A 1973 Range Rover driven on an epic 14,000-mile, five-month expedition from Johannesburg to Somerset in the UK is on sale now at JD Classics.
Undertaken by ex-ITN Chief Foreign Correspondent, Michael Nicholson in 1981, this Range Rover has survived the Nyaki Mountains in Malawi and elephants in Dar es Salaam - all chronicled in Nicholson’s book Across the Limpopo.
Nicholson was sold the Range Rover by its first owner, Le Mans-winning racing driver Duncan Hamilton who specified it in Lincoln Green with a Palomino interior and a number of factory options. Full leather upholstery and a Webasto sunroof were both fitted as extras by Nicholson who bought the car in 1976 before shipping it to Johannesburg where he was working as ITN’s Chief Foreign Correspondent.
After four years of daily use in South Africa, Nicholson was due to head back to England but instead of the 16-hour flight, he packed his family and their belongings into his Range Rover and set off for home.
From South Africa, he headed through Zambia to the Nyika Plateau of Malawi, where he camped fearing for his family’s safety, staying up all night with a machete at hand. The Range Rover took them through Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area where they travelled side-by-side with wild rhinoceros, and saw them through dangerous encounters with bull elephants in Dar es Salaam. He then crossed the Serengetti to Kenya where it had to tackle a series of boggy washed away bridges where the average speed was 2.5 hour per mile.
Following its final route through Egypt, Sudan, Greece and the rest of Europe to the UK, the car was dry stored for many years. Recently it received a comprehensive bare shell restoration. The classic Range Rover market is hugely popular at the moment in the UK and this is a great opportunity to own a very special part of it. JD Classics is one of the world’s leading classic car companies and is based in Essex. It uses a team of 60 specialists who restore, race and sell classic cars to clients worldwide. See www.jdclassics.co.uk for further details.
