6pot

Well-Known Member
I have read that there is sometimes some hot debate as to whether a Santana counts as a proper Land Rover at all.

I did mention in my introduction that I once owned one and I can assure you it was pure Series Land Rover, with the exception of certain things like the radiator grille, gauges and mudflaps contained the word 'Santana' and some of the lights were a bit different. I even bought some standard parts from Craddocks and put them straight on it.

Later Santanas did deviate a bit from the British ones but older ones are very similar. I sold mine in about 2008 and regret it a bit now but I thought some pictures might be interesting.

Starting inside, looking at the dash and binnacle. It is standard on UK cars to have mp/h with a sub set of km/h, but I was a bit surprised to find the Santana also had both, with the km/h being the primary reading of course.
Santana2.jpg


Santana1.jpg

It was diesel and sounded exactly the same as UK ones. When they did that one on car SOS and started it up towards the end it brought the memories back. I never thought to take any photos looking under the bonnet but I do still have a copy of one of the documents, not the registration document as such but what they call the ficha technica which as you can see lists all the details and attributes of the vehicle. I am quite happy putting this up here, there are few details on it anyone could make use of and I have blanked those out.
Santana.jpg

The engine is listed as a Rover 2 and a quarter and it lists the cylinder bore and stroke, odd dimensions in mm because they were still made to the original imperial dimensions I assume. It was originally registered in Jaen which is where the factory was but had been re-registered in Malaga, accounting for the mis-match between the year 1974 and the registration which is a Malaga plate dating from about 1986.
 
A few more photos
Santana3.jpg


Santana4.jpg

The rubbing strips on the sides make it look a bit different and it's also got the bars on the bumpers.
Santana5.jpg


Santana6.jpg

And the radiator grille is the familiar shape with slightly different wording...
 
I still like 'em ... they have a character, more than can be said for some newer models in the range ...
 
I still like 'em ... they have a character, more than can be said for some newer models in the range ...
Thanks, yes the older 'Series' ones do have character. They changed along the lines of the move to Defenders in the UK but then started to deviate more, much later purely 'Santanas' started to become quite different.

Looking through the backup disc there's a few more photos, including when I did a bit of what you could call brown laning, there was very little vegetation! I found a nice digger to pose it with
Santana9.jpg


Santana7.jpg


Santana8.jpg
 

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