DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY

Brian Bashall

Surrey Land Rover dealer and collector (1928–2016) who founded Dunsfold Land Rovers in 1968 and began keeping the prototypes and oddities the factory had no interest in, the nucleus of what became the Dunsfold Collection. In 1970 he rebuilt his own 1959 Series II into a competition car for the first Hillrallies.

History

Brian Bashall bought his first Land Rover, a second-hand one, in 1953 after his girlfriend's father refused to let her ride on his Vincent motorcycle, and never really stopped. In 1968 he set up Dunsfold Land Rovers in the Surrey village of Dunsfold as a specialist dealer and workshop, and the same year began collecting the prototypes and pre-production vehicles that Land Rover itself was then scrapping, on the grounds that other enthusiasts would want to see them. Preparing cars was part of the business: in 1970 he stripped a 1959 Series II 88-inch soft top and fitted a square-section roll cage, heavy-duty springs and dampers, waterproofed the engine and added competition tyres and lighting, and with Frank Smith drove it in the inaugural Hillrally of 1971 — the car was later converted back to a road hard top, sold, and eventually found on eBay and restored by his son.

The collection outgrew the business and became the Dunsfold Collection, the largest collection of Land Rovers in the world, registered as a charity in 2014 and run by his son Philip Bashall; it opened a museum building on 11 June 2023 where up to forty of its more than 130 vehicles are shown in rotation. Brian Bashall died in November 2016.

Vehicles in this registry (1)

Sources & citations

Maker record updated 2026-09-11T08:59:46.075Z · status: researched