Land Rover Minerva Series 1 Ambulance from 1953

Land Rover Minerva Series 1 Ambulance from 1953

The Land Rover Minerva is based on the Land Rover Series 1 as it was made in 80 inch form in England between 1948 and 1953.
We have two Minervas deployable in our possession; An Ambulance and one from the Belgian army.

Our Ambulance Minerva is from December 1953 and is a stretcher wagon. There was a kind of metal frame in the back that could hold 2 stretchers and an extra bulge on the hood to cover the injured people. Those extra items were usually thrown away by subsequent owners and that probably happened with our copy. For a long time there were many stretcher wagons on reserve with the Belgian army. About 241 were made, of which many are left because they have been little used in their service years.

In addition to these two deployable Minervas, we also have some Minervas to be refurbished, such as a fire brigade of the Belgian Air Force and a Gendarmerie. These will be restored in the future so that they can also be used at various events.

History of the Land Rover Minerva

The Belgian army needed a replacement for the approx. 500 Willys MBs that they still had in use as a Second World War surplus. To this end, the Willys CJ3a and the Land Rover 80-inch Series 1 came into the picture in 1951 to meet that need. After test drives with both cars, the Land Rover was chosen. One of the factors that played a role was the number of parts that could be sourced locally in Belgium and the assembly in a Belgian factory. This turned out to be decisive. For the Land Rover assembly, the Minerva factories in Mortsel near Antwerp were chosen. Minerva was known before the war as a manufacturer of luxury automobiles, trucks and buses. The company was badly damaged during World War II and would never again experience the glory of yesteryear.

After the war, various automobiles from other companies were assembled. In the fall of 1951, the assembly of the Land Rover Series 1 began, eventually with a steel body instead of Land Rover's aluminum. Typical are the bend fenders at the front that were easier to make than Land Rover's rounded one. In the beginning, Land Rover also supplied chassis and bulkhead, but after a while Minerva also made these itself and Land Rover only supplied the engine, engine components and dashboard.

The Belgian army took approx. 8,400 Minervas. Minerva also assembled about 370 Land Rover Series 1 for the Gendarmerie and there were about 30 civilian Minervas. All this was delivered until the spring of 1955.

A dispute arose with Land Rover that Minerva did not switch timely and incompletely to 86-inch versions of the newer Land Rover Series 1. In the end, Land Rover wanted to end the relationship, but in an out-of-court settlement Minerva built in the years 1954- 1956 still 1100 86 inch versions of their version of the Land Rover series 1. These were all civilian versions that were also exported.

In addition to ordinary Minervas, the Belgian army also had versions as an ambulance, a version with radio or machine gun, paraversion, training car and armored vehicle. A very special version is a fire brigade vehicle of the Belgian Air Force that transported powder extinguishers to extinguish interior fires of aircraft (Ceagol powder, a predecessor of Halon). The vehicle also had CO2 extinguishers.

In addition, around 1960 the Gendarmerie took over 480 Minervas for patrol services, which were painted blue and were given police equipment. The Rijkswacht already had approximately 500 Land Rover Series 1, mainly delivered in 1951 and 1952.