Historic Pacific Land Rover 110 - 1985 Paris Dakar Rally Triple Stage Winner Lhd on 2040-cars

 This is a 1985 Land Rover 110, however, the VIN is not recognized by ebay, hence it comes up as a 1980 vehicle.

I had the vehicle for sale on ebay UK, but someone used the buy it now, and then did not complete the sale.

The vehicle is the 1985 Land Rover Pacific 110, which ran in the 1985 Paris Dakar rally as the lead car in the Pacific team, car number 206.

It was a triple stage winner in the 1985 edition of the Paris Dakar rally, and was a contender for outright victory in the car division, until the car was lost for 9 days, and subsequently abandoned. The car was driven by Henri Pescarolo.

Following the race, the vehicle was returned to France and remained in the personal collection of Henri Pescarolo, and was kept at Team Pescarolo:
www.pescarolo.com

In approx 2006, the vehicle was disposed of to Pescarolo's close friend, Christian Salibon, and I acquired the vehicle from Monsieur Salibon, in Aix-en-Province.

The vehicle suffered normal rally damage to the external body parts during the race - the vehicle was also left without a front bumper (this was lost during the race); many of the external body parts were removed by the Pacific Team for possible use in later editions of the race. However, they were never used again as the Pacific Team didn't run this body type of Land Rover 110 again. This Land Rover was kept as a stripped down vehicle with the original body parts as seen now. Hence, the roof, the upper side panels, and the rear panels were all removed to leave the vehicle with the original parts as pictured.

At some point, the vehicle colour scheme was changed to red, and then to orange. The pictures show the vehicle as it is now (orange), and how it looked during the Paris-Dakar rally (with one picture of the driver, Henri Pescarolo).

The Good Points:
The engine is undergoing a full rebuild right now
The car has been meticulously cared for, having had 3 full restorations, hence the body has no issue with rot (there is some superficial surface rust on the underside of the chassis, and exposed elements, but only superficial).
The engine is the original historic rally engine. It is a 3.5 V8 petrol.
The chassis is the original historic chassis.
All non-serviceable parts are original.

The Bad Points:
The leather on the steering wheel is loose and has become partially unstitched.
It is a little untidy behind the dashboard with a little water coming through the vents.

Additional notes:
It is left hand drive (LHD).
The original seats have been lost (stripped out by locals before the car was returned to France from Africa after the rally); it now has two FIA compliant seats supplied by Pescarolo racing.
The bumper is non original (I have an original Pacific Team bumper which I will include in the sale).
The side running bars have been added at some point.
The alloy wheels are not original - the original steel wheels were stolen in Africa after the Land Rover was abandoned.
An LPG system has been added at some point (which runs perfectly, but is not part of the original specification).
The vehicle has a French registration.
The vehicle was first registered in 1985, hence, it may be exported to the USA. All numbers match (chassis and engine).

Overall, the car is in very good condition, and it is believed that this is the last Paris-Dakar stage winning Land Rover.

I have been quoted ?6000 (approx. $10,000) to rebuild the exterior to full rally livery (Pacific Land Rover body type), using GRP panels, and to replace the non-original parts for original type parts; it will cost an additional ?2,500 ($4,000) for the respray and signwriting to Pacific Land Rover colours.

I am looking for an immediate $35,000 deposit, with the balance to be paid either when the engine rebuild is completed and the vehicle is ready for collection, or when the vehicle has obtained a British registration, whichever is sooner. I will take care of completing the British registration with the DVLA, although this may take some time due to the French Authorities complying with the DVLA request for information. I will then prepare the export papers, and ship the vehicle from its current location to the port in Baltimore at my own cost on an insured roro service (you are welcome to upgrade the shipping service above the service I will pay for, at your own expense). I will also take care of any necessary paperwork for US Customs. This will also give the new owner time to check the provenance of the vehicle. The French paperwork for the vehicle has been stolen, so we are awaiting copies.

Once the deposit has been paid, the release of the vehicle will be shared with the new owner until full and final payment has been made. I expect the full payment to be made by the time the engine rebuild is completed. The vehicle is currently in East London/Essex, at an engineering company for the engine rebuild, and may be viewed by appointment, either by yourself, or by your elected representative.
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I have listed this vehicle on ebay UK, and have received a number of questions; I have included the answers to a number of interesting queries:

What do I believe it is worth? Honestly, I have no idea. I purchased the vehicle for ˆ68,000.00 (approx. $92,000). I don't know if that was realistic, but my opinion was that if I spent ?8,000 ($13,000) on the vehicle, returning it to full race livery, I would have a very valuable asset. In the end, I just liked it the way it was, and I never got around to returning it to full race livery, and I never drove it much (I have 14 rare Land Rovers), and a house purchase followed by divorce and then a terminal diagnosis of cancer of the colon has left me in a position where I have to dispose of everything I own. I have left it to the market to decide how much the vehicle is worth, and to use the Best Offer facility prudently. Clearly, I would like to make back as much as possible of my expenditure.

I have been asked about returning the vehicle to full race livery. I am working with a designer at the moment to put everything in place. We have a produced a scale model in the Pacific Team livery, and we are working out the rest of the details at the moment.

This was an interesting question I received - I have given the question and the answer:
"Hi
Is it actually the one of the main race cars or one of the support cars? I seem to remember the two cars with the fibreglass bodies had a lengthened wheel base and in the photos it looks standard.
How much is original ie the body work we can see?
Thanks john"

And my answer:

"Dear John,

Many thanks for your question.

I understand from Henri Pescarolo's company that this was car 206, and was the vehicle driven by Pescarolo himself. It was the only vehicle retained by Pescarolo. Jean-Pierre Gabreau retained vehicle 207, and disposed of it many years ago; I could not trace support vehicle 208; there is no traceable record of it. I have requested a copy of the registered chassis numbers from Dakarclub for official documentation, so that we do not have to rely on Pescarolo's word.

I have attached an image of the Gabreau/Pipat vehicle. As you can see in the image, the vehicle, although appearing to be longer, is only lengthened in the upper side panels and roof; it does not use an elongated chassis. What I understand is that the sidepanels and roof were GRP, and this was attached to the alu lower side panels by means of a lengthened section of GRP. To me, the images do not correspond with the explanation given, since it appears to me that the grp panels are attached, somehow, to the end of the vehicle, from the roof all the way down on both sides (you can see a vent at the end of the upper side panel). Hence, the explanation is that the alu body itself was not elongated either; it was mated to the elongated section of the upper side panels (approximately down the line of the end of the Castrol sticker). There were GRP sections attached to the door windows, and a GRP panel across the bulkhead vents. I have a scale model of the Pacific Land Rover vehicle, produced prior to the construction of this vehicle; it is this that our designer is using to reconstruct the original livery.

I hope I have managed to answer your question satisfactorily.

Wishing you a good weekend.
Kind regards,
Marguerite"

What I failed to answer was that all the remaining body parts are original!

If there are any other pertinent questions, or further requests to view, please do get in touch.