Land Rover has been very warmly received by the market. Starting with 3 thousand cars in the first year of production, the company increased its output to 8,000 in 1949 and doubled it in 1950. In subsequent years, production capacity was increasing steadily, reaching 30,000 cars in 1958, and 50,000 – in 1968. The car, created in fact only to make use of idle plants, overshadowed production of passenger cars which used to be the main Rover products.
New Range Rover was considered a vehicle for amateurs among the fans of the Land Rover. Many of them had doubts that new car was as reliable as the previous model. All doubts were dispelled two years later, when a number of Range Rover vehicles, managed by a group of British soldiers under the command of Major John Blashford-Snell, made a rally from Anchorage, Alaska to the Argentine city of Ushuaia. The British Trans-Americas Expedition of 1972 became the first vehicle-based expedition to traverse the Americas from north-to-south, including traversing the roadless Darién Gap.
Between 1980 and 2000, The Camel Trophy – annual vehicle-oriented competition was held. It was best known for its use of Land Rover vehicles over challenging terrain. Those motorsport events have been called “the Olympics of 4×4”, and were all about adventure and exploration. Throughout 20 years, courageous explorers visited Amazon, Sumatra, Zaire, Brazil, Borneo, Australia, Madagascar and more. Those dangerous expeditions through difficult terrain put human and vehicle endurance to real test. Over the course of the twenty years, all of the Land Rover vehicle range were used, including Range Rover, Series III, Defender, Discovery and Freelander.