Gordon Dennis Bashford (27 August 1916 – 21 September 1991) was a British car design engineer. Bashford played a significant part in the design of most post-

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

Rover cars, including the

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...

Career

Bashford joined the

Rover Company The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company that operated from its base in Solihull in Warwickshire. Its lasting reputation for quality and performance was such that its first postwar model reviewed by '' Road & Track'' i ...

, at the age of 14, as an apprentice in 1930. He went on to be instrumental in the design of Rover's revolutionary

off-road vehicle which was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1948. After the Land Rover, Bashford was involved in the development of a series of

David Bache David Ernest Bache (14 June 1925 – 26 November 1994) was a British automobile designer. For much of his career he worked with Rover. Early life Bache was born in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Aston Villa and England footballer Joe Bache who w ...

styled Rover cars, including the P4, as chief designer of chassis and body for the P6 and as designer of the SD1 which won

European Car of the Year The European Car of the Year ("ECOTY") award is an international Car of the Year award established in 1964, by a collective of automobile magazines from different countries in Europe. The current organising companies of the award are ''Auto'' (Ita ...

in 1977. Bashford also played a key role, along with

Spen King Charles Spencer "Spen" King (26 March 1925 – 26 June 2010) was a significant figure in the Rover Company and, after their takeover, in the British Leyland Motor Corporation.After leaving school in 1942, he was first apprenticed to Rolls-Royce ...

, in the development of the 1970

Range Rover Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

. Bashford retired in 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bashford, Gordon British automobile designers 1916 births 1991 deaths