1999 Land Rover 90 'Winter Water Wolf'

The Kinlee Collection illustrates our vendor's lifelong devotion to improvement. Eclectic, yes, but each motor car represents an aspect of our vendor's personality. Having bought many cars from us over the years, we appreciate our vendor's loyalty in returning the nostalgic Escort RS16000 and much-improved E-Type back into our care for the next custodians. Before we come to the extraordinary Wolf Defenders, the unique restoration of the 110 Pick-Up started out as a wager between our vendor and his friend, who together have changed the skyline of a major city, and whether he'd recognise his old car once it had gone through our vendor's private workshop, he didn't!

Our vendor's appreciation of engineering started early, awarded Student of the Year five years running whilst ignoring the obvious distractions of 1970s college life. With success came fast cars and a classic Aston Martin or two, but one day, an interest for improving a certain type of Land Rover began and became a passion that has grown into a private workshop with skilled technicians who do take their time when restoring the cars and maintaining our vendor’s fleet of classic Astons, Jensens and more. Finally, when asked by this consignor of the significance of Kinlee, our vendor referred us to his favourite song by The Kinks: I’m Not Like Everybody Else.

The Wolf, based on the Defender 90 and 110 Defender, was introduced in 1994 but it took two years of testing, rejection, upgrading and further testing before the Ministry of Defence was satisfied. It was far stronger and more reliable than the standard car on which it was based as a result. The Wolf’s mechanical list is extensive but, in brief, it featured a 113bhp, 300TDi engine with no electronics except for the fuel pump solenoid, rust proofed chassis from new, gearbox cooling system, reinforced front bulkhead, rails and sills, reinforced Salisbury rear axle and standard reinforced front axle with uprated differentials.

It's not known how many Ministry of Defence Wolf Defenders were scrapped due to combat damage, or quietly sold to foreign armies and NGOs, but most open-topped 'canvas tilt' Defenders rarely survived Army use, and Royal Navy cars suffered from their proximity to the sea. Far outnumbered in production by their hard-topped siblings, the canvas-backed Wolf rarely saw domestic service as the hardtop was better suited to the British weather, and most were therefore in left-hand drive for overseas use.

As an original Land Rover Winter Water Wolf, it’s one of just 50 that are thought to have been built for Britain’s Royal Marines to be used in amphibious landing operations and extreme cold weather climates. The unusual name of this Land Rover is an indicator of its unusual abilities. It’s a heavily modified Land Rover Defender 90 that is now capable of handling temperatures down to -46ºC or -51ºF, and it’s capable of wading through water up to 1.5 meters or 5 feet deep.

Retired from military service in 2020, it was bought by our vendor in February 2022 and in appreciation of this Wolf's historic importance, a sympathetic programme of works following a body-off restoration was undertaken. The fibreglass rear was replaced with a canvas tilt, the chassis was correctly cleaned and treated and all the panels were painted separately in NATO green before the vehicle was reassembled. Recently serviced with the belts changed at the time, the MOT is valid until the 14th October 2024 and the car sits on a new set of correct Goodyear G4 tyres.

Like all Ministry of Defence Land Rovers, the odometer is in kilometres and the current reading 60,500km or 37,592 miles. Our vendor has requested the Wolf’s history from the Ministry of Defence under the Freedom of Information Act, and should be available by the auction.