Land Rover Minerva

The Series 1 Minerva Land Rover was in production in Belgium from 1952 to 1956. Its most distinguishing feature is the angular front wings.

Engines, gearboxes and transmissions where sourced from Solihull but the rest was manufactured in Belgium, including the steel body. They were produced for the army initially and were in miltary service until the 1990's. The civilian version was introduced in 1953. It is thought that less than 10,000 Minervas were produced overall and most of them went into Belgian military service. The Belgian police acquired some ex-miltary Minervas and used them until 1972/73.

This 1952 Series 1 80" Minerva Land Rover has been restored to original Belgian police specification by Jean-Pierre, a retired Belgian gendarme.

In September 2003 Jean-Pierre attended the Rally BATTLE FIELDS 2003 in IEPER, Belgium with his Minerva. There were thirty to forty MINERVA and Land Rovers present with some Land Rovers from England. This event was organised by the MINERVA TT REGISTER who have contact with Mike Hardiman (Minerva TT Register -UK rep).

Jean-Pierre's Land Rover was also on display with other MINERVA Old Timers (cars, bikes and motorbikes) at the Retromobile Show in BRUSSELS in Oct 2003. MINERVA built a variety of vehicles in ANTWERPEN before they built the MINERVA jeep with Land Rover licence. Then that was the end of the MINERVA association.

This MINERVA Land Rover was utilised by the Brussels tramway company, you can see that the wheels are tramway wheels to drive on the rails.

Jean-Pierre sends greetings from Wavre in Belgium. You can see more of his Minerva in the archives section.