Hawkes’ Family Values Story and photos by Hallie Hawkes one of only a few hundred imported into the US. And then there was our infamous AA Yellow 90. (In a previous Rovers Magazine article, I noted how I meshed my dream truck along with my dream man and our dream wedding carriage.) We wanted to build something that could double as a mule for off-roading/over-landing experiences and also travel the roads. Buying an existing Defender would've been blown our budget, leaving nothing for modifications and necessary repairs. Instead of buying a Defender that needed repair, we decided we’d build something from the ground up. I looked to Matt for some expert advice, inspiration and vision. Thankfully, Matt knows Rovers. At 17, he was hired to wash cars at Land Rover Scarborough. Picking up on his knack for wrenching, they soon promoted him to a Service Technician in 1998. By the time he left in 2011, he had qualified as a Land Rover Master Technician. Matt recalls when the
I
t’s 8:00pm and I’m in our garage assessing the task before me. In two days, our Defender 90 will appear in a photoshoot for Road & Track Magazine to compare the 2021 Defender with a heritage model. Sadly, our 90 sits double-parked by bicycles, a grill and the remnants of a polar bear habitat our daughter made for school. The Defender’s registration, I notice, ran out in 2018. Since 2018, we’ve had our second daughter and moved to a new house. We’re overrun with girl paraphernalia: neighing rocking horses, doll houses and two of almost everything — one pink, one purple. The Poppy doll starts singing as I walk by and — twice now — the barking robot dogs have gone off in the middle of the night. Amid many life changes, Land Rovers have always predominated my life. When I turned 9 years old, my father, Bob, bought his first Series Rover, which he extricated from the sapling growing through its frame. Over the years, dad, my brother Nate and I disassembled Rovers in the basement, and on one occasion stole Mom’s Range Rover to bring back to Winter Romp because the night before we had snapped an axle in the 109”. My longstanding infatuation with Land Rovers afforded me the chance to meet Matt Hawkes, my husband. Matt and I have known each other for the better part of 20 years. A decade ago, as newlyweds, we built my 90 from scratch. I had always yearned to own a Defender. Matt had already owned several of them, including a blue ‘95 Station Wagon, 22
roversmagazine.com
Summer-Fall 2021
legacy Land Rovers were new on the lot; working on these Defenders, Discoverys and Range Rovers in the late ‘90s and early 2000s gave him the unique experience of seeing Rovers untouched, authentic and debatably in the premier days of the brand. During those years he also built several hybrids, an 88” and a 109”, both coilers and head-turners. Matt’s distinctive abilities were soon tested and utilized to create something unique and one-off from the rest. Matt is the epitome of a tinkerer. Self admittedly, he cannot leave well enough alone, and he’s
