Sue
I have over 50 years’ experience with Land Rovers and Range Rovers Being Steve Parker’s sister. I learnt to drive in the Series 1 80” Daimler V8 Land Rover & and an early Land Rover Series 2A. I was a member of the Pennine Land Rover Club and navigated for Steve in his trialling and comp safari days with both Pennine Land Rover club, NORC and occasionally the AWDC and I also occasionally navigated for other drivers when Steve wasn’t attending. My first vehicle I got after passing my driving test was a an Ex-Mod Lightweight Land Rover with its standard engine. In 1984 it had an engine transplant and the Ford3ltr V6 was installed giving it more power and more economy at the time as petrol was cheaper than diesel!
Whilst having a full-time job at British Telecomm I started working at Steve Parker (Land Rovers) part time 1988-1992 and then in 1992 decided to join the company full time, getting more involved with the day to day running of the business whilst selling parts, ordering in parts and dispatching the Ford V6 conversions we sold at the time. Over time together Steve and myself expanded the business with more engine conversion as the must have diesel engines took over from petrol engines. When we brought exhaust manufacturing into the business I was always involved with the pricing and ordering for the exhausts and conversions. When websites became essential, I have been involved with the upkeep of them and we have had 15 over the years! So, most people ask if I run a Land Rover. In the last 40 years I have had the lightweight as previously mentioned, 2 defenders, 2 Discovery 1’s, 5 Freelander 1’s and currently a Freelander 2 which is brilliant. As you can see I love the Freelander’s.
When Steve decided to sell up and retire in January 2017 it made sense for me to buy the parts and exhaust business and keep the conversions going. However I decided to let the garage workshop side of the business to be bought by someone else
Dave
Dave has re-joined the team as parts manager having worked here before for 14 years. He has a wealth of Land Rover knowledge including the 200Tdi and 300tdi conversions in the Series Land Rovers and the 90/110 Land rovers. He has also owned Land Rover Discovery 1‘s & 2’s Range Rover Sport and L322. He is also manufacturing our conversion exhausts.
Gemma
Gemma joined the team in 2019 having owned Land Rovers for years and is passionate about Defenders although has owned Freelander 1, Discovery 1, Discovery 2 and Discovery 3 She now runs a Defender 90 which has had lots of TLC and many mods to make it more comfortable as it is her every day vehicle. In 2021 she went on holiday to Scotland and did the NC500 in Scotland along with 15 other like minded Land Rover people braving the Scottish weather camping in a tent in October and driving 1500 miles in her Defender in 6 days. No mean feat.
Having had several jobs to suit her family’s needs she has had a career change by joining us in the parts and conversions department, and now after over 4 years is ordering, selling and packing parts and conversions. When time allows she is also updating the ecommerce side of the business.
Janette
Jannette joined us mid 2020 to take over our busy accounts department and helping with the day to day running of the business. She assist in the price change updates to the ecommerce but she can also be found answering the phones taking messages etc.
Steve
For my 21st birthday my parents bought me a S2 Land Rover! Little did they now what they started. From there I started going to the Pennine Land Rover club Safari’s with a gentle rundle over the Yorkshire moors or so I thought. Oh no I ended up with damage to my day to day Land Rover so I bought an 80" Land Rover to trial and comp safari with. That had to have engine transplants to make them go better. So began my engine conversions. In 1982 I decided to start up a business along with my dad helping me selling ex mod Land Rovers. I found there was a market for engine conversions so I developed the Ford 3 ltr V6 engine conversion with the help of local engineering places. From that I designed an exhaust to cope with the larger engine with the help of another local exhaust manufacturer. 13 years later I ended up buying the equipment and taking on one of the staff to make them myself. By then I had located a larger premise to operate from luckily. After my father sadly passed away prematurely I had the help of my sister who became full time in 1992. Over the years we have expanded the business with websites, eBay shop, and more engine conversions including the 200 & 300 Tdi diesel engines. following these we developed the power steering conversion which took around 2 and a half years to get it right. As my hobby became my day to day life I have moved into other military vehicles and then in 2017 I retired and now am the technical advisor and run errands when needed!
