English
Driving this vehicle nowadays is like stepping into a time machine. Everything in the car feels and
smells like a new vehicle from 1987. Driving makes you realise that this vehicle made a unique trip
back in the day and has not changed much in 37 years.
This Arizona Tan brown Land Rover 110 County Station Wagon was built to specifications for the
epic journey Professor Dirk Vandewalle (expert in state-building and regime change in the Middle
East and North Africa – specifically Libya and known for his role in the Lockerbie affair) would
undertake and delivered on July 2, 1986. The available build card shows the exact configuration of
the vehicle, with some rare and exclusive factory options, like a 74-degree thermostat and air
conditioning, besides the 2.5-litre petrol engine. It also has a factory-installed radio/cassette player
and a map reading lamp.
Although the Belgium Professor Vandewalle was, at that time, a resident of New York, the vehicle
was delivered in the UK with the UK export license plate C435 GOC on the 22nd of January 1987.
According to the detailed logbook, which was still in the cubby box of the vehicle, it was driven to
Belgium, where it got its first service at a mileage of 1200 km on the 15th of January 1987. From
there, the car started its expedition through France and Spain to Gibraltar, crossing over to
Marokko to continue towards Tunis and Egypt and finally returned to Belgium. Of its first 10.000
kilometres, all the fuel consumption and maintenance are logged in the logbook.
Professor Vandewalle describes this journey in his correspondence with the Institute of World
Affairs in February 1987 DJV-12.pdf
Returning from its expedition, the Land Rover was returned to Belgium and stored until early 2023.
In early 2023, the unique Land Rover was delivered at Brooklyn Spares B.V. She was still carrying
its original C435 GOC English export plates. At Brooklyn Spares, we took care of the vehicle to get
it up and running again after being stored for decades in Belgium. Every part that deteriorated due
to time (e.g., allsuspension bushes, hoses, brake cylinders, etc.) got replaced, and the chassis and
underside got a new layer of coating—all, of course, with the highest amount of attention to the
originality andunique heritage of the vehicle.
We are now looking for a collector to become the new guardian of this time capsule and its history,
which is part of Land Rover’s heritage and Professor Vandewalle’s legacy.
