IIA Series

Land Rover IIA Series
Series IIA

The SII and the SIIA are very difficult to distinguish. There were some minor cosmetic changes. Body configurations available from the factory ranged from short-wheelbase soft-top to the top-of-the-line five-door station wagon. A 2.25-litre diesel was added to the engine line. After 1967 the line included a 2.6-litre inline six-cylinder petrol engine for the long-wheelbase models. It also had servo-assisted brakes. 811 of these were NADA trucks, which were the only long-wheelbase models made for the American and Canadian markets.

From February 1969 the headlamps moved into the wings on all models. The sill panels were redesigned to be shallower a few months afterward. Later still, the rear wheel arch profile was changed. Truck gained possibly to accommodate 900×16 tires fitted with snow chains on 1-Ton 109″ models.

The Series IIA is considered by many the most hardy Series model constructed. It is quite possibly also the type of classic Land Rover. That features strongly in the general public’s perception of the Land Rover. In February 1968, just a few months after the Rover Company had been subsumed, under government pressure, into the Leyland Motor Corporation.

The Land Rover celebrated its twentieth birthday, with total production to date just short of 600,000. More than 70% had been exported. Certainly, it was whilst the Series IIA was in production that sales of utility Land Rovers reached their peak, in 1969–70. In these years sales of over 60,000 Land Rovers a year were recorded. As well as record sales, the Land Rover dominated many world markets- in Australia in the 1960s Land Rover held 90% of the 4×4 market. This figure was repeated in many countries in Africa and the Middle East.