-bed Pickup in the United States might be rarer than either. Desirable? Maybe or maybe not.

For the non-Land Rover expert, you can tell this is a late Series IIA from the headlight location. Early versions featured the headlights in the center section of the squared-off front. Headlight laws changed in the United States and elsewhere around the world in the middle of the 1961 to 1971 production run. As a result, British Leyland moved the lights outboard.

This particular version features a four-speed manual transmission behind the base 2.25-liter gas engine. Land Rover offered two optional engines in this time, a 2.6-liter inline-six and a 2.25-liter diesel, so the base four-cylinder might hamper value a bit.