Irvine, California – Land Rover officially turned sixty years old yesterday, six decades after the original Land Rover, known as the Series 1, was unveiled at a motor show in Amsterdam on April 30, 1948. Today, the current Defender is descended from that model, and even shares its oil filler plug and a cleat for tying down the canvas roof.

Land Rover today offers five models, headed by the Range Rover, and reached record global sales of over 226,000 vehicles in 2007. Earlier this year, it received two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, in recognition of its export sales of nearly four billion pounds Sterling per year to 147 countries, and an innovation award for its Terrain Response system.

Worldwide, Land Rover will be celebrating its 60th anniversary year throughout the summer with a series of special activities and events.