Old girl

History

This is one of several Jack Oliver Dobson builds in the registry, alongside his 109-inch trayback ute, the Shop Truck. Dobson is a British-born, Brisbane-based specialist who has spent more than 25 years rescuing, rebuilding and recommissioning classic Land Rovers, and this 80-inch is the earliest car in his own fleet.

The 1950 80-inch is a Series I from Land Rover's first, pre-Series nomenclature era — Rover built the 80-inch at Solihull from 1948 — powered by the 1,595 cc inline-four petrol engine of around 50 bhp that the model carried until the 2.0-litre arrived for 1952. Nineteen-fifty was a year of visible change on the 80-inch: the semi-permanent four-wheel drive with its freewheel gave way to a conventional dog-clutch arrangement for engaging the front axle, and the headlamps moved from behind the wire grille to protrude through it. The car in the photograph on Dobson's Projects page shows the through-the-grille lamps of that later-1950 arrangement, on an open-bodied 80-inch with a galvanised front bumper.

Dobson describes the vehicle only as fully rebuilt "a year ago" on an undated page, and records that under his stewardship it won Best 4x4 and Car of the Show at the 2024 Brisbane All British Day — held that September at Tennyson — and was subsequently invited to the 2025 Noosa Concours d'Elegance. He is a British-born, Brisbane-based specialist who has spent more than 25 years rescuing, rebuilding and recommissioning classic Land Rovers from the earliest 1948 cars through to 2015, is Australian ambassador for Exmoor Trim, Maxxis Tyres, Kincrome, Autosparks and LOF Clutches, and writes a column for Land Rover Monthly; he posts his own vehicles and travels as @dobbo_down_under.

Several things could not be established and are deliberately not claimed here. No chassis or registration number, build date, engine number or Australian registration is published for the car, and no factory colour is documented for it: early 80-inch Land Rovers were painted in various shades of light green because the colour was dictated by military-surplus aircraft cockpit paint, but which finish this individual vehicle left Solihull in is not recorded, and the photograph on the owner's site shows it in a dark green rather than a light one. That photograph also carries a British-style black-and-silver plate reading 866 KR2, which is not a valid British registration format and is not an Australian plate, so it is not clear whether the image was taken in Australia or predates the car's arrival there.

Imagery

Registry record

Manufacturer

Land Rover (the Rover Company Limited), Solihull — 80-inch Series I

Manufactured

1950 (80-inch Series I); rebuilt in Australia by Jack Oliver Dobson, completion year not stated — shown at the 2024 Brisbane All British Day

Modifier / coachbuilder

Jack Oliver Dobson ↗

Engine type

1,595 cc Rover inline-four petrol, approx. 50 bhp — the 80-inch's engine until the 2.0-litre of 1952

Current owner

Jack Oliver Dobson ↗

Country of origin

Australia (present base); manufactured in the United Kingdom by the Rover Company at Solihull

Status

preserved — rebuilt, shown at concours and club events; privately owned by Jack Oliver Dobson, Brisbane

Catalogue data

Record kind

Named model

Model line

Series I

Wheels

4

Nominal wheelbase

80″

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

• Projects — 'Old Girl' ("she's my own vehicle"), "my 1950 80" Land Rover which was fully rebuilt a year ago", Best 4x4 and Car of the Show at the 2024 Brisbane All British Day, invited to the 2025 Noosa Concours d'Elegance ↗ — jackoliverdobson.com (accessed 2026-09-10)
• The Company — "'Old Girl', my 109" Series IIIA, 'Tray-back', my 109 ute and, my 1950 80-inch"; Brisbane workshop, ambassadorships, Land Rover Monthly column ↗ — jackoliverdobson.com (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Land Rover series — 80-inch Series I: 1.6-litre petrol of around 50 bhp; 1950 change to dog-clutch four-wheel drive and headlamps through the grille; early colours dictated by surplus aircraft cockpit paint ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-10)
• All British Day – Brisbane 2024 (15 September 2024, St Joseph's Sports Grounds, Tennyson) ↗ — Defenders of Australia Club (accessed 2026-09-10)

Catalogue references

• https://www.jackoliverdobson.com/projects https://www.jackoliverdobson.com/projects ↗