Why I Dreamed of Stripping My Land Rover Series 2A to Bare Metal, and Sean Wotherspoon Did the Opposite

I've always had a soft spot for the blocky utilitarianism of early Land Rovers. So when the opportunity to buy a neighbor's 1963 Series 2A came up a decade ago, I took the plunge.

Over the years the limestone-hued truck became as close to a member of my family as an inanimate object can be. But as with anything beloved, I wasn't above thinking I could make it better. As I mused in a Petrolicious video, stripping it down to its bare aluminum body panels would make it peak Land Rover.

But that's just me.

Sean Wotherspoon's 1958 Land Rover Series II is the opposite of that dream. Its color-blocked body panels and ragamuffin interior, a mashup of denim, plaid, and vintage textiles, make it the extroverted antithesis of the stone-colored truck I pictured stripping to bare metal. When RM Sotheby's announced it for auction, Crown & Caliber Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Cheney asked me to write about it.

"Bingo," I thought when the assignment landed. This would be the perfect excuse to connect with the self-described sneakerhead, vintage lover and childhood skater obsessed with all things colorful and textured.

Wotherspoon approaches art car projects like his Land Rover with more enthusiast vibes than lofty artist energy, saying clients tend to give him full autonomy on colorways and creative approach. "They want my idea; it's not like 'Here's what I'm thinking,' it's more like, 'Yo Sean, here's my car. Go fucking crazy.' I'll mood board stuff out, but I'm a pretty ragtag kind of guy, dude… I'm not putting together these professional decks." He emphasized the casual nature of the partnership. "We're not in business together; we're doing a fun art project. It should always make them smile."

Early on he co-founded Round Two, a vintage clothing shop that became a cult favorite. But the native Virginian went global when he penned the Nike Air Max 97/1, which won Nike's design competition and became a global release. The sneakers' unlikely color combos (yellow, light blue, deep green) and textures (corduroy, velour, leather) make them coveted in the secondary market to this day. "I'm not hating on a plain black shirt," he said, "but it's just not my style."

Wotherspoon said his inspiration comes from the most royalty-free of sources. "I take photos of nature around me because nature doesn't own shit," he revealed. "Nature's not going to sue you for IP or trademarks. If you look at a green leaf, it's probably made up of 150 different shades of green. And every single one of those is up for the taking… 99.9 percent of the time, it's a fresh new color and I can name it. It can be my own."

There might be a touch of synesthesia going on as well, since he's been known to name colors after family members; see "Nashy Blue" (named after his son, Nash) "Loretta Purple" (after his daughter), and "Ashley Green" (inspired by his wife.) The hues are now officially Porsche Paint-to-Sample colors. "They will live forever within the Porsche company," he said fondly. "They get so excited when they see their PTS color drive by."

My first brush with Wotherspoon's 1958 Land Rover Series II came at Phillip Sarofim's L.A. garage, where it stood out amidst some of the most eye-watering cars on earth. Sarofim had commissioned Wotherspoon to transform his Porsche 911 2.7 RS, and though I was there to pick up a stunning one-of-a-kind Meyers Manx buggy, I couldn't stop thinking about the multi-colored Series that was so similar, yet so different, from my own. 

The two were closer than their names suggested. Land Rover launched the Series II in 1958, the first of the line to get its styling department's attention, and gave it the curved "barrel side" waistline that covered a wider track. The 2A arrived in 1961, a change driven less by any redesign than by a bored-out diesel engine and a new chassis-number suffix. A letter and five years stood between his truck and mine, and not much else.

"My grail car in high school I never thought I could afford is the Volkswagen Harlequin Golf," Wotherspoon told me during a phone interview. He now owns one. "I collect these old color blocked Motorola StarTAC phones too," he added. "There's something about color blocking. I just love it, dude."

Wotherspoon said his first automotive project was a Porsche-sanctioned Taycan 4 CrossTurismo which almost didn't happen due to hesitations at the German manufacturer. "All it took to sell the project through was for one guy at Porsche to say, 'Actually, I'm going to take this as a challenge, I want to do this paint.'" The brash Porsche eventually received broader attention when it appeared on the Concept Lawn of the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Wotherspoon ended up paying some of the extra materials (like unused cork) forward into Sarofim's 911 project.

Certain projects also inspire hat tips to historically or culturally relevant shades. Sarofim's 911, for instance, incorporates "Old Red," from the tangerine red-tinged O.G. fiberglass buggy that famously set the Baja, California speed record and launched the Meyers Manx brand he acquired and relaunched. A Porsche 912 project that's currently underway in Tokyo leverages original PTS colors originally supplied to 60s-era Porsche orders to Japan.

His technicolor Landy won me over when its multi-hued body panels caught my eye. While my ideal of a vintage Land Rover incorporated some sort of elevated expression of metallurgical functionality, he transcended the weight of its historical and cultural baggage by embracing pure color and exuberant texture.

"I live in this world of color," Wotherspoon said of the kaleidoscopic hues that rule his headspace.

The Sean Wotherspoon Land Rover Series II was initially listed at RM Sotheby's Woodcote Park auction on July 8, but the lot was pulled prior to the event. When asked for comment, RM Sotheby's Head of Global Communications Ethan Gibson said that cars are sometimes withdrawn "... for a number of reasons, including changes to the consignor's plans, unresolved or new documentation, or title matters. It's a normal, if infrequent, part of the collector car market." So while we'll never know how close it would have gotten to its £60,000 to £100,000 ($80,000 to $134,000 USD) estimate, it's fair to say the owner's garage will remain a more colorful place for it.