Land Rover Series - Minerva

Minerva

Minerva of Belgium produced a vehicle called a Standard Vanguard, which was produced in Belgium, under licence of the Standard Motor Company.

When Belgium's army needed a lightweight 4×4 vehicle, the head of Minerva, Monsieur van Roggen approached Rover in the spring of 1951. On 21 June, Rover discovered that they were competing against Willys Jeep for the contract. In October 1951, the deal was agreed and in 1952, the Minerva-Land Rover was produced.

The Rover company supplied technical support for Minerva and allowed Minerva to produce Land Rovers under licence to Rover. Arthur Goddard, Rover Assistant Chief Engineer and head of Land Rover development was in charge of approving the changes Minerva wanted to make to the Land Rover as well as setting the factory up to assemble the vehicles.

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