DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY NAMED MODEL · 1951
NAMED MODELSpecial · Expedition & CampersUnited Kingdom

Autocar Calcutta to Calais — Series I 80

WBD 1462, the Series I 80-inch driven from Calcutta to Calais by W. P. Mitchell and Jimmy Mandle in 1951.

Drive it in the gameSources & evidence
Autocar Calcutta to Calais — Series I 80 — front three-quarter view, registry 3D render
BASE VEHICLESeries I 80″BUILT BYLand RoverIN SERVICE1951OPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTIONOne expedition vehicleLAYOUT4 wheels · 80″

The record

Autocar’s contemporary account describes a Land Rover lent by a Calcutta garage for a 26-day drive to Calais, starting on 21 April 1951. A heater, additional fuel tank and jerricans provided support for the journey. The magazine’s retrospective reproduces photographs showing WBD 1462 with a bonnet spare, paired front-mounted fuel cans, a pale windowed rear covering, open rear curtain, shallow roof box and an INDIA oval at the left rear.

The model follows those photographs. Dark green paint and a pale neutral covering are visual approximations: the monochrome photographs do not establish their actual colours. Interior heater and fuel-tank alterations are recorded rather than invented as exterior equipment. The existing queue’s operating-country list records the route rather than the operator’s nationality; it is preserved there as inherited data, while this record identifies the British magazine as the operator.

Specification

MANUFACTURERLand Rover
MANUFACTUREDSeries I 80-inch; 1951 expedition
PRODUCTION RUNOne expedition vehicle
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
REGISTRATIONWBD 1462
WHEELBASE80 inches
CREWW. P. Mitchell and Jimmy Mandle
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINESeries I
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE80″
CATEGORYSpecial · Expedition & Campers

Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.

AI rendering impression

An AI rendering impression starts from the registry's own 3D model of this vehicle, which an image model then paints into a scene. It is an artist's impression of the type, made to give a feel for the vehicle in its element — not a photograph, and not a record of any particular vehicle.

Proportions, fittings, markings, colours and the setting can all drift from the original in the process. For the vehicle's actual details, rely on the registry's 3D renders, the specification and the cited sources on this page.

Sources

  1. 1Autocar — original 1951 account and photograph gallery ↗accessed 2026-09-16SOURCE
  2. 2Mad Rover Imports — Land Rover expeditions ↗accessed 2026-09-16SOURCE
  3. 3https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/anything-goes/archives-driving-land-rover-calcutta-calaishttps://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/anything-goes/archives-driving-land-rover-calcutta-calais ↗REFERENCE

Registry record updated 2026-09-16T12:54:51.097Z · status: researched