Land Rover Employee Reunited with Series 1 Land Rover After 70 Years
Land Rover worker Dorothy Peters enjoys nostalgic ride in Series 1 she was photographed with decades ago.
As a teenager in post-war Britain, Dorothy Peters joined the car company Rover. In a video recently released by Land Rover Germany, Peters explains, “I think it was July 1946, and it was of course called Rover then. We hadn’t heard of Land Rover….So my mother came with me to the factory to see what jobs there are. I was 15 and I had little white socks on and sandals.”
Two years later, she had joined the service department at Land Rover’s Solihull plant, and Land Rover debuted its first model at the Amsterdam Motor Show. Since then, Peters has treasured a photo taken of her with Land Rover number 16 before they went on sale. For the following decades, she wondered what it would be like to be driven in it.
The current owner of Land Rover number 16, Mike Bishop, works for the company’s classic division and was giving a presentation for the 70th anniversary when, as he describes it, “A very charming lady comes up to me and said: ‘Oh, I’ve got some old photos from back in the day.” That charming lady was Peters. She showed him the photos and he said to her, “You know who owns that Land Rover don’t you?” She didn’t, so he told her, “I do.”
Bishop then went out of his way not just to reunite Peters with the Land Rover that she had formed an attachment to while working with it, but to take her out in the Series 1 and round the Land Rover off-road proving ground, dubbed the Jungle Track. Something she had always wanted to experience.
Amazingly, Peters had never driven in a Land Rover before, and it’s an utter delight to see how much she enjoys the experience. It’s also very touching to see what it means to her and her granddaughters that, now at age 87, she finally got a chance to have her dream come true.
Check out the video of Peters’ amazing story.
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