4x4 Magazine April 2019 by Assignment Media Ltd

4x4

NEWS • PRODUCTS • TRAIL GUIDES • WORKSHOP • CALENDAR • OFF-ROAD SCENE

DRIVEN Jeep’s barmy 710bhp Grand Cherokee

THE UK’S ONLY 4X4 AND PICK- UP MAGAZINE

HIGH NUMBERS

Is this Land Cruiser a 70-Series or an 80-Series? Because whatever it looks like, its axles might tell you another story…

The noble art of living… on board your vehicle

£4.75

Epic rocky trails on our North York Moors Roadbook

APR 2019

Mighty Wrangler created by Black Mountain and DV8 Works 4x4 Cover Apr aksk.indd 1

25/02/2019 20:46

All Seasons. All Conditions. All Terrains.

Davanti has spent years developing this AllTerrain tyre, applying the latest design and manufacturing innovation to develop a tyre as comfortable on the road, on the construction site, in the fields or up in the mountains. Terratoura is a high performance All-Terrain tyre. Its innovative tread pattern provides exceptional traction across all environments.

All-terrain, all year round.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.DAVANTI-TYRES.COM

FLOOR MATS GI200

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There’s no doubting the strength of the hardwearing Rubber Mats and their proven capability to significantly reduce wear and tear in your car. They’re lightweight, very flexible and they’re custom-made. With a raised outer lip to retain any spills, they’ll do a fantastic job of keeping the interior of your vehicle in the best possible condition, while covering up any existing damage.

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The Boot Liners offer outstanding protection from everyday wear and tear. It will also reduce road noise and, with its raised outer edge, prevent accidental spills from ruining your car’s interior. These custom-made Boot Mat Liners are infused with a long-lasting vanilla scent and are fully compatible with our Dog Guards and Dividers.

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DOG GUARDS From the older 110, 90 and Freelanders to the Range Rover Sport, Discovery and Evoque, Travall have created an extensive range of high quality dog Guards exclusively for these iconic of vehicles. Each one is made in the UK’s engineering heartland from the best available materials. They laser-cut and precisionweld high grade steel, which is then nylon-powder coated using a unique formula.

GI053 Discovery 3, Discovery 4 04-16

GI055 Range Rover Sport 05-13

This gives their dog guards an attractive and ultra-tough finish which is extremely resistant to scratches and knocks. They are recognised throughout the world for their strength, dependability, ruggedness and reliability, whether on or off the road. So, if you’re looking for a guard that’s just as tough, and as well-designed, as the Land Rover itself, you’ve found it.

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Please check our website for full fitment details:

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A DV E RT I S I N G F E AT U R E

NISSAN NAVARA OFF - ROADER BY NAME, OFF - ROADER BY NATURE

or the ﬁrst time in Europe, Nissan have collaborated on a pick-up truck – and to remarkable effect. Pairing up with Icelandic company Arctic Trucks, famous for creating some of the most rugged trucks around, Nissan have brought to market the appositely named AT32 Off-Roader. The Off-Roader is a specialist take on the Nissan Navara that incorporates a host of additions and upgrades that serve only to make it more adept when it comes to tackling the toughest terrains. A 20mm lifted suspension and upsized 32” tyres (275/70R17 Nokian Rotiiva ATs Plus numbers, to be speciﬁc), as well as heavy-duty side steps, a full set of underbody guards and a variety of styling tweaks. The conversion is done as OEM and the truck is

2 | APRIL 2019

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actually a model available through Nissan’s standard main dealer network. Although standard, it is not. This means that there is no need to go and wound your wallet insuring the AT32 as a modiﬁed vehicle because Nissan’s warranty remains valid for the standard bits, and Arctic Trucks cover the bolstering factions they’ve added. And boy do they work – so much so that we crowned it Best OffRoader in our recent Pick-up of the Year issue. If we may brieﬂy interject with a recap on the standard Navara – it has a good, strong engine which, by diesel standards, loves to rev; its manual gearbox is quite slick, with a nice light action and precise changes; its steering does exactly what is asked of it; and its ride is steady. How much does the AT32 conversion change that? Well, you

immediately feel the ﬁrmness in the uprated shocks, which truly come into their own when the surface gets bad. The AT32 really is amazingly well controlled over big, harsh bumps, without any crashiness or disorderly ricochets to disturb you. The added height that comes with the new springs could induce unwanted body sway, but the AT32 avoids this and remains coherent, even at higher speeds. Out on the open road, you could expect the taller truck with more aggressive tyres to fall apart in the bendy bits, but if anything, we found it cornered with greater readiness, in fact. Even when the suspension was being worked harder. It’s every bit as reﬁned as any other Navara at cruising speeds, too. Much of this is down to the interior package that the Navara

poses. Based on the range-topping Tekna model, the AT32 has a very comfortable, well laid out cabin with the switch for the front diff locker neatly located on the floor console. It offers roominess all around and a pleasing view over that curved and distinguishing bonnet of a Navara. The seats are leather-clad and heated, plus they’re comfortable to boot. But, even though the interior champions comfort, the rear seats fold flat to provide a prolonged load space and the bed has a roll-top to keep cargo secure, ensuring that the truck is both plush and practical. Now for the main event. Why is the AT32 Off-Roader the best truck to tackle the tough stuff in? First things first, the standard Navara is already a good off-roader with plenty of flexibility and the back-up of that rear locker on hand. But the

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A DV E RT I S I N G F E AT U R E

AT32 OFF-ROADER AT32 conversion builds on those strong foundations and makes a great off-roader. The suspension lift and bigger tyres mean there’s more ground clearance on the table, and that is something that is always welcome on a vehicle with a long wheelbase and a rear overhang and it certainly makes a difference. But for the extreme situations when the added height alone isn’t enough, the Off-Roader has steel side steps and heavy-duty underguards to call upon. These were needed as we challenged it up a steep incline of jagged rocks. The taller tyres helped here, too, as they bestow the truck with greater dexterity and control over such testing circumstances. To protect the Navara’s ability and smoothly integrate all of the AT32 gizmos, the gearing has been adapted, too. The higher gearing accommodates for the bigger tyres and is most noticeable when it is doing what it was made to do – offroading – as it has an even larger element of control. The AT32 Off-Roader has a lot of strings to its bow. It is at the

right end of the pick-up class for comfort, with its SUV-like interior that offers all the connectivity and multimedia ﬂexibility thanks to the NissanConnect integration, so you can stream your favourite playlists, browse your phone’s apps and also has Europe-wide navigation (for this you’ll need to stick to the roads, though). Pair this with the off-road prowess and you could take your AT32 Off-Roader up the side of a snowy mountain, in blistering and bitter winds, but be cosily holed up in your heated seat, singing along to your favourite playlist miles out of earshot of civilization. Then come lunch time, you can search Google or TripAdvisor for recommendations on local cuisine and comfortably make your way down to wherever you choose, making the most of the 360º Around View monitor on the treacherous climb down – as well as in town to park ﬂawlessly. When it comes to the prospect off-roading an off-the shelf pick-up, the AT32 is extremely compelling. With the lockable diffs, hill descent control and all of the other

AT32 accessories and, no small matter, the badging that really confound its identity, it’s a totally unique proposition. Combining the usability and performance the

Navara already possesses with the expertise of Arctic Trucks, the result is a ready-made adventure truck that is comfortable anywhere – the AT32 is built for adventure..

*Connecting to a mobile phone to use Nissan Connect should only be done when the car is parked safely. Use of the system should always be in accordance with the rules of the Highway Code. Drivers should only use the system when it is safe to do so. Users should be aware of the potential for hands-free technology to distract attention from the road, which could impact on having full control of the vehicle. For compatible devices, please visit nissan.co.uk/ownership/nissan-infotainment-system/nissanconnect-ev.html

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April 2019

T H IS M O N T H 30

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78 12 ISSUES OF 4X4 – FOR JUST £12!

This has got to be the best value offer in the history of publishing… subscribe to 4x4 for a year and it’ll only cost a quid an issue! News 16 17 18 20 20 21

Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in hybrid becomes a van Mitsubishi L200 Resurgent pick-up storms the sales charts Range Rover Velar New V8 range topper has 542bhp VW T-Roc R 300bhp super-SUV set to arrive this autumn Range Rover Sport 400bhp mild hybrid engine on the way Aston Martin DBX Luxurious ultra-SUV here by Christmas

Tested 30 34 38

Jeep Trackhawk 710bhp Grand Cherokee is hilariously bonkers Jeep Wrangler First drive on British roads and trails Mitsubishi Shogun Lower-spec model makes most sense

Every Month 6 8 10 12 14 23 80 96

Alan Kidd Some questions keep on cropping up Gallery Landcruisers in familiar and unfamiliar situations Destinations The other-worldly wonderland of Salar de Uyuni Lost Lanes Convenient stupidity 1, Washgate 0 What Jeep Did Next… 2014’s gorgeous Chief concept Products Whataver you drive, there’s something you need Roadbook Sensational rocky trails in the North York Moors Next Month Trucks on test from opposite ends of the spectrum

Features 42 44 46 54 56

Arkonik Cadet Restiﬁed 0 set for a new life in the A Suzuki X90 An early modiﬁed example of the girliest ever x Epic 70-Series Mighty Landcruiser rides on its big brother’s axles Huge Wrangler DV8 Works gets its teeth into a JK Unlimited SsangYong Tivoli Can it cope with a wet weekend in Wales?

Travel 62 66

Living in Your Truck Pros and cons of real-world expedition life Into the Unknown Crossing the plains of Kazakhstan and beyond

Our 4x4s 70

Skoda Kodiaq A year on, can we ﬁnd anything to grumble about?

Off-Road Scene 72 74

Jeepey Jamboree It’s back… Extreme E Major new off-road race series

Off-Road Calendar 73 75 76

Pay-and-Play Events Go in as hard as you want UK Convoy Tours Tag-along runs on public rights of way Overland Travel Long-range adventures in your 4x4

“Overlanding isn’t a holiday – which is why it really is an incredible, once in a lifetime experience. Toughing it out is going to be worth it” 4x4 4-5 Contents AWAITING SUBS OFFER INFO.indd 5

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Alan Kidd Editor

here are certain questions I get asked over and over again in this job. ‘Why don’t you just go and get a life?’ is one that stands out, along with ‘have you met Jeremy Clarkson?’ (the answer is no, he’s met me), but soon enough the subject always turns to cars. A favourite has always been something along the lines of ‘I fancy a Freelander, but is there anything else I should consider?’ I use the Freelander as an example because of a particular phone call that sticks in my mind. It was 2003, maybe 2004, when the Mk1 Freelander was already known for its advanced awfulness, so I explained to matey that basically anything else was a better option. Including walking. He listened intently until I was ﬁnished. ‘So…’ he came back. ‘What discounts will a dealer give me on a Freelander.’ Since then, my answer has always been that whatever car your heart fancies, buy it. It doesn’t matter how much better the alternatives might be: unless you get the car you really want, you’ll spend every minute of every hour behind the wheel wishing you’d followed your instinct. Unless, back in the day, your instinct was telling you to buy a Tata Safari. Because that’s the answer to another question I’ve become used to being asked: ‘What’s the worst car you’ve ever driven.’ The Safari took rubbishness to new levels with its lame engine, awful switches and comedy trim. There was a big sticker explaining the operation of the four-wheel drive system… positioned right in front of your eye line so you couldn’t see out of the top part of the windscreen. At times I had to crane to see below it. The fuel ﬂap needed to be prised open with the key; this in a six-month-old car with only about 4000 miles on the clock. At one point I got out-dragged by an aggregate wagon. Having said that, the worst individual vehicle I’ve ever come across was a Mark 2 Range Rover. Back in 2001, by when you’d think they’d have ironed out the faults on a model launched seven years previously, I drove a range-topping 2.5 diesel with cabin trim panels that were on squint. On a wet night on the M40, there was a loud

6 | APRIL 2019

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I got outdragged by an aggregate wagon… beep and the air suspension set itself to maximum height, where it stayed for the rest of my week with the thing. The roof leaked, too. Not a sunroof. Just the roof. ‘What’s the best car you’ve ever driven?’ is another favourite, obviously. I’ve had a lot of good fortune here; the Mk1 Lotus Exige stands out, as do the original Porsche Cayman S and fourth-generation Golf GTi. But I’ve only ever driven two cars I’ve felt moved to describe as perfect. Neither of them truly are, but to call them anything less has felt churlish. And both are 4x4s launched during the last 12 months. The Suzuki Jimny, of course, is one of them. I say ‘of course,’ but unless you’re very new indeed to this magazine you’ll know about the impression it has made on our entire team, The other, and again regular readers will know what’s coming, is the Toyota Landcruiser Utility. Both are brilliant off-road in standard form, easy to modify to make them even better and cheap enough to buy that the ﬁrst two things in this list aren’t rendered instantly irrelevant. We gave them both ﬁve stars in our reviews, and that’s only because we couldn’t give them six. Which leads me to another question I’m getting asked a lot at the moment: ‘What’s the new Defender going to be like.’ The truth is that I don’t know. We’ve seen those faked-up spy shots, though, and we know it’s going to be on all-independent suspension, so good luck with lifting it. It’s going to rely heavily on electronics to do its thing off-road. Everything points to it being very expensive – even more so than the new Jeep. Which leads me to the answer I’m tending to give people. The new Defender, I tell them, is already here. It’s called the Toyota Landcruiser. And as time goes on, more and more of them are getting what I’m on about.

Tel: 01283 553243 Email: enquiries@assignment-media.co.uk Web: www.totaloffroad.co.uk www.4x4i.com Online Shop: www.toronline.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/totaloffroad www.facebook.com/4x4Mag Editor Alan Kidd Assistant Editor George Dove Art Editor Samantha D’Souza Contributors Mike Trott, Paul Looe, Dan Fenn, Noel and Marilu Peries, Tushar and Pooja Agrawal Photographers Harry Hamm,Vic Peel, Steve Taylor, Mathew Thompson, Simon Miskelly Group Advertising Manager Ian Argent Tel: 01283 553242 Advertising Manager Colin Ashworth Tel: 01283 553244 Advertising Sales Manager Peter Topley Tel: 01283 553245 Advertising and Exhibition Sales Executive Abigail Cooper Tel: 01283 553246 Advertising Production Sarah Lowe Tel: 01283 553242 Subscriptions Manager Catherine Martin Subscriptions Assistants Emma Emery, Kay Tunnicliffe, Abi Dutton Publisher and Head of Marketing Sarah Lowe Email: sarah.lowe@assignment-media.co.uk To subscribe to 4x4, or renew a subscription, call 01283 742970. Prices for 12 issues: UK £42 (24 issues £76); Europe Airmail/ROW Surface £54; ROW Airmail £78 Distributed by Marketforce; www.marketforce.co.uk Every effort is made to ensure the contents of 4x4 are accurate, but Assignment Media accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions nor the consequences of actions made as a result of these. When responding to any advert in 4x4, you should make appropriate enquiries before sending money or entering into a contract. The publishers take reasonable care to ensure advertisers’ probity, but will not be liable for loss or damage incurred from responding to adverts Where a photo credit includes the note ‘CC BY 2.0’ or similar, the image is made available under that Creative Commons licence: details at www.creativecommons.org 4x4 is published by Assignment Media Ltd, Repton House G11, Bretby Business Park, Ashby Road, Bretby, Derbyshire DE15 0YZ

4x4 25/02/2019 17:27

Carry that extra load with ease DA3072

These roof racks are manufactured from aluminium with a smart black powder coated finish. Fully welded, they are extremely strong, versatile and easy to use. The floor plank profiles are orientated longitudinally which results in a reduction in wind noise. There are nut channels on all the extrusions to allow for easy fitment of 3rd party accessories. DA3072 Defender 90 3 feet per side Weight - 32kg Dimensions - 2,050mm long x 1,500mm wide Vehicle gutter to top of rack - 265mm DA3269 Defender 110 Double cab pickup Defender 130 Double cab pickup 3 feet per side Weight - 27kg Dimensions - 1,600mm long x 1,500m wide Vehicle gutter to top of rack - 265mm DA6529 Discovery 1 & Discovery 2 - without roof rails Low profile 3 feet per side Weight - 26kg Dimensions - 2,050mm long x 1,500mm wide Vehicle gutter to top of rack - 265mm

DA6529

DA3072

DA6629

DA6537

DA6629

DA3070

DA3070 Defender 110 4 feet per side Weight - 38kg Dimensions - 2,750mm long x 1,500mm wide Vehicle gutter to top of rack - 265mm

DA6629 Discovery 1 & Discovery 2 - with roof rails Low profile 3 feet per side Weight - 27kg Dimensions - 2,050mm long x 1,500mm wide Vehicle gutter to top of rack - 340mm

DA6537 Discovery 3 & Discovery 4 4 feet per side Weight - 23kg Dimensions - 2,300mm long x 1,260mm wide Roof to top of rack - 120mm Note - May need roof rail kit (CAB500120PVJ or CAP500090) to be fitted to vehicle prior to roof rack installation.

More images online at www.britpart.com/expedition

GALLERY

In pictures: 4x4s and off-road stories from around the world

If there’s a vehicle that deserves a Gallery all to itself, it’s the Toyota Landcruiser. It’s not really just a vehicle, of course: it’s a whole range of vehicles. But you get the point. The Cruiser is revered around the world as the vehicle you turn to when… well, it doesn’t matter when, it’s just the vehicle you turn to. It’s capable of anything. As you can see here, ‘anything’ doesn’t just include being the last word in off-road dependability. Though whether you’re crossing the desert in a 70-Series or chucking your Amazon around in the mud, you know it’s a truck you can rely on. But how about if you want a street machine that’s bigger than all the other street machines? Yep, got that covered. Want to go drag racing in a pick-up truck from half a century ago? Sure, just say the word. As for big Iceland-style builds, well, that’s just a given. They even look good with a headlamp held together by gaffer tape, as it turns out. Try carrying that off in a Ferrari and you have conclusive proof that this is indeed the coolest car ever. Main picture: landcruising Morocco, by Fabien Agon @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0 Above right: Island 2013 347 Toyota Land Cruiser Isländer, by Klaus Nahr @ flickr.com CC BY ND Right: Invader kitted Toyota Land Cruiser, Bangladesh, by Shadman Samee @ flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0 Below right: 1967 Toyota Land Cruiser, by James Banks Photography, CC BY-SA 2.0 Below: land cruiser, by Sierra Hotel Photography @ flickr.com, CCV by ND 2.0

6 | MARCH 2019

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EXPERIENCED DRIVER DEPICTED

WHAT AR E YO U BU I LD I NG FOR ?

B U I LT T H R O U G H E X P E R I E N C E â&#x20AC;¦ E AR N E D O N T H E T R A I L BFGO ODRICH.CO.UK

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DESTINATIONS

The world’s greatest 4x4 travel adventures caught on camera. This month, a truly iconic landform populated almost exclusively by Landcruisers

Salar de Uyuni The world’s largest salt pan, the Salar de Uyuni is half the size of Wales. Part of the Altiplano in south-west Bolivia, it was formed over tens of thousands of years as a series of lakes dried to form a crust of salt whose thickness ranges from a few inches to several metres. To make this landscape even more extraordinary, it’s completely surrounded by mountains. And here and there, ancient volcanic peaks poke up like islands through the salt. Normally, the surface is parched. uring wet periods, however, ﬂood waters from Lake Titicaca to the north can spill through to cover it to a depth of an inch or two. Because the surface of the salt is so very ﬂat, this doesn’t actually stop you from driving on it – making this an otherworldly 4x4 destination all year round. Top: Bolivia 2017, by Kyle Taylor @ ckr.com, CC BY 2.0 Above:

yuni Salt Flats, Bolivia by Je

Nesanells @ flickr.com, CC-BY-2.0

Above right: Reproducci n por esporas en la Laguna Ca apa, Carlos Adampol alindo @ flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0 Right, below: Salar de CC BY-SA 2.0

yuni, Bolivia by

yuni, Bolivia, Carlos Adampol alindo @ flickr.com,

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LOST LANES

In memory of Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s many rights of way which, over the years, have fallen victim to petty politics and local self-interest

Washgate Halfway along this gently scenic trail a few miles south of Buxton is a narrow bridge with a ford next to it. The bridge is a right of way, went the argument, but the ford is not. And guess what, the bridge is too narrow for a 4x4. And in staggeringly unusual news, the whole plot was spiced up by a militant anti-4x4 loudmouth living near the road. Road, yes: it was (and still is, for what itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth) a public highway. Fat lot of use that is when somehow it was okay for a large boulder to appear at one end, obstructing access in a way that would have been completely illegal had it not been for the fact that the victims of the crime were an innocent minority of countrysideloving green lane users.Yet another right of way that once attracted visitors to the area but is now destined only to be reclaimed by weeds.

4x4 4pp Gallery etc Apr.indd 12

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WIN more than Â£20,000 of equipment for your 4x4

Plus a fully funded overseas expedition with the Paranoid Team

HUTCHINSON

Drawer Systems - Roof Racks - Storage Solutions - Camp Kitchen & Fridge Slides- More

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WHAT JEEP DID NEXT…

Historical highlights of the concept vehicles Jeep builds every year for the Moab Easter Safari. This month: another glorious work of retro wonderment

2014: Chief It’s not about off-roading, this one, but we all know that a good truck can make the coolest of highway rides – and the Wrangler-based Chief concept, with its Wagoneer-style razor grille, is definitely very cool indeed. As well as creating a tribute to the classic 1970s’ era full-size Cherokee, Jeep’s design team hit on the idea of finishing the vehicle with a nod to the classic West Coast surfer style. All very retro, but since when was that a bad thing? The truck’s eyeball-grabbing style comes from a vintage Ocean Blue colour scheme and white roof, beneath which removable sides give it a proper openair feel. That razor grille is chrome-finished, as are both bumpers, and the tyres sit on 17” slotted mag rims in classic 70s’ style. And then there’s the inside. Definitely not compatible with dragging your truck through a sea of mud, but it’s got a bit of a Hawaiian theme to it. The seats are trimmed in leather and pink, blue and white flowered cloth, there are vintage-style surf stickers on the centre console and door handles and it’s all finished off with a rosewood grab handle and tiki-style shifter knob. A few years after the Chief was created, we saw it in the metal – and it was one of the most wonderful concept cars we’ve ever seen. In fact, the event at which this happened was the European launch of the JL Wrangler last summer – and while it might be exaggerating to say that the Chief stole the show, it wouldn’t be by much. Which takes some doing when there’s an all-new Rubicon in town. We don’t mind admitting that we’re completely in love with this Jeep. And behind the wall of pink-flowers-dammit cynicism, we reckon that secretly, you’d fight us for it.

14 | APRIL 2019

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4x4 NEWS

PLUG-IN OUTLANDER NOW AVAILABLE IN VAN FORM

510kg payload • 139mpg, 46g/km • 28-mile EV range • £25,113 CVOTR after Government grant ew vehicles have ridden the hybrid wave as successfully as the Mitsubishi Outlander

PHEV. And now the high-selling plug-in SUV is set to become better value than ever for business users – because now you can get it as a van.

The Outlander PHEV Commercial takes the vehicle’s standard design and adds a ﬂat load area behind the front seats which measures 1650mm in length, 1000mm in width (measured between the wheel arches) and 800mm in height at the tailgate. Ahead of the load bay is a full ﬂoorto-ceiling bulkhead with a solid base and a protective metal mesh top half. The

vehicle has a maximum payload rating of 510kg. The entire Outlander PHEV range was revised for 2019, gaining a new 2.4-litre, 135bhp petrol engine and enhanced electric powertrain. It returns 139mpg combined, has an EV range of 28 miles and emits just 46g/km of CO2, all based on the new, stricter WLTP testing regime. Further enhancements to the Outlander for the current model year include revised shock absorbers for better handling and a smoother, quieter ride, a quicker steering rack and a revised vehicle dynamics system. The vehicle has an electric motor on each axle, meaning it’s a true four-wheel drive even when running in pure EV mode, and the transmission features a lockable centre diff to maximise traction for off-tarmac terrain and/ or snowy weather conditions.

On sale now, the Nissan Qashqai N-Motion is a limited-edition model offering the familiar combination of more kit at an appealingly high-value price. Based on the N-Connecta model, it gains a panoramic glass roof, unique 19” alloys and silver bumper plates, roof rails and mirror caps as well as burnt orange inserts on the front seat bolsters. It doesn’t have four-wheel drive but it does have what sounds like a tidy entry price of £25,245.

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4x4 NEWS

SPECIALIST 4X4 VEHICLE DISMANTERS JEEP - LAND ROVER AND MOST MAKES AND MODELS QUALITY GUARANTEED USED PARTS SOME OF THE VEHICLES WE HAVE RECENTLY DISMANTLED: Based on the Juro version of passenger model, the Outlander Commercial features 18” alloys, a heated windscreen, heated seats, climate control, reversing camera and electronic parking brake. It also has a touch-screen media system with DAB, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Outlander Commercial is priced at £39,250 including VAT,

however it’s classed as an UltraLow Emission Vehicle – qualifying it for the UK government’s Plug-In Van Grant of £7900. What this means is that if you’re registered for VAT, you can put one on the road for an altogether more palatable £25,113 – which suggests that this new 4x4 van is going to be every bit as successful as the SUV on which it’s based.

Resurgent L200 gets 2019 underway with market-leading sales ﬁgures

2015 JEEP WRANGLER JK 2.8CRD

2007 DODGE NITRO 2.8CRD

2014 RANGE 2016 ISUZU 2014 JEEP ROVER SPORT 4.4 D-MAX 2.5 DIESEL CHEROKEE MK5 V8 DIESEL KL 2.0 MULTIJET

2010 JEEP 2007 LAND ROVER CHEROKEE MK4 DISCOVERY 3 2.7 KK 2.8 CRD TDV6

One in three pick-ups sold in the UK during January was a Mitsubishi L200. The resurgent one-tonner totalled 1237 units in the ﬁrst month of the year – almost double the 636 it achieved in 2018. Mitsubishi UK boss Rob Lindley said the truck ‘continues to be a vital vehicle for Mitsubishi and our plans for growth for 2019 and beyond.’ Nissan Qashqais with the 1.5 dCi 115 diesel engine are now available with dual-clutch auto transmission. The engine and gearbox combination achieves CO2 emissions from just 106g/km. The new box is available on Acenta Premium models and above, with OTR prices starting at £25,945.

4x4 4pp News Apr AWAITING ADS.indd 17

2016 RANGE ROVER EVOQUE 2.0 TD4

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2006 JEEP GRAND 2006 NISSAN CHEROKEE WK PATHFINDER 2.5 5.7 V8 HEMI DCI Charlton Recycled Auto Parts Vehicle Recycling Centre, Gravel Pit Hill, Thriplow, Cambridge, SG8 7HZ Tel 01223 832656 Email parts@charltonautoparts.co.uk PLEASE VISIT WWW.CHARLTONAUTOPARTS.CO.UK APRIL 2019 | 17

26/02/2019 13:02

4x4 NEWS

ULTIMATE VELAR HAS PACE, POISE AND £86,120 PRICE TAG 542bhp SVAutobiography Dynamic • 4.3-sec 0-60 time, 170mph top speed • On sale for one year only

he Range Rover Velar has turned heads and won awards for its understated good looks. But the latest version of Land Rover’s premium style wagon is a lot more in-your-face – and not without reason, because its appearance is just the beginning. That’s because the new Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition comes with ﬁve litres of goodness beneath its bonnet. The big supercharged heart beats out 542bhp and propels the Velar from stationary to sixty in 4.3 seconds – before, if you give it the chance, carrying on to a terminal velocity of 170mph. To cope with all this uncouth power while retaining the smooth and cosseting ride synonymous with the Range Rover nameplate, this ultimate version of the Velar has been equipped with uprated brakes and suspension as well as bespoke calibration for everything from its powertrain to its safety systems. It gains a transmission tunnel undertray to improve its aerodynamics, too.

18 | APRIL 2019

4pp News Apr AWAITING ADS.indd 18

There are several visual clues that distinguish the Dynamic Edition from its siblings – just in case that thundering soundtrack gets missed. These include a revised front bumper with bigger air intakes to cool the braking system as well as feeding the engine. A new grille and lower side mouldings add distinction to the Velar and the rear bumper has been revised to accommodate a rather sizeable set of quad exhaust pipes. On that topic, the custom sports exhaust system is 7.1kg lighter than the standard pipes. At each corner of the Dynamic Edition you’ll ﬁnd lightweight 21” alloys, with those at the front paired with 395mm brake discs and the rears a millimetre larger. The calipers are four-piston variants at the front and sliding calipers at the rear, all of which are painted red and are emblazoned with the words ‘Land Rover’. Just in case you were wondering. Interior enhancements include heated and cooled seats which, as well as being 20-way adjustable up front, will also give you a massage.

They come as standard with a twin-stitched, quilted Windsor covering that’s unique to the SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition; colour-wise, they can be speciﬁed in Ebony, Cirrus, Vintage Tan or Pimento. On the outside, the vehicle is available in six different colours – Firenze Red, Santorini Black, Corris Grey, Fuji White, Indus Silver and, by special order, Satin Byron Blue. In each case, you get a contrasting black roof as standard.

Further bangs for your buck include a unique sports steering wheel with a contoured rim, as well as aluminium shift paddles for the gearbox, and there’s the inevitable optional carbon ﬁbre pack to help you add more bangs, and more bucks. Talking of bucks, the Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition costs from ,120 on the road. And Land Rover says it will only be on sale for a single year. No pressure, then.

4x4 26/02/2019 13:02

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4x4 NEWS

300BHP FOR HOT NEW VW T-ROC R

olkswagen has unveiled the T-Roc R – a highperformance version of the reigning Small SUV of the Year with a 2.0-litre petrol engine giving it 300bhp and 295lbf.ft. Currently described as a ‘nearproduction concept car’, the vehicle runs a 7-speed DSG auto box and four-wheel drive as standard. It can accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds and is equipped with lowered running gear, progressiverate steering and a 17” brake system previously found only on the Golf R Performance. Further features include a special drive mode palette with a Race setting, as well as Launch Control for ultimate traction under very hard acceleration. The ESC Electronic Stability Control system

can be manually switched off, too, for when you want to live life on the ragged edge. In addition to its performance intent, the T-Roc R has the sort of styling that will ensure it stands out on the road. This includes speciﬁc bumpers, a rear spoiler and diffuser, subtly widened arches and a choice of 18” and 19” alloys. As the latter illustrates, VW is already clear that while the T-Roc R is still ofﬁcially a concept, it will assuredly be going on sale. The company even talks about the choice of paint options, though it’s not yet clear which of these will be offered in the UK market. Further options will include an Akrapovic exhaust upgrade from the standard quad-pipe system and a nappa leather package with which

to dress up a cabin whose styling is heavily inﬂuenced by motorsport. olkswagen is yet to conﬁrm a UK price or on-sale date for the T-Roc R. However it’s likely to cost

more than the Golf R on which it’s based, suggesting a start point of around 3 -37,000, with ﬁrst deliveries in the third quarter of this year.

Range Rover Sport gains mild hybrid 3.0-litre petrol engine with 400bhp Land Rover has introduced a new variation of the Range Rover Sport. Called the HST, this features a new V6 petrol engine delivering 400bhp. The unit is helped by a mild hybrid system including a 48-volt supercharger to reduce turbo lag. The 3.0-litre Ingenium unit is paired to an electric motor which harnesses energy during deceleration and stores it in the 48-volt battery, ready to then be reused as a way of reducing emissions by reducing the engine’s workload. The engine also runs stop-start functionality to reduce emissions around town (or, this being Britain, on every motorway journey). This hel s it return an fi ial m g whi h when u nsider the amount of fuel guzzled by fast Rangeys of old, is a big improvement. Also much better than Range Rovers once were is a variety of safety systems including advanced cruise control and high-speed emergency braking. The Sport also gets the latest version of Land Rover’s Terrain Response four-wheel drive system. he s e ial-editi n m del has es ke adging and ar n fi re trim n its nnet t s a aila le in a h i e fi e l urs all whi h u ll ha e heard man times e re however inside there’s a new colour pattern featuring suede cloth and unique HST badging. he ri e r all this is n the r ad hat s e re u get stu k in t the ti ns list, of course, but it’s a lot less than we’ve come to expect for high-spec Landies.

20 | APRIL 2019

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4x4 26/02/2019 13:02

4x4 NEWS ASTON MARTIN TO JOIN SUPER-SUV MARKET IN LATE 2019

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APPROXIMATELY SEVEN MONTHS FROM NOW, Aston Martin will become the latest legendary performance car brand to enter the SUV market. Its all-new DBX is on course for a scheduled launch in the last quarter of 2019 – at which point it will join Jaguar, Bentley, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, Porsche and Rolls-Royce as a 4x4 maker. The DBX will be made at Aston’s new St Athan production facility in the ale of lamorgan. It was appropriate, then, that the first official photos of the vehicle were taken in Wales, on one of the very many rally stages that snake their way through the country’s forests. Aston describes the photo-opportunity as ‘the start of “real world” testing’. In the coming months, development prototypes will be put through their paces in what the company says are ‘some of the world’s harshest environments, from the frozen Arctic and scorching deserts of the Middle East to high Alpine passes and the high-speed demands of the German autobahnen and Nürburgring Nordschleife.’ Aston continues by explaining that the DBX’s unique position in its product line-up means it requires a dedicated test programme of its own, featuring new processes, procedures and standards that reflect its role as an all-purpose vehicle. In plain English, the DBX needs to be as good at towing and off-roading as it is at going fast, and that’s not something the company has had to think about before. Following the test drive at which these pictures were taken Aston Martin Chief Engineer Matt Becker said: ‘As an engineer, it’s genuinely exciting to get a feel for the car you’re working to create. DBX is a very different kind of Aston Martin, but we will be testing it in all conditions and across all terrains to ensure it delivers a driving experience worthy of the wings badge.’ Following the launch of the DBX, Aston’s St Athan factory will go on to become the home of its electrification programme. Based in three converted RAF hangars, the production plant will build 7000 vehicles a year.

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PRODUCTS

OLD MAN EMU ADDS TOP- END SHOCK OPTIONS FOR DEFENDER 110 AND 130 IF YOU WANT to modify the suspension on your Land Rover Defender, you’re not exactly short of optons. But one option you have been short of is the Old Man Emu BP-51 shock absorber – until now. The BP-51 has been around for a while and has already proved itself on a variety of vehicles. This is the ﬁrst time it’s been effered for the Defender, however; Old Man Emu manufacturer ARB says it’s suitable for either the 110 or 130 but doesn’t mention the 90. ‘To boost the articulation in the vehicle,’ the company says, ‘the ARB Engineers have reconﬁgured areas of the vehicle to allow full movement of the shock for a longer range of travel, allowing 242mm (9.5”) in the front and 236mm (9.3”) in the rear.’ The variety of shocks available on the market is of course enormous, and Old Man Emu is a well established part of that. But the BP-51 isn’t just another shock: ARB says it offers ‘classleading compression and rebound adjustability in a bypass shock

absorber, with remote reservoir, for on and off-road performance in a model speciﬁc application.’ This means it’s not just a throwon accessory. Fitting these shocks

means extending the front and rear bump stops, anti-roll bar and rear upper shock mount, as well as replacing the front shock turrets. Nothing too scary there if you

mean it enough to want shocks of this nature in the ﬁrst place, however . To ﬁnd out more, pay a visit to ARB’s UK importer Arbil at www.arbil.co.uk/4x4.

HARDCORE WINCH BUMPERS FOR NEW WRANGLER IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE the word ‘budget’ applying to anything to do with the new Jeep Wrangler, but Rugged Ridge has introduced new fitments in its artan um er range s e ifi all r the ust-intr du ed hese are engineered t gi e the new rangler a rugged -r ad a earan e while r iding high- ualit nstru ti n in an a rda le a kage whi h u an inter ret in a num er wa s he um ers are uilt r m high-strength steel lates and assem led using ld-and-weld nstru ti n he are then gi en a hea -dut satin la k wder- at finish s that in ugged idge s w rds the will r te t against ha ards regardless where the trails ma lead here are tw designs in the range ering a h i e standard ends r a m re aggressi e l king u swe t high- learan e st le th me with tw -ring m unts and a win h late as standard and er the ti n adding a tu ular er-ride ar here s als a artan ear um er a aila le ugged idge sa s this is m ati le with all a t r -fit t wing e ui ment sh uld that e rele ant t u alking m ati ilit the r nt um ers are all a straight lt- n re la ement r the a t r item he use the riginal a t r g lights t whi h will hel kee a lid n the st th ugh n that su e t at the time writing ri es were still t e ann un ed u lied with e er thing u need t fit them in luding instru ti ns the artan um ers are a k a fi e- ear warrant find a utlet r indeed t u dire t a a isit t www ruggedridge m

4x4 4pp Products Apr AWAITING ADS.indd 23

APRIL 2019 | 23

26/02/2019 13:09

PRODUCTS

PREDATOR LAUNCHES NEW 20” FOX ALLOY FOR WIDE RANGE OF PICK-UPS ACCESSORIES GIANT NLG has released a new design of alloy wheels through its own Predator brand. Exclusive to the company, the Fox alloy is a five-spoke -twin design in a rather enormous 20” fitment. In N ’s words, the alloys’ spokes rise from a recessed hub, giving these custom wheels dramatic dimensionality.’ We don’t know what that means either, but we do know that by fitting them to your vehicle you’ll definitely make it stand out from the crowd. Available in either lustrous black or matt grey, the Fox Alloys have a clear coat lacquer finish to protect against extreme weather condition and road salts. Their design gives them a wider track, too. N says this will give you improved grip and road holding, maximising the usability and functionality of your vehicle by enhancing traction and providing a hard-bodied stance.’ Which we think means they look good. NLG’s Predator Fox alloy wheels are available for a wide range of vehicles. Among these are the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux, Nissan Navara, Mitsubishi L200, Isuzu -Max, W Amarok and Mercedes-Benz - lass, all of which you’ll have noticed are one-tonne pick-ups. You can pick up a set by visiting N at www. x at.com.

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24 | APRIL 2019

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4x4 26/02/2019 13:09

PRODUCTS

DOME IS WHERE BRITPART IS… FEW THINGS ARE AS GOOD as wild camping while you’re out on an adventure. But sometimes it can all feel a bit high-maintenance and fiddly and annoying. It’s often too hot or too cold, too, as well as being breezy, noisy, muddy and uncomfortable. I’m obviously talking about the nylon nuisance, not the metallic one that got you to your destination. But the ARB Skydome Swag avoids those issues… well, most of them. It’s bigger than your usual bedroll, and has an inbuilt 75mm foam mattress. The materials are waterproof so you’ll be dry too, the added size helps you avoid any moments of claustrophobia and the flapcovered insect-proof mesh improves air flow for those warmer nights. The structure also doesn’t need to be pegged down on flat surfaces. The rot and mildew-proof canvas promises to last just as long as the vehicle that bears you out and about on your adventures, too – and when it’s rolled up, the whole shebang only weighs in at about ten kilograms. ARB’s Skydome Swag is available in the UK via Britpart. So if you’re looking at how to get your swagger back around the campsite, head for www. britpart.com and they’ll show you.

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PRODUCTS

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IF YOU’RE DOING a full resto on a Land Rover Defender, you might well be thinking in terms of smartening up its interior with a set of new seats. If not, a full retrim might still be on the cards. Neither of these options will come cheap, at least not if you don’t want to be driving around in a self-propelled lash-up. But if you just want to keep things tidy in a Defender you use everyday, Masai’s deluxe seat covers definitely look like a good option. Tailored to fit all Td5 and Puma models, these are made from leatherette and vinyl. As are many of the leather’ seats you find in brand new vehicles, don’t you know. So they give you a bit of a luxury finish but without the luxury invoice. The covers are equipped with seat-back pockets and fitted with a foam lining for added comfort. They include headrest covers, too, because nobody likes a half-done

job, and come tailored for front, rear and tip-up seats alike. A plethora of patterns and colours are available to view on the Masai website. Check them out, along with the company’s many other products, at masai4x4.com.

ABT SPORTSLINE MORE POWER FOR TOP TOUAREG

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GERMAN TUNER ABT SPORTSLINE has introduced a new power upgrade for the current Volkswagen Touareg. This is available with a 3.0 TDI engine delivering a variety of outputs, with a 286bhp version at the top of the range – but if that’s not enough for you, ABT can boost it to an even healthier 330bhp. Torque output increases too, from 443 to 479lbf.ft. The result is an improvement in 0-62 time from 6.1 to 5.9 seconds. The upgrade is based on ABT’s Auxiliary Engine Control (AEC) unit. Specially developed by the Bavarian tuner, this promises ‘maximum reliability and optimum power delivery… ensured by complex calibration runs on the chassis dynamometer and on public roads as well as comprehensive measures for engine protection and extensive warranties.’ See? ABT can do stuff to the way your Touareg looks, too, with various body enhancements and alloy wheel options available to view on its nline nﬁgurat r ﬁnd ut m re isit www a t-s rtsline m

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26 | APRIL 2019

4pp Products Apr AWAITING ADS.indd 26

4x4 26/02/2019 13:10

PRODUCTS

LIFE - SAVING LEDS FROM NIGHTSEARCHER

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into a more refined passenger vehicle. • Does your 4x4 pickup struggle with the demands you place on it? • Enhanced ride quality in laden & unladen • Not coping well with that largesituations. trailer? • Improved off road ability via raised ride height. • Sagging with the load in the back? • Maintains load capacity.

Then Pedders haveto the solution for you. • Heavy duty kits also available ability tosuspension cope with loads. FOR MANY OF US, torches are things that only come out in an emergency. Like when there’s a power cut at home, for example, or you need to see under your truck’s bonnet after dark. Naturally, some emergencies are, well, grander than others. For example, you might get your torch out when you’ve dropped your keys on the drive, which as emergencies go is definitely quite a low-level one. nless there’s a marauding grizzly bear or axe-wielding murderer on the loose in your street, but you get the idea. Coming round with a sore head and slowly realising that you’re in your truck and it’s stuffed in a ditch, though… now, that’s an emergency. The passenger next to you is unconscious. You need to get out, but the doors won’t open. And it’s dark. Fortunately, you keep a NightSearcher LifeGuard to hand for just such an emergency. This is the multi-tool you really, really need right now. You fire up its 70-lumen E torch and now you can see where the window next to you is. Which in turn means you can smash your way out through it, using the ife uard’s built-in hammer. First, though, you use its seatbelt cutter (which is much, much sharper than you’d think) to free your passenger, and before long the two of you are clear of the wreckage and you’re using the torch to attract the attention of passing traffic. Not a scenario you ever want to happen. But crashes are unavoidable, and if the above situation does crop up then getting out alive is exactly what you want to happen. Talking of unavoidable things, breakdowns. When this happens, it could be anywhere and at any time. But the LifeGuard will still be useful here, thanks to the magnetic strip that runs along its side, meaning the E floodlight can be used to comfortably light any part of your vehicle. Let’s not talk about aluminium. Offering 200 lumens, the strip lighting covers a wide area with bright light so you can see exactly what you’re doing. The LifeGuard is a clever yet compact device, with measurements of 159 x 7 x 22mm, and it weighs just 127g. The unbearable lightness of being safe, as you might say (well, if you’re given to quoting movies from 30 years ago that no-one around you is likely to have heard of, you are). NightSearcher says the LifeGuard can withstand falls up to a metre, so it’s able to guard its own life too. It takes three AAA batteries and can function in flood mode for five hours, or three in torch setting. Sounds like a tidy bit of kit, and you’ll certainly be thankful you spent the money if a critical situation ever does crop up. Or you just drop your keys on your drive one night (grizzly bear optional). It carries an RRP or just £18.80, so life is literally cheap. Go to nightsearcher.co.uk and you can buy one right there.

4x4 4pp Products Apr AWAITING ADS.indd 27

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APRIL 2019 | 27

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PRODUCTS

SSANGYONG ADDS WIDE RANGE OF LOAD COVER OPTIONS FOR MUSSO DOUBLE - CAB

SSANGYONG HAS INTRODUCED a range of new dealer-ﬁt hard-tops and loadspace covers for the Musso double-cab. These mirror the vehicle itself for offering a great deal of practicality for not too much money, starting as they do at 320 plus AT. There are ﬁve different tops in the range, all of them manufactured to T standards and covered by a two-year unlimited-mileage warranty. These are Luxury Hard Top The top-spec model in the range features roof rails, E interior lighting, a front sliding window, hinged rear screen, tinted side windows with opening rear element and a heated rear window. It’s colour-matched to your vehicle and also comes with an E high-level brake light, patented water drainage system and central locking, as well as an electronic soft touch tailgate release. ompatible with other sangYong approved accessories such as roof rails, cross bars and ladder rack, it’s priced from 1 5. Hi-Spec Hard Top This top comes with its own roof rails and, like the uxury Hard Top, is fully colour-coded. It has a sliding front window, heated rear window and opening tinted side windows, as well as interior lighting, high level

28 | APRI 201

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brake light and a rear spoiler. It features central locking as well as a manual lock and can be specced with additional accessories such as roof-rail cross bars. Price is 15 5. Tonneau Roll Top This retractable aluminium hard tonneau cover is available in silver or black. It’s lockable in three positions to allow a ﬂexible combination of security and access and can be specced up with a load bed section divider as well as sports bars in black and chrome. It’ll cost you 1315. Hard Folding Cover ike the Tonneau Roll Top, this three-piece hard folding cover can be secured in various positions, allowing a smaller part of the truck’s load area to remain open for easy access while still offering all the protection you need for your cargo. The cover can also be fully opened for transporting larger items; its cover is -resistant and can also be locked in the open position. Price is 5.

like the Hard Folding over, is resistant so as not to go off with age. It’s priced at 320. In every case, you need to add the cost of AT and ﬁtting to the

prices mentioned above. You can order any of these hard-tops and load covers from the sangYong dealer that sells you your truck – to ﬁnd the nearest one to you, head for www.ssangyonggb.co.uk.

Soft Folding Cover The cheapest option in the range keeps your load area weatherproof and out of sight, and it can be secured in the open and closed position for driving. It has two metal crossmember supports and,

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26/02/2019 14:09

DRIVEN

JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE TRACKHAWK

Supercharged 6.2-litre V8 and handling-focused chassis set-up turn Jeep’s luxury wagon into a performance SUV with the ability to embarrass Ferraris and Lamborghinis DRIVEN Grand Cherokee Trackhawk

erformance SUVs are nothing new. Neither are Jeeps with V8 engines. But the iconic American brand has always led with its off-road expertise. Until now… The new Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is a performance SUV like no other. If you want to make an entrance, there’s nothing like using a 6.2-litre supercharged V8 with 710bhp to create a huge, thundering off-roader that can eat Ferraris for breakfast. Jeep says this £89,999 monster is good value for money. Its reasoning is that you get 1bhp for every £127 – whereas the Lamborghini Urus,

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which is the closest thing to it in terms of pure performance, works out at £257 per horse. Performance, yes. Let’s talk about that, shall we? The Trackhawk has some: it blasts from 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds. Keep your foot in and it won’t stop pulling until you hit 180mph. It’s not just about vulgar speed, though. The theatricals that go with it

are just utterly wonderful. It’s like taking a jet ski, or possibly an offshore racing powerboat, down the Grand Union Canal. The savage,

brutal soundtrack is that of a pure muscle car as it rips through the atmosphere with a visceral, dandelion-murdering psychosis. You

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The Grand Cherokee is a pretty plush motor at the best of times, and this range-topping model lays it on with a trowel. Big, comfy seats, loads of soft leather, stacks of equipment and a monster of a multimedia system which, on top of everything else, controls a mighty range of drive mode options. It’s a very American kind of classy, though, and British tastes might well prefer the ambience of the Range Rover Sport SVR can feel it trying to cave your chest in at a hundred yards. That 0-60 time is just the beginning, though. It just keeps on accelerating, and accelerating, and accelerating. You can be cruising at 120mph and bury the throttle, and it’s still like being kicked in the back of your head. The Trackhawk is rapid, and rabid. It’s also about as big as an oceangoing liner, though, and on all but the biggest, widest and emptiest British roads the main thing waiting for you is frustration. The engine is so utterly dominant, but it’s also demanding – try to drive normally and it’s as if it’s nagging you, constantly in your ear asking when you’re going to let it loose. To use this much power for anything more than the odd burst of hilarity or max-volume showing off, you need a racetrack. How about off-roading? Well, yes, this is a Jeep and if you ask it to do that, it can. Those great big alloys come wth low-proﬁle tyres, though – and, while you can play with the drive mode settings to make the most of the vehicle’s 4x4 transmission, to be honest there’s so much power that breaking traction on loose surfaces is a constant worry. It’s controllable, but you do need to drive with feather feet if you want to avoid washing

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wide every time you turn the steering wheel. If, rather than lowering the suspension and focusing it on the road, Jeep had used the same engine to build a loony-tune off-roader with more ground clearance and the sort of tyre size that would let you throw on a set of Simexes or Creepy Crawlers, what fun we would have had. It might be considered a triﬂe anti-social on your local green lanes, but take it to the right site and its rock-crawling ability ought to be prodigious… as would the amount of mud it should

be capable of shifting when the loud pedal goes down. Either way, a great laugh – which, once again, is what the Trackhawk is, albeit not in the same way. It feels as if we’re belittling the vehicle somewhat by describing it in such apparently ﬂippant terms. But we do need to recognise that as well as being a seriously able performance car, this is still a proper Grand Cherokee. Jeep describes it as ‘the supercar you can use to tow your other supercar,’ which as well as being a nice line is also a very good reminder that

what we have here is the real thing – not just a fast SUV, but an SUV that’s able to go fast on top of all its other qualities. These include being big, luxurious and packed with kit. You want for nothing, though the cabin doesn’t have the same effortless feeling of class as that of the Range Rover Sport SVR – which, in terms of price and character, is probably the Trackhawk’s closest competitor. The SVR does a better job of segregating its occupants from bumps in the road, too. By no means is the Trackhawk harsh, even

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Most modern vehicles have plastic covers over their engines. Jeep left it out for the Trackhawk, though, so you can open the bonnet and gaze upon it in its full supercharged V8 glory. It’s utterly lovely, staggeringly powerful and, needless to say, stupendously thirsty. You’ll get used to spending time in ﬁlling stations, though if you can afford to buy and run one of these you really won’t care

with the mode dial at its most aggressive setting, but at the same time its suspension is never less than ﬁrm. On the motorway, it’s like driving any other rand herokee – but less sumptuous and not as quiet. You might well accept that as the payoff for knowing you can double your speed more or less instantaneously with a twitch of your right ankle, though. And that’s the point. You accept the compromises with this vehicle, because you know what you’re going to get in return – and whether that refers to the performance it gives you, or the attention it gets, the Trackhawk is good for it. Most people, even those who can afford it, will spend their money

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elsewhere. But if the Trackhawk pushes your buttons, it’s because you like stuff that’s extreme – and nothing even remotely comparable is as extreme is this eep. We got about 12mpg, for example – but, really, so what? People will buy it as a second, third or fourth car and have huge laughs in it. hould you fancy a 3.7-second goliath, you’ll be in exclusive company – just 20 of these vehicles were made for the last year and there will only be another hundred arriving in 201 . Which suggests that for eep, at least in the , the Trackhawk is mainly a branding exercise. For the rest of us, it’s a toy. And a statement. It’s a statement that

you have a sense of fun, you love attention and ultimately, that you couldn’t care less. It’s a statement that eep can do performance,

too, and how. The Trackhawk is a bonkers, unruly octane-loving beast, and it will win the heart of any true petrolhead.

4x4 26/02/2019 10:38

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APRIL 2019 | 33

26/02/2019 14:24

hell, yeah!

The new Jeep Wrangler arrives on British roads (and trails) ready to assert itself as an off-road champion. It brings new engines, new drivetrains, new tech… and a paint colour called Hella Yella. In the face of a steep set of prices, will Britain’s 4x4 buyers Just Say No… or react with a resounding Hell, Yeah? WORDS: MIKE TROT T PICTURES: JEEP

he Jeep Wrangler has been an offroad champion among 4x4s for three generations now. And here’s the fourth: the new model, which we ﬁrst drove in Austria last summer, has ﬁnally arrived in Britain. Things have changed, a lot, from the previousgeneration model. The entire range is automatic. There’s a turbocharged petrol option. The

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Rubicon model, with its locking diffs and ultralow crawler gears, is now available in diesel form. And price-wise, the range starts at £44,865. That’s a big ticket for what’s meant to be a down-to-earth off-road machine. But as you look around the new Wrangler, it’s hard not to feel that if anything can live up to the expectations which come with such a hefty sum, this is it.

There’s still that likeable chunkiness to the Wrangler that assures you it’s the real thing. isually, the familiar shape remains, along with that trademark seven-slot grille. eep is so conﬁdent in its image, in fact, that it doesn’t even bother putting its name on the front anymore. That’s enough ogling for now, though. We’re in the Lake District and Jeep has sorted out a route

4x4 26/02/2019 11:01

taking in some of the regions best roads – and trails. And sure enough, after a short stint that hints at the new Wrangler’s improved on-road manners, we divert off the tarmac and on to Parkamoor – a lane that’s famous for its various rock-crawls. The Wrangler we’re in for this part of the route is a two-door, in Sahara trim. That’s the

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base-spec model – so if it can shine, there is no need to fear for the rest of the range. Knocking the transfer box down into low range, it’s nice to be using a mechanical shift rather than twisting a dial or pushing a button. The Wrangler has a two-wheel drive setting for the road, plus high-range four-wheel drive modes with and without a centre differential (you use

‘full-time’ for the road and ‘part-time’ off-road). Finally there’s low-range, for the sort of off-road work we’re going to be doing here. On top of this, the Rubicon gets limitedslip diffs, electric front and rear lockers and a disconnecting front anti-roll bar. In other words, if you’re going to go big, go Rubicon. Either way, our Sahara has been climbing up the trail at no more than a plod so far, taking any rock or gradient in its stride. We’re holding ourselves in 4L as any sane soul would do on Parkamoor, but even so our Wrangler’s new eight-speed auto box is working just as well as it did on the road to seamlessly retain momentum – crucial for off-roading. There may be no manual gearbox option anymore, but the eight-speed is far better than the old ﬁve. It’s also mated (in this instance) to Jeep’s new 2.2-litre Multijet turbo-diesel, which generates 200bhp and 332lbf.ft. The reality of this is that our boggo Wrangler is taking Parkamoor at a stroll, ﬁnding traction and clawing its way up to the summit, over damp rocks and uneven terrain, despite being shod with road-biased tyres on 18” rims. Both Sahara and posh-spec Overland models get 18” alloys as standard, whereas the Rubicon is issued with 17” wheels. That shows Jeep’s intent. The smaller diameter works better for off-road situations, but actually usually improves on-road comfort too. Rubber, unsurprisingly, is a little more giving than solid metal. There’s a brief respite at the summit, where on a better day you can see Coniston Water. Our view is mainly of low cloud, but it’s going to be something special up here if the restored Bluebird ever comes home. Actually, it’s always special on Parkamoor, and even with gravity on your side the journey back down is every bit as technical as the climb up. Once again, the Wrangler takes it at a stroll; it may be auto-only, but the Americans know their gearboxes and engine braking is never in short supply. Having done the tricky off-road stuff in a Sahara, now it’s time for some more extensive

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Cabin is chunky and old-fashioned, but in a way that makes you love it not hate it. Engaging low range with a proper mechanical lever (below), not a button or twiddly dial, is something that will quickly grow to become one of life’s greatest pleasures

road work. Timed it perfectly to swap into a Rubicon, then. This time we’re in a four-door with the 2.0-litre petrol engine. Which is good, but what’s really good is that it’s yellow. ‘Hella Yella’, it’s called, and if that doesn’t make you smile you need to loosen up. While its off-road ability was never really in doubt, for Jeep to make a success of the Wrangler in Britain it needs to be more than just an off-road weapon. As we wind around the peripheral roads to the west of Windermere, it becomes clear that it is. Inside the Wrangler, there’s clear daylight between this new model and the old JK. It’s far more reﬁned; still not a soft-edged , but you could use it for a long journey no problem. The transmission tunnel encroaches into the driver’s

36 | APRIL 2019

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footwell, meaning there is nowhere to place your left foot, but that apart its ergonomics are actually rather good. till, the layout in here has a slightly oldschool feel – but in a way that’s easy to like. The materials are good and the build quality is sound, even if there was a creak or two from the roof in the four-door. That’s one of the Ps with the Wrangler, though – it remains the only open-air four-door you can buy. There are other plus points inside, too. All models get navigation and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto as standard, alongside an . ” - onnect infotainment system. It works well, even with gloves on, and doesn’t suffer from too much lag. isibility is good, the cabin doesn’t pick up much outside noise and there is a very clear rear-view camera for when you want to park up.

Before you reach your destination, however, you’ll be driving a truck whose reassuring heft doesn’t make it hard work to operate. Its steering is weighty but communicative, matching it perfectly to the Wrangler’s personality, while its brakes are progressive and both engines work well with that gearbox. But now we’re heading through Grizedale Forest and about to test the Rubicon off-road. Actually, if you know the green lane through here you’ll know it’s no test at all for such a dedicated machine; still, though, we disconnect the front anti-roll bar and activate its limited-slip diffs, just because we can. For all they’re needed, we might as well have left it in tow-wheel drive. In its longer four-door guise, the Wrangler feels like it’s merely parading down the trails like a giant, sure-footed and

4x4 26/02/2019 11:01

unshakeable from its trajectory as it makes its way steadily to wherever you point its nose. The extra articulation and traction afforded the Rubicon, along with its standard BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain tyres, means it is arguably the best four-wheel drive vehicle out of the box on the market today. Certainly, I would be extremely worried if I were the new Defender waiting behind the scenes and peering through the curtain to see what the opposition is doing. There are a couple of things to be aware of with the new Wrangler, though. First, while Jeep’s new 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine may produce a healthy 272bhp, and indeed be quicker and quieter, it’s not the engine you want. The diesel has more torque and from lower down the rev range, while the petrol sounds asthmatic when pushed. We found it over-revving off-road to compensate for its higher torque band, too. Combine this with an average mpg of 15.4 (yes, that’s what we saw on the dial) and really you can’t make a case for the petrol, especially when the diesel costs the same. Which brings us to the second point we need to ﬂag up. A starting price of , 5 is particularly steep, especially when you consider the other two-door off-road options: the

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uzuki imny starts at 15, and the Toyota andcruiser at 33, 35. Yes, the Wrangler is the Real Thing. but those are very Real Things too. The one saving grace is that from here, it’s quite a small hurdle to jump the Overland or Rubicon model. A diesel two-door Rubicon costs , 5, and it only takes another 1500 to make it a four-door. There’s no question that the new Wrangler is an absolute titan off-road. You could see it as the equivalent of something like a Porsche 11 you don’t just buy a car, you buy the beneﬁts of a specialist manufacturer’s undisputed, time-served mastery of what it does. Add to this the Wrangler’s much improved road manners and cooler-than-ever looks, and it’s a very appealing vehicle.When you ﬁnd

yourself having to make excuses to justify the price, however, the clear sense of value that once surrounded the Y , T and early has been lost. At 10,000 less, the Wrangler would have been a no-brainer. Instead, you have to go looking for those excuses. Admittedly, the likelihood of cast-iron resale values is a very good one – but even then, it’ll be doing well to match the Landcruiser in this respect. Forget all that, though. The Wrangler is a brilliant off-road vehicle, both in its natural habitat and in general. We don’t like the price tag but we love the truck. As we said at the outset, if anything can live up to the expectations which come with such a hefty sum, this is it. It doesn’t even need to be in Hella Yella – the new still makes it very easy to say Hell, Yeah.

26/02/2019 11:02

DRIVEN

MITSUBISHI SHOGUN SG3

Age-old off-road warrior is known for its bling – but turns out to make a stronger case for itself than ever in a more modestly specced form DRIVEN Shogun 3.2 DI-DC SG3

he Mitsubishi Shogun used to be a byword for bling. Back when you could still buy Patrols and Land Cruisers with all-round live axles, the Shogun was very easy to sneer at for being showy and, to be blunt, shallow. At the top of the range, these days the Shogun is showier than ever. Yet somehow, it has gone from being seen as among the shallowest 4x4s on the market to one of the most credible. That’s down to the way the rest of the market has gone, of course.

38 | APRIL 2019

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But it’s also the result of Mitsubishi sticking with what has proved to be the best about the vehicle during the course of several iterations. The old days we’re talking about here are now so far in the past that people born then are old enough to be married with kids. That’s the amount of time that’s passed since the Shogun went over to allindependent suspension and, soon after that, traded its locking rear diff for electronic traction control. Astonishingly, there’s only been one new model since then. So what we have here is Mitsubishi’s latest

4x4 25/02/2019 20:40

Mitsubishi’s cabin design has become familiar down the years. Some of the equipment has been modernised, but the ambience remains the same as ever – which is no bad thing. Legroom is good in the front two rows, but the third is eﬁnitel est le t to il en take on a vehicle that’s been around in the same basic form since 2006. The Shogun range seems to be ever-changing, but it’s tested here in mid-range SG3 form. A welcome change from the previous version we drove, which was a rangetopper whose red leather seats and 20” alloys were, safe to say, unlikely to be near the top of a farmer’s must-have list.

CABIN AND PRACTICALITY It might only be a mid-ranger, but the SG3 still packs a lot of kit. You get cruise, climate, an electric

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sunroof, rear air-con and a DAB/ Bluetooth infotainment system with premium stereo and nav functions as well as a rear-view camera. The vehicle has seven seats as standard, trimmed in leather (black, or cream if you opt for bronze paint on the outside) and heated and electrically adjusted up front. So you’re certainly looked after, though for £39,075 you deserve to be. The seats themselves are soft but supportive, and they put you in an excellent driving position with a ﬁne view ahead. There’s enough room in the back for adults to ride in decent comfort, and they’ll get a good view too. Up front, the dashboard has the same distinctive design Shoguns

have been featuring forever and a day. It’s carried off well enough, with stout plastics that feel dependable if not exactly premium, and there’s a nice simplicity to its design – though once you notice the amount of buttons strewn around it, you might ﬁnd it a little less tidy. Cargo-wise, the rear seats fold and tumble with a mechanism which would have felt archaic ten years ago but actually now comes across as being a simple, old-fashioned way of doing a job well. That’s because back then, most manufacturers were putting giant amounts of effort and investment into creating rearseat arrangements that folded

100 flat – but now, no doubt as a consequence of bean-counters balancing the cost of developing these systems against customers’ response to them, most new 4x4s have gone back to very simple and slightly rubbish fold-to-not-very-flat set-ups instead. The Shogun is so old that it rode through all that and still does it the way it always did. The seats do take a bite from the length of the cargo bay when stowed, but they tumble forward to leave a flat load space that’s usably enormous and easily accessed through a massive side-hinged rear door. This means getting stuff in and out is a breeze, though you might get rained on in the process.

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25/02/2019 20:40

Another feature of the Shogun is a third row of seats with a clever folding arrangement that allows them to be dropped down and away under the ﬂoor when not in use. The seats themselves are deﬁnitely best left for children – in truth, it’s a 5+2 rather than a seven-seater. Small adults could just about squeeze into them for short

40 | APRI 201

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journeys, but expect complaints if you try to do this.

DRIVING As we mentioned above, the previous Shogun we drove was ﬁtted with 20” alloys – which looked great but did it no favours either on or off-road. The SG3 tested here is on 18-inchers, which are the smallest in the range – and while 2 5/ 0R1 s are still on the lowproﬁle size for a work truck, they’re a lot better.

On the 20-inchers, that previous Shogun’s ride was absolutely shocking – so bad, it even upset the vehicle’s handling. So we’re pleased to say that this one was perfectly settled on the road, still thumping over jagged pot holes and so on but capable of crossing rough, pattery surfaces without fussing. It feels like a truck, not a car, but with the commanding road presence that comes with being properly planted. As a result, you can take corners with conﬁdence. It still steers with the lazy assertion of a tall, heavy vehicle, but drive with that in mind and it’ll do what you tell it. Likewise, settling into a rhythm means accepting a certain amount of body sway – you just need the right mind-set to see this as a natural sign of its authenticity. The same goes for the engine noise, which is pretty profound as it works to keep the standard-ﬁt auto box wound up. There’s no

shortage of heave from the big old diesel, and it’s not found wanting on motorways, but it’s not the most reﬁned of units. There’s less road noise from the tyres than you have to put up with on models with bigger alloys, though. Overall, the impression you take away from driving the Shogun is that it’s a truck, not a car. That’s a good thing, if you like old-fashioned 4x4s (which we presume you do as you’re reading this magazine); it lumbers along on the motorway and feels effortlessly dominant around town, in each case telling you way more than you need to know about the surface below its wheels but stopping short of giving you earache from all the chat. Do we think it drives better than comparable trucks from ﬁfteen years ago? The short answer to that has to be no; we’re talking about things like the Nissan Patrol and old live-axled Jeep Grand

4x4 25/02/2019 20:40

Cherokee, and you could say the Shogun beats them because it’s still around, but the old 120-Series Toyota Landcruiser used to trounce it in twin-tests back then – and if you compare it to the current Landcruiser, these days it feels horribly outdated. Nonetheless, the SG3 is far superior on the road to higher-spec Shoguns. So long as you accept it for what it is, there’s little to criticise, but as you go higher and higher up the range makes it a lot harder to do so.

OFF-ROAD

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a locking rear diff. Traction control goes some way to doing the job of a locker, but will never have the same efﬁcacy or ﬁnesse. For really serious off-road work, then, it does have its limitations. But everyday conditions on farms, construction sites and so on are meat and drink to what is a vehicle with the engineering to get the job done – and the strength not to tear itself apart in the process. And while this particular model didn’t have a towbar, we know from experience that the Shogun is a stellar performer in front of the heaviest trailers, both on and off-road.

★★★★✩

VERDICT

Off-road, the Shogun manages to defy conventional wisdom which says you need a ladder chassis and live axles to do a proper job. Despite having neither of those things, it’s among the most trucklike vehicles left on the market, and given the traction it can clamber over some seriously uneven obstacles. Its all-inedependent suspension may be short on articulation, but ground clearance is good and, while we’d still prefer a higher-proﬁle tyre, the standard 265/60R18s did pretty well in a wide variety of off-road situations. You can get mud-terrains in this size, too, albeit not the widest choice in the world. So we’d have conﬁdence in the hogun as an off-road workhorse – albeit not as much as we would have had with

Mitsubishi Shogun SG3 Manages to feel both enormously dated and yet also still relevant The Shogun feels its age, but in this form it’s an honest truck that’s well worth considering. A superb driving position makes up for the safety kit it doesn’t have, and with sensibly sized tyres it’s better on and off-road than more expensive models. You do still pay strong money for it, but you get a good bit of kit – and with dealers kn king as mu h as ﬁ e grand t get ur business, it’s a good bit of truck for your cash.

25/02/2019 20:40

arkonik’s blue period

Picasso’s famous Blue Period, in which he painted almost everything in just the one colour, took place between 1901 and 1904. Arkonik’s was about 115 years later, and it all came at once – with the creation of the Land Rover that caused the great global blue leather shortage of 2018… WORDS: DAN FENN PICTURES: ARKONIK

and Rovers restored by Somerset-based Arkonik are becoming quite a familiar sight in these pages. But this one is a bit on the unusual side. For one thing, it’s a 90. Most of the trucks we’ve seen coming out of the Arkonik workshops recently have been 110s, but suitable 90s can be brought back to their best and exported to North America just as comfortably. And the demand is clearly there. For another, it has a blue interior. And how. Arkonik sends its trucks to Leicester-based

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Above: As well as being trimmed in very blue leather, the cabin is unusual in that its rear seating arrangement is asymmetrical Above right: The 15” Evander woodrimmed steering wheel is very much the stuff of classic-look builds, but even if that’s not your bag it’s hard not to be impressed by its looks Right: Would the engine have looked this good when it left Solihull? You can decide that one for yourself… trimming specialist Ruskin Design, and some of the results we’ve seen have been absolutely lush. This one is definitely going to be divisive – but if you like blue, the supersoft Caldera Blue leather in which its doors, cubby, gaiters and five seats are covered is going to get a major thumbs-up. Five seats? That’s not a number you hear very often in a 90. But this one has two up front and a rather lop-sided looking three in the back, with the original two side-facers to the left of the rear cabin and one forward-looking seat to the right. Further highlights in the cabin include an Evander 15” wood-rimmed steering wheel, black suede headlining, red LED lights, a Pioneer stereo and factory-spec air-conditioning. All very nice. Yet this doesn’t look like a 90 that was rebuilt for a life of just posing outside country clubs and expensive schools. It’s not half tidy, with black Boost alloys setting off its Grigio Cenere body (that means ‘grey’) and Java Black roof, but up front it has a Warn Zeon 12-S winch and a Raptor-coated steering and front diff guard. Its tyres are BFG All-Terrains rather than anything more hairy, but you could put this 90 straight to work if you wanted. It even has a NAS rear step and work light to prove the point. So, where is this country vehicle headed? New York, obviously, though we don’t know whether it’s going to be living upstate or pounding the pavement on Madison Avenue. Either way, we know that it’s called the Cadet D90. We don’t know why, but it looks nothing like a military 90 and it certainly doesn’t show any of the classic signs of life with a gaggle of squaddies. It does have chequer plate on its wings, though… ideal if its new owner needs a vantage point from which to see if the traffic on West 34th Street is ever going to move again.

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freak or unique?

The Suzuki X90 was one of the ﬁrst cars ever to be designed speciﬁcally to appeal to women. But behind its girl-about-town looks, it was almost identical to the original Vitara – making it ideal for off-road enthusiasts who want to stand out in a crowd… WORDS: GARY NOSKILL PICTURES: STEVE TAYLOR

ack in the days when every new 4x4 was a proper one, the Suzuki Vitara became one of the very most popular options both among new car buyers and, as time went on, off-road enthusiasts. It wasn’t as basic and tough as its contemporary, the Samurai, but it was cheap and easy to modify and there was never a shortage to choose from. There was another Suzuki, however, that never became anything like as popular as the Vitara. Yet mechanically, they were almost exactly the same vehicle. The X90 was a strange coupe-like thing, designed as a lifestyle buggy and commonly associated with girls about town – but under the skin, it was more of an off-roader than many of the most rugged-looking 4x4s you see today. Being a Vitara at heart, the X90 was capable of being modiﬁed using parts designed for its more common sibling. Few have ever taken advantage of this fact; of those who have, one of the ﬁrst was imon Touron, and the 0 you’re looking at was the result of his pioneering spirit in the workshop.

44 | APRIL 2019

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Simon bought his X90 knowing it would make an attention-grabbing off-road plaything, not least because its presence alongside vehicles like Vitaras, Samurais and Land Rovers would be totally unexpected. ‘I used to run SJs,’ he told us, ‘but I was eager to have something different. The X90 offers the perfect combination of Suzuki reliability and off-road prowess and is also a little bit unusual.’ Given its close relationship to the Vitara, you won’t be surprised to discover that the X90 is powered by the same 16-valve 1.6-litre petrol engine that delivers an adequate turn of speed both on and off the road. Transmission also comes via the same ﬁve-speed manual gearbox used in the Vitara. Simon wasn’t shy in stating the loftiness of his ambition with the project. And quite literally lofty it was, too: ‘I want the truck to be the biggest and best around.’ With this in mind, he used a +3” Calmini lift kit to upgrade its suspension. It was a system designed for the Vitara, but it bolted straight on. ‘Calmini doesn’t manufacture

an 0-specific upgrade,’ imon confirmed. But it was no trouble to fit the itara kit.’ Augmenting the raised suspension, on went a +3” body lift from Overland Components – again intended for the Vitara but easily transferred to the X90. Simon installed this himself – taking a total of 1 hours to fit both the body spacers and the suspension lift in one marathon workshop session. Once this was achieved, he’d created sufficient room beneath the wheelarches for a set of 31x10.50R15 tyres – though when we spoke to him, he was already after yet more height and was planning to fit 1” spring spacers to take it further up than ever. Not that he was unaware of what happens if you push it too far. The more extreme the mods, the greater the strain they place on the vehicle’s standard components, and this is something he recognised as placing limits on the extent of future work. ‘I want a big truck,’ he admitted, ‘but I also want it to be reliable. In the end, the project’s confines are dictated by the strength of the standard parts that I leave unchanged.’

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A Calmini suspension kit designed for the Suzuki Vitara bolted perfectly into la e n e t e , o i ing li t an a ne eg ee o e i ilit e same amo nt o li t ame om an e lan om onents o li t imon fitte t e entire lot during one eyeball-popping session in the workshop, after which the vehicle sat half a foot higher and could run on 31” tyres Having said that, only breaking one differential in 18 months of non-stop off-roading doesn’t sound like a case of asking too much. What it does sound like a case of, though, is not making mods for their own sake. ‘I don’t very often struggle to maintain traction,’ he told us, ‘and I think installing lockers would be a case of overengineering.’ Even a relatively tame modification such as a limited-slip diff would put increased strain on the halfshafts, and if you don’t need the extra traction then why bother? As it stands, Simon’s attitude when planning the vehicle was that leaving the axles standard was going to be the most cost-effective route to take. Replacing a broken one with second-hand parts was looking like a cheaper approach than going in hard with the mods, and the lack of damage since then pretty much bears this out. It stayed standard under the bonnet, too, though imon removed the airbox and fitted HT leads from a Ford ierra. These were cheaper

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than original Suzuki components and also proved a lot more reliable: ‘I went through eight sets of Suzuki leads in eight months! I haven’t had to change the ierra parts since fitting them.’ The engine and box were otherwise standard, but imon fitted a enterforce clutch in between them and a amurai transfer case behind. The gearing in the latter was about right to cancel out the effect of the taller tyres, which he reckoned was a pretty effective and reasonably inexpensive way of getting the overall drive ratio back to normal. Further deep-seated mods include the addition of a full exo cage, which Simon spent six months designing before fitting it with some help from a friend. He bent up a custom winch bumper, too, and was planning to add a splitcharge system when we took these pictures. That’s a fair bit of work, some nice kit and no small amount of steel. So how much does a truck like this end up owing you?

The answer to this is that including the price of actually buying the 0 in the first place, plus that of a full engine rebuild, when these pictures were taken Simon reckoned he had spent no more than £4000 to get it to where you see it here. Kiss that goodbye if you have to pay for labour, but it’s not at all bad when you consider that as well as being a highly capable off-roader, it also bought him a perfectly usable everyday car. The same could be said of many a modified Vitara, of course. And you could argue that that’s just what the 0 is. uzuki modified its highselling off-road hero into a hairdresser’s bubble car – but then people like Simon got hold of them and turned them serious. heap parts, plentiful mods, a great club scene and excellent off-road ability – it was just like driving any other Vitara. But in this form, Suzuki’s legendary engineering came with a massive side order of individuality – and what’s not to like about that?

25/02/2019 22:37

seventies revival

When this Toyota Landcruiser was ﬁrst modiﬁed, around a decade ago, it was perhaps the best of its kind in Britain. It has spent much of the intervening period laid up and forgotten – but now, in the hands of a new owner, it s once again ready to demonstrate the potential of the rare but brilliant 0-Series WORDS: PAUL LOOE PICTURES: HARRY HAMM

e’ve been watching the modiﬁed 4x4 scene here at 4x4 magazine for more years than we care to remember. And in that time, we’ve noticed some patterns emerging. There are obvious ones. How the heyday of the hybrid Land Rover was brought to an end by the rise of the Defender. And how the rise of the Defender was brought to an end by the rise, and rise, and rise, and rise (etc) of what Defenders are worth if you don’t off-road them.

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There have been patterns, or crazes if you want to call them that, which have seen certain vehicles explode in popularity then burn themselves out when the supply of suitable examples for modding dried up. The Suzuki Samurai and Vitara are good examples of this, as are the ﬁrst-generation and Rover iscovery and Range Rover. But there’s another pattern we’ve seen. It’s less obvious but, when you get deep enough into the modding world, very clear. It’s that there’s

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a noticeable concentration of modiﬁed Toyota Landcruisers in Lancashire and Merseyside – hinterland of West oast Off-Road, a company which has long specialised in these vehicles. There are parts of Britain where you can go to a year’s worth of playdays without ever seeing a Landcruiser doing its thing. Head for somewhere like owm or Tong, though, and odds-on you’ll lose count of them. The 70- eries you see here is a ﬁne example of a Landcruiser which, without the benign

inﬂuence of West oast Off-Road, might now be pushing up daisies. It entered the off-road world in the hands of a chap called John Abram, who’s friends with West Coast’s main man Paul Lundstrom, and it was Paul who suggested that John needed a Toyota in his life. Given that John had already had a Suzuki SJ and imny, a eep 5 and a heavily modiﬁed Cherokee, you could argue that it was only a matter of time before this happened. He’s a spanner man by trade, so building trucks doesn’t

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elo ig t onstant in t e an ise s li e sin e o n ﬁ st set a o t mo i ing it is t at it as n on onman ings an s o s as im o te , o o se, est oast oa e e got se to ea ing o inions eing oi e ot o an against most an s o a esso ies, an in ee e i les, t goo l ﬁn ing an one it a a o to sa a o t t is st s

48 | APRIL 2019

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The Land Cruiser II, as the 70-Series was somewhat confusingly known when it was sold new, was originally powered by a rather nasty 2.4-litre engine. This was replaced in 1994 by the much, much better 3.0-litre 1-KZT unit, which is what you’re looking at here. The engine gets its air via a BIT snorkel that’s been on there since all the work started. Breathers for the axles and transmission don’t run quite as high, but they’re taken to the top of the bulkhead scare him – and neither did the extent of the modifications he resolved to make on his first Landcruiser. These included the usual big lift and big tyres, winch, snorkel, heavy-duty steel bumpers and so on. But the andcruiser gained some deep-down engineered modifications, too – one of which is,

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beyond doubt, the one that makes it stand out in a crowd. Actually, strictly speaking this doesn’t make the vehicle stand out in a crowd, because it does that simply anyway by dint of being a 70- eries – and also because the really good stuff is hidden away underneath it. By this we’re referring to a

pair of axles from the vehicle’s big brother – the mighty 0- eries, marketed in the as the andcruiser and assuredly one of the best vehicles ever made. These axles are monstrously strong. Fitting them on a 70- eries gives it the advantage of massive over-engineering in a critical area – as

25/02/2019 22:30

Above: The front bumper is a pretty familiar design. Pretty familiar if you spend most of your time in Land Rovers, at least, because that’s what it was made to go on. John cut it down to size and lopped six inches off the front of the chassis to ma e t e oom e i e to ﬁt it en t en, e a to mess it t e lig t l ste s o it all to o t e in i ato s, which on a standard vehicle are below the headlamps, we moved to where the sidelights started out, and the headlamps e e e la e it al ﬁlament l s to gi e t em a si elig t n tion t ese a s, t e e nning al angler jobs. The bumper also carries a heavy-duty steering guard, as well as mounting a 9500lb Kingone winch Below: You’d be going some to smack this vehicle against the ground, such is its height and tidy shape. But if it does happen, it’s probably the ground that will come off worse. As well as all that protection up front, the sills are protected by box-section rock sliders and the rear by a similarly brutal steel bumper. If you’re going to tail-end something, don’t make it this

well as a wider track, disc brakes all-round and, best of all, front and rear diff-locks. Talking to John at the time, he was full of praise for Paul – in particular his ‘insane ideas.’ We’re sort of assuming the axle conversion was among them – though how he felt about it while actually doing the job is another matter. The front axle went on quite easily, but the rear was a bit of a mission – involving axing the shock and spring mounts off the 70-Series axles and welding them to the new ones, then modifying the panhard rod so the axle would sit centrally. ‘It was one hell of a job,’ John told us. ‘I’m not sure I’d want to repeat it in a hurry!’ But despite this, he admitted that having lockers at his

disposal completely changed the way he drove the truck. ‘I used to rely on articulation to get me through, he told us. ‘Now, with diff-locks in both axles, I can pretty much tackle anything, and wheel travel is much less of an issue.’ Be that as it may, one reason why he was talking to us about the 70- eries in the ﬁrst place was that he had decided to sell it. This duly happened when a punter from London showed up with a plan to use it in big-time competitions. To get it ready for hardcore action, its new owner took it to… yes, West Coast Off-Road. Here, it was given further essential off-road kit like an interior roll cage, while essential equipment like the winch and suspension was

renewed along with critical service stuff such as the suspension bushes, lubricants, cam belt and water pump. Now it was all set, and away it went for its competitive debut in the legendary Transylvania Trophy. You’re up against some of the best hardcore off-road specials in this event, but the Cruiser made it through unscathed and arrived home in one piece, all ready for more. But there was to be no more. For reasons we don’t know, having driven to and from Romania and taken on the worst of the country’s terrain in between times, the 70-Series was then squirrelled away in an underground car park – where it spent the next seven years.

‘When so much work has gone into creating such a fine truck, it would seem wrong for it not to be out there showing the world how it’s done’ 50 | APRIL 2019

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Scenes from the inside of a cool truck. The diff-lock buttons have been there for a long time, as has a CB, although the latter has been updated during the vehicle’s life. The Brantz 2 trip meter provides some welcome balance next to the a to ﬁt ome a e e a an en o t en is la , an t e oll age t at as a e in e o at t ne o t to be the vehicle’s only competitive outing adds reassurance by the spadeload – as well as a home for the high-lift We don’t know why its owner at the time did no more with it, nor why he kept in anyway… nor indeed why he ﬁnally decided to put it up for sale. But what we do know is that when he did, it soon became the property of its current owner, teve arolan – who, by one of those coincidences we’ve come to expect, is a friend of ohn Abram. It really is a small world, isn’t it? teve had the vehicle serviced twice in a fortnight after collecting it, on the basis that having been stood for so long it wouldn’t do any harm to be doubly careful. He had to change

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the tyres, too, as they had ﬂat spots from being stood for so long – which is a bit of a sob story, because something else West oast OffRoad did in preparation for that one outing to Transylvania was ﬁt a brand new set of Mickey Thompson Baja laws. These days, anyway, the andcruiser sits on 315/75R1 ooper iscoverer TT Pros. That’s a good all-round pattern rather than anything hardcore, and as it suggests teve doesn’t have any intention of taking it back into the competitive arena. Instead, it’s being used as a

green laner – which is nothing like as taxing, but it’s being used and that’s what really matters. Because when so much work has gone into creating such a ﬁne truck, it would seem wrong for it not to be out there showing the world how it’s done. Not that the world was ever in any doubt, of course. But this superb 70- eries, surely one of the very best ever built in the , is at last back doing what ohn Abram built it for. And did we mention that teve is based in Merseyside? The pattern continues

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nine-inch nailed

You probably know DV8 Works for its Ford Rangers. In which case, if we were to tell you that the company has started doing Jeep Wranglers as well, you’ll know exactly what to expect of them… WORDS: DAN FENN PICTURES: DV8 WORKS

f you’re interested in new or nearly new x s that have been modiﬁed for street appeal without turning them into cars that can no longer do a proper job of work, you’re likely to know about the Ford Rangers prepared by Warwickshire-based DV8 Works. These are tough, usable trucks, and the company’s enhancements make it more so. But mainly, it’s an eye-catching pick-up that takes the Ranger’s aggressive styling and builds on it to create a super-sized street machine. The company doesn’t just work on Rangers, though – nor indeed does it limit itself to double-cabs. The latest work of 4x4 art to emerge from its workshop is a Jeep Wrangler

Unlimited whose image has been pumped full of steroids and sent to the gym for a programme of tough sessions on the free weights. Underpinning it all is a total life of nine inches. This comes from +5” springs and shocks, +2” body mounts and a new set of wheels and tyres with an overall diameter of 37”. This much extra height normally means only one thing for a vehicle’s handling, but DV8 promises that drivability remains

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Black Mountain is a Texan company which specialises in building Jeeps with stacks of attitude. The DV8 Wrangler was created using a number of its accessories – including this bumper which, in addition to mounting a winch and carrying a stinger for those here-we-go moments, has visual drama by the bucketload uncompromised. ‘You can use this as a daily driver,’ it says. ’Truly.’ It might not be compromised, but it certainly is uncompromising. ‘Everything about the DV8 Works and Black Mountain Collaboration is full on,’ says the company, and looking at it you don’t feel much like disagreeing. The wheels we mentioned above are 20” DV8 Armoured units with lots of offset, and they’re wrapped in 37x13.50R20” Toyo Open Country mud-terrains. You can decide for yourself whether these have tall enough sidewalls to look right, but there’s no denying their presence. They’re kept legal by a set of DV8’s wide arches, and the builder’s own-brand accessories catalogue also provides a custom bonnet, mesh grille and roof-mounted light bar. Beyond that, the Wrangler is the result of a collaboration with Black Mountain, a Texan aftermarket specialist whose motto is ‘we build badass Jeeps.’ Not a lot of room for doubt there. Black Mountain is responsible for the Wrangler’s front and rear bumpers, side steps and swing-away

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spare wheel carrier, and between that little lot the company plays a huge part in giving the vehicle its distinctive appearance. With an asking price of £53,195, the vehicle in the pictures is probably destined for a life as a pavement princess. You needn’t doubt that it’s absolutely ﬁt for purpose as an off-roader, however – even with too much rim and not enough sidewall, it oozes intent. If we were speccing it, we’d use a leaner tyre on a smaller rim and keep the vehicle nice and slender by dispensing with its ﬂared wheelarches, but there’s no denying that if your off-roading doesn’t involve typically British woodlands and narrow lanes, its extended footprint should allow it to stomp all over the landscape. More to the point, it looks cool. As does everything that emerges from the DV8 workshop. Between them DV8 and Black Mountain have turned this Wrangler into something very large, and very special indeed. Whether or not it gets taken off-road, it’s a truck you can’t ignore.

It’s only when you see the Wrangler from side on that you realise how big those tyres are. We’d like to see more sidewall and smaller rims, but for sure this is a look that lots of people love

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ONE SHADE A weekend’s mountaineering in the depths of autumn, based in the rainfall capital of Wales; there’s literally nothing that could go wrong. Amid all the damp clothing and relentless grey weather, could a SsangYong Tivoli XLV help alleviate the misery of it all? WORDS AND PICTURES: GEORGE DOVE

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4x4 25/02/2019 22:25

E OF GREY

he SsangYong Tivoli is a practical, comfortable, medium-sized SUV. And the XLV variant, which we have here, is even more practical thanks to a longer and therefore larger boot. With a weekend’s climbing in Snowdonia on the horizon, it seemed like an ideal realworld test of the Korean practicality wagon extraordinaire – a round trip of several hundred miles with ﬁve adults and all the luggage they’d require. It’s also worth mentioning that one of the passengers is rather keen on photography, so there had to be room for a tripod and substantial camera bag in there too. For the motorway cruise to the North Welsh national park, the SsangYong was lithe, rode well and had plenty of space for an adult in each

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seat – including six-footers in both the front and back. There’s very little wind or tyre noise in the cabin and the interior remains spacious and comfortable even when accommodating ﬁve adults – although deeper into the journey, groans began to emanate from the middle seat, complaining that it was less than plush. Straws were drawn for that seat on the return leg. At lower speeds, the 1.6-litre diesel engine did its fair share of groaning, too. It seems hard-worked, which it probably is as the vehicle weighs more than two tonnes. The Aisin six-speed automatic gearbox holds on to the gears while moving away, but that much is understandable seeing as it isn’t hauling a lightweight frame and only has 115bhp and 221lbf.ft turning it.

As well as being heavy, the XLV is fairly long, with a wheelbase of 2500mm (102” in old money, so longer than a first-generation Range Rover or Discovery) and an overall length of 4440mm (just five and a half inches real inches, not bloke ones] less than a Defender 110). The added boot space means a larger proportion of the vehicle hangs out behind the rear axle, but with front and rear proximity sensors and a reversing camera the Tivoli XLV is no trouble at all around town and a doddle when it comes to parking. A variety of steering modes are afforded Tivoli XLV drivers, and they’re all pretty light. With the Comfort setting applied, there’s little more resistance from the steering column than you’d encounter in something from the Little Tikes production line. This definitely isn’t the

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‘The interior remains spacious and comfortable even when ccommod ting fi e dults lthough deeper into the journey, groans began to emanate from the middle seat’ sort of vehicle where weighty sports steering is required, but in this setting at higher speeds it can be twitchy and seem unsettled. As such we found ourselves preferring the Sport preset – which was by no means heavy itself. Obviously, the standard set-up toes the line between the two, but there isn’t much between any of them in all honesty. The brakes can be a bit unpredictable, at times seeming to be either fully on or off and rendering large proportions of the pedal travel irrelevant. They stop the vehicle well enough, but do take some getting used to before you can come to a halt with any hint of smoothness. Once up to speed, the Tivoli XLV happily sits at a cruise, and the weight of the extra bodywork goes unnoticed. The auto box can be

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a little hasty and throw in a sharp downshift when it isn’t necessary in the midst of an overtaking procedure, though. There is a manual setting and if you get into the habit of taking over at certain times on the road then it could be worth it – which in itself could be interpreted (correctly) as an argument in favour of the manual version. The cruise control, too, is somewhat eager. It holds speed as you’d expect but, when you’ve cancelled it and slowed down, re-engaging it and allowing it to regain speed of its own accord is apt to yield a burst of speed and urgency that is quite surprising at ﬁrst. It’s still subtler than the downshift you’ll get if you ﬂoor it yourself, though. It did retain the set speed very well on the way up and down hills, though.

On twistier roads, and they don’t half have some of those in Snowdonia, the Tivoli’s size unsettles it a tad. It’s by no means disastrous, but the supple suspension that offers a smooth and comfortable ride in a straight line treats you to more than a little body roll. It’s a hippo in a tutu rather than a bull in a china shop, though. The location for our stopover was Blaenau Ffestiniog – a town that is statistically the wettest in Wales. A title for which there is some competition. And sure enough, it greeted us with ever-present torrential rainfall. In these conditions, even on the aforementioned twisty roads the Tivoli remained sure-footed throughout. Its tendency to rev at lower speeds didn’t cause the traction control to ﬂicker once.

25/02/2019 22:26

Above: 1.6-litre diesel engine is a bit laboured at lower speeds, but more eﬁne t an o mig t e e t on e up and running. We wouldn’t mate it to t e a to o o n e e, t o g ig t mo el gains a longe ea o e ang t an t e stan a i oli to eate mo e oot a a it i was put to good use on our road trip

It goes without saying that the windscreen wipers earned their keep, too. But in a region where some rural roads looked more like tracks, its sat-nav wasn’t what you’d call a picture of clarity – as we’ve found before on SsangYongs from the era before the Rexton came along to change everything. What’s really impressive about the Tivoli XLV, as with all SsangYongs for that matter, is the value the whole package offers. After a tiring day climbing to Snowdon’s summit and back – in the sort of weather that really is best left out of it – the heated leather seats were appreciated by all and the climate control saw to a prompt thawing and demisting process. The Tivoli has a simple brief, and for this reason you can easily ﬁnd yourself expecting

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more than you’re going to get from it – especially in terms of its manners on the road. It wasn’t built with any degree of driving excitement in mind, but rather to deliver practicality and competency without fail. And it doesn’t fail. The boot is obviously spacious. The cabin boasts a plethora of storage solutions that provide a place for everything (even if the handbook has to go in the passenger door pocket rather than the dinky little glovebox) and the boot is very ﬂat and square as well as being large. If you’re an enthusiastic driver, you’ll have got this far and probably found it rather off-putting. But I’m an enthusiastic driver – yet there’s a deﬁnitively positive air to the time we spent taking the Tivoli XLV to Wales.

While it’s nothing spectacular to drive, this is a vehicle that isn’t about driving performance. You can effortlessly take your nearest and dearest on a spontaneous weekend away – and not have to pack lightly. Or head out camping without the need for a roof box. On the journey, you’ll all be comfortable with your heated seats and it will be quiet enough to enjoy quality time on the road. The Tivoli is a competent and willing family steed for trips far and wide. It even says hello and goodbye with a typically SsangYong fanfare that is guaranteed to have started annoying you long before it stops entertaining the kids. By then, though, you’ll be too busy congratulating yourself on having scored such a capable vehicle for so little money.

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LIVING IN YOUR TRUCK

The realities of overland life can come as a shock. It can be hard – but that just makes it

WORDS AND PICTURES: NOEL AND MARILU PERIES

t’ll be amazing,’ they said. ‘The trip of a lifetime,’ they said. Every day, we want to believe that driving through Africa in our 1991 Land Rover Defender is an incredible, oncein-a-lifetime experience. But the truth is that it doesn’t always feel like rainbows and butterﬂies. And at times, life on the road can be really, really hard. But it’s exactly because it’s so very hard that the experience is also so amazingly rewarding. Overlanding isn’t a holiday – which is why it really is an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Being prepared for what it’s going to be like won’t stop it from being hard at times. But it might help you understand that when the going

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gets tough, toughing it out is going to be worth it. So without further ado, here are some highs and lows we’ve discovered about living life on the road. HIGH: Living in your 4x4 is a great conversation starter There’s no two ways about it: a good overland truck, especially a well travelled old Defender like our 110, Maggie, have character. And by far our favourite part of travelling through Africa in a Land Rover is the people we meet along the way. Living in a truck is a great way to start conversations with people from all walks of life: locals, tourists and fellow overlanders alike. When we ﬁrst started our journey, we were particularly amazed by how

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Front Runner’s Defender ladder: defence against crafty baboons

all the more rewarding

Whatever you drive, sooner or later it will break down. Servicing is a routine part of life on the road, and even if you’re not a spanner man it won’t be long before you become one

many people in the remotest parts of the world recognise and admire the Defender. ‘This is a strong vehicle!’ locals would often say. ‘Have you really been to all these places?’ they ask, admiring Maggie’s many bumper stickers from places she’s visited with us and with previous owners. The bonds in the overlanding community transcend marque loyalty, but we do also hear a lot of stories from fellow Land Rover owners. There have even been a few occasions where we have been invited to stay with people who initially approached us just to admire our Defender. Looking back on these times, we often wonder if we would have as much fun in any other vehicle.

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LOW: The breakdowns The Namib desert at sunset. The sandy backroads of the Okavango Delta. The outskirts of Tanzania’s Uluguru Mountains. We will always remember travelling through these beautiful places for their stunning scenery and majestic wildlife. But also as places where Maggie has broken down and left us stranded! It’s no good admiring the wildlife when the animals are seasoning you with salt and pepper. It’s moments like these when you wish you’d packed a few more spares – mechanical and underwear wise. With more than 250,000 miles on the clock and seven expeditions through Africa since 1997, we have learnt the hard way to expect the odd breakdown. Thus far, the

biggest expense of life on the road has been on parts and mechanics. Many years of driving on poorly maintained roads has taken a toll on our Defender, and on our pockets. Some breakdowns were worse than others. In the Namib desert, Maggie blew a hole in her engine block. We were devastated and off the road for six weeks. In the Okavango Delta, she had a loose connection on the starter motor, but we were back on the road the next day. On a long road trip through remote areas, the location of the breakdown is sometimes just as important as the type of breakdown itself. We’ve learnt the importance of remaining calm and working out logically how to potentially recover the situation. Our first step is always to try to diagnose and fix the problem ourselves, if possible. Those not mechanically inclined (like us) will eventually become so after a few months. It doesn’t matter what you drive, how new it is or how old: it will happen. But even with difficult breakdowns, we’ve learnt never to worry. No matter where you are in Africa, there is always a mechanic nearby who can work on classic trucks like our old Landy. And where parts are scarce, they often have resourceful ways of fixing vehicles. After breaking down in Tanzania, we were taken on the back of a motorbike to an engineer whose father had taught him to work on Land Rover Tdi engines. No pushrods in town? No problem. He made some for us right there in his shop, and we were back on the road within the week.

PUTTING STUFF ON your vehicle’s roof is all well and good, but you need to be able to actually reach it without jumping or employing stilts. Which is where this nifty new two-part ladder from Front Runner steps up. Two-part, you’re thinking? Or you’re thinking of bacon, in which case please pay attention. So there’s that main part you see, made of aluminium and stainless steel and then black powder coated. It slots into the gutter at the top and then is bolted further down, above the number plate. Then there’s the second part, which is lower down, mounted below the bumper. This is made of stainless steel and is again black powder coated. This set up allows you to get up on the bottom step before starting to climb up the main steps above. And hopefully this will be too big a gap for a crafty baboon, but you can never tell with them, particularly if you have bacon on the roof. So if you want to better access the roof rack (a Front Runner Slimline II, for example), toddle along to www r ntrunner utﬁtters m where u ll ﬁnd th arts r a combined $108.46. Not too pricey, and If you’re struggling to sort stuff out on your vehicle’s roof it could save your bacon. Mmm, bacon.

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HIGH: Camping in magni cent places Some of our fondest memories from Africa have been the amazing places we’ve visited. And if there’s one thing we’ve learnt about travelling in this region, it’s that the most spectacular places are often the hardest to reach. This is where living in a 4x4 makes all the difference – difﬁcult terrain is where your truck really comes to life. After a long, tiring drive over rough terrain, there’s nothing better than being rewarded by incredible, unspoilt views. Take Livingstonia, Malawi, for instance. After about 15 kilometres of steep, rocky 4x4 trail, our persistence paid off with a campsite offering stunning views over the Great Rift Valley and Lake Malawi. Another amazing memory is driving the 32-kilometre 4x4only sandy coastal path in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in South

Africa. After a day of dune driving, we reached our oasis, a camping spot on a beautiful stretch of beach, isolated but for a population of endangered sea turtles. L : Patience is a necessary virtue After a year on the road in Africa, we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve been stopped by traffic police. Needless to say, it’s usually not for speeding – Maggie’s 200Tdi diesel engine rarely takes her beyond 55mph, and even then only when travelling downhill with a tail wind. Ask anyone who has travelled overland in Africa and they all say the same thing traffic police find inventive ways of collecting fines. Usually this involves searching vehicles for even the most minor violations of traffic laws. Over the years, ‘violations’ for which we’ve been threatened with

fines include not possessing a road map of the city we were driving through in Nigeria; not stopping at a broken traffic light in Botswana; and not having the correct pressure in our fire extinguisher in Malawi. The two countries in which we have had the worst experiences with traffic police were Nigeria and Tanzania. In Nigeria, Maggie was impounded for a day by police who

It’s a cliche, but it’s a fact of life on the road in Africa that you’ll get constant hassle from cops on the hunt for bribes. You need to learn to live with it and adapt yourself to minimise the bother it causes

‘In Nigeria, our Land Rover was impounded for a day by police who insisted we convert her from right-hand drive to left-hand drive!’ 64 | APRIL 2019

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Great freiendships and experiences you'll never forget – these are the highs of overland travel. They do make the lows worth it…

Window screens keep you cool but safe

insisted we convert her from righthand drive to left-hand drive! This was despite having the law, and all the necessary documentation and import permits, on our side. With the help of a local lawyer we had met the previous day in a traffic jam, we managed to escape the situation without paying a bribe. In Tanzania, we found police officers, who were stationed in nearly every town, using WhatsApp to enforce speed limits. Of course, we know that WhatsApp is not capable of recording the speed of passing vehicles – but try keeping your patience while explaining this to officers stationed every 10 kilometres on a 500-kilometre journey. Unable to tolerate this any longer, we learnt our lesson and headed for the back roads. LOW: Getting dirty Keeping your vehicle and all your equipment clean is a constant chore, and a source of many arguments. Anyone who drives in Africa will know how difficult it can be to keep the dust out – and when your doors shut to leave gaps you can see daylight through, it doesn’t get any easier. In dry environments especially, driving a Defender can often feel like driving a Hoover through a sandstorm. In Namibia, where few roads are paved, a few hundred miles in Maggie left us wondering whether there was actually more sand in the cabin with us than in the rest of the Kalahari Desert. Then there are our dirty bodies. In hot temperatures, sweat and dust are horrible bed fellows. And when

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showers are few and far between, we’ve been forced to develop innovative ways of keeping clean. To this end, we’ve found that a portable shower, a few packs of wet wipes and some sanitising gel can go a long way. HIGH: Life-changing experiences For us, it was an act of signiﬁcant courage to leave our London lives behind for the meagre comforts of a cook stove and a roof-top tent. But after a year on the road, we can conﬁdently say that the decision to take time off to travel through Africa was indeed a truly lifechanging experience. Yes, of course, living in your vehicle can be challenging, and life on the road forces you to

focus on the journey rather than the destination. But the most satisfying experiences we’ve had have come from the unexpected adventures and happenings that can crop up around any corner – not to mention the people we’ve met and places we’ve seen along the way that have left permanent impressions on us. After Noel’s ﬁrst overland journey through West and Southern Africa, we met and bonded over our love of travel and adventure. Two years later, we were married. Five years later, we were back on the road. That’s how addictive it is – however hard it might be at times. Follow more of Noel, Marilu and Maggie’s adventures through their blog at www.maggieinafrica.com

IT CAN BE a dilemma. It’s hot outside and you want to keep cool – but you drive a Land Rover Defender and where others have climate control, you have windows that open. Not always when you want them to, but they do it. And when they do, they let the air in. Sorted, right? Right. But in some places, that can present a security risk. You might get some sort of malevolent life-form wanting to eat you. You might get some sort of malevolent life-form wanting to burgle you. Either way, opening your windows is not going to rate as ne ur finer m ments It’s at times like these that you want a bit more security while still getting some air, and it’s here that the Rear Window Security Screens from eries e ender utfitters come in. They’re made of steel and are black powder-coated, so they’re plenty strong should a leopard want to say hello. fit is sim li it itsel They slot into the window track, so you just slide the window open, insert the screen and then slide the window shut until it clicks, at which point the screens are locked into place. Neat, simple, practical, and they look cool. The screens are designed t fit an e ender tati n Wagon from before 2002. To have a closer look, go to www. seriesdefender.com.

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INTO THE UNKNOWN

A journey through the deserts and mountains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in

WORDS AND PICTURES: TUSHAR AND POOJA AGARWAL

hen our Jeep Cherokee reached the border of Russia and Kazakhstan, two weeks into our epic road trip from London to Delhi, we knew things were about to change. Up to that point, we’d been in Europe – where even the relatively unknown countries like Ukraine and the tract of Russia between Volgograd and Astrakhan

were basically familiar. Now, however, we were entering Asia, and a part of it that was totally unknown to us. Having spent ﬁve hours getting across the border and into Kazakhstan, we were feeling quite euphoric as we hit the road towards Atyrau. Euphoric, but pretty apprehensive, too. We were around 3000 miles in, a little more than a third of the way

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Lightweight RSI SmartCanopy makes a globetrotter out of an L200

a standard Jeep Cherokee

Above: Khiva’s walled inner city of Itchan Qala was e istan s ﬁ st o l Heritage Site. Its foundations date back to the 10th Century, though the crenellated walls seen here were built in the late 1600s Top: The oddly shaped blue tower in the centre of Khiva was originally going to be a minaret – until the khan realised that it would overlook his harem, allowing the muezzin to check out his wives, and ordered it to emain nﬁnis e

to Delhi, but most of it had been done with the help of our sat-nav. This of course meant that we hadn’t had to worry about getting lost, or pay any attention to the paper maps we were carrying. But now the satellite coverage was gone, and all the road signs were in Russian. Time to start paying attention. It started off feeling very daunting, but in fact it turned out to be very easy to pick up. Enough of

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the letters in the Russian alphabet are the same as in English, and we both learnt quickly to identify the others so we could read the road signs. When you know that the only people who will be able to help you are yourselves, you learn faster! Nonetheless, we ﬁgured that while getting from town to town shouldn’t be beyond us, the best way to navigate within them would be to hire taxis to pilot us. That’s

how we managed to ﬁnd a hotel in Atyrau, using some basic phrases we’d written down in advance. We were amazed that Kazakhstan, which is the ninth largest country in the world and covers more land than the whole of western Europe, still remains unexplored. People warned us about it not being safe for foreigners, but they couldn’t have been more wrong. Even the cops

THE RSI SMARTCANOPY, which is brought to the UK by Tuff Trek, is a South African made unit designed to help turn a pick-up into an overland adventure wagon. These high-quality multipurpose units offer a strong, lightweight solution with features like solid gull-wing access doors, toughened safety glass and universal roof rails. The RSI SmartCanopy costs £2395 and, as well as the Mitsubishi L200, can also be ﬁtted t the iat ull a k ﬁnd ut m re ust a a visit to Tuff-Trek at www.tufftrek.com.

Tuff-Trek’s Fridge Drop Slides turn your truck into a mobile kitchen

Also available from Tuff-Trek is a range of premium quality ridge r lides hese allow you to conveniently slide your fridge out from the back of your vehicle, with a smooth one-shot motion which then lowers it for easy access. The slides are available in three different sizes to suit most of the popular brands of fridge. Prices start at £595, once again via www.tuff-trek.com.

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Above right: Beyneu was once an isolated village a few miles from the Uzbek border. Then one day someone discovered oil under the desert, and next thing you know it’s all you can do to keep the local kids from shooting gang signs while you’re trying to take their picture Left: What you didn’t know about Kazakhstan is that the president is Bob Monkhouse and custom ofﬁcers smile here Our route only nibbled off a tiny chunk of azakhstan’s southwestern tip, but in spite of this the road from Atyrau to Beyneu was still frighteningly deserted. It was in superb condition, a smooth tarmac ribbon stretching as far as the eye could see across a featureless, barren desert. For mile after mile, our only companions on the road were the wild camels and horses we saw silhouetted against the shimmering heat haze of a fardistant horizon. Beyneu was a little village until the 1 70s, when oil was discovered in the area. Now, it’s an important frontier town a few miles from the border with zbekistan – which is where we had one of the most extraordinary experiences of our whole trip. We were waiting patiently at the control post, trying to cover our eyes from the desert sand, which

was blowing in all directions, when one of the border officers saw our passports. Indian?’ he asked. Tourist India? ome with me ’ Next thing we knew, we had jumped three different queues. Each time someone objected to the IP treatment we were being given, the guard just said tourist India,’ and their growls turned to smiles. Even the customs officer greeted us with a namaste.’ Amazing Turns out Bollywood is very popular in zbekistan, where it’s dubbed into Russian. Whether this had anything to do with our free ride at the border, we don’t know, but it certainly helped on the road from amarkand to Tashkent when we were stopped four times for speeding but managed to get out of each without paying a fine. You could say luck was with us throughout zbekistan, in fact. No sooner had we entered the country than we were faced with a huge expanse of desert to cross with no other cars to be seen. Assuming we’d be able to fill up after the border, we were low on supplies – and when

the eep’s onboard computer told us we didn’t have enough in the tank to get to Nukus, the first town on our road, we knew we were in serious trouble. The air-con was the first casualty, and that wasn’t the only reason for getting hot and bothered. We hadn’t bothered to fill our jerry cans, again because we’d assumed we’d have the chance to do so at the border. ater, someone was to tell us that on the same stretch of road, a couple of Russians had run out of petrol here and, by the time help arrived, they were drinking water from their car’s radiator uestion What sort of person hasn’t heard that anti-freeze is poisonous? Answer The sort of person who sets off across a desert without enough petrol We were very, very lucky. In this empty desert, we spotted someone. He understood our frantic gestures, and showed us to a village with a pump in it. We’d been saved and taught a very valuable lesson. We stayed the night in Nukus before continuing across the desert towards hiva. This is a much smaller city, but whereas Nukus was home to the Red Army’s chemical warfare research establishment, hiva is known for the altogether more inviting reason that the Itchan ala, its 10th entury walled citadel, is a World Heritage ite. After the hardcore desert crossings of the previous days,

it was nice to spend some time taking things at a gentler pace. Well, it’s still a good distance from hiva to Bukhara, but with stops at amarkand and Tashkent also on the agenda, this section of the trip felt more like a driving holiday than a full-on expedition. Well, a bit. Holidaymakers tend not to get the kind of unconditional help we were offered by a chap called ahangir shortly after arriving in Bukhara. He said he could show us to our hotel, then found us a safe place to park the eep, helped us exchange some money and even managed to sniff out a petrol pump that was working. This wasn’t cheap, and the petrol itself was very poor grade, but after trying at least eight different pumps without success it was a relief just to be able to ﬁll up. It’s hard to imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t had ahangir there to help; he scored us a much better rate of exchange, too, by knowing that you get 30 more soms per dollar in the bazaars than in a bank Our next stop was in the ancient ilk Road city of amarkand, another World Heritage ite, which dates back to 700 B . Arriving at our hotel, ﬁrst thing we saw was 13 BMW motorbikes. Turned out these belonged to a bunch of Brits who were riding from ondon to Beijing, having set off on the same day as us. Their leader, evin, who has a uinness World Record for the

Meet Khodja Nasreddin. A character from history and folklore, he’s the Uzbek equivalent of Robin Hood

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Drop-down table creates a 4x4 kitchen

Above left: Thanks to a local contact in Tashkent, the Jeep got a thorough looking-at before the journey continued into Kyrgyzstan. Nice timing, as it turned out, because this was where the going got decidedly tougher Right: This man has a badge, a gun and a tin cut-out of a police car. However laughable it might all look, from a distance it really does work to slow you down fastest round the world bike trip, shared his experiences and gave us some very useful advice for the road ahead in China. From Samarkand, we struck out north-east towards Tashkent. This was where the Uzbeks’ love of Bollywood kept coming to our aid, and we also noticed that the authorities like to place wooden cut-outs of cop cars at the side of the highway to deter speeding. These look ridiculous close up but appear real from a distance; we were also stopped every hundred miles or so for routine security checks, which thankfully involved nothing more invasive than a quick glance at us and the Jeep before we were waved on. In Tashkent, our last stop before Kyrgyzstan, we met a Mr Kataria, boss of Indian investment company Spentex. He took care of us like family and arranged a service for the eep – deﬁnitely very welcome after all these miles! It was nice to know, too, that our vehicle was in tip-top condition. Because we knew that the really hard going was still ahead of us. Crossing the border into Kyrgyzstan was a piece of cake compared to what we’d been put through on the way in and out of Russia, but this may have been something to do with the small matter of it having been closed to locals at the time, in the wake of rioting in the town of Osh which had caused the president to ﬂee the country. And here we were crossing the border and making our way straight into… Osh. Marvellous. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

We might have called a raincheck on Kyrgyzstan if we’d had the choice, but our visas meant it was the only country through which we could enter China. The city was quiet, as it turned out, but we kept a pretty low profile nonetheless. We weren’t unhappy to be leaving Osh behind the next morning, but equally we knew that the next hundred miles was going to be the toughest we’d get faced. We were heading towards the village of Sary-Tash, a crossroads on the Pamir Highway from which we’d turn east towards the Irkeshtam Pass into China. But between us was a series of mountains whose beauty is matched only by their treacherous nature. Imagine this. You are driving up a mountain in your Jeep. It is sunny and the temperature is 15 degrees. The roads are good enough; you are listening to music and enjoying magnificent views snow-capped mountains all around, children riding donkeys and horses, a herd of sheep walking to one side, villagers working in the fields, a stream of river gently flowing under a bridge. You stop to take pictures every now and then. A perfect setting. Suddenly, someone turns off the switch. The temperature plummets to zero. The sun disappears and is lost behind a screen of dark clouds. And then it starts snowing. The road

Right: Welcome to Sary-Tash. Note the very appealing looking outside wash stand – just what you want in the snow

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disappears under a sheet of wet, slippery mud. Perfect conditions for a Jeep, eh? Well, our Cherokee was sliding all over the place as we pushed on, ever upwards in the driving snow. Keeping it under control was a battle – but then at last, there we were, gazing down on the world from 10,500 feet. Reaching the top of the mountain in these conditions was a massive high (boom boom). We’d been looking at SaryTash on the map for months and honestly, it looked scary. We used to wonder how we were ever going to drive in these mountains – never for a moment thinking that when we reached them, we would be hit by a snowstorm! Yes, it was risky and dangerous. But the road from Osh had been our most exciting drive on the whole trip to date. Arriving in SaryTash, it felt as it we had won a gold medal at some sort of competition. Little did we know that this was just the warm-up event… Since taking this trip, Tushar Agarwal has become a founder of Adventures Overland. The company organises driving tours and bespoke itineraries in every part of the world; to ﬁnd out more, visit adventuresoverland.com.

IN THE WORLD of kitchen design, the amount of worktop space you can provide is a big deal. Because everyone wants to have their kettle, bread maker, blender and everything else out all the time. Well, maybe some of us manage with a kettle and a larder full of Pot Noodles, but it can be a problem. As it can be when you’re out and about in your vehicle, because just trying to lash up a brew and something to eat can expose the awful truth of how little space you have in which even to butter some bread. Front Runner has a useful solution to the problem. The r wn a le fits t the inside of your vehicle’s rear door and sits neatly out of the way. When you’ve stopped you sim l en the d r and i down the table, which drops down to be held by two stainless steel cables. Voila, a clean, steel sur a e area finished in wipe-down black powder coating. You can extend the table area further with a pull-out laminated wood extension. hen we sa it fits t ur vehicle’s rear door, it helps if your vehicle is a Jeep Wrangler, because that’s what they’re designed for. The three and fi e-d r m del t e s e ifi a ing said that it can be used on all manner of other 4x4s too, as well as trailers ut first u ll need a ig en ugh at anel n whi h to mount it. Front Runner says the table is easy to install and will be rattle-free when not in use. It has a load rating of 40kg, which ought to be enough so long as you don’t decide to celebrate Burns Night with a weapons-grade haggis. For more info, pay a visit to www r ntrunner utfitters m

APRIL 2019 | 69

25/02/2019 20:44

OUR 4X4S: SKODA KODIAQ

Niggles? Next to none Every journey in our long-term Kodiaq Scout has been an absolute pleasure. But as its year on the eet approaches its end, is there anything at all about it that’s put a blot on the copybook? WORD: ALAN KIDD PICTURES: ALAN KIDD AND VIC PEEL

t’s been at the AdBlue again. Two and a half tubs of the stuff in about 12,000 miles doesn’t seem excessive, especially when that only equates to about £40 in just shy of a year and the point of it is to take harmful NOx emissions out of air our kids are breathing, but we enjoyed the message that came up on Kodiaq’s dash display telling us that if we didn’t give it some soon, it was going to throw its toys out of the pram. ‘No engine start in 550 miles’ were the exact words. Which is far enough for you to get to a ﬁlling station, obviously, and provides a very full answer to the question ‘what happens if you simply don’t bother topping up with AdBlue,’ which I suspect more people have asked themselves since the stuff was invented than you want to admit. Another question, though… What if a ruptured AdBlue tank, or a good old-fashioned sensor

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error, were to leave your car thinking it was empty and lock out the engine when you were parked on top of a remote mountain with the family on board and a cold winter’s night closing in? That’s an AdBlue question in general, of course, not one about the Kodiaq – when it comes to faulty sensors, I’m sure we can all name a car brand we’d not want to be relying on to get us going in the above scenario, and whatever make of 4x4 you’re thinking about right now I bet it’s not part of the Volkswagen Group. The above doesn’t count as an irritation, even slightly. Though it was hard not to imagine the words ‘no engine start in 550 miles’ in response to running dry of ﬂuid being ranted out in a Father Jack voice. We’ve got to say, indeed, that with our year aboard the Kodiaq now very nearly

up, the number of things we’ve found to grumble about is miniscule. The boot cover is annoying. Yes, that’s the level to which we’ve got to stoop in order to ﬁnd things to criticise. As usual, you push it in at one end to release it if you want to put large items in the back, or lift the third row of seats, but after this it’s still a wrestling job to get it past the trim on either side of the boot. It’s awkward to put back into place, too – and when it’s in, extending

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Fiddly to take out and put back in, and with an annoying tendency to come out of its guides when being extended, t e ea loa s a e o e is eﬁnitel one o t e less on enient a ts o t e o ne es i ma es it ett m ni e on t e e i le it is messy as the pull-out part likes to come out of its guides. None of us are fans of the electric seats, either. There’s nothing at all wrong with the seats themselves, which are very comfortable and beautifully trimmed, but adjusting them takes forever. There’s a school of thought that says electric seats are great because they make it easier to get them into the ideal position; our view on that has always been that it’s complete cobblers, but at least normally they don’t hang around. The Kodiaq’s are painfully slow, so when it has several drivers and they’re all different sizes you soon develop a ritual when driving it that starts with an exasperated wait before you even climb in. It does have memory settings, but that doesn’t make it any less painful when all you need to do is jump in and get gone. You may well be thinking that neither of these things sound like reasons to give a car the elbow. And you’re right. We were massive fans of the Kodiaq before our long-termer arrived, and now we’re more massive fans of it than ever. We got a shock from the electronic handbrake on one occasion, though. We’ve become pretty used to going from car to car, which is part of the

o ia

privilege that comes with this job, and on more and more of them now the handbrake comes on when you park up. The Kodiaq’s, however, doesn’t – which on one occasion led to it rolling away after we’d jumped out. Driver error, of course, and we’re not pretending otherwise, but when a system has the capacity to be safer by default (by which we mean e-handbrakes can apply themselves automatically when the vehicle stops), that’s what we think it should do. Cars are getting better and better at looking after their drivers all the time in so many different ways, after all. This, to us, was also an illustration of how quickly your mind lapses into trusting new technology. Had the Kodiaq been equipped with an old-fashioned lever handbrake, you can pretty much guarantee that we wouldn’t have forgotten to apply it. As is was, anyway, it only rolled a foot or so down a very gentle hill before coming to rest against the editor’s garage, leaving no more than a slight surface mark in the lacquer on the front bumper, but you can picture the sort of nightmare scenarios that could have cropped up. Safe to say we all check very carefully now. So, the load cover is awkward, the seats take forever to adjust and you have to actually apply

t it anot e

a , it gets on

the handbrake yourself, the way people have been doing since cars were invented. It’s not what you’d call a tale of woe, is it? We’re racking our brains to think of anything else that has got on our nerves, but really it’s almost wall-to-wall good. Aside from the AdBlue we mentioned at the top, it’s asked for a little engine oil and a couple of screenwash top-ups, but that’s been the size of it. As our year with the Kodiaq approaches its end, we’ve got nothing but praise for the vehicle. It’s just phenomenally practical. That’s a fact we were able to note within about one minute of climbing aboard the ﬁrst odiaq we ever saw, and it just gets better and better the longer you own it. This vehicle is a cinch to appreciate. But it’s also very easy to love. Its engine is beautiful, its gearbox is a delight and everything about the way it steers, handles and rides is absolutely spot-on. Literally every time we’ve gone out to drive it, it’s been a pleasure. The Kodiaq has topped the medium SUV class since the moment it appeared (with back-to-back wins in our 4x4 of the Year awards to prove it). Having lived with one for the past twelve months, we can safely say that it’s going to take something very special to dislodge it.

elo le t e ele t i a stment on t e seats gets no lo e om s e e s a memo n tion to sa e o stan ing t e e it o ﬁnge on t e tton, t it s ain ll slo in o e ation i all o ant to o is get in an i e, t e time it takes to set your position if someone much larger or smaller than you drove it last is infuriating elo ent e, ig t e ele t oni an a e o some e i les o e e not laming it o t is o t an it olle a o le o eet e o e oming to e a se o oa ing nee s t at, t e e ett s to in on t ﬁ , e e mo e t an a little elie e

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s ﬁne, t it oesn t ome on a i e e o is i e e o t est against t e e ito ial ga age e o a ne e t o g t t e to sa , t still, e e sel om

tomati all en o sto t e a e got a es o en e m e all e o ts m e s a e to g , e getting teste t at a ot ing a een mo e em a asse

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OFF-ROAD SCENE

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JEEPEY JAMBOREE RETURNS FOR 2019 AFTER SUCCESSFUL MOVE TO NEW VENUE

Pictures: Jeepey, Mathew Thompson Photography and Simon Miskelly / All Action Photography

THE LONG HOT SUMMER of 2018 all seems a long time ago now. However, this summer will soon be with us – which, if you run a Jeep,

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will mean soft-tops down before you know it! Last summer was more than just a particularly sunny one, too. It also

saw a momentous moment in the history of the Jeepey Jamboree, as the event moved to a new venue after no less than ten years in

residence at Parkwood Off-Road in Tong, Bradford. The new site, and one that’s set to host the event for many years to

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OFF-ROAD SCENE

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OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

Pay-and-play events 10 March

7 April

4x4 Without a Club

Muddy Bottom

Harbour Hill,West Berkshire

Essex, Rochford and District 4x4 Club Rayleigh, Essex come, is the picturesque Carlton Towers. The 4x4 site here is operated by Ardent Off Road – a group of people who embraced the Jeepey Jamboree with enthusiasm and volunteered their time to help ensure the inaugural event was a success. The 2018 event also took a great leap forward in terms of what it offered visitors. Previous runnings of the Jeepey Jamboree had tended just to be playdays for Jeeps, but this one moved towards being more of a Jeep Experience Weekend, with driver and winch training on offer along with improved facilities for everyone. For 2019, the event will grow further to make the most of its new venue. ‘This year we want to develop the fun weekend theme for the Jeepey Jamboree as a Jeep Festival,’ say the organisers, ‘offering a three-day event for all Jeep owners with activities and challenges for everyone, including an extended and developed offroad course.

‘Carlton Towers proved to be an ideal location with easy access from the motorway networks and within an hour’s drive from the Port of Hull and the ferries from Europe – last year we had more than 60 Jeeps attend over the two days, including visitors from Belgium.’ The dates for the 2019 Jeepey Jamboree are 28-30 June. ‘Our 2019 plans include another hog roast provided by the catering staff from Carton Towers, a real ale bar from the local Little Black Dog brewery and Storm Jeeps demonstration vehicles, including the new Storm Wrangler JL Rubicon,’ continue the organisers. ‘Winch and 4x4 driver training will be hosted by Ardent Off Road, along with a number of new attractions which are currently in the planning.’ As always, the event will focus on raising money for charity, in the shape of Yorkshire Air Ambulance. ‘Last year, we raised a fantastic £2150 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Charity,’ say the organisers. ‘Let’s see if we can increase our donations this year!’ Want to more about the Jeepey Jamboree? Just pay a visit to jeepey.com and you’ll soon ﬁnd out everything you need to know about it.

Hilll N Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

Tong, Bradford Picadilly Wood Bolney,West Sussex

14 April

Fontwell,West Sussex

4x4 Without a Club

16 March

Harbour Hill,West Berkshire

Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire

Essex, Rochford and District 4x4 Club Rayleigh, Essex

17 March

Frickley 4x4

Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire

Slindon Safari

Explore Off Road Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent

21 April

Frickley 4x4 Frickley, South Yorkshire

Explore Off Road Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent

Muddy Bottom

Frickley, South Yorkshire Fontwell,West Sussex

Minstead, Hampshire

24 March

22 April

Avalanche Adventure

Hilll N Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

Sibbertoft, Northamptonshire

Bures Pit Bures, Essex

Slindon Valley Fontwell,West Sussex

30 March Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

31 March Cowm Leisure Whitworth, Lancashire

Frickley 4x4 Frickley, South Yorkshire

Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

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Parkwood 4x4

Slindon Safari

Hilll N Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

4x4

Minstead, Hampshire

27 April Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

28 April Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire Cowm Leisure Whitworth, Lancashire

Frickley 4x4 Frickley, South Yorkshire Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

Slindon Valley Slindon,West Sussex

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MAJOR ELECTRIC RACE SERIES SET TO TAKE OFF-ROADING TO A NEW GLOBAL AUDIENCE

A PIONEERING NEW COLLABORATION between the worlds of motorsport. business and media is set to introduce a unique off-road series two years from now – highlighting some of the world’s most fragile environments by racing through them in zero-emissions vehicles. Describing itself as ‘a radical new sport and entertainment concept,’ Extreme E has been founded by proliﬁc racing driver and F1 team director Gil de Ferran along with businessman Alejandro

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Agag. The project will also feature leading contributions by explorer David de Rothschild and Academy Award winning ﬁlm director Fisher Stevens, who will publicise it through a series of unique ‘docusport’ TV shows. Details of vehicle regulations are yet to be revealed, as is the proposed severity of the terrain they will be covering. However it’s known that they will be all-electric and designed to ‘demonstrate the performance of electric SUVs in extreme climatic conditions.’ Agag

is a senior figure in Formula E racing, which has risen to become a major form of motorsport since its debut in 2014, and Extreme E might be seen as a related series. The programme will offer franchises to teams in a similar way to Formula E, meaning it’s likely that the cars will be silhouette-style off-road racers similar to the Dakar buggies raced by major manufacturers. At present, locations for the first series of events in 2021 appear not to have been finalised. However the organisers say the races will be

‘staged in locations of outstanding natural beauty, which are under threat from climate change and other challenges, such as the Arctic, the Himalayas, Sahara desert, the Amazon rainforest and islands in the Indian Ocean.’ Using fragile ecosystems as a location for motor racing sounds like a recipe for trouble. However Extreme E is deﬁant ’By demonstrating the performance of electric cars racing in these harsh terrains and conditions, Extreme E will play a key role in raising global aware-

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OFF-ROAD SCENE

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OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

UK Convoy Tours

Above: The ‘dream team’ behind Extreme E, from left to right: David de Rothschild, Aejandro Agag, Gil de Ferran and Fisher Stevens e t eg lations o t e e i les a e et to e la ifie However it’s understood that places in the championship will be offered to car manufacturers on a franchise basis, meaning the vehicles will be silhouette-style off-road race buggies similar to the Minis which have performed so strongly in the Dakar Rally over the last few years ness of the specific issues each environment faces, such as melting ice caps, deforestation, desertification, retreating mountain glaciers, plastic pollution and rising sea levels.’ The docu-sport’ T shows will cover not only the races themselves but also the challenges faced by the environment in which they’re racing. The project is committed to being carbon neutral. Parallel to its racing activities, it will run ongoing legacy initiatives at each destination to help restore and rebuild damaged ecosystems already impacted by climate change.’ In avid de Rothschild, Extreme E even has a representative boasting hief Explorer as his job title. And in the spirit of the earliest days of exploration, it will be based on board a ship. The former Royal Mail vessel RM t Helena, which in her early life delivered supplies to the remote colonial island of t Helena in the outh Atlantic Ocean, is about to undergo a multi-million pound renovation which will see her transformed into a mobile operational base for Extreme E. The 7000-tonne floating paddock’ will use green emissions technologies as part of the venture’s bid for carbon neutrality. With ontinental Tyres on board as a founding sponsor, Extreme E already describes itself as fully fund-

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ed.’ Plans are in place for a series of races using a traditional round-robin format with two groups of six teams, from which the top four will progress to a knock-out stage in which drivers go head-to-head for their place in the ﬁnal. The organisers say that the off-road stages will be around -10 kilometres in length, with a series of virtual gates to be navigated in a mixture of extreme heat and humidity, high altitude and sub-zero temperatures. This is a hugely exciting project,’ said il de Ferran. Extreme E offers a unique sport, adventure and entertainment concept that has never been seen or done before. iewers can expect a completely new way of consuming sport, with each episode telling not just the story of a race, but the wider race of awareness and the need to protect these remote and challenging environments being explored by Extreme E.’ I’m thrilled to be part of this new and exciting project,’ added avid de Rothschild. Harnessing the excitement and attention surrounding Extreme E, I’m looking forward to activating a global storytelling platform for nature that’s grounded in science, innovation, exploration and optimism. The race for curating and creating an operating manual of solutions and positive environmental actions on behalf of nature has just begun.’

9 March

30 March

Protrax Wiltshire

Tracks and Trails Durham

UK Landrover Events North York Moors

31 March

9-10 March

UK Landrover Events Lake District

Tracks and Trails Yorkshire Moors and Dales

3-7 April

10 March

Low Range Adventure Coast to Coast (Whitby to the Lakes)

4x4 Adventure Tours Salisbury Plain UK Landrover Events Durham Dales

16 March Protrax Wales

16-17 March Atlas Overland Wessex

22 March UK Landrover Events Eden District

22-24 March Low Range Adventure Yorkshire to the Lakes

23-24 March Tracks and Trails Yorkshire Dales Trailmasters Lake District

24 March UK Landrover Events Tyne and Wear

28-29 March UK Landrover Events Cumbria/Yorkshire

6-7 April 4x4 Adventure Tours Welsh Marches Tracks and Trails Northumberland

11 April UK Landrover Events Peak District

12-14 April 4x4 Adventure Tours Extreme Wales Low Range Adventure Mid-Wales

14 April UK Landrover Events Eden District

15 April UK Landrover Events Yorkshire Dales

20 April UK Landrover Events Lincoln and Belvoir

20-21 April Trailmasters Wales

APRIL 2019 | 75

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Overland Travel

OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

6 Mar – 4 April

4-19 May

12-17 June

10-18 August

Protrax Morocco

Ardent Adventure Portugal

Protrax North France D-Day tour

Ardent Adventure Alps

22-31 March

9 May

22 June – 7 July

12-23 August

4x4 Adventure Tours Portugal

Peru Safari Peru

Atlas Overland Scandinavia

Low-Range Adventure Pyrenees Coast to Coast

29-31 March

18-26 May

6-21 July

16-30 August

7P Overland Moab, Utah

UK Landrover Events Pyrenees

Onelife Adventure Iceland

Venture 4x4 Iceland

30 March –16 April

20 May –2 June

13-28 July

24 August – 4 Sept

Protrax Portugal

Trailmasters Morocco (extreme expedition)

Ardent Adventure Balkans

Trailmasters Morocco

April

26 May

12-26 July

24 August – 7 September

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Peru Safari Northern Peru

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Atlas Overland Portugal

9-22 April

27 May

18 July – 1 August

1-15 September

Atlas Overland Morocco

Low-Range Adventure Portugal

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Ardent Adventure Pyrenees

19 April – 3 May

1-16 June

22 July

7-15 September

Trailmasters Morocco Marrakesh Classic

Ardent Adventure Pyrenees (1 or 2 week)

Peru Safari Peru

UK Landrover Events Pyrenees

20 April

3-13 June

26 July – 9 August

11-25 September

Peru Safari Peru

Atlas Overland Corsica

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Protrax Pyrenees

1 April – 13 May

5-19 June

1-15 August

15-29 September

Onelife Adventure Namibia / Botswana / South Africa

Protrax Pyrenees

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Tracks and Trails Pyrenees

12-28 April

9-18 June

3-17 August

16-21 September

Ardent Adventure Morocco

4x4 Adventure Tours Pyrenees

Atlas Overland Italy

7P Overland Utah and Colorado

May

12 June

10 August

16-27 September

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Peru Safari Peruvian Steppes

Peru Safari Peru

Low-Range Adventure Portugal

76 | APRIL 2019

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4x4 25/02/2019 22:27

Est. 1981

MILNER

www.milneroffroad.com TEL: 01629 734411

EST. 1981

M.O.T & Service Parts Suspension Lift Kits Snorkels & Winches Wheels &Tyres Air Suspension Skid Plates Roll Bars Heavy Duty Clutches

** GENUINE & NON-GENUINE PARTS ** Mon-Fri: 8am - 5:30pm Sat: 8am - 12:30pm Old Road, Darley Dale, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 2ER

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Discover the tyre range at BFGoodrich.co.uk

ROADBOOK

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NORTH YORK MOORS

D 28/07/2017 14:34

Fantastic views and seriously technical driving This monster of a route combines the quaintness of the North York Moors at their most touristy with a post-industrial moorland landscape on which you’ll experience one of the most challenging sections of off-tarmac driving to be found anywhere in the UK. It takes in a variety of fords, several lengthy road liaisons and any number of beautiful villages, and most of the rights of way you’ll encounter are smooth, ﬁrm and suitable for any 4x4. Here and there, though, the terrain gets much more challenging – culminating in the ascent of Rudland Rigg, where the surface has been eroded by water runoff into a ﬁeld of jagged rocks. It’s a wonderful highlight of a roadbook that really does have everything

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7004

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28/07/2017 14:34

ROUTE GUIDE

IS IT SUITABLE?

START FINISH HOW LONG? TERRAIN HAZARDS

TYRES WEATHER

OS MAPS

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Goathland (NZ 834 012) Hutton le Hole (NZ 704 899) 61.8 miles / 6-7 hours Farmland and open moors Walkers, cyclists and horse riders; Cars and motorbikes travelling at insane speeds; Isolation on the moors; Some very rough off-tarmac sections Landranger 93 (Middlesbrough) Landranger 94 (Whitby and Esk Dale)

LOW BOX SOFT-ROADERS SCRATCHING DRIVING DAMAGE

Ideally needs a high-proďŹ le size Deep snow would be a problem. Avoid when foggy Essential Not suitable Moderate localised risk Some very technical rocky bits; Good navigation necessary Lower body and underneath areas at risk on rocky sections APRIL 2019 | 81

25/02/2019 17:31

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28/07/2017 14:34

Step 1: Goathland is ridiculously popular with tourists, and the whole place is covered in yellow lines. If you’ve stayed at the Goathland Hotel, zero your trip as you turn right out of the car park: if not, just reset it as you drive past

0.0

1.75

1.95

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NZ 834 012

Start at the Goathland Hotel, on the main road (everything’s relative) that runs through the village of Goathland. Zero your trip as you turn right out of the pub car park, or with the pub to your right (there’s double yellows everywhere, so don’t expect to park up for this) and set off east to start the route

NZ 851 028

Turn right on tthe track opposite the road on the left for Green End and Beck Hole

Extreme caution here. This is a fast, busy road, and you’re turning at a long straight section – so watch out for overtaking trafﬁc coming towards you at warp speed on the wrong side of the road. In addition, there’s a sharp step up on to the road itself, and it’s a tight turn so you’ll need to swing wide

2.4

2.8

4.35

It’s your right of way, but the bloke coming from the right might not care. And he’ll probably be driving either a tractor or an HGV…

NZ 828 033

The road is signed as being unsuitable for motors. There’s also an old wooden road sign that’s no longer readable

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USING OUR ROADBOOKS

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Our roadbooks guide you through the countryside on a mixture of surfaced and unsurfaced roads.The tracks we use are public rights of way, either Byways Open to All Trafﬁc or nclassiﬁed ounty Roads, all commonly referred to as green lanes.

NAVIGATION

Step 8-9: As you pass through Grosmont, you’re likely to be held up by a level crossing… and given a close-up view of a steam train pulling out of the station on the North York Moors Railway

The three fords come in quick succession; each is bigger than the last

5.65

5.75

0.3

This is in Grosmont; the level crossing just after you turn is at one end of the North York Moors Railway, and is never less than busy

ZERO TRIP

We’ve deliberately made it as easy as possible to follow the route, using a mixture of instructions, tulip diagrams and grid references.We normally only include junctions at which you have to make a turning or don’t have right of way, so just stay on the main road or take the most straight-ahead option unless we tell you otherwise. If you’re unfamiliar with six-ﬁgure grid references, you’ll ﬁnd a guide to using them on the legend of any OS map. Our aim is for you to be able to do the route without maps, but we do recommend having them.

SAFETY

The notes on the ﬁrst page of the roadbook advise you of how suitable it is for your vehicle.These are just guidelines, however.We’ll warn you of any hazards or difﬁcult sections, but the nature of any green lane can change quickly.Wet weather can make a huge difference to the conditions underfoot, and what’s wide open in winter can be tightly enclosed and scratchy in summer.The responsibility is yours! Our roadbooks are designed to be safe to drive in a solo vehicle, and are largely suitable for standard 4x4s on road tyres. We do recommend travelling in tandem wherever possible, however.The risk of getting stuck can be greater than it appears – and if you break down, having help at hand can make the difference between it being inconvenient and downright dangerous.

RESPONSIBILITY

10 0.95

11 1.9

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Irresponsible driving is a massive problem on green lanes. In particular, you must always stay on the right of way. Never drive off it to ‘play’ on the verges or surrounding land, even if you can see that someone else has; doing so is illegal and can be tremendously damaging, both to the land and to 4x4 drivers’ reputation. The fact that you can see where it’s happened shows how much harm it does. It’s no excuse to say you’re just following where another driver has already been. Most green laners have taken to videoing anyone they see behaving like this and passing the evidence to the police. Elsewhere, simple common sense and courtesy should be your watchword.The do-and-don’t list

28/07/2017 14:34

below should always be in your mind, but keep your speed down, be ready to pull over for others and show the world that 4x4 drivers aren’t the hooligans some of them think we are.

ANTIS

Anti-4x4 bigotry does exist, but it’s less common than you’d think. By and large, it’s limited to organisations who just want to get the countryside all to themselves. These organisations are beyond being reasoned with, but it’s rare to encounter real hostility even from their rank-and-ﬁle members. If you’re friendly towards the people with whom you share the countryside, the vast majority will respond in kind. There are always bad apples, but no more so than anywhere else. Likewise, most local residents will accept your presence if you’re driving sensibly.What suspicion you do encounter is likely to be from farmers worried that you’re there to steal from them, so be ready to offer a word of reassurance. Once satisﬁed that you’re not after their quad bikes, their mood will lighten. It only takes one vandal to tarnish a person’s view of all 4x4 drivers, and once the damage is done it tends to be permanent. But if enough of us resolve to be ambassadors, it might make a difference to the way we’re perceived by society in general.

DO AND DON’T

• Keep your speed right down • Pull over to let walkers, bikers and

horse riders pass • Don’t go in large convoys: split into small groups to avoid hassling others • Leave gates as you found them • Don’t drop litter. Do carry a bin bag and a pair of stout gloves so you can pick up other people’s, though • Don’t go back to drive the fun bits, such as mud or fords, again • Scrupulously obey all closure and voluntary restraint notices • Don’t cause a noise nuisance, particularly after dark • Ensure you have a right to be there.We research the routes on our roadbooks very carefully, but the status of any route can change without notice • Be prepared to turn back if the route is blocked, even illegally • If you find an illegal obstruction, notify the local authority • If someone challenges you, be firm but polite. Stay calm and don’t let them turn it into a fight • Stick absolutely scrupulously to the right of way • You have as much of a right to be there as everyone else.Which means they have as much right as you

APRI 201 | 83

25/02/2019 17:31

Discover the tyre range at BFGoodrich.co.uk 700433 Banner 15x210mm.indd 1

28/07/2017 14:34

Step 25: his ford is ďŹ rm surfaced and normally uite shallow, but don t cut the corner or you ll ris dro ing off a sheer ledge into much dee er water

2.15

Just after the Limber Hill sign, take the road with a 3.5T weight limit

4.8

Egton Whitby

112 8

5.7

2.45

NZ 786 069

At the top of the hill, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a steep, sharp climb as you turn left into West Banks Farm

Rosedale

NZ 784 041

3.8

15 4.05

20 5.95

The track gets a little rutted and quite scratchy in places

21 22

4.6

The ford is deep, wide and uneven

6.25

16 4.55

Dead slow past the farm

6.35

6.5

Lealholm

84 | APRIL 2019

12pp Roadbook.indd 84

4x4 25/02/2019 17:31

7004

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24 6.55

28/07/2017 14:34

Seriously, isn’t this a nice enough lane without going off-piste and wrecking the woodlands alongside it? If you see someone at it here, shop them to the law. They’re no friends of yours

Caution – there’s a sharp lip into deep water on the left hand side of the ford

6.6

26 6.85

27 7.65

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 85

28 7.85

29 0.65

Dead slow past the farm

ZERO TRIP

NZ 773 088

The turning is impossible to spot until you’re on it. Look for the cycleway sign opposite it on the right. Swing wide and don’t cut the corner, unless you like falling in ditches

30 3.0

31 3.75

APRIL 2019 | 85

25/02/2019 17:31

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700433 Banner 15x210mm.indd 1

32 3.9

28/07/2017 14:34

NZ 726 084

Continue ahead through the wooden gate

37 5.75

aling Whitby

39 9.1

The moorland alongside the right of way has been badly damaged by illegal off-roading halfway along the lane. Again, if you see people wrecking the landscape, and the reputation of 4x4 drivers more responsible than themselves, do whatever you safely and legally can to make them pay for it

Follow ahead on the road signed for Commondale

4.2

4.25

4.55

4.65

7.7

9.9

NZ 713 115

Holes in the surface of this lane have been extensively repaired using hardcore, creating a series of ‘brickcrawls’. These have started to bed in, but you might still ﬁnd yourself bumping around on them

ZERO TRIP

6.25

atte sby ngleby eenho

86 | APRIL 2019

12pp Roadbook.indd 86

1 2

4x4 25/02/2019 17:31

7004

Discover the tyre range at BFGoodrich.co.uk 14:34

700433 Banner 15x210mm.indd 1

28/07/2017 14:34

This is just a small part-time ford

6.95

43 8.0

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 87

Take it easy past the farm buildings then carry on ahead through the gate and on to the track

8.65

NZ 585 065

45 8.7

SEPTEMBER 2018 | 87

25/02/2019 17:31

Discover the tyre range at BFGoodrich.co.uk

Step 48: You’ll 1need 700433 Banner 15x210mm.indd

to pick your way around this washout. There’s enough space, but only just

28/07/2017 14:34

Step 49: The next washout is harder to avoid but easier to drive through

46 9.1

The climb gets steeper after the gate. Take care to keep out of the huge ditch to the right, then prepare for the going to start getting more uneven and axle-twisting

Take care as you pick your way up a set of rock steps

9.2

48 9.3

88 | OCTOBER 2018

12pp Roadbook.indd 88

49 9.4

50 9.5

Watch for the wash-out around an old drainage pipe – the step up is sharp and very unforgiving. There’s space to get round it, but only just

Just when you thought the going was getting gentler, along comes another sharp ditch

51 12.5

Not comes the really rough bit. As you scale the long hill that stretches ahead of you, it becomes increasingly rocky and uneven. It’s not to be tackled in anything other than a proper 4x4 with good ground clearance and plenty of protection

Look out for walkers, cyclists or horse riders as you cross what is, would you believe, the track of an old industrial railway

4x4 25/02/2019 17:31

7004

Discover the tyre range at BFGoodrich.co.uk 14:34

Step 58: This turning comes after enough road miles that28/07/2017 you’ll probably have started assuming you’ve gone wrong

700433 Banner 15x210mm.indd 1

13.2

5.7

8.5

15.9

Get into low box early – the descent that starts here is a long, steep one

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 89

The descent becomes steeper as you go on and it lasts forever, so you might as well do your truck a favour and use low box the whole way down

Get into low box early – the descent that starts here is a long, steep one

8.65

15.9

16.6

This is just a small crossroads with another track. There’s a grouse butt ahead of you to the right here. We’ve only included it to help avoid confusion with the junction at the next step

7.7

15.5

SE 659 927

4.5

14.25

14:34

ZERO TRIP

9.0

APRIL 2019 | 89

25/02/2019 17:31

Discover the tyre range at BFGoodrich.co.uk

700433 Banner 15x210mm.indd 1

28/07/2017 14:34

Step 67: The junction has no landmarks or signposts, but on the plus side it’s the only one you’ll spot on the way along the road that looks anything like this

0.1

6.15

h h o ses astleton

65 0.65

1 2

You’ll follow through the village, passing the Feversham Arms on your right, before coming to this junction

SE 693 925

There are no landmarks to help you spot this junction, but it’s the only one of its kind that you’ll see. There’s a track off to the left a little way before it which might help you get your bearings. On a fast road like this, donn’t assume the guy behind you will pay any attention when you signal that you’re going to turn right

68 6.45

astleton 8 ia la ey an

1.95

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1 2

70 8.2

SE 682 899

8.3

72 8.95

90 | APRIL 2019

12pp Roadbook.indd 90

4x4 25/02/2019 17:32

7004

Discover the tyre range at BFGoodrich.co.uk 14:34

700433 Banner 15x210mm.indd 1

28/07/2017 14:34

Step 75: The ford is nothing to write home about, but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cut the corner as doing so will take you towards the deep bit around the foot of the weir

10.3

74 10.7

75 11.1

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 91

11.6

SE 704 872

Caution â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this is a busy road

11.7

78 12.7

Immediately after the Ryedale Folk Museum in the middle of Hutton le Hole, turn right into the Crown inn for the end of the route

OCTOBER 2018 | 91

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9.55

TAL OFF-R OA D Newsagent This magazine is available to your wholesaler through Comag Magazine Marketing, Tavistock Rd, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. Tel: 01895 444055 Fax: 01895 433602 TO

96 | APRIL 2019

95 Next Month Mar AK.indd 96

NAVIGATIO

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SAFETY

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