The current Land Rover Range Rover is an incredibly competent SUV, both on-road and off, but there’s no getting around the fact it’s a far cry from the bare-bones Land Rovers that made a name for the brand decades ago. That said, the basic overlanding roots are still there; it doesn’t take much to turn a modern Range Rover into a serious adventure vehicle.
Take this 2003 Land Rover Range Rover G4. While it started as a luxurious, highfalutin’ SUV, it was converted into a serious overlander — modified from the factory for the inaugural G4 Challenge, one of the toughest off-road endurance competitions ever to be run. The successor to the legendary Camel Trophy off-road expedition, the G4 Challenge involved drivers from 16 nations competing across the US, South Africa and Australia over 28 days in factory-prepped Land Rovers. It’s one hell of a bullet point on an off-roader’s resume.
Not only is it a factory-built, real-world-proven off-roader, it’s also one of the rarest cars to wear the Land Rover badge, seeing as how only 30 examples were built. Like the other 29 examples, this one comes with a roof rack and access ladder, front grille guard and spotlights, and has been finished in an unmistakable Tangiers Orange. The 4.4-liter V-8 under the hood sends power to all four corners, which in this case are where factory 19-inch wheels wrapped in Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tires sit.
Unlike the other 29 G4 Range Rovers, this one was used as a press and logistics truck and was shipped back to the Solihull factory for refurbishment after the competition was over. And while it shows 151,000 miles on the clock, a full service was performed just 500 miles ago, so it should still be in good shape.
Going rates for other G4 Challenge edition trucks vary depending on the base vehicle, mileage and additional modifications, with one recently changing hands for $25,000 and another currently for sale at a little more than $45,000 in the UK. At the time of this writing, though, this 2003 Land Rover Range Rover G4 had been bid up to just $7,977 on Bring a Trailer. There’s no way it’ll stay that low, but it’s likely the final bid will still be low enough to justify calling it an incredible deal.
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