Chris Velardi’s 1975 Land Rover 101 Forward Control (FC) was designed and built to go off-road. Like, 10,000 feet off the road. The British-made vehicle, which began its life in the service of the Royal Air Force, was designed to tow a light field gun and haul 2,000 pounds of ammunition for the artillery piece […]
Get Instant Access to This Article
Subscribe to Hartford Business Journal and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
- Critical Hartford and Connecticut business news updated daily.
- Immediate access to all subscriber-only content on our website.
- Bi-weekly print or digital editions of our award-winning publication.
- Special bonus issues like the Hartford Book of Lists.
- Exclusive ticket prize draws for our in-person events.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article.
Chris Velardi’s 1975 Land Rover 101 Forward Control (FC) was designed and built to go off-road. Like, 10,000 feet off the road.
The British-made vehicle, which began its life in the service of the Royal Air Force, was designed to tow a light field gun and haul 2,000 pounds of ammunition for the artillery piece (hence its informal moniker, One Tonne). It was also designed as Lightweight Air Transportable, able to be airlifted by helicopter or fixed-wing transport aircraft into combat. The vehicles — of which some 2,600 were manufactured between 1972 and 1978 — were never sold to the public.
Except Chris Velardi, who makes his living restoring vintage Land Rovers for North America Overland of Monroe, which performs top-of-the-line, frame-up restorations of classic Rovers including older Range Rovers and classic Defenders. The restoration packages are not cheap — averaging about $75,000, according to NAO founder and principal Mike Sandone. The price tag includes contemporary safety furnishings and comfort upgrades such as softer suspensions. The results are exquisite moving objects of sturdy splendor to optimize the “ownership experience” for well-heeled, and well-wheeled, clients.
Velardi came by this odd duck — one of just 62 right-hand drives made — in England in 2000 as he was preparing for a trans-African expedition called Vintage Rovers Across Africa. The idea was to cross the entire continent in Land Rovers that were at least a quarter-century old. The 101 FC was to be a support-and-supply vehicle for the ambitious trek.
The African landscape, Velardi notes, is dotted with Rover hulks from ages past, because for much of the 20th century, the indomitable 4WD monsters were one of the only motorized vehicles that could negotiate the continent’s rudimentary, or worse, byways. Velardi estimates that Rovers historically “were probably the first [motor] vehicles ever seen by 90 percent of Africans.”
Political turmoil in some of the nations the expedition was charted to transit rendered the original itinerary unfeasible and possibly unhealthy, and Velardi withdrew from the expedition. But not from his 101FC, which he had shipped to his home in Hamden and ever since has used for family off-road camping — and of course to travel to vintage Land Rover events.
Veliardi calls his Rover the “Kraken,” which sounds like the name of a Danish heavy-metal band. And like Scandavian headbanger music, the 101FT is not for everyone. The 101 refers to its wheelbase in inches (most civilian Rovers have 88-inch wheelbases). It’s not as heavy as it looks — made of lightweight aluminum and weighing about 5,000 pounds (it had to be lifted by helicopter, right?).
But woe to the wildebeest that ever wanders into its right-of-way. The Kraken is powered by a modified Range Rover 3.5-liter aluminum-block V8 and LT 95 transmission. It has permanent four-wheel drive with center-differential lock. Its ridiculous 74:1 first-gear ratio allows it to crawl at 7 mph at 5,000 rpm.
In the nearly two decades he’s owned it, Velardi’s Kraken has been awarded numerous best-in-show trophies, been the subject of features in publications from Rovers magazine to Alloy + Grit — and the object of more queries and exclamations from curiosity-seekers and admirers than Velardi can even remember. Above all, “There have been a lot of good times, and great memories,” he says. With more, for sure, to come.
