"Tico" Land Rovers
Land Rover is one of those legendary car brands that even if you are not a classic car enthusiast you know for sure. The line of off-road models began in 1948 with the series I and evolved over seventy years until a few months ago the last Defender, based on the original model, was discontinued.
Considered an icon of the British industry, during these seven decades the Land Rover has also been assembled in more than twenty countries.
In Spain everyone knows the history of Santana, but the Andalusian company was not the only one in manufacturing these models under license. The Land Rover was also manufactured in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Venezuela, Belgium, etc. Whenever I’ve been to Costa Rica the large amount of old Land Rovers still on the road, especially the series III, has caught my attention. A few weeks ago, traveling from San Carlos to the capital, I asked the friend who was taking me to stop for a while. I wanted to take some pictures of a series II. When he learned about my interest in old cars immediately let me know that we were in “Land Rover’s land”. He immediately offered a theme tour around the area. The tour started with that series II featured next to a pineapple plantation. The first visit was to one of his cousin's workshop. He is dedicated to restoring old Land Rovers, some of whom end up emigrating to the United States.
That was the place where I took the picture of those three examples waiting together to be restored, each one belonging to a different series. In the same place I discovered that all those cars had been assembled in Costa Rica.
Between 1963 and the late seventies, with tariffs making importing finished vehicles prohibitive, a local company started to import CKD kits from England, and probably also from Linares, to assemble the cars in the Central American country. Until 1969 only 2,000 cars were assembled, but production steadily increased and some 35.000 “Tico” Land Rovers had been produced by the late seventies. Local production was possible thanks to the efforts of Nora Carbalho and John Schofield, owners of the Electra Group, who went beyond importing cars and founded “Ensambladora Automotriz", which even assembled some Range Rover during the 1970s.
In the same town I was introduced to a friend who had restored a beige series III. The restoration was so good that it looked like a brand-new car. In the same property, under a sunshade, I discovered a ‘56 series I. It had been manufactured in Great Britain and had a remarkably low registration number, 95 in Costa Rica.
The last surprise came when I was introduced to Emilio, a true Land Rover fan. Emilio offered an off-road tour in his series III. Despite the hard suspension and how difficult it was to follow a straight line with such an imprecise steering, driving along the foothills of the Poás volcano was an exciting experience. Next time I promised to attend one of the off-road meetings organized in the area that congregate many “Tico” Land Rover.
