The last two-door Range Rover Classic to roll off the assembly line in 1994 is heading to auction in July. The auction house Bonhams will put the truck under the hammer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.
The truck was sold in Portugal, where many of the later 2-door Range Rovers went for tax reasons. In fact, they had been discontinued in the United Kingdom in 1988, except for the 200-truck 1991 CSK edition, a tribute to the Range Rover's designer Charles Spencer "Spen" King.
However, it was a different story in other countries, where the 2-door remained successful due to import taxes. They were particularly popular in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, where they were sold with lower-power diesel engines and manual transmissions, as well as a lower trim specification. With the warm Mediterranean climate more sympathetic to steel than damp Britain, a good number of 1990s 2-door Rangies still roam Southern Europe.
However, when the Range Rover was redeveloped with the airbag-equipped "soft dash" that debuted in 1994 for the 1995 North American model year, complete with a slightly-reworked bodyshell, it wasn't worth it to rework the 2-door as well.
So, on January 11, 1994, the last two-door Range Rover rolled off the line at Solihull -- chassis #KA647644. Like many of these tax-friendly 2-doors, there were no rear seats, no rear carpeting, and the rear windows sliding were blanked over. All of these parts were placed in the cargo area to be installed at the destination country. This workaround allowed them to be imported as a van, thus enjoying a significantly lower tax liability.
記事によると7月にUKでオークションにかかるとのこと。
欲しい方はご相談ください。
もちろん世界中で高騰しているのでそれなりの金額にはなることが予想されます。
弊社としては日本に持ち込みたいです(笑)
日本円で乗り出し1000万円は超えると思いますが、2度と手に入る車ではないですからね。
