Bowler celebrates 100th 90 build in the time-honoured Land Rover way

The LEADING LAND ROVER AND RANGE ROVER 4X4 ENGINE REBUILD SPECIALISTS

You have to take your hat off to Bowler. ‘Chapeau,’ as Tour de France riders say. The latest vehicle to raise eyebrows and hats is the 100th Edition Fast Road Conversion. Anyone who knows Bowler knows this doesn’t mean it’s a vehicle that can only survive on the road.

Drew Bowler started the company on his Derbyshire farm back in the 1980s (yes, that’s last century children, when you had to dodge dinosaurs on the way to work). After decades of success in creating bespoke road and race variations of the Land Rover, the company was acquired by JLR in 2019 and is now part of the Special Vehicle Operations division. It’s come a long way and made a lot of vehicles.

Now, you may see that this is a Land Rover 90 and be slightly puzzled by the ‘100th’ tag. I mean, Land Rover’s been going a long time, but 100? The explanation is that this is the 100th Land Rover 90 commission that Bowler has carried out. Which in itself presents a bit of a problem. It’s not as if you could base this on the new Defender and convince anyone. So the company had to go find a used version and then set about making it look like new and then some.

Of course, when you’re part of JLR it’s a bit easier to find the right donor vehicle than someone who’s scouring the small ads, but this is a Bowler so it still needed some upgrades to just a few areas. Including, but not restricted to (as the lawyers say): power, suspension, brakes and wheels. After all, this is the company that made Paris-Dakar winners and created the Bowler Defender Challenge with all the bonkers Bowlers that created.

However, it all means that Bowler has a reputation to live up to, and simply adding some flashy stickers and alloys wouldn’t do the brand – either Bowler or Land Rover – any good at all.

So here it is.

And what is it really? It’s a rolling showcase, and it’s designed to be a collectable. That means it’s probably not going to get driven a lot. If you’re in a place where you’re paying £78,000 – and don’t forget the VAT on top of that – for a second-hand Land Rover 90 then you’re probably not planning on using it for any work or anything mundane or damaging to its value. Pedestal not included.

So what is included? We don’t know much about the base vehicle, except of course that it’s been comprehensively titivated. Let’s start under the bonnet since so many new vehicle press releases barely mention the noisy bit at the front (no, not him, the engine).

For starters, there’s a Stage 2 engine upgrade which includes an intercooler.

‘Various mechanical components’ have been replaced or upgraded, including the transfer case and steering box so one can only assume it’s all tickety-boo. And it should stop as well as it goes thanks to the Bowler Big Brake Kit.

It should also sound good as there’s a performance exhaust, and it looks good because of a raft of, indeed, goodies. Naturally it leads with an array of fancy LED headlights with Bowler headlight surrounds, smoked sidelights and all those glitzy bits that make it looks special as it approaches.

There’s also plenty of bespoke graphics and lettering, and even badges that have been commissioned by Fattorini’s artisan badge makers (sounds like you should eat them rather than admire them). But that’s for others to admire. What you want to admire is what it feels like when you’re driving past those people admiring your admirable royal progress.

The interior carries all those labels you want to see – Alpine, Recaro, Momo and of course Bowler. Seats, soundproofing, leather dash tops, Alcantara everywhere else like roof lining and steering wheel, all lavishly fitted in to create an ambience that means you can sit in some luxury. Apart from your right elbow of course.

Bowler talks about the fortunate ‘owners or collectors’ who may enjoy this vehicle now and in the future. That’s the ‘tell’ isn’t it? It’ll probably enjoy years in climate-controlled comfort, some distance from the Series 1 working on the farm that was its mighty ancestor.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

This particular Land Rover would probably vote for it without hesitation.