The Camel Land Rover Ninety, a special edition in Sandglow

In 1984, the year the Land Rover Ninety was introduced, the Dutch Land Rover distributor offered a Sandglow coloured Camel edition in limited numbers.

Pictured in the early ninities: apart from the aftermarket wheels and bullbar, this Camel Ninety still looked pretty original.

Following the succes of the 1983 Camel Land Rover One Ten, Land Rover Netherlands ordered a batch of Ninety models in Sandglow, a 70’s Leyland colour made famous by the Camel Trophy. As the limited edition Camel One Ten that preceded it, it was specced with a myriad of options that made the 90 look like the participating vehicles in the Camel Trophy. In 1984 it was already decided that the 1985 Camel Trophy in Borneo would use 90 models instead of 110 Land Rovers.

These colour photographs, taken somewhere in the early nineties, show one of the limited edition Camel Land Rover Ninety models that were sold in The Netherlands. The ‘van’ registration BT-11-NP was issued in late 1986, which could mean this was registered two years after it went on sale, or it’s registration was changed to ‘commercial vehicle’ for tax reasons. As of 2021, the Dutch DVLA no longer holds records for BT-11-NP, so it is either scrapped, exported or reregistered.

Apart from the hideous aftermarket wheels, this Camel 90 looks very standard, it is even fitted with a few period Land Rover extras, like the electric Warn drum winch, galvanized roofrack and rear ladder. The front seats are upholstered in ‘County’ spec Brushwood trim:

The Camel Land Rover Ninety featured a County Hardtop interior

The Camel Ninety came standard with an extra bonnet mounted sparewheel (another sparewheel was fitted to the rear door), bushbar with two spotlights, raised air intake, ‘exclusive Camel striping’ and underseal treatment. The Camel 90 shown in the sales leaflet did not have the Camel striping and was fitted with a different raised air intake from the final production model:

The Camel Ninety in the sales brochure lacked striping and had a different raised air intake

Optional extras were a Warn drum winch, roofrack, rear ladder, sand ladders, roofrack mounted spotlights, roofrack mounted jerrycans and bumper mounted tow eyes. Price without optional extras was 42.500 Dutch guilders, or less then 20.000 euro’s.

Both sides featured ‘Camel’ striping, but there was no mention of ‘Camel Trophy’ anywhere on or in the vehicle.

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