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Converter, Coachbuilder, Restorer, Builder · Roydon, Essex, United Kingdom (founded in London) · 1966–present

Foley Specialist Vehicles

Family Land Rover business started in London in 1966 by Peter Foley and run today from Roydon in Essex by his sons Paul and Stuart, which calls itself probably the oldest family-owned Land Rover company in the world. It has been converting the long-wheelbase 130 since 1983, building station wagons, crew cabs, hearses, gun buses, 6x6s and safari game viewers.

History

Peter Foley began buying and selling Land Rover parts and vehicles in London in 1966, with a particular interest in military machines. The business grew into a full conversion and restoration shop and remains in the family, run now by Peter's sons Paul and Stuart Foley as Foley Specialist Vehicles Ltd of The Roses, Epping Road, Roydon, Essex. The firm describes itself as probably the oldest family-owned Land Rover company in the world and as the oldest family-run company dedicated to the Defender, and works only on classic Defenders of 1983-2016 and selected Series Land Rovers. It runs some 14,000 square feet of workshop with fifteen staff, an in-house paint shop, fabrication shop, auto electrician and mechanics.

Long-wheelbase work is the speciality. Foley has been converting the 130 since the model appeared in 1983 — at first by stretching 110s to 127 inches, because factory long-wheelbase chassis were scarce — and a few years later developed its own 130 Station Wagon for customers who found the 110 too small for people and supplies; more than a hundred have been built. The 130 catalogue also runs to crew cabs, hearses (three built, one shipped to the Falkland Islands), gun buses and open game viewers, one of which ran at Chessington World of Adventures for over four years. The company converts 90s, 110s and 130s to six-wheel 6x4 and 6x6 layouts, and offers overland preparation, chassis and bulkhead replacement, restoration, servicing, bodywork, rustproofing, export and shipping.

Africa runs through the family's work. Paul Foley spent nine years running Foley's Africa Ltd in Zambia and founded Livingstone 4x4 Hire, which reached fifteen vehicles before it was sold in 2005; Stuart Foley spent two years co-owning that business; Paul's son Nick runs a Land Rover service centre in Nairobi employing more than thirty people, and his daughter Livvy founded Black Leopard 4x4 Hire for self-drive East African travel. That connection is why the firm's name attaches to the safari game viewer — the open-topped, tiered-seat conversion of the long-wheelbase Defender used across eastern and southern Africa.

The firm's best-known single commission is the Defender 130 gun bus it hand-built in 2016 for the Duke of Edinburgh at Sandringham.

Vehicles in this registry (1)

Sources & citations

Maker record updated 2026-09-10T05:17:07.278Z · status: researched