Santana.

To yesterday's trivia concerning Santana Rovers, there are a ton of very noticable differences throught the product line:
1. Some models had a one-piece windshield with 3 wipers.
2. The bonnet of early V8s was the original style with a very peculiar looking grille that filled up the 4-5" gap between the front of the bonnet and the front of the radiator itself.
3. The very obvious chopped front wings on many models.
4. 109" hardtop regulars had two large fixed windows on the side (and some even had dual alpine windows).
5. There was a model called the series IIIA which sold in the early 80s b/c Santana thought that the coil sprung models wouldn't be popular in their markets - so they had revised facias with vents and plastic pieces all over ( a step further than the series III had gone - especially w/ the use of hard plastic vs. the softer type typical of UK built IIIs)
6. The Sanana 2000 was a very different Forward Control model and was sold for all types of non-military purposes (lorries, tow trucks etc.). It actually reminds me a lot of the Llama that LR in UK never ended up producing.
7. They sold a special 88" model (I'm spacing on the name) which came in orange, yellow and red (I think) color choices, had a black softtop and the funky wings - not too cool in my opinion, but it was very different and more upscale than anything that the UK was offering.

I could go on, but those were some of the major differences that come to mind right now - if I remember more, I'll post them. As to Steve's query about Santana LRs in the US, I knew of one 109" for sale in western Mass. last year. It sounded great on paper, but seemed expensive. Also, I believe a fellow named Bill in Cincinnati has one that Jeff wrote up in the RN newsletter last year.

- Francis J. Twarog, ftwarog@moose.uvm.edu [12/95]

Some of the Santana full-length hardtops had curved back corners, with curved corner windows, even though the rear corners of the lower body were still square. The curved corner windows look to me as though they are the same ones used on the pickup cab tops on British Land-Rovers. Some Santanas had one-piece, segmented, multi-function red/amber taillamps.

The militar lightweight models (made in long wheelbase too) had square-cut front wings, like the British ones, sort of, but with the wing tops up at the same height as normal rounded Land-Rover wings. The bonnet was the same curved one as on civilian Land-Rovers. The headlamps were in the fronts of the wings but were very small diameter and recessed (but still round). I seem to recall that Santana also may have done some rectangular headlamps on bonneted-control models, as well as on that nifty FC model that another netter mentioned.

Some of the late-model Santanas had a type of wheel that I'd love to get my hands on. They looked like normal Series Land-Rover wheels but were slotted (fairly large round slots as I recall). Seems to me that there were about six or seven slots (another trivia question). Wish Land-Rover would have standardized that wheel (in deep off-set 6.5" width, of course).

Granville B. Pool, gpool@pacific.pacific.net [12/95]

Yes, they did have the rectangular headlamps. Way back, Al Tocci at DAP offered rectangular conversion kits for British built Land Rovers.

Tom Rowe, trowe@ae.agecon.wisc.edu [12/'95]