THIS must be the first time that anything good has ever come from having a Defender stolen, because without that bleakly depressing experience it’s unlikely that Jake Williams would have become the proud owner of this remarkable 1991 Discovery V8 three-door.
LRM first came across Jake, his partner Niamh, and their beautifully preserved D1 at the LRM Live event at Malvern in May, when the judges unanimously awarded them the prize for the Best Original Land Rover. Now we’re visiting them on the family farm in Monmouthshire to find out more, and we’ve decided to drive down to South Wales in the 1990 Discovery 200Tdi that is on loan to the Dunsfold Collection. Snapper Craig and I are looking forward to a day of interesting stories and fascinating comparisons. Both the Discos are two-owner cars, and both have done only 58,000 miles from new.
Over a welcoming cup of coffee in the farmhouse kitchen, Jake tells us the story. “It was 2017, and I was coming up to myIt was my first car and my daily driver and I’d done a huge amount of work on it to get it to the point where it was exactly how I wanted it to be. I also needed wheels to get to the university from my digs, and I was totally gutted when it was stolen. The police showed no interest whatsoever, and it was pretty obvious that my Land Rover wasn’t going to turn up, so I decided that I needed to find myself a new vehicle.
