4x4 Magazine - May 2020 by Assignment Media Ltd

4x4

NEWS • TECH • DEBATE • TRAVEL • MODIFIED VEHICLES • GREEN LANING

DRIVEN New version of the Isuzu D-Max AT35

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

SYNCRONICITY

An off-road vehicle build… in reverse!

Way back in the days before Volkswagen starting building slick SUVs, the 4x4 version of its T25 van was a work-spec wagon with traction to spare. And with a few modiﬁcations, it can be turned into an off-road toy to reckon with… Arkonik is back in Britain – with maybe the best 110 of all time

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50 green lanes to look forward to when life resumes…

MAY 2020

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May 2020

CONTENTS

“Every one of these green lanes is a reason to look when lockdown is lifted and life returns to normal”

64 | JANUARY 2020

2-3 Contents May.indd 2

46 40

4x4 01/04/2020 00:03

28 12 ISSUES OF 4X4 – FOR JUST £12!

£1 per issue. Yes, really – that’s all it costs to have Britain’s only 4x4 magazine delivered to your door every month! Time to take action… 4x4 Scene: News, Products and More… 6 7 8 8 9 9 10 11 11 14 14 22 23 24 25

Isuzu D-Max Specialist conversions keep coming for no-nonsense pick-up Cupra Formentor Coupe-SUV is Spanish brand’s first stand-alone model Kia Sorento Former budget brand moves upmarket with new flagship SUV Toyota Professional After-sales help for Hilux and Landcruiser van buyers Skoda Kodiaq Specialist model converted to carry police dogs Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in hybrid on patrol with Brecon wardens Crychan Forest Major green lane could reopen – with your help! Lake District Protesters up in arms about everything that’s not themselve Priestcliffe Evidence sought to prevent New Lane being lost to red tape Island Ropes Ox Fibre ropes promise high-value alternative to Dyneema Suzuki Jimny Ironman Bull Bar offers old-school winch mount ARB Latest fridge-freezer range doubles in size Machine Mart Clarke welders promise serious quality at low prices Britpart Refurbished four-pin diffs for Defenders and Mk2 Range Rovers Britpart New steel rims with One-Tonne style fit modern tyre size

Driven 20 24 26

Dacia Duster Mid-range 4x4 diesel is a ﬁne all-rounder on and off the road Skoda Kodiaq vRS Performance SUV is good but not the best Kodiaq there is Isuzu D-Max AT35 Revised version of the big beast is still a big beast

Every Month 4 7 12 28 80

Alan Kidd We’re learning not to take anything for granted any more Coming Soon Trucks and SUVs set to be launched in the near future Calendar Off-road events that may or may not be about to happen… Subscribe Stay at home and get 4x4 delivered – for just £1 per copy! Next Month Bucket-list destinations for when lockdown is over

Features 30 34 40 46 70

Arkonik 110 Is this £200,000 resto-mod the ﬁnest Land Rover ever built? Hardcore T25 Turning a VW Syncro into a green lane warrior with skills Classic Race Rangey The Eales-engined Brit that conquered France Suburban Crawler Incredible full-size SUV built to full rock-crawling spec 50 Great Lanes When all this is over, the countryside will be waiting for you!

Our 4x4s 50 54

forward to the day

Travel 58 62

4x4 2-3 Contents May.indd 3

Isuzu D-Max Go 2 Making big tyres ﬁt – with some very cool bodyshop work Defender 90 Stripping away the mods as the return to standard begins

Western Sahara A recce trip into the unknown wilds beyond Morocco The Outback Exploring Australia’s Red Centre… with broken air-con

MAY 2020 | 3

01/04/2020 00:03

4x4 Alan Kidd Editor

our weeks ago, when I sat down to write this column, the subject occupying my mind was the unfairness of the way the law treats green lane users. Ah, such innocent, worry-free times… Now here I am tapping out these words in what was until recently my spare bedroom. I’ve become an amateur school teacher who does a bit of magazine editing in the evenings. A position which, I’m painfully aware, an awful lot of people would kill to be in, but like everyone else I’m wondering what the hell has happened to the world. It’s still March as I write this. Literally three weeks to the day since the Geneva motor show was cancelled and people in my industry were all saying surely not, surely that’s a knee-jerk reaction, surely that’s over the top. But in those three weeks, we’ve turned from tutting sceptics into a nation of people who can’t walk past toilet paper in a shop without buying it just in case. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is worry. About what this will mean for my children, my mortgage, my career, my elderly relatives… all the things every one of you is probably worrying about when you wake up in the morning too. I worry about dying. There, I’ve said it. Most of us who are relatively young, fit and strong have come in to this hearing the reassurances we were given that it’ll just be like a mild dose of the flu, and that only a tiny proportion of sufferers get seriously ill. But the more we learn about it, the more we realise that you don’t need to be elderly or asthmatic, you don’t need to have a heart condition or a history of smoking forty a day since youth. We all need to be scared of this thing. Children don’t seem to be affected in themselves, thank God. But they’ll certainly not be left untouched if they lose a parent. So even if, like the throng of people I saw dancing and drinking through the window of a crowded pub the night before they were all told to close, you don’t really give two hoots about your own wellbeing, at least try to think of others’. There’s no room at all for selfishness any more.

4 | MAY 2020

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Never in modern times have we been so exposed to our own vulnerability Will I get round to talking about 4x4s in this outpouring of random thoughts? I’m not sure, because I can’t really see how they relate to the current plight of the human race, but I know that a lot of people are using this enforced suspension of normal life as an opportunity to work on their vehicles. That weekends-and-evenings project you expected to get ﬁnished some time next year might be done by summer at this rate. When you’ll actually get to go out and drive it is anybody’s guess. The countryside is now off limits. Almost everything we took for granted about life is off-limits, too. On that subject, after my Dad died back in 1998, Mum told me about something he used to say: that being in love with someone meant being able to take them for granted. Dad was more of a scientist than a poet, it’s safe to say – but in a manner of speaking, he was absolutely right. And if there’s one thing this whole awful episode is teaching us, it’s that we can’t take anything or anyone for granted. Perhaps, and this is the most pathetic attempt to ﬁnd a crumb of comfort in what we do, those of us who love green laning are better equipped than most for knowing not to take things for granted. Football fans, for example, have been in a hell of a mess since the game was mothballed. But when your hobby is under constant threat of being banned, you really learn to appreciate what you’ve got. Not even the Ramblers Association is as pernicious as coronavirus, but you get what I mean. Everything we stand to lose is precious, and we know that better than most. We won’t all make it out of this. But those who do will forever be aware of how much they need to treasure everything they hold dear. Because never in modern times have the people of the western world been so exposed to our own vulnerability.

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 Art Editor Samantha D’Souza Contributors Mike Trott, Dan Fenn, Paul Looe, Olly Sack, Rob Boseley, Betty van Breukelen, Gerard van Vliet Photographers Harry Hamm, Steve Taylor, Richard Hair, Vic Peel Group Advertising Manager Ian Argent Tel: 01283 553242 Advertising Manager Colin Ashworth Tel: 01283 553244 Advertising Production Sarah Moss Tel: 01283 553242 Subscriptions Manager Catherine Martin Subscriptions Assistants Emma Emery, Kay Tunnicliffe, Abi Dutton Publisher and Head of Marketing Sarah Moss Email: sarah.moss@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 1.08, Bretby Business Park, Ashby Road, Bretby, Derbyshire DE15 0YZ

4x4 31/03/2020 18:41

Performance Springs

The right choice when replacing the old sagging original springs! Britpart Performance - Lifted Springs

Bar Rate Defender 90 Lift Load Diameter lbs/in DA4201 Front 25mm 25kg 16mm 200 DA4202 Front 40mm 50kg 16mm 230 DA4203 Rear 40mm Light 17mm 220 DA4204 Rear 50mm 100kg 18mm 300 - 340 DA4205 Rear 50mm 200kg 19mm 360 Defender 110 DA4201 Front 25mm 25kg 16mm 200 DA4202 Front 40mm 50kg 16mm 230 DA4206 Rear 40mm 100kg 17mm 270 - 295 DA4208 Rear 50mm 500kg 21mm 420 Defender 130 DA4202 Front 40mm 50kg 16mm 230 DA4208 Rear 50mm 500kg 21mm 420 Discovery 1 DA4201 Front 25mm 25kg 16mm 200 DA4202 Front 40mm 50kg 16mm 230 DA4203 Rear 40mm Light 17mm 220 DA4204 Rear 50mm 100kg 18mm 300 - 340 DA4205 Rear 50mm 200kg 19mm 360 Discovery 2 DA4199 Front 40mm 20 - 50kg 15mm 180 DA4198 Front 40mm 50 - 100kg 16mm 220 DA4203 Rear 40mm Light 17mm 220 DA4197 Rear 40mm Medium 18mm 290 DA4205 Rear 50mm 200kg 19mm 360 Range Rover Classic DA4201 Front 25mm 25kg 16mm 200 DA4202 Front 40mm 50kg 16mm 230 DA4203 Rear 40mm Light 17mm 220 DA4204 Rear 50mm 100kg 18mm 300 - 340 DA4205 Rear 50mm 200kg 19mm 360 Note - Spring quantity 1 = 1 pair

Free Height 420mm 390mm 435mm 425mm 430mm 420mm 390mm 445mm 445mm 390mm 445mm 420mm 390mm 435mm 425mm 430mm 390mm 390mm 435mm 430mm 430mm 420mm 390mm 435mm 425mm 430mm

Britpart performance springs are high quality, versatile and competitively priced - the right choice when replacing the old sagging original springs. Developed by one of the world’s top spring manufacturers these high quality, powder coated yellow springs have been designed with the needs of today’s Land Rover owners in mind. Britpart performance lifted springs have the added benefit of improving your vehicles approach and departure angles which in turn allows you to overcome more obstacles when off-roading. As Land Rovers are often working vehicles as well as the family car, uprated springs must offer the ability to carry loads, handle off-road terrain and provide a good ride on road. The progressive springs offer a compliant ride when lightly loaded, but firm up as the load increases.

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After Lowering

“Britpart performance springs are high quality, versatile and competitively priced...” Britpart Performance - Standard Height Springs

Defender 90 DA4277 Front DA4278 Rear Defender 110 DA4277 Front DA4279 Rear Discovery 1 DA4277 Front DA4278 Rear Range Rover Classic DA4277 Front DA4278 Rear Note - Spring quantity 1 = 1 pair

Bar Diameter 16mm 18mm

Rate Free lbs/in Height 225 390mm 285 385mm

16mm 225 390mm 19mm 330 415mm 16mm 225 390mm 18mm 285 385mm 16mm 225 390mm 18mm 285 385mm

Britpart yellow springs are designed for the enthusiast who wants a performance spring without having to raise the vehicle. They offer a firmer ride with less body roll, ideal for a vehicle with uprated performance or one used for carrying heavy loads. The springs are designed to offer full articulation off-road with a compliant ride. Developed by one of the world’s top spring manufacturers these high quality, powder coated yellow springs have been designed with the needs of today’s Land Rover owners in mind.

Britpart Performance 1” Lower Springs

Reduce the ride height of your Land Rover by 1” (25mm) by fitting these lowered springs. By lowering your vehicle it will help reduce body roll as well as giving your vehicle a more sporty squat stance. The springs are designed in line with the standard spring rate specification. Finished in powered coated orange paint.

DA4563 Defender 90 & 110/Discovery 1/Range Rover Classic Front pair DA4564 Defender 90/Discovery 1/Range Rover Classic Rear pair DA6449 Defender 110 Rear pair DA1234 XD Handling Kit for Defender 90/Discovery 1/Range Rover Classic Kit contains lower springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, turret rings and more...

NEW 4X4S

NEW D-MAX JOINS WILTSHIRE SEARCH AND RESCUE

iltshire Search and Rescue, a voluntary organisation set up to help Wiltshire Police find vulnerable and missing people in times of crisis, has taken delivery of a new Isuzu D-Max kitted out with the latest emergency response equipment. Based on the D-Max Workman model, the truck has gained 360° work lights, hazard beacons and an electric winch for use in recovering stranded vehicles. Inside, the D-Max is fitted with LED cabin lights, a 240 volt power inverter and a multi-frequency twoway radio for communicating with search and rescue team members including the police and other emergency services. In the rear load bed, meanwhile, is a sliding stretcher mount for patient transport. Wiltshire Search and Rescue currently has 75 volunteers in its team. In 2019, between them they dedicated more than 28,000 hours of their own time supporting Wiltshire Police and other emergency services. The primary role of the D-Max will be to provide help and support in finding vulnerable and missing people, and its off-road ability will allow emer-

gency crews to carry out this job in remote areas and tough conditions. As well as assisting with live emergencies and water rescues, which could happen anywhere from the middle of Swindon to the wilds of the Marlborough Downs, the vehicle will be used to support the emergency services with other callouts, such

as transporting key medical staff in times of severe weather. The D-Max was supplied by Isuzu main dealer Fussell Wadman, which had previously supplied Wiltshire Search and Rescue with a demonstrator for evaluation. ‘It has been a long process of planning, fundraising, procuring and now kitting out

the vehicle,’ commented the organisation’s Chairman Adrian Sawyer, ‘and it’s testament to the hard work of many of the team that we can ﬁnally unveil it. Our role takes us to some very isolated places and having this new vehicle will give the volunteers even more capability when our community needs us most.’

Platinum Partner award for CPL recognises thriving business in access platform conversions for Isuzu D-Max ISUZU UK HAS AWARDED Platinum Partner status to CPL, one of its key vehicle convertors. The company, which specialises in access platform conversion, builds as many as 300 vehicles a year – the majority based on Isuzu D-Max pick-ups. The company’s conversion, which includes a 3.5-tonne suspension upgrade, has a working height of 13.1 metres and a working outreach of 6.2 metres. CPL has also designed a chipper tipper, again mounted on an Isuzu D-Max, which has a 50° tipping body and 1300kg payload, as well as a 180kg capacity secure aluminium locker in the rear of its cab. The new Platinum Partnership award recognises a major increase in production during 2019 – when the number of conversions carried out by CPL more than doubled. The company had previously supplied 78 vehicles to broadband provider Open Reach to help keep Britain’s homes and businesses online.

6 | MAY 2020

IN PROG Scene May NEW TERRAFIRMA SPONSORSHIP NEEDED.indd 6

4x4 31/03/2020 21:39

COMING SOON Forthcoming 4x4s due later this year and beyond

Formentor coupe-SUV is Cupra’s first stand-alone vehicle SEAT’S SPIN-OFF BRAND Cupra has revealed its first stand-alone vehicle – and it’s a 4x4. The Formentor, which calls itself a ‘coupe crossover’, is a four-door model blending the striking looks of a sports car with an SUV-style level of practicality and all-terrain performance. The Formentor will be available from launch with a choice of petrol engines – a 1.4-litre hybrid unit developing 245bhp and a 2.0-litre turbo good for 310bhp. Both, coincidentally, develop 295lbf.ft of torque, though with the former aided by a hefty electric motor you can expect their driving characteristics to be very different. If you like the look of the vehicle, the decision on which engine to go for might be made a little easier by the fact that only the 2.0 TSI model has fourwheel drive. There’s no indication yet as to how much one of these bad boys will cost you, however Cupra currently expects them to go on sale in the last three months of 2020.. • Mercedes-Benz has finalised the model line-up for its new GLA mini-SUV. This is available with a choice of five different engines, though only one of them – the 200 d turbo-diesel, a 1950cc unit putting out 150bhp and 236lbf.ft through an eight-speed auto box, is available with all-wheel drive. The GLA is available in a range of six different spec levels, though 4x4 models are only offered with the top four of these. Needless to say, all are very well equipped – while leaving plenty of room for lucrative optioning on top. Prices for the entire range starts at £32,640, with 200 d 4Matic models costing from £36,840 to £42,835.

Land Rover has created another Range Rover for boxer Anthony Joshua. The SVAutobiography long-wheelbase V8 model features Joshua’s own signature stitched into its headrests, in addition to his family crest and illuminated scuff plates bearing his name.

4x4 IN PROG Scene May NEW TERRAFIRMA SPONSORSHIP NEEDED.indd 7

Aiways U5 Electric SUV Alfa Romeo Tonale Small SUV Alpina XB7 Performance SUV Aston Martin DBX Performance SUV Audi Q5 facelift Medium SUV BMW iX3 Electric SUV BMW X5 M Competition Performance SUV BMW X6 M Competition Performance SUV Bollinger B1 Electric off-roader Bollinger B2 Electric pick-up Cupra Formentor Performance SUV Ford Kuga Medium SUV Ford Mustang Mach-E Electric SUV Ford Ranger Pick-up INEOS Grenadier Off-roader Jeep Small SUV Jeep Cherokee Desert Hawk Performance Off-Roader Jeep Gladiator Pick-up Jeep Grand Commander Large SUV Jeep Renegade PHEV Hybrid SUV Jeep Wagoneer Luxury SUV Kia Sorento Large SUV Land Rover Defender 90 Off-roader Land Rover Defender 130 Off-roader Land Rover Defender PHEV Hybrid off-roader Land Rover Defender EV Electric off-roader Land Rover Discovery Spt PHEV Hybrid SUV Maserati Medium SUV Mercedes-AMG GLA 45 Performance SUV Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 Performance SUV Mercedes-AMG GLS 63 Performance SUV Mercedes-Benz EQB Electric SUV Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe Large SUV Mercedes-Maybach GLS Luxury SUV Mitsubishi Outlander Medium SUV Peugeot 3008 Hybrid 4 Hybrid SUV Range Rover Evoque PHEV Hybrid SUV Rivian R1T Electric pick-up Rivian R1s Electric large SUV SsangYong Korando EV Electric SUV Suzuki S-Cross Hybrid Crossover SUV Suzuki Vitara Hybrid Small SUV Tesla Cybertruck Electric Pick-Up Tesla Model X Tri-Motor Electric SUV Tesla Model Y Medium SUV Toyota Landcruiser Active Van Commercial Off-Roader Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Medium SUV Toyota Yaris SUV Small SUV Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet Small SUV Volkswagen Tarok Pick-up Volkswagen Amarok Pick-up Volkswagen Touareg R Performance SUV Volvo XC40 PHEV Hybrid SUV Volvo XC40 EV Electric SUV

Summer 2020 November December April Autumn Early 2021 June 2020 June 2020 2020 2021 Late 2021 Spring October 2022 2021 2021 Spring June 2020 Autumn 2020 2021 September March March 2021 2021 2023 April 2021 April April June Early 2021 June June October April April Spring 2022 Summer 2022 September March March Late 2022 Early 2021 October March October Late 2020 April 2020 2022 July April Early 2021

MAY 2020 | 7

31/03/2020 21:39

NEW 4X4S

Kia unveils new Sorento – and promises better off-road ability

ia has lifted the wraps on its new fourth-generation Sorento. Available for the ﬁrst time ever in hybrid form, this is based on an all-new platform and promises greater interior space than ever before, along with more comfortable and entertaining road manners – and better off-road ability than any vehicle to beat the name since the original, truck-like Mk1 model came off sale.

This is achieved through the addition of a new Terrain Mode in the palette of drive options. Available on vehicles with all-wheel drive (itself an option), this adapts the stability control system, torque distribution and gearbox shift points to help maintain traction in various terrain types. These gearboxes are six and eight-speed autos; the former is standard on 1.6-litre petrol hybrid models, while the latter comes with

TOYOTA HAS LAUNCHED a new after-sales package for small businesses running its commercial vehicles – including the Hilux and Landcruiser van. Called Toyota Professional, this includes a five-year warranty and five years’ roadside assistance. In addition, owners looking to book a service appointment are guaranteed to be offered one, at their convenience, within seven days. If this target cannot be met, they will be given a 50% reduction on the servicing labour charge by way of compensation. The new scheme doesn’t just cover new purchases, either. Existing customers will be offered a rolling package of free roadside assistance which will remain active for as long as they keep servicing their vehicle at Toyota dealers. Toyota Professional is targeting self-employed business people who own or lease just one or two vehicles, as well as small and medium enterprises running fleets of up to 50 light commercials. The company says its message to customers is clear and simple: ‘We’ve got your back.’

8 | MAY 2020

IN PROG Scene May NEW TERRAFIRMA SPONSORSHIP NEEDED.indd 8

a traditional 2.2-litre diesel engine. Outputs are 230bhp and 258lbf. ft for the hybrid and 202bhp and 325lbf.ft for the diesel. UK specifications are yet to be finalised, but towing limits are predicted to be 1650kg and 2500kg respectively. Inside, the Sorento’s cabin reflects its bold exterior styling by adding more premium features and materials than ever before. A 10.25” infotainment screen is mounted alongside a 12.3” digital

dashboard to create what Kia calls ‘an innovative wide-screen user experience’, and other features include mood lighting, wireless charging, surround-sound audio and quilted Nappa leather. There’s a wide range of hightech safety and driver assistance features, too. There include various autonomous functions including emergency braking and motorway lane-keeping, and you’ll be able to use a function on the key fob to make the vehicle drive itself out of a tight parking space to give you enough room to climb aboard. As is now customary on Kias, the Sorento has with a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty. UK prices are yet to be conﬁrmed – as is a deﬁnite launch date, which you’d think could be a movable feast in the current global climate, however Kia’s current schedule is for it to go on sale in Europe this autumn.

Ford’s all-new Kuga is capable of covering up to 31% more distance on a litre of fuel than the model it replaces. The ﬁgures take into account the addition of a plug-in hybrid model to the Kuga range – however Ford says that even like-for-like powertrains are up to 28% more eﬃcient than those they have replaced.

4x4 31/03/2020 21:39

NEW 4X4S

Police dogs ride to work aboard new specially converted Skoda Kodiaq HOT ON THE HEELS of last month’s news that Skoda has delivered a fleet of Kodiaq-based paramedic vehicles to the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, the company has now unveiled another conversion aimed at the blue light services. This is a specialist police dog vehicle featuring twin air-conditioned kennels with temperature monitoring and auxiliary escape hatches for use in emergencies. Built in conjunction with the Policing Authority, the vehicle complies with all RSPCA and DEFRA requirements. It’s available with a wide range of the usual Kodiaq drivetrain options – meaning a choice of petrol and diesel engines rated from 150bhp to 239bhp, manual and twin-clutch automatic gearboxes and two or four-wheel drive. As well as allowing dog units to access more remote areas than typical police vehicles, Skoda says the Kodiaqs allow greater visibility for the human being behind the wheel. There’s enough space for equipment stowage in front of the kennels, too – as well as all the normal requirements stipulated by the emergency services for their vehicles, such as 360° lighting an an engine run lock system. This keeps the engine running after the key is removed from the ignition, allowing it to keep on providing a supply of power for the lights, radios and so on without the battery going flat. The Kodiaq’s growing presence in the specialist fleet sector has been aided by the company’s ‘one stop shop’ service for bespoke conversions. Vehicles are supplied fully converted and come with a full breakdown, service, maintenance and repair package. • Another Kodiaq did service during the winter supporting the British Army’s White Knight 36 skiing exercise in the Swiss Alps. The vehicle, a seven-seat vRS model, was used to transport support personnel, sponsors and military officers as well as their equipment in the snowy and icy conditions.

ardens at the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority have been going about their daily tasks with the help of Mitsubishi’s ever-popular Outlander PHEV. On sale since 2014 and still the UK’s highest-

4x4 Scene May.indd 9

selling plug-in vehicle, the Outlander combines low carbon emissions and high fuel economy with the allround abilities of a genuine 4x4. The vehicle is used in the general maintenance of public rights of way, as well as conservation work on the 20,000 hectares of

upland common that is owned by the authority. The Brecon Beacons National Park, which covers some 519 square miles, has extremely diverse terrain – much of it rugged and inaccessible, which is of course what makes it so popular with visitors.

To cope with this, the Outlander’s twin-motor 4x4 system is often used to help it cart equipment like chainsaws and leaf blowers, as well as heavy loads of fence posts, over rough terrain. And when even this level of mobility isn’t enough, the authority has a ﬂeet of 4x4 quad bikes – which get towed into action by, you guessed it, the Mitsubishi Outlander. ‘The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Commercial is a delightful thing to drive,’ says the Brecons’ Warden Manager Judith Harvey. ‘It has proved amazing off-road and tows the necessary equipment that we need with ease. I can charge the vehicle at home and at the oﬃce, which is also equipped with solar panels, meaning we can charge the vehicle with renewable green energy whenever we can.’

MAY 2020 | 9

01/04/2020 00:16

RIGHTS OF WAY

Plea goes out for user evidence in campaign to re-establish vehicle rights on major green lane in Crychan Forest

armarthenshire County Council’s rights of way team is investigating the status of a historical green lane through the western part of Crychan Forest. The route, between SN 820 390 in the north and SN 822 367 in the south, was used by vehicles over a long period of time up until the spring of 2008 – when the Forestry Commission (Now Natural Resources Wales) placed boulders on it. Andrew Hadley, Carmarthenshire rep for the Green Lane Association, takes up the story: ‘The reasons given at the time for the boulders being put in place was to stop 4x4s and motorbikes from entering the forest via this route and using the other forest tracks in the area. ‘Local users discussed the closure of the route with the forest manager at the time and it was agreed that if evidence could be obtained showing the route as vehicular, then the boulders would be removed. ‘Research was duly carried out and it was discovered that the route appeared on a number of old maps including The Carmarthenshire Map

The green lane in western Crychan Forest has been blocked since 2008, but its reopening would create a long and very signiﬁcant new route by joining it up with another lengthy right of way in the eastern part of the Forest (pictured here)

described as going from County Road to County Road. It was also confirmed that no stopping-up order had ever been processed for the route by Carmarthenshire County Council It was therefore concluded that the route was a County Road.’ With this evidence in hand, the group of local lane users went back to the Forestry Commission – which, perhaps not expecting such a robustly backed response, decided that instead of reopening the route it should pass the matter on to Carmarthenshire County Council, asking it to confirm if the route carried vehicular rights. ‘To date,’ continues Andrew, ‘Carmarthenshire County Council have not been able to confirm this The trail, which runs through the western part of Crychan Forest, appears as it does not appear in any on older OS maps as a minor road. Despite these historical precedents, the of their current highways success of a move to have it correctly recorded appears to depend on user records. However there has evidence from before the Forestry Commision obstructed it in 2008 – so recently been a change of if you’re looking at this map and recognising it as one you’ve driven, the management both within of 1891 and the 1934 Ordnance Survey Quarter Inch Map. Along with this evidence of the route, it was also discovered that the Definitive Statements for the four footpaths that join the route are

Green Lane Associaiton is very keep to hear from you

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Natural Resources Wales and Carmarthenshire County Council, and they are now willing to review the route once again.’ This is where you come in. The authority has asked for user evidence in support of previous vehicular traffic on the lane, which is shown on the map here. If you used it prior to 2008 and especially if you have evidence to prove it (such as photographs or social media posts), please contact Andrew at Carmarthenshire.rep@glass-uk.org and ask for a copy of the user evidence form that the council have provided. Andrew warns that if the route is confirmed as vehicular, GLASS is likely to need to help to reopen it as its condition is likely to have deteriorated significantly over the past 12 years without use. With it once again available to motor vehicles, however, this would certainly be worth the effort – not least because it would combine perfectly with another right of way in the eastern part of Crychan Forest to create a very valuable two-part route in a part of Wales that has long been noted for the quality of its lanes.

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RIGHTS OF WAY

Green Lane Association ventures into the lion’s den at anti-4x4 protest in the Lake District THE GREEN LANE ASSOCIATION attended an unusual event back in February – an anti-4x4 protest. Communications and Media Oﬃcer Lauren Eaton took the organisation’s message into the lion’s den, where she found that while motor vehicles are an object of especial hate, the protesters had their sights set on a lot more besides. ‘Being the only 4x4 representative present was quite overwhelming but also very enlightening,’ reports Lauren. ‘The focus wasn’t just on us for a change – those protesting were doing so against various activities. Zip wires, house boats on Grasmere and anything that wasn’t walking, swimming or horse riding – other recreational pursuits had been branded as “commercialisation” of the park. ‘The buzz phrase of the day was “protection not promotion,” which is slightly ironic as nothing has given more promotion to the Lake District as recent broadcasts and articles from the protesters themselves. ‘I ﬁrst noticed members of a protest group aimed at preventing house boats mooring on Grasmere. I found this odd as the plans to allow ten boats to moor had been scrapped only a few weeks prior. They’d won, but were still protesting

against something that wasn’t going to happen. ‘The meet was hosted by a speaker armed with a megaphone, his words lost to the wind and driving rain. While I couldn’t make out much of his preamble to the march, it was clear that the crowd, which numbered a lot less than the thousands predicted, were not particularly welcoming to other user groups. ‘Among the majority (made up of walkers), there was one representative of the horse riding contingent and a small group of wild swimmers who took to the water dressed ﬂamboyantly. ‘Media attention and coverage was low compared to how the issue has been covered in the past. Only the BBC and The Times showed any interest, claiming that to allow

boats on lakes, vehicles on public roads and zip wires for those with a head for heights would be turning the LNDP into a “theme park.” Meanwhile, having seen none of the above “offensive” user groups in the area, a couple of hundred “acceptable” users ﬁlled the area and proceeded to loudly disturb the tranquillity they claimed they sought to protect. ‘Since the protest, there has been little coverage of the issue in the national press. Focus has been widened to include more user groups than just our 4x4 community and it seems that many who jumped on the bandwagon have become bored with the ongoing saga. That being said, the judicial review is coming up – when it comes to the court case, all we can do is watch and wait.’

STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL has confirmed that two green lanes in the Staffordshire Moorlands district are Unclassified County Roads. Morridge Top, west of Longnor, and Beresford Lane near Warslow, are both now recorded as public highways which can be driven legally in a 4x4 – thanks to the efforts of Lauren Eaton and Russell Cartlidge of GLASS. Beresford Lane has also been cleared to make it physically accessible. • Still in Staffordshire, a lane which has been blocked for years by what appear to be illegal gates is to be investigated by the local authority. Hollywood Lane, whose eastern end adjoins the entrance to the well known Silverdale off-road venue, is a byway for part of its length and an unclassified road for the rest. GLASS member Russell Cartlidge reported the gates to Staffs County Council, whose response was that they knew nothing about them and advised the organisation to file a complaint about an illegal obstruction. • The Rural Crime Team at Devon and Cornwall Police have recently dealt with a number of incidents of illegal off-roading. These included two drivers were issued with s59 warning notices and directed to the Green Lane Association – a policy which the force intends to continue as a way of moving ill-informed 4x4 owners along the correct path.

Evidence sought to save yet another Derbyshire right of way from being administrated out of existence THE GREEN LANE ASSOCIATION is currently gathering evidence to support a claim for Byway status on a well known and much used right of way near Priestcliffe in Derbyshire. New Lane is well known as the trail at the western end of Brushfield – a long and sensationally beautiful lane which was outrageously stripped of its motor vehicle rights in 2017. New lane itself remained open after Brushfield closed, however Derbyshire County Council has now notified user groups that it is investigating the route in a bid to determine its status. This comes in the wake of a Byway claim submitted in 2004 – prior to the morally bankrupt NERC legislation coming into force, which means it does have the potential to succeed. In order for this to happen, the evidence for pre-existing public carriageway rights needs to be sufficiently persuasive. GLASS says it is gathering and examining copies of the available evidence, and will submit a response to the local authority in due course. The Association says that it may be necessary to submit user evidence to Derbyshire County Council to cover the twenty-year period before the Byway claim (that is, 1984 to 2004). A good many people will have used it during that spell – it’s on the OS map, marked as an ORPA, running north-west from Priestcliffe to the B6049 south of Millers Dale. If you can dig out any photos or other records of your travels, or just submit a statement saying you used it, and send them to GLASS Derbyshire Rep Chris Mitchell at derbyshire.rep@glass-uk.org, it might just make the difference.

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CALENDAR KEY

P Off-Road Playday

G Green Lane Convoy Tour

A Overseas Adventure Travel

S 4x4 Show

Dates for playdays are shown up to the end of the month following the magazine’s on-sale date. Dates for green lane tours are shown up to approximately three months ahead, and for shows and overseas adventure tours up to a year ahead, space permitting Important: Especially in the light of the current coronavirus outbreak, you should never travel to an event without ﬁrst checking with the organiser to ensure that it is still going ahead. Note also that inclusion in this listing does not represent any endorsement of the event or organiser by 4x4 magazine. We take great care over the accuracy of this information, but accept no responsibility for the consequences of any errors

4 April

13 April

25-26 April

Off-Roaders P Burnham Tring, Hertfordshire

Events G UKNorthLandrover York Moors

4-5 April

14 April

Road Adventure Travel G Off Wales G Protrax Wales and Tracks G Trails Cumbria, Eden and Yorks Dales

G Tyne and Wear 17 April

Adventure Tours 4x4 Adventures G 4x4 A Active Lake District Portugal Overland Show 8 May S Adventure Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire Adventures 4x4 Adventure Tours G Compass Yorkshire / Lake District G Shrewsbury Landrover Events G Protrax G UKLincoln Wiltshire and Belvoir

4-16 April

17-19 April

Overland A Atlas Morocco Classic

Adventure G Onelife Coast to Coast

5 April

18 April

Off-Roaders P Burnham Tring, Hertfordshire P Hill’n’Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire Bottom P Muddy Minstead, Hampshire Parkwood 4x4 P Tong, Bradford Wood P Picadilly Bolney, West Sussex

Landrover Events G UKYorkshire Dales

Adventure Tours G 4x4 Wye Valley

18-19 April Adventure Tours G 4x4 North Wales G Trailmasters Wales

19 April

26 April

8-25 May

P Whitworth, Lancashire 4x4 P Frickley Frickley, South Yorkshire P Hill’n’Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire Off Road Centre P Kirton Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs Slindon Safari P Slindon, West Sussex Thames Valley 4x4 P Harbour Hill, Berkshire

Overland A Saxonis Greece Pindus Mountains

Cowm Leisure

1-3 May

Without a Club P 4x4 Aldermaston, Berkshire Rochford and District 4x4 P Essex, Rayleigh, Essex 4x4 P Frickley Frickley, South Yorkshire G Protrax Tixover, Northamptonshire Slindon Safari P Slindon, West Sussex Events P UKPeakLandrover District

Adventure Tours G 4x4 Norfolk and Thetford Forest

11 April

24 April – 10 May

Adventure Tours G Green Shropshire / Welsh Borders

Adventure A Ardent Morocco

2-3 May

Off Road Centre P Kirton Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs and Tracks G Trails North York Moors

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Adventure Tours G 4x4 Welsh Borders Land Rover Show S Gaydon Gaydon, Warwickshire Protrax G Wales

Safari A Peru Peru Inca Tracks / Macchu Picchu

22-23 April

25 April

9-10 May

3 May

12 April

11 April

Landrover Events G UKDurham Dales

9-23 May

Trails and Tracks

Adventure Tours G Green Shropshire / Welsh Borders

Adventure G Onelife Yorkshire

9 May

G North Wales

Off Road P Explore Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent British Land Rover Show S Great Newark, Nottinghamshire Bottom P Muddy Minstead, Hampshire Monsters P Mud East Grinstead, West Sussex

7-8 April

UK Landrover Events

4-13 May

P Barton-le-Clay, Bedfordshire Muddy Bottom P Minstead, Hampshire Parkwood 4x4 P Tong, Bradford Picadilly Wood P Bolney, West Sussex Devils Pit

G Ardventures North/Mid Wales Overland G Atlas Wessex UK Landrover Events G Wiltshire

10 May Off-Roaders P Burnham Tring, Hertfordshire Rochford and District 4x4 P Essex, Rayleigh, Essex 4x4 P Frickley Frickley, South Yorkshire Hill’n’Ditch P Mouldsworth, Cheshire Safari P Slindon Slindon, West Sussex Events G UKEdenLandrover District

16 May and Tracks G Trails Northumberland

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16-17 May

30 May

19 June – 3 July

10 July

Adventure Tours G 4x4 North Devon

Off Road Centre P Kirton Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

Adventure A Onelife Greece

Adventure Tours G 4x4 Cotswolds

Adventure G Onelife Yorkshire

31 May

20-21 June

11 July

Leisure P Cowm Whitworth, Lancashire Off Road Centre P Kirton Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs P Protrax Tixover, Northamptonshire

Adventure Tours G 4x4 North Pennines G Trailmasters Yorkshire

and Tracks G Trails County Durham

16-24 May Land Rover Events A UKPyrenees

16-30 May

Atlas Overland Portugal

17 May

P Bottom P Muddy Minstead, Hampshire P Protrax Tixover, Northamptonshire Explore Off Road Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent

20 May – 2 June

Trailmasters Morocco (extreme expedition)

21-25 May

ALRC National Rally Bilsington, Kent

23 May

Green Adventure Tours Shropshire / Welsh Borders

23-24 May

G Protrax Wiltshire 24 May 4x4 P Frickley Frickley, South Yorkshire Safari P Slindon Slindon, West Sussex Valley 4x4 P Thames Brick Kiln Farm, Hampshire

25 May

Hill’n’Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

25-30 May

ALRC National Follow-On Rally Bilsington, Kent

27 May – 10 June

Protrax Pyrenees

11-12 July

20-27 June

Adventure Tours G 4x4 South Wales

1-2 June

Adventure A Ardent Pyrenees

11-24 July

Events G UKEdenLandrover and Tynedale

21 June

A Ardventures Balkans

4 June

Events G UKDalesLandrover and Eden District

13-14 July

Events G UKLakeLandrover District

22 June – 7 July

World Overland G Lost Wales

5 June

Overland A Atlas Corsica

13-19 July

G Ridgeway

25-28 June

A Landtreks East Pyrenees

Adventure Tours G 4x4 Wales (winches only)

13-22 July

4x4 Adventure Tours

5-19 June Road Adventure Travel A Off Pyrenees, Spain

6 June Landrover Events G UKTynedale

6-21 June

A Ardventures Pyrenees, Spain

26-28 June Land Rover Show S Billing Billing, Northamptonshire

27-28 June Off-Road Show S Billing Billing, Northamptonshire Original LR Show S Kelmarsh Kelmarsh, Northamptonshire

4x4 Adventures A Active Alps

16-17 July Landrover Events G UKCumbria/Yorkshire

18 July

G Yorkshire Dales

UK Landrover Events

7 June

28 June – 16 July

18-19 July

G Northumberland

A Albania

G Wessex

8-17 June

1-5 July

19 July

4x4 Adventures A Active Pyrenees

A French Pyrenees

10-24 June

4-5 July

A Protrax Pyrenees G Lake District/North Yorks Dales

Adventure Tours G 4x4 North Yorkshire G Protrax Wales G Trailmasters Lake District

S Malvern, Worcestershire Events G UKNorthLandrover York Moors

13-20 June

5 July

UK Landrover Events

13-14 June Trails and Tracks

Adventure A Ardent Pyrenees

Off Road Adventure Travel

Landtreks

Events G UKTyneLandrover and Wear

15-30 June

8 July

Safari A Peru Jaguar Tracks / Manu Jungle

Events G UKPeakLandrover District

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Atlas Overland

Malvern 4x4 Spares Day

22 July – 5 August

A Peru Inca Tracks / Macchu Picchu Peru Safari

25-26 July

G Protrax Wiltshire 28 July – 9 August

A Landtreks Pyrenees Coast to Coast

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PRODUCTS

Island Ropes introduces new Ox Fibre material as alternative to Dyneema

sland Ropes has revealed its new Ox Fibre range of HMPE winch ropes. Available in five different grades, this promises a cost saving of almost 50% compared to a traditional product with the same breaking load. ’Ox Fibre is a new approach to HMPE winch ropes and is also used for many other applications such as lifting, mooring, yachting and towing,’ explains Island Ropes. ‘For years, Dyneema has held centre stage, providing the answer for many companies – and although its quality cannot be faulted, alternative brands of HMPE fibre are just as impressive in terms of performance.’ The company likes Dyneema so much, in fact, that it continues to stock a full range of ropes made using this old favourite. ‘The team understand the comfort that comes with a well-known and reputable brand,’ it says. ‘For some clients, the name holds significant value when sourcing high-strength ropes for industrial actions. For this reason, Island Ropes supply Dyneema SK75,

SK78 and SK99 alongside their Trademarked Ox Fibre.’ The new ropes are offered from 1.5mm to 70mm as standard, with even larger sizes available upon request. They are graded from OX10 to OX40 to represent the minimum breaking load of the ﬁnished rope – and the range also offers the latter with a specialist coating designed to prolong the material’s life in high-abrasion applications. Island Ropes describes itself as ‘a company with an ethos as strong as their rope, with employees with an exceptionally strong knowledge of both the winching products and the market.’ Its team includes in-house splicing and rigging experts, allowing it to tailor ropes to its customers’ individual needs, and by working with leading EU manufacturers and maintaining higher than normal stock levels it says it is able to offer eight different types of break load. ‘We realised that the customer was limited to one product when buying from a manufacturer,’ says MD Steve Hayman. ‘We differ

because we can offer a selection of rope to meet their needs, based on criteria such as diameter, break load, price and delivery, rather than being restricted to a singular product.’

Want to know more? Island Ropes’ entire range is available to view and order through its website – which is there for you at www. islandropes.co.uk.

Ironman Deluxe Bull Bar – a winch mount for Suzuki Jimny owners who want to go the whole hog A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO on these pages, we featured Ironman’s new Winch Bumper for the current Suzuki Jimny. And a very fine thing it is, too. But if you want to go a step further, here’s the same company’s Deluxe Bull Bar. Manufactured to Ironman’s usual standards (which is to say that it’s a proper job), this is made from premium grade pickled steel and SPHC oil for maximum strength and rust resistance and constructed using 360° robotic welds. Its design is based on 3D scanning to ensure a perfect fit on the vehicle which is, in the company’s own words, ‘both accurate and stylish, enhancing the (Jimny’s) body shape.’ A matt black power-coated finish does no harm when it comes to style, and the bar’s design incorporates LED side and indicator lights as well as providing a safely recessed space for the vehicle’s own DRLs and headlamp washers. If you’re using it with a winch (and, certainly in the UK, we can’t imagine wanting to do anything else), this is mounted on a remote cradle, taking excess weight away from the structure of the bar itself. Further features include high-lift jacking points and upper mounts for twin aerials and a range of lights. The bar is full compliant with the Australian equivalent of construction and use regulations (called Australian Design Rules) and is compatible with the vehicle’s airbags. This means it should be road-legal in the UK (the Department for Transport’s current guidance is that bull bars ‘should comply with safety standards before they can be sold or fitted’), however we’d recommend getting an assurance on this from the importer before signing on the line. Said importer is West Coast Off-Road, as it is for everything Ironman. You’ll find them at www.westcoastoffroad.co.uk, while Ironman itself is at www.ironman4x4.com.

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4x4 31/03/2020 21:42

ALL MODELS WELCOME | RUMMAGE STANDS | OFF-ROAD DRIVING EXPERIENCE

LAND ROVER SUNDAY 12 JULY 2020

Be part of the action:

beaulieuevents.co.uk

01590 614614 New Forest | Hampshire | SO42 7ZN

PRODUCTS

ARB’s adds new models to Zero range of in-vehicle fridge freezers

t hardly seems like any time since we were telling you about ARB’s new Zero range of in-vehicle fridge-freezers. But the Australian overlanding giant has already doubled the number of options available. The range now offers four different sizes and includes single

and dual-zone models, offering you the choice of just a fridge or, if you want it, the full works. There’s plenty of ﬂexibility within what’s on offer, too. For starters, there are 44L and 60L single-zone fridges. Then there are 69L and 96L dual-zone fridge-freezers. Plenty of options there, but there’s more. The 60L, 69L and 96L units, for example, all feature a quick-release reversible lid, which can be swapped over for left or right-handed opening to suit the conﬁguration of your vehicle or camping trailer.

In a similar vein, all models feature front and rear 12-volt inlets – offering further ﬂexibility in the way they can be positioned within your vehicle. This makes it easier to pre-chill them at home, too, and to hook them when you’re staying somewhere with mains power. All the fridges also have a 240-volt inlet at the front – as well as a USB outlet for charging your devices. The fridge freezers have a boost function for rapid cool-down, as well as anti-condensation technology designed to keep their

contents fresh and dry. Dual-zone models have independent controls for each of their compartments, too – as well as wireless operation via an app on compatible Bluetooth devices. It’s all to be found by visiting www.arb.com.au.

MILNER OFF ROAD Est. 1981

FILTERS • DISCS • PADS • BELTS • CLUTCHES • TYRES • SNORKELS

Jeep Wrangler Accessories and Custom Conversions: 01482 666491 www.StormJeeps.com

www.milneroffroad.com TEL: 01629 734411

Mon-Fri: 8am - 5:30pm Sat: 8am - 12:30pm

16 | MAY 2020

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PRODUCTS

MIG 135TE from Clarke promises to be a serious welder at sensible money YOU CAN SPEND A SMALL FORTUNE ON WELDING KIT, and if that’s what you need to do it’ll be money well spent. But for DIY-style jobs on your 4x4, or if you’re just getting into it and are still learning the tricks of the trade, Clarke says its MIG 135TE unit is one of the most popular choices in its range. This value-for-money welding outfit is, Clarke says, easy to set up and use. It has turbo fan cooling for prolonged full-power welding, as well as professional style, non-live torches – ‘a distinct advantages to the more inexperienced welder.’ The MIG 135TE has power settings from 30-130amps and can weld mild steel up to a thickness of 5mm. Its case has a hinged side door for easy access to the wire reel, which is capable of holding wire sizes of 0.6-0.8mm, and the instrument panel contains four power selector switches as well as a variable electronic wire speed control. The kit comes with a 390g CO2 gas bottle, regulator, mild steel wire, professional type torch assembly, earth clamp and mask, as well as a comprehensive user instruction manual – as Clarke puts it, ‘everything needed to get welding within minutes!’ At £299.98, that’s a lot of kit for your money – to find out more, just pay a visit to www.machinemart.co.uk. • Also from Clarke, and available via Machine Mart, is the dual-purpose MIG 145 No-Gas/Gas MIG Welder. Suitable for use on mild steel up to 4mm thick, this ‘offers the advantages of standard MIG welding without the need for gas bottles, producing excellent results in various conditions.’ The unit has a non-live torch which can be put down without sparking, as well as electronic wire speed control and thermal overload protection with auto reset. Power settings can be adjusted from 35-135amps. The MIG 145 costs £203.98, also from www.machinemart.co.uk.

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MAY 2020 | 17

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Ford Ranger Big Brake Kit Ad - Jan 2020 - UK.pdf

28/01/2020

PRODUCTS

17:31

BIG BRAKING PERFORMANCE!

WITH PEDDERS TRAKRYDER EXTREME BRAKE KITS BRAKE KITS

Reconditioned four-pin Land Rover diffs – they don’t come cheap…

ADJUSTABLE 4X4 SUSPENSION

CMY

Stainless steel abutments.

For the discerning driver who is particular about how eXtreme Brake Kit. The braking results are staggering with the inclusion of a larger 6 pot caliper design, high tech TrakRyder eXtreme kevlar ceramic pads mated with a 10 slot dimpled and geomet coated larger diameter rotor. Bigger braking surface means bigger stopping power. With the fitment of the all new Pedders TrakRyder eXtreme brake kit, independent Australian Engineering tests reflected an average improvement in braking distance by up to 14%.

Features: • Stainless steel braided hoses. • 10 slot and dimpled TrakRyder geomet coated rotors 14”/356mm diameter (OE 11.85”/301mm). • TrakRyder eXtreme Kevlar Ceramic low dust brake pads. • TrakRyder eXtreme 6 pot design caliper brackets and bolts. • 6 Pot, 2 piece aluminium forged calipers. • High grade alloy steel brake pad insulators. • Stainless steel pistons.

Specialising in Suspension solutions since 1950 For further information go to www.pedders.co.uk or please contact your local Pedders experts.

01296 711 044 info@pedders.co.uk

* Independent Australian engineering test results proved that at 100kmh the TrakRyder eXtreme Brake Kit system upgrade stopped on average 11m sooner than original distances are reduced by 21%. This kit is suited for 18” wheels or larger. Further details available in store and on our website. Suits Ford Ranger PX & PXII Models.

RLG Tyres

Tyres cheap. Not cheap tyres!!

OFFICIAL STOCKIST

Main supplier of and all major 4x4 tyres

Groundcare • Car • ATV • Tubes • Mobile Tyre Fitting Puncture Equipment & Repairs • Four Wheel Alignment Durrants Farm, Rushlake Green, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 9QB

Workshop: 01435 830664 Mobile: 07710 372672 Email: chris@rlgtyres.co.uk

www.rlgtyres.co.uk

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ou know what people say about Land Rovers needing parts more often, but at least they’re cheap? Well, those people obviously haven’t ever had to buy a reconditioned four-pin diff for a Defender or P38 Range Rover. If you know your Landies, you’ll appreciate that there’s a reason why this is pricey stuff we’re talking about. It’s pricey because it’s rare. It’s rare and it’s highly sought after, and when you put those things together there’s only one outcome. These 24-spline bad boys are suitable for Td5-engined 110s

and 130s from 2002 onwards, in addition to 110s only from throughout the 2.4 and 2.2 TDCi era. They’re also compatible with the second-generation Range Rover, which is where you’d imagine most of them come from prior to being reconditioned. The price? It varies, but it’s a case of shopping around at Britpart dealers, but you’ll do well to get one for less than about £725 including the VAT – and we’ve seen them for a good bit more. Still, spend it once, spend it right. Step one on the road to doing so is to pay a visit to www.britpart.com.

IF YOU’VE GOT a Jeep Wrangler JL in your life, lucky you. Not just because you’ve got a Jeep Wrangler JL in your life, but because it means you can fit it with this LED Third Brake Light Ring from Rugged Ridge. Mounting behind the spare, this is a ring of 93 bright red LEDs which project brightly through the wheel’s spokes. It’s meant to be a practical solution for vehicles with outsize spare tyres that obscure the factory-fit third brake light – and it is, but mainly it looks cool. It comes with a five-year warranty, which is also cool.If you want Rugged Ridge kit in the UK, a very good place to look for it is at Jeep specialist Jeepey – they’re at www.jeepey.com.

4x4 31/03/2020 21:40

PRODUCTS

Britpart introduces modern wheels with the classic One-Tonne look

SPECIALIST 4X4 VEHICLE DISMANTERS JEEP - LAND ROVER AND MOST MAKES AND MODELS QUALITY GUARANTEED USED PARTS SOME OF THE VEHICLES WE HAVE RECENTLY DISMANTLED:

BRITPART’S VAST RANGE of bits for Land Rovers has become that bit more vast, with the addition of these extremely cool 8x16” Large Offset Steel Wheels. These are designed in the style of the heavy-duty rims used on the iconic One-Tonne version of the 109” that was sold from 1968 to 1977 – however they’re wider, allowing them to accommodate a more modern tubeless tyre. The wheels have the usual ﬁve-stud pattern and PCD to let them bolt on to traditional Land Rover axles. However they also have an et00 offset, making them suitable if you want to built something with the same four-square stance as the One-Tonne itself. These are no ordinary Land Rover rims, and this is reﬂected by a typical price of about £190 a pop. You get what you pay for, though. Track down a set by checking in at www.britpart.com

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

THE SPARE WHEEL PROTECTOR from 4x4 Overlander is designed to, well, protect your spare wheel. It covers the nuts holding it in place and can be further secured with a padlock. Since any bad person now can’t get to the spare wheel nuts they’re liable to give up and go elsewhere. Or, as 4x4 Overlander rather diplomatically puts it, ‘making the spare wheel nuts inaccessible will slow down the unauthorised removal of the spare wheel.’ The Spare Wheel Protector is available for a wide variety of vehicles old and new. It’s priced at £75 including the VAT and is available by visiting www.4x4overlander.com.

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2016 RANGE ROVER EVOQUE 2.0 TD4

2008 HONDA CRV 2.2 CDTI

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

MAY 2020 | 19

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DRIVEN

DACIA DUSTER

Second-generation version of the all-time value champion doesn’t try to be special but manages to be competent in almost every way ON TEST Duster dCi 115 4x4 Comfort

he Dacia Duster is famous for being the SUV that cost less than ten grand new when it ﬁrst went on sale in the UK. It scored massive sales on the back of its low price – and the fact that behind the badge, it was built on time-served Nissan technology. People cottoned on pretty quickly to the fact that if you wanted one with four-wheel drive, and a decent level of equipment, the ten grand barrier would be a thing you looked down upon from on high. All the same, the Duster offered a strong combination of SUV skills at a price no-one else could match, and the results were there for all to see. This second-generation model plays much the same hand. It’s all Renault/Nissan hardware down

20 | MAY 2020

7pp Road Tests May.indd 20

below, behind a suit of clothes whose tailoring has changed little. We have the dCi 115 4x4 Comfort model here. This is a mid-range job whose spec includes air-con, Bluetooth, DAB sat-nav, cruise and 16” alloys for a list price of £17,995 on the road. There are three different spec levels above it, none of which are outrageously expensive but, equally, none of which make what looks like a castiron case for digging any further into your pocket.

CABIN AND PRACTICALITY Build quality is better than you might expect. The dash plastics feel cheap, but it’s very stoutly put

together and there’s hardly any creaking or movement when it’s manhandled. The controls have a solidly analogue feel to them, too, which is good as the infotainment system that’s standard in this model doesn’t control a wide range of functions the way these things can.

The screen itself is smallish, but it’s contained within an enormous shroud that’s stuck on to the facia rather than being part of it. There’s a bit of a colour-by-numbers feel to the display graphics, but the sat-nav works ﬁne and it’s all pretty simple to operate.

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Above: The Duster’s cabin feels simple and effective rather than all-out cheap. Its plastics, for example, are hard and scratchy, but they’re assembled with a solidity that puts many more expensive SUVs to shame Below: Seats are comfortable enough and their trim feels adequate, though we can imagine it taking a shine with age. Knee room in the back is limited if you’re behind a tall driver, and headroom too is less than inspiring. The seats drop near-flat for cargo carrying, creating a load bay that’s as long as you could dare to hope for in a vehicle of this size The design of the dash is pretty straightforward, but it comes over as being unpretentious rather than too basic. There are three circular air vents along the top of the facia and two on the extremes, which has a distinctly old-school Mercedes feel to it. Not something we can imagine being an accident. Even so, it’s not trying to fool you into thinking it’s something it’s not. We’ve known budget vehicle that have come over all tarty by lobbing fake wood trim on top of a fundamentally cheap design, and it’s not a good look. Our notes on the Duster include the phrase ‘all knickers and no fur coat,’ which

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hardly sounds like fulsome praise but far better that than the other way round. Oddment stowage is a bit of a mish-mash, with a huge glovebox and deep door pockets doing the bulk of the work while a floor console that doesn’t have a proper cubby box, and the world’s most pointless thing shaped like a pen tray in the top of the dash, do the bulk of the making you roll your eyes. The door pockets go so far back that you need a universal joint in your wrist to get your hand into them, which makes them handy if you want to store long items or, more likely, lose small ones.

The other kind of stuff-carrying is taken care of quite effectively by rear seats which fold as good as flat with a simple one-shot action. The rear lip is a little high, but the aperture is big enough to handle a decent sized visit to Ikea as well as the inevitable tip run that will come after it. As for people, the seats are accommodating enough if hardly what you’d call cutting-edge. Their bases and backs are very wide, and the padding material in the bolsters is quite soft and squidgy, but you can get comfortable easily and it stays that way on a long journey. The trim material is tough enough

but does feel as if it might get a bit shiny with age, however leg and elbow room are fine and headroom is exceptional. You get a good view, too, from a driving position that’s nice and high without being awkwardly perched. The A-posts don’t obscure your field of vision, though the waistline rises towards the back so your view over your shoulder isn’t great. This model has a reversing camera, and we felt pretty grateful for it. Something you won’t feel as grateful for is the space in the back seats. If you’re an adult of any height sat behind someone similarly tall, your knees will be stuck well

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DRIVEN into the back of the seats in front of you; they’re soft and recessed, but it’s still not what you want for a long journey. Headroom isn’t great, either, though the headrest will be sticking into your back so you’ll feel like you need to hunch forward anyway. There’s not a lot of leeway for moving the front seat forward to obviate all this, either – if you’re a six-footer, you’ll need to have it pretty much the whole way back in order to feel comfortable.

DRIVING It’s all pretty simple. The Duster feels like a car you just drive; many modern SUVs require a good bit of learning before you get fully to grips with them, but there’s nothing fancy or complex going on here. The engine isn’t laden with power, at 115bhp and 192lbf.ft, but it pulls firmly and, while certainly not the last word in refinement, stops short of being raucous. Overall, it’s a huge improvement all-round on the old model, with a significant step up in refinement and the same nononsense ease of use. If you’re the kind of person who thinks unremarkable cars are the devil, you’ll hate it. It just does the job, with no sparkle but also no vices. It’s exactly how you expect it to be, and again that’s a step up over the old one which was stodgy around town and disappointingly loud on the motorway. This time, it’s settled on urban roads, drawing the sting of speed

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bumps and jagged pot holes alike. It’s not a magic carpet, but it’s not going to loosen your dentures or send you running to the chiropractor either. It’s adequate on the motorway, too, with a steadiness to its body control and much improved sound deadening; it’s no discovery, nor indeed is it a Skoda Karoq, but its close enough for the difference in price no longer to be met by an instant ‘yeah, but.’ On A and B-roads, it’s exactly as you’d expect – which is to say that it grips well, handles tidily and has enough feel to its steering so as not to be offensively bland. It’s not trying to achieve specialness in this or any other area – more important is to avoid rubbishness, and in this it’s job done. We have no reason to doubt the oﬃcial ﬁgure of 48.7mpg, either.

That’s WLTP data, rather than powder-puf NEDC kind, so you can actually believe it. You can take the Duster off-road, too, should you want to. Many mainstream car magazines seem to have concluded that it must be some sort of giant-killer here; ground clearance is enough to be going on with at 210mm, but with

no low-range gearbox it’s only ever going to get you so far. That’s hardly news, and the Duster does manage to be both tractable and ﬂexible enough to get about on rough ground. Certainly, as an all-weather car for general countryside duties, you’d have to be asking the wrong type of questions to get the wrong kind of answers.

★★★★✩

Dacia Duster dCi 115 4x4 Comfort Good value if you want to buy new – and this model feels like the pick of the range The Duster is a decent all-rounder with a good bit of equipment for a tempting price, and this mid-range model has the feel of a best-buy. Its running costs are modest enough, too; as always, there’s the nagging presence of the used market to muddy the waters, but if you want your name to be ﬁrst on the logbook and twenty grand is your upper limit, you won’t ﬁnd much to challenge it

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A breath of fresh air for your Land Rover

“Breathing efficiency for your engine means more power or better fuel mileage” > Easy fit, directly replaces standard air filter. > Ideal for use in hot dusty conditions to reduce engine wear. > No need to replace as easy cleaning means maximum performance guaranteed. > Maximum breathing efficiency for your engine means more power or better fuel mileage. > Compatible with snorkels, ideal for use in conjunction with other performance modifications. > No compromise on quality - the engine gets more air but the dirt particles are trapped by the quality filters. > Filters don’t need pre-oiling and if the filter gets dirty there is no need to use a cleaner to clear the dirt on the filter - just use air, water or detergent. Corresponds To Series 3 DA3138 4-cylinder - fits Zenith and Weber carbs DA4274 605191 LWB - 3.5 V8 - 2 filters required 1979 - 1982 Defender DA4269 DA4269 DA4270 DA4262 DA4262 DA4260 DA4379 Discovery 1 DA4274 DA4262 DA4262 DA4268 DA4264 DA4261 DA4261 DA4261 Discovery 2 DA4260 DA4260 Discovery 3 DA3139 Discovery 4 DA3139 DA4376 Discovery Sport DA4637 Freelander 1 DA4267 DA4267 DA4263 DA4260 Freelander 2 DA4375 DA4637

NRC9238 NRC9238 NTC6660 NTC1435 ESR2623 ESR4238 PHE500060 605191 NTC1435 ESR2623 RTC4683 ESR1049 ESR1445 ESR1445 ESR1445 ESR4238 ESR4238 PHE000112 PHE000112 LR011593 LR029078 ESR4103 ESR4103 PHE100500L ESR4238 LR005816 LR029078

2.5 petrol 2.5 D & Td 2.5 200Tdi 2.5 300Tdi 2.5 300Tdi Td5 Puma

1983 - 1990 1983 - 1990 1990 - 1993 1994 - 1997 1994 - 1997 1999 - 2007 2007 -

Corresponds To Range Rover Classic DA4274 605191 DA4272 DA4266

3.5 V8 carb - 2 filters required 1972 - 1986 3.5 carb V8 - cone type off-road extreme power filter 2 filters required 3.5 carb V8 - cone type - replaces 605191 2 filters required 3.5i V8 Efi 1985 - 1989 2.4D VM Turbo 1986 - 1992 2.4D VM Turbo 1986 - 1992 2.5D VM Turbo 1986 - 1992 2.5D VM Turbo 1986 - 1992 3.9i 1989 - 1994 4.0i V8 1990 - 1995 4.2i V8 1990 - 1995 4.6i V8 1990 - 1995 2.5 200Tdi 1991 - 1993 2.5 300Tdi 1993 - 1995 3.9i V8 Efi 1992 - 1994

DA4268 RTC4683 DA4262 NTC1435 DA4262 ESR2623 DA4262 NTC1435 DA4262 ESR2623 DA4268 RTC4683 DA4265 ESR341 DA4265 ESR341 3.5 V8 carb - 2 filters required 1989 - 1990 DA4265 ESR341 2.5 200Tdi 1989 - 1992 DA4264 ESR1049 2.5 200Tdi 1989 - 1992 DA4261 ESR1445 3.5i V8 Efi 1990 - 1993 DA4261 ESR1445 2.5 200Tdi 1992 - 1994 Range Rover P38 2.0i Mpi petrol DA4265 ESR341 Diesel up to TA346793 2.5 300Tdi 1994 - 1997 DA4265 ESR341 Petrol up to TA346793 3.9i V8 1994 - 1997 DA4260 ESR4238 Diesel from TA346794 up to VA376579 DA4260 ESR4238 Petrol from VA346794 up to VA376579 Td5 1999 - 2004 DA4260 ESR4238 Diesel from WA376580 4.0i 1999 - 2004 DA4260 ESR4238 Petrol from WA385949 up to WA410481 DA4265 ESR341 Petrol from WA376580 up to WA385948 2.7 V6 diesel, 4.0 V6 petrol & 4.4 V8 petrol DA4260 ESR4238 Petrol from XA410482 Range Rover Sport 2.7 V6 diesel, 3.0 V6 diesel & 4.0 V6 petrol 2.7 V6 diesel, 4.0 V6 petrol DA3139 PHE000112 2005 - 2013 5.0 V8 - nat. asp. & 4.4 V8 petrol 2010 - 2013 DA4376 LR011593 5.0 V8 nat. asp. & supercharged 2.0 petrol & 2.2 diesel 2014 Range Rover L322 DA4378 PHE000050 4.4 V8 (BMW engine) 2002 - 2005 1.8 16v 1997 - 2000 DA4377 PHE500021 4.4 V8 nat. asp. 2006 - 2009 2.0i Tcie diesel (Rover engine) 1997 - 2000 DA4377 PHE500021 4.2 V8 supercharged 2006 - 2009 2.0 Td4 (BMW engine) 2001 - 2006 DA4377 PHE500021 3.6 Td8 2007 - 2009 V6 petrol DA4259 PHE000040 Td6 2002 - 2009 DA4376 LR011593 4.4 Td8 2010 - 2012 Petrol & diesel DA4376 LR011593 5.0 V8 nat. asp. & supercharged 2010 - 2012 from CH000001 - 2.0 petrol Range Rover Evoque LR029078 2.0 petrol & 2.2 diesel DA4637

Images of each filter go to www.britpart.com/filters

DRIVEN

SKODA KODIAQ VRS

High-performance version of one of the best SUVs ever made promises driving thrills aplenty in addition to top-end family motoring ON TEST Kodiaq 2.0 BiTDI 239 vRS

he Skoda Kodiaq is one of the best 4x4s the world has ever seen. It does everything very well, with the exception of the things it does absolutely brilliantly. Which is almost all of them.

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We already loved the Kodiaq before, a couple of years ago, we got one for a year on long-term test. By the time it went home, we loved it more than ever. As well as all its other virtues, our Kodiaq was a wonderfully

entertaining B-road vehicle. Mated to a delightful six-speed manual box, its 2.0 TDI 150 engine gave it loads of pace and, with parent company Volkswagen’s latest chassis and transmission technology, was just wonderfully agile and easy to control. So the Kodiaq vRS ought to be even more entertaining. Those three letters stand for performance in Skoda’s lexicon of badges – and with that same 2.0 TDI engine now tuned for 239bhp and 369lbf.ft, it should have a good bit of pace. Everything’s relative, of course, and these days you can get SUVs that’ll monster the 0-62 sprint in less than 4.0 seconds. That’s fast

like a Lamborghini Countach or Diablo. By contrast, the vRS’ 7.0 seconds sounds almost middling – but then, we’re talking about the difference between a £43,390 seven-seater and the sort that cost twice as much. We’re also talking about a family SUV with a massive list of standard equipment and the ability to return 35.3mpg. So you can forgive it for being warm rather than hot. What you couldn’t forgive it for is not being a Kodiaq. So the good news is that that’s exactly what it is. It has the commanding driving position, impeccable build quality, superb equipment and exceptional use of space that have made the

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There are plenty of sporty touches in the vRS’ design, from its aggressive front bumper and exhaust finishers to the red stitching throughout its cabin. There’s no end of badging to remind you of what it is, including on the auto shifter – though we think it would be a better vehicle with a manual gearstick there instead. As the third row of seats demonstrates, though, ultimately this is a family wagon first and foremost

vehicle such a stand-out SUV ever since its launch. You can of course get all this without spending as much money. The otherwise range-topping Kodiaq L&K costs from £38,610 – though for that you only get the 2.0 TDI 150 engine and manual box, whereas the vRS’ 239bhp unit comes as standard with a sevenspeed auto. A more comparable L&K would be the TDI 190 auto, which costs from £40,770 – but however you look at it, you’re paying strong money for the extra performance the vRS brings. So. Is that money well spent? Well, obviously the ultra-SUVs we referred to earlier, which can melt the tarmac on their way to a subfour sprint time, tend to be powered by huge and/or highly tuned petrol engines. They also tend to be fairly unusable on the road – or at least, they have so much power that you’re forever nursing them rather than cutting loose. Skoda has previous for using diesel power in its vRS models, though. The original Fabia vRS used a 1.9 TDI unit – and it was everything a GTI should be, with blat-blat-blat manual gearing and non-stop wring-my-neck grinworthiness. So the Kodiaq is in good company. Expecting that same rawness and immediacy from a seven-seat SUV with an auto gearbox is a leap of faith, though. But the Kodiaq does impress with its pace, not least because you can engage

Sport mode and take control of the box with paddles behind the steering wheel. You do need to do these things, however, because without them the vRS feels a little ordinary. Riding on 20” alloys, its suspension feels a touch more nervous on the road than an everyday Kodiaq, but there’s precious little to suggest that you’re in a big-money range-topper. This is fine for the family-car part of its character. Get your configurations sorted, though, and it does become a lot livelier – complete with a synthesised exhaust note throbbing away in the cabin to get you in the mood. And yes, the vRS can be hustled down a B-road. Keep the box in manual and you learn to lean on the engine’s torque, even if this feels nothing like as natural as doing the same thing with a proper mechanical stick-shifter. Being a diesel, of course, the fun starts to run out pretty early in the rev range, though by this time you should be backing off anyway if you have any care for your licence. All things considered, the Kodiaq’s handling is remarkably

capable. You get Dynamic Chassis Control as standard on this model, allowing all the fine-tuning modern science has yet made possible – but just as the automatic box means there’s a middle man between you and the car’s performance, its adaptive shocks and electronically weighted steering can’t help but add a degree of numbness to its dynamics. Don’t let’s forget the role that weight plays in this, either. This is a comprehensively equipped family wagon with things like climate control and heated, electrically operated seats, and it weighs in at a nut insubstantial1853kg. If Skoda’s engineers had been told to put performance first, they’d have stripped out as much of that stuff as possible – and no doubt they’d have done without an extra pair of seats in the boot, out behind the rear axle line, too. Had it been us, we’d also have bolted a manual box to the back of the engine. Yes, the everpopular DSG auto is very good and tremendously flexible, but when you’re in the mood to have fun there’s always a nagging feeling

that between your own inputs and all this engineering, you’re working to stop the wrong things happening rather than just being able to enjoy the right ones. To compare it with our old longtermer, which was so much more entertaining on B-roads than we expected, its output was 90bhp and 118lbf.ft less than the vRS. But we enjoyed driving it more – and, from A to B on the same roads, we covered ground just as quickly. That was without playing with the drive modes, too – something we rarely bothered with. So we can’t help but conclude that a manual gearbox would transform the vRS. More power doesn’t make it more involving – and though it’s faster than other Kodiaqs, that doesn’t necessarily make it more fun. None of this changes the fact that it’s brilliant, simply by dint of being a Kodiaq. The vehicle it’s based on is a five-star car all day long, and we only gave it five because we can’t count up to six. But while the Kodiaq is an outstanding SUV, the vRS is not an outstanding Kodiaq.

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DRIVEN

ISUZU D-MAX AT35 Range-topping double-cab, converted before registration by Arctic Trucks, gains new suspension and spec revisions but retains its 35” tyres and in-your-face off-road intent

IT STILL DOESN’T SEEM that long since Isuzu debuted the original version of the D-Max AT35, but believe it or not what you’re looking at here is the third incarnation of the vehicle. The ﬁrst, which was based on the pre-facelift model with the old 2.5 TD engine, caused a stir simply on the basis that it was a proper off-roader with big suspension and even bigger tyres, and manufacturers bring those to the market about as frequently as England win the World Cup.

Since then, there’s been a new AT35 based on the facelifted 1.9 TD D-Max. And now here’s a revised version of that, with the same basic vehicle underpinning it but a few spec changes designed mainly to make it more upmarket. As before, the AT35 is converted pre-registration by Arctic Trucks. This means it’s classed as a standard, unmodified factory vehicle for insurance purposes and retains Isuzu’s excellent 5-year, 125,000-mile warranty. You pay for the privilege, though. The AT35 is priced at £39,995 as standard and £40,995 with an automatic gearbox, and in each case that’s plus VAT. So you’ll be knocking on the door of fifty grand to put one on the road as a private punter, making it one of the most expensive one-tonners on the market. That fact hasn’t changed, however. Though as we’ve mentioned, some things about the vehicle have. The most visible of the upgrades are new seats with quilted leather trim and contrasting stitching. These do look much better than the old design, and they add a definite highlight to a cabin that’s very well made but otherwise pretty sombre to look at.

Isuzu works to a high standard of build quality, and the D-Max’s cabin still feels as stout and solidly made as ever. Its styling is rather last-generation now, however – perhaps no surprise, with an all-new model on the way. It’s tough and practical, all the same, and you can’t argue with the list of equipment

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Revised side steps featuring Arctic Trucks’ new logo are the most visible difference between this AT35 and the model that came before it, though you’d be doing well to notice. Inside, the updates are much more apparent – quilted leather seats with contrasting stitching replace the rather plain style the appeared in the old model, and the infotainment system is upgraded to a higher-spec system with DAB, Bluetooth and smartphone mirroring They’re comfortable, too, and have electric adjustment on the driver’s side if you like that sort of thing. We’d trade it for an adjustable lumbar support, though, as we found ourselves squirming around once or twice on long journeys. The seating position is excellent, though, and of course you get an imperious view of the world around you. Another upgrade over the old model is the adoption of a 9” touch-screen multimedia system. This is very well specced, with sat-nav, Bluetooth, DAB and phone mirroring as well as nine-speaker audio, and it’s straightforward enough to operate. It’s mounted on the dash rather than in it, however, and the graphics look a bit last-generation – though in practice most people will just fire up Apple CarPlay and that will be that. The screen becomes a reversing camera when required, though the picture quality isn’t anything special and it’s prone to lens flare if you’re backing towards a bright light. There are audible sensors, too, though, so don’t go looking for anyone else to blame if you reverse it into someone else’s property. Also useful in preventing embarrassment may be the front blind-spot camera that’s now part of the AT35 package. You get a wireless charging pad, too, which is tucked away in the glovebox – leaving the centre cubby to shoulder the burden of looking after your odds and ends, which it will do with ease. Overall, this is a D-Max like any other D-Max inside, only a bit more so. It won’t stop you looking at pictures of the new model, which is due in Britain around the end of this year, and thinking that THIS time they’ve got it spoton, but it makes enough of the current design not to feel tediously utilitarian. It’s rugged and, truth to tell, quite plain, but it’s well kitted and manages to strike a good balance between comfort and solidity. On the outside, the AT35’s appearance continues to be dominated by its 315/70R17 Nokian Rotiiva tyres. It has a mixture of modifications to allow room for these, including wheelarch trimming, a raised body mounts and a suspension lift, though the latter is now achieved by Bilstein rather than Fox hardware. These are both top-quality brands and the new springs and shocks do every bit as good a job as the old ones of controlling all that unsprung mass. You do get more fidgeting coming through the steering and body, and the rear can rumble around pretty heavily when it hits a pot hole or speed

4x4 7pp Road Tests May.indd 27

bump, but body control is pretty remarkable considering the size of the tyres, especially when running unladen, and it settles down well when you’re cruising on the motorway. Off-road, the tyres’ width gives the D-Max a four-square stance but doesn’t make it ideal for a lot of the conditions you tend to encounter in Britain. We’d prefer something narrower for the sort of sloppy mud and wet grass you’ll spend a lot of your life on if you do it in this country, and those huge wheelarches are asking for trouble on tree-lined green lanes. A new design of rock sliders will give you some protection here, at least. The tyres do mould themselves well to the ground if you let some air out of them, however, which aids the AT35’s ability to crawl over rough terrain. It would do this better with a locking rear diff, however, as there’s only so far a flexible live axle can take you – especially when the springs trying to do the flexing have to be able to hold up a tonne of cargo when they’re at the day job. Truth to tell, for the vast majority of AT35s the day job involves nothing more than looking cool. They tend to be bought be well off customers for whom they’ll be a second or third car that gets brought out for making a statement on the road. Those rock sliders will help there, as they feature Arctic Trucks’ new logo, and we all know how important than it when you want everyone to know what you’re driving. It’s easy to sneer at the AT35, but it was built for a specific off-road purpose and in its element, it’s very capable indeed. For off-roading as we understand it, there are better options in the Isuzu range – but if you want a double-cab that stands out from (and above) the crowd, this is it. And if that’s the kind of buyer you are, this revised model will appeal to you more than ever.

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COOL BRITANNIA

Having spent the last seven years selling only to the North American clients, Land Rover restorer Arkonik has at last returned to Britain. Which is great news for customers at the top of the market, because the company rebuilds Defenders to the very highest standard â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and the new show truck it created to mark its relaunch here is among the coolest 110s youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll ever see Words: Dan Fenn Pictures: Alan Kidd and Arkonik

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n last month’s issue, we reported the news that Somerset-based Land Rover restorer Arkonik is once again to start building vehicles for customers in the UK. The company withdrew from its domestic market in 2012 to concentrate on North America – a decision which has seen it grown strongly in the intervening years and given it the platform to come back to Britain with its unique offering of high-end resto-mods. The vehicles it builds have been developing during that time, too. Arkonik’s own premises are more like a manufacturing factory than a restoration workshop, and it uses a network of the very highest quality suppliers. But in recent times, it has opened a post-registration facility in South Carolina, allowing it to start offering Chevrolet LS3 V8 engine and 6L80E 6-speed automatic gearbox conversions to customers in the USA – and this drivetrain will also be available in the UK. To demonstrate the point, earlier this year Arkonik unveiled what it calls ‘the most powerful, tech-laden vehicle (it has) ever built’. The vehicle, an early 110, is a replica of the ﬁrst Defender the company’s owner Andy Hayes rebuilt back in 2006. But it’s much more besides… For starters, the engine is indeed a 6.2-litre LS3, as found under the bonnet of the legendary Corvette. Mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox, it puts out 430bhp – giving the 110 a 0-60 time of less than six seconds. Driving it, the urge is relentless. The engine produces instant power, but it’s manageable, and while shifts are not imperceptible they’re smooth and instant. The last thing you’d want would be long pauses followed by shuddering jolts and slaps as an old-school auto shunts its way from ratio to ratio – we’ve all been there, and it’s an uncomfortable place, but it’s a place from which Arkonik has distanced itself with this installation. Whether a Defender needs this kind of acceleration is open to question. But you don’t need to use all of it, or even much of it, to appreciate the LS3’s oceanic torque. And anyone with a soul will love the sound of the exhaust – a rich, throaty burble which turns into an urgent bark under load, just the way a V8 should. The vehicle doesn’t scream ‘look at me’ the way some high-end Defenders do, but ‘listen to me’ is a given.

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Modular front and high-back second-row seats make the best of the Defender’s infamously cramped cabin and give it a real feeling of comfort. They’re trimmed by the specialists at Ruskin Design using a combination of tweed and Autograin Burnt Oak leather. The cubby box is finished to match, and the whole interior is set off by an alcantara head liner

Anyway, not being too lairy in its appearance makes it far nicer to look at than some of the modded 90s and 110s you see being produced for clients with more money than taste. Arkonik’s Land Rovers are all created to personal order, but something they tend to have in common is a degree of understated elegance. With the lightness of touch that comes from having a steady hand on the styling tiller, there’s no need for ghastly accoutrements to make up for a basic lack of class. The Defender’s wheels measure a suitably modest 18” in diameter, for example. They’re wrapped in Cooper Discoverer AT3 tyres and behind them is a set of Tarox brakes mating six-pot calipers with drilled and grooved discs. No need for bling when function has such a fine form. The same can be said of the side steps, which fold and retract automatically when the doors

are opened and closed. Showy? Try telling that to someone whose kids struggle to get aboard their 110 but who needs to use it off-road without wrecking its sills – especially if he wants to be able to get out after a session in the mud without ending up with it down the back of his trousers. Arkonik is capable of building off-roaders when that’s what the customer wants (indeed a reassuring number of the vehicles in its factory have winches). And while this one is more of a street machine, it’s subtly so. There’s nothing like a deep slam and vast alloys to make a Defender look stupid – but this one is nothing like that. It does run lowered Eibach springs and anti-roll bars, but they only drop it by one inch. The suspension is completed by Bilstein gas shocks and SuperPro polyurethane bushes, but of which help further to control the Defender’s

ride – making it that much more entertaining to unleash its big engine. Nonetheless, the driving experience hasn’t been turned into that of a super-saloon – it’s still a Defender, and still a big, hefty, high-up beast of a vehicle. There’s that familiar feeling of culture shock when you jump in after driving something else, as if suddenly the world has turned completely alien on you, but then after a few miles you settle in and it all makes sense. Only this time, it makes more sense than usual – and, the more you get used to it, the more you discover that you’re driving something very special indeed. Inside, too, it’s still a Defender – but much more so. You have the familiar upright seating, and there’s not a lot even the best of restorers can do about the cramped proportions within Land Rover’s angular cabin, but soft-touch leather trim,

Is it an indulgence or an investment? If you’ve got it to spend in the first place, what this 110 proves is that a rebuilt Defender can be both

The traditional four-spoke steering wheel is an unmistakable nod to the Defender’s past. But it’s part of a cabin that’s been radically modernised, with a high-definition Dakota digital instrument panel and an infotainment module running Apple CarPlay software

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The Chevrolet LS3 engine is a thing of absolute beauty, as is the noise it makes both at idle and under load. Producing 430bhp, it propels the big Land Rover to 60mph in less than six seconds Inset below: Plenty of Land Rovers end up with hand-painted chassis, and that’s exactly what this one has. Safe to say it’s not the kind of hand-painting anyone has attempted on any of the others, though…

woven carpets and alcantara headlining certainly help. Modular front and High-Back Heritage second-row seats have been trimmed by the master craftsmen at Ruskin Design using Autograin Burnt Oak leather with tweed inserts, and the same theme is continued on the inward-facing bench seats in the back. The door cards get the same trim treatment, as does the cubby box. The former are trimmed with billet aluminium handles and so on, while the latter is home to USB ports and a wireless charging station. The seats are heated, of course, and a Dakota digital instrument panel sits tidily within a leather-trimmed dash. There’s ambient mood lighting, too, which helps set off what is a beautifully comfortable interpretation of a traditional Defender cabin. No, it’s not like stretching out in a Range Rover, but the quality of the materials are right up to that level and the standard to which it’s been put together leaves the original a long way behind. Naturally, the price you’d pay for this vehicle would leave the original behind too. It wouldn’t

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quite get you a Rolls-Royce, but at around £200,000 ordering a Defender like this would put you bang in the middle of Bentley, Ferrari and Lamborghini territory. It says something about Arkonik’s clientele that many enjoy the process of speccing, ordering and receiving their vehicle so much that they come straight back to buy another. Each of the company’s Defenders is unique, making them a special kind of collector’s item, and they’re treated like heirlooms – as they very well should be, because even by Defender standards, they’re built to last forever. With Arkonik now back in the UK after those seven years selling only to North America, the company says that commissioning it to build a 90 with an entry-level sort of spec list could be expected to cost around £90,000. Even this is hardly cheap, but compare it to

what a moderately specced new Discovery or Range Rover would cost from new – and what each would be worth after three years. Project that on to ten or even twenty years, and you have a cast iron excuse for indulging yourself. Is it an indulgence, or an investment? It depends on your point of view, perhaps. But as far as we’re concerned, the very good news is that if you’ve got it to spend in the first place, what this 110 proves is that a rebuilt Defender can be both. And if you spec it the right way, it can be all the off-roader you’ll ever need, too.

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SYNCRONICITY

Either the Volkswagen T25 Syncro has a cult following in off-road circles, or off-roading has a cult following in Volkswagen T25 Syncro circles. Either way, John Lucas’ 1988 Single-Cab has been smartly modiﬁed into a vehicle you’d underestimate at your peril Words: Paul Looe Pictures: Harry Hamm

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ver the years, we’ve featured many hundreds of modified vehicles in these pages. We’ve not tried to keep count of all the different modifications we’ve seen, but in our time we’ve come across some seriously wacky ones. This, however, is a first. John Lucas’ 1988 Volkswagen T25 Syncro isn’t the first of its kind to have appeared in this magazine, but ‘removal of crumple zone’ is definitely not one of the mods we’ve come across before. Removing crumple zones might come across as being a bit of a reckless thing to do. But this one, along with the bumper ahead of it, was getting in the way of the Syncro’s approach angle, and there’s only ever going to be one winner when that happens. Of course, the sensible among you (and quite a few of the not ever so sensible too, probably) will be wondering why John didn’t just decide to use a vehicle with a better approach angle in the first place as the basis for his off-road ride. You’re straying into ‘because it’s there’ territory with that one, though – and anyway, no man with a good car needs to be justified, as we never tire of quoting. Besides, John has previous. He had already owned a VW camper with a Subaru engine, and reports that it was ‘ace to drive’ – so when the old one died, he knew what to do. Hence the unit powering the Syncro today, which is a naturally aspirated 2.5-litre petrol engine from a Subaru Legacy. Putting out 163bhp and 167lbf.ft, the latter at a rather racy 4400rpm,

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Above left: Suspension up front is by VW’s own heavy-duty springs. Despite having been intended for a 2wd model, they’re taller than those from a standard Syncro. The shocks within them are also heavy-duty units, this time from Trailmaster, and the upper ball joints are spaced to correct the camber angle. To help the suspension flex, the front anti-roll bar has been removed Above right: Rear suspension uses a slightly surprising combination of standard springs, albeit with VW diesel spacers, and +2” Terrafirma Land Rover Discovery 2 Pro Sport shocks Left: 237/75R15 BFGoodrich KM2 Mud-Terrains are wrapped around Audi ET45 Speedline SL 881 alloys. These are fitted all-round using 10mm spacers and longer wheel studs. Here at the back, the brakes you can see beyond the rim are Sharan discs and calipers fitted using a conversion by Holman Engineering

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The air intake is mounted in the rear bed, above the dropside door. As well as protecting the engine, it’s home to raised breathers for the fuel tank, front diff, gearbox and clutch

it’s fitted with a CAN bus loom and ABS emulator and runs a Subaru instrument cluster. The batteries and switchgear are relocated to a locker behind the cab, and the engine ECU now lives in a waterproof enclosure just below the pick-up bed. Beyond the engine, the transmission is all standard – right down to the central viscous coupling and locking axle diffs that made the T25 a much more agile vehicle than most people gave it credit for. Switching to Subaru was a particularly easy decision as all his previous experience of four-wheel drive had come behind the wheel of Scoobies. There were Imprezas, of course, because it would be rude not to, but in addition he owned Legacies and Outbacks – suggesting that here was a man who would one day see the light and discover the joys of off-roading.

Sure enough, when the Syncro came up he wasn’t about to miss out. The vehicle had previously served in what sounds like a pretty unchallenging job – it was used for carting bikes up a mountain so punters could ride them back down again. Fast forward to life on the Lucas fleet, and a life of tameness was now very much a thing the T25 used to enjoy. He uses it for laning with Bonkas 4x4 Wales, an off-road club that’s not exactly noted for pussyfooting about, and on one occasion he was in a convoy going down the rather evocatively named Panel Beaters Lane when his engine snuffed it. This was a 2.1-litre Audi five-pot, which was in the vehicle when he bought it; its replacement, another Audi unit, was the one that eventually made way for the Subaru lump.

Anyway, here’s where it got haggard. ‘Fred’s not the narrowest of trucks,’ says John (the name comes from the number plate). ‘My engine gave up so I was being towed, and at one point the track narrowed and I was leaning at 30 degrees, wedged between the bank and a tree. ‘It took two Land Rovers to pull me through – at which point I flew out like a champagne cork, ripping my dropside hinge off. But fair to say all the Bonkas lads were there waiting – they never leave a man in the field.’ Bonkas is very much a South Welsh club, but John and Fred (and girlfriend Jen, who gets his thanks for her patience during ‘the many hours I’ve spent fixing and modifying my truck’) have ventured further afield to explore the green lanes of North and Mid-Wales, Dorset and even Kent. He’s a big fan of playdays, too: ‘one of my

“I was being towed, and at one point the track narrowed and I was leaning at 30 degrees, wedged between the bank and a tree. It took two Land Rovers to pull me through – at which point I flew out like a champagne cork!”

With the T25 being rear-engined, protecting said engine, along with the transmission, is a bit of a different undertaking to normal. John has created a rear cage from box-section steel and alloy plate, the extent of which can be seen here

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John removed the Syncro’s crumple zone while bobtailing its front end, which sounds a little troubling. Less so, perhaps, when you see that the crumple zone has been replaced with a destroy-everything-in-its-path zone. The custom bash plate down below is made from a mixture of steel box and alloy, the subframe has been modified to turn it into an inboard winch mount and a delightfully old-school bull bar is home to a delightfully modern LED bar. The winch itself is a military-spec 13,500lb Winchmax favourites was Bovington Tank Training Area.’ Can’t imagine the Syncro’s width being too much of an issue there… Unlike so many of even the most dedicated off-roaders, John also gets involved in making it happen for others. ‘I regularly arrange laning days,’ he tells us, going on to say how rewarding it is to get positive feedback from people. And we should all take that on board. It’s easy to turn up to events, pay your money and have a whale of a time – but unless you get involved in setting out, marshalling, scouting sites or any of the hundred and one other jobs that go into making the magic happen for the rank and file, you’d never believe how much work it is. Talking of clubs, he also goes off-roading with VW Club 80-90 Syncronauts. And talking of work, as you may have guessed he does it all himself. That’s no small matter as you can’t exactly just go

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out and buy a load of bolt-on kit for building it up, the way you could with a Wrangler or Defender. Some stuff does exist, like a Holman Engineering rear disc brake conversion using braided hoses and hardware from the Volkswagen Sharan. But by and large, it’s a case of learning and sharing knowledge – something both off-roaders and Volkswagen people are very good at, and being both John and his Syncro-driving mates should be outstanding. Among the items that have been repurposed from other vehicles are Terrafirma Discovery 2 rear shocks and electric PAS from a Vauxhall Corsa. The seats are from an Alfa Romeo and the roadwheels and steering wheel are both Audi. Thus the vehicle itself is no longer 100% Volkswagen – but it’s pure Syncro in character. One of the great things about there not being much bolt-on kit available is that you never see

two modded T25s alike – and the amount of ingenuity that goes into them is top-drawer. It might look a bit out of place in a convoy of Defenders, but make no mistake – with Volkswagen’s rock-solid underlying engineering and a smart set of mods, this is a seriously capable truck. Its power and clearance have been greatly enhanced, it’s more manoeuvrable and the bits that are likely to hit the ground are now stronger that ever. Just don’t expect much from that crumple zone…

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First in Classic…

Back when there was nothing sacrilegeous about cutting up a Mk1 Range Rover, off-road conversions were ten a penny. But it was still rare to see a full-bodied Rangey being used for comp safari racing. Judging by the results this one achieved, though, more people should have tried it… Words: Stephen Pell Pictures: Phil Masters

ou can imagine walking down a street like Drayton Gardens in Chelsea and being well and truly unsurprised to see the kerbs lined with gleaming examples of Solihull’s flagship Range Rover. These days, Land Rover has learned how to turn a tidy profit by offering premium products for people with premium pay packets – but back when the first Rangeys were around, the name stood for something altogether more noble than just flashing the cash at your neighbours and feeling elevated among other humans? If we roll back the years, we can see that it wasn’t always like this. Range Rovers still

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respected the ethos of the original Green Oval-bearing machines and went about their business in much the same way – even if the Rangey was always meant to be the more luxurious market option. Those early motors were incredibly posh and comfy compared to the Series IIIs of the time, but their hose-out interiors were a far cry from the sumptuous leather and hot-stone massaging seats you get these days. Knowing what we know today makes this here vehicle something of a rarity. Built in the late Nineties, a time when Range Rovers were still used for things like racing, it sets itself apart from the typical race trucks of the time – hybrids and

bobtails that regularly battled to get the better of the TMCs and Simmbugghinis that dominated the comp safari game back then. What you’re looking at here is a full-bodied Range Rover that once competed and triumphed in the challenging French Tout-Terrain Rally Championship. And when we say triumphed, we mean you’re looking at a class-winner. Piloted by Dave Fletcher and his co-driver Marcus Healey, this Range Rover may carry a standard-sized body. But underneath, it is a long way from ordinary. First, though, if you haven’t come across Tout-Terrain before, pause and visualise a mini

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halcyon year. One of the failures was a minor mechanical glitch, the other the result of a broken chassis. Said chassis was a more or less standard structure, strengthened in key points (but not enough in one of them, it would appear…) and fitted with the appropriate bracketry to accept doubled-up shock absorbers. These were a mixture of DeCarbon and Explorer Pro-Comp at the front and all Explorer Pro-Comp at the back – nothing scientific, just a leftover from the days before the team switched over from one brand to the other. Suspension followed the original format, with the factory-standard A-frame used at the rear instead of the radius arms favoured by many racers from the period. The self-levelling unit went the way of so many self-levelling units before it, and front and rear anti-roll bars mean the articulation-biased performance of the A-frame set-up was reined in a little. Axles on race vehicles always take a tremendous amount of punishment, and it’s here that the team mixed and matched to the greatest effect while building the Range Rover. In fact, they managed to turn their first front axle into a large effigy of a banana during their inaugural season, which saw them participate in four events in preparation for their triumphant year.

The replacement axle casing was from a Discovery, but containing 110 internals, a Quaife diff and KAM halfshafts – a combination that was never likely to let go, even in the face of the sort of tortuous provocation a racer gets every time it’s fired up. It’s a similarly cherry-picked story at the back, where a standard Range Rover axle contained a Quaife diff and halfshafts from a V8 90. Once again, stub axles were from a 110. This is the kind of hidden spec that makes the difference between a good-looking truck and a potential race winner – if you don’t notice your axle components, it’s because they’re doing their job, but if you’ve not got them right you’ll spend half your life noticing that they need fixing again. And why did a Range Rover need such a bomb-proof pair of axles? Simple: because it needed to cope with the power roared out by a 5.0-litre TVR engine that had been breathed on by John Eales and was chucking out usefully over 300bhp at full chat. Doesn’t actually sound like that much these days, but rest assured this was one hell of a lump. The 5.0-litre unit, which was best known for powering the TVR Griffith, has been described as the ultimate development of the Rover V8. The version in the Range Rover was cross-bolted and

Paris-Dakar and you’ll be more or less there. It’s like comp safari, but it’s more like a hillrally on a grand scale. And the events are a big deal in the local area, with big crowds turning out to watch. This Range Rover was a production-class vehicle and Marcus claims one of its strengths to be that there wasn’t anything ﬂash or complex about the way they put it together. Instead, they used the best of everything from the Land Rover parts bin and maintained it scrupulously, so that breaking down was something it simply didn’t do. With the invaluable backing of Kingsley Cross Country, it ﬁnished all but two events in its

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Below left: Dave and Marcus weren’t after the ultimate in horsepower when they built the Range Rover, though a balanced, cross-bolted 5.0-litre Rover V8 prepareed by John Eales hardly counts as a weak link. Power output was somewhere on the fun side of 300bhp Below right: The fully internal roll cage was designed and constructed to meet the requirements of the FIA’s rally specifications of the time

balanced, and it breathed through the largest K&N air filter you could get. Bolted to the engine was a standard fivespeed manual gearbox and 1:1.66 transfer case.

Something Dave noted about the French was that they didn’t do as much with their engines as with their gearboxes, whereas in Britain there was an almost obsessive drive for horsepower.

This isn’t totally the case with the Range Rover – there were vehicles out there developing far more than 300bhp. But it struck a balance between having enough grunt to shift itself around

“The secret of its success was that it didn’t break. It didn’t break because its internal parts were checked regularly and changed when there was any doubt at all, on the basis that it was much more enjoyable to finish an event than break part-way through” 42 | MAY 2020

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The Range Rover’s axles contained 110 stub axles and Quaife diffs, as well as KAM halfshafts and the front and V8 90 units at the back. Suspenion used twinned shock absorbers all round – a mixture of DeCarbon and Explorer Pro-Comp at the front, and all Explorer Pro-Comp at the back. Most Range Rover based racecars of the era used front radius arms instead of the original A-frame at the back, but this one kept its factory equipment – albeit with front and rear anti-roll bars helping bring the body under control, and with the self-levelling unit a comp course without embarrassing anyone and not so much that only a massively tricked-out transmission would cope. Things were kept as simple as possible when it came to braking, too. Standard discs were used all-round, with 110 calipers gripping them at the front and Range Rover units doing the business at the back. They were helped in this task by the 205R16 Colway Diamonds, mounted on standard Discovery steel rims, on which the vehicle did all its racing. ‘They handled so much better than any other diamond-pattern tyre,’ comments Marcus. ‘They still felt safe at a hundred miles per hour, and were almost as good as

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any other equivalent tyre for the not-so-arduous going as well.’ That comment alone should be enough to convince you that a quick-response steering system seemed like a good idea, hence the use of a 2:1 reduction box, giving the vehicle a mere two turns from lock to lock. Should both the brakes and the steering have failed to do their job, Dave and Marcus could always have sought refuge in the FIA-spec internal roll cage. Elsewhere inside the vehicle, which was left-hand drive to suit French events, there were made-to-measure seats produced for the team and their sizeable frames.

‘The secret of its success was that it didn’t break,’ says Marcus proudly. ‘It didn’t break because its internal parts were checked regularly and changed when there was any doubt at all, on the basis that it was much more enjoyable to finish an event than break part-way through.’ These days the sort of events you’ll see Range Rovers roll up to are evening banquets at the palace, or expensive grouse shoots on bleak wastelands where trees and wildlife used to thrive. Dave and Marcus used theirs in an entirely different manner – and quite frankly, you can see why people say they don’t make them like they used to.

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We currently stock O.E. propshafts for many 4x4 models, but we are proud to have also spent time developing our own “Extreme” range. For the majority of 4x4 vehicles we can offer an upgraded propshaft option, whether you need greater angle, longer splines or larger torque capacity (which may give increased potential life-expectancy). Why choose “Extreme?” Wide Angle Operation - Double Cardan Joints - Heavy Duty Universal Joints Upgraded sliding assembly - Higher Torque Capacity - Heavy Duty Tubing

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land rover defender upgrades & accessories

Head Linings for Defender 90 Comes as a 5-piece kit with sun visor covers & all fittings and fixings. Available in black, light grey & dark grey.

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4-piece kit, sides and rear quarter panels. Available in black and grey. For Defenders 1987 to 2005 (TD5).

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Replacement Seat Covers for Puma Available for the front seats, middle row (60/40) & rear foldable seats. Many designs on our website!

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READY SORTED

The town of Dothan, Alabama, calls itself the Peanut Capital of the World. But in addition to a quarter of the ready salted goodness that comes out of the USA, it’s also responsible for some of America’s coolest 4x4s – including a Chevy Suburban which, it’s safe to say, is a truck like no other… Words: Kaziyoshi Sasazaki Pictures: Ben Brown

e don’t tend to do much about show trucks in 4x4 magazine. Not if they’re all show and no go, at any rate. And when you ﬁrst cast your eyes on Ben Brown’s Chevrolet Suburban, your inner luddite might instinctively write it off as just another hiked up mall cruiser. But your inner luddite would be wrong. With its vinyl wrap, immaculate cabin and stupendously sized wheels, Ben’s Chevy might not be the kind of truck we normally go looking for. But all these things are just ﬁne if the stuff down below is sorted too – and in this case, it’s so sorted that actually, it’s not just the kind of truck we normally go looking for after all. It’s the kind of truck we only come across once in a blue moon. Now, the Suburban is very much a vehicle you associate with America. There are a few in Britain, thanks to the efforts of the nation’s personal importers, but this isn’t one of them. It might be one day, if you fancy the idea and have the cash to splash, but more of that later. For now, this all-American beauty resides back home in the good ol’ USA. In Dothan, Alabama, to be precise – somewhere you might never have heard of, but it’s responsible for about 25% of

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America’s total peanut production so you’ve probably got more reason to be thankful for the place than you’d ever have realised. Dothan even styles itself as the Peanut Capital of the World, which is quite a boast to make – mind you, the nearby town of Slocomb wants you to know that it’s the Tomato Capital of the World, so if anyone ever puts a gun to your head and demands a definition of the word ‘optimism’ you now know what to tell them. If they ask for a definition of the word ‘cool’, on the other hand, all you have to do is show them this truck. It’s a ninth-generation Chevrolet Suburban 1500 – but, more to the point, it’s a truck like no other. In America, where full-size SUVs are ten a penny, it’s a full size SUV that’ll stand out in any crowd at all. The truck’s design was conceived by Ben himself and turned into reality by the lavish skills of Under Cover Fabworks, an automotive specialist based on a leafy industrial estate on the south side of Dothan. Yes, a leafy industrial estate. File under ‘things you’re unlikely to find in Accrington’. ‘I don’t like to have or drive a vehicle that looks like everything else,’ says Ben. And even if we try to tell ourselves our 4x4s look this way because

we need them to do a job off-road, an awful lot of us can identify with that. So let’s start with one of the most eye-catching parts of the truck. Its bodywork is resplendent in a custom wrap created by another local company, Shift Designs, which did a sensational job of replicating the distressed battleship effect striven for by so many builders of rat-look motors. This is set off by the appearance of exposed rivet heads all the way around most of the main panels – as well, of course, as bumpers and a roof rack which have all been fabricated in heavy-duty steel. Down below, the Chevy rides on 40x15.50R20 Toyo Open Country Mud-terrains and 22x12” Chaos rims. That’s the bit your eyes see ﬁrst, at least, but there’s more – like Ford Dana 60 front and 14-bolt rear axles, containing new diff gears and lockers at both ends. The axles are turned by standard rear and 1350 front propshafts, the latter with a NP246 slip yoke eliminator. The custom front prop was required as the axle was moved forward to stretch the wheelbase from 130” to 134”. Nobody brings anything small into a bar around here, as Tom Waits would say. This was about more than just numbers, though. ‘We stretched the axles like they do on rock crawl-

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With the sort of height that was going to be required to ﬁt 40” tyres, the Suburban’s standard independent front end was going to have to go. It was replaced by no less a beast than a Ford-spec Dana 60, mounted four inches further forward in true rock-crawler style to create a mighty 134” wheelbase. Controlled by a totally hand-built suspension system featuring long subframe-mouted radius arms up front and trailing links at the back, the axles hold the vehicle up on 12” ORI STX coil-overs at the front and a custom air ride set-up out back. The whole rig is rated to one-tonne, upgrading it from the Suburban 1500’s standard half-tonne capacity

ers,’ says Ben. ’Under Cover Fabworks is known for building custom Jeeps and rock crawlers. When I ﬁrst started building the truck a couple of years ago, I called it a Suburban rock crawler because it is built that strong!’ Which explains those locking diffs – among other things. These other things include Chevy’s 6.0-litre Vortec 6000 V8 motor, which came to the vehicle straight out of the crate. This was standard on the higher-spec Suburban 2500 – Ben’s truck started life with the entry-level 5.3-litre Vortec unit, which

is still not what you’d call puny, but the bigger lump puts out 335bhp and 375lbf.ft in standard form – and this one isn’t standard as it has an Edelbrock 1577 supercharger to wind it up. It runs brand new headers, radiator and exhaust and is bolted to a later 4L80e six-speed auto gearbox – again, fresh from the crate. We’ve touched on the fact that Ben wanted to build a Suburban to full rock-crawler spec, and if you know your rock-crawlers you’ll be waiting to hear what that meant in terms of suspension.

What it meant was a fully hand-built system featuring 12” one-ton STX front coil-overs from ORI and a custom air-ride set-up in the back. The whole lot is Johnny Jointed to let it ﬂex, with long subframe-mounted radius arms and rear trailing links allowing as much travel as possible. So, what we have is a rock-solid truck with an effortlessly powerful engine and the drivetrain and axles to match. We have an epic suspension and monumental tyres, and we have a vinyl wrap like no other. Job done?

Below left: The custom metalwork around the vehicle is a thing of total beauty. Both bumpers were tailor-fabricated, as was a roof rack in tube and dimple-died plate steel that looks like it ought to belong on a Baja racer Below right: The original 5.3-litre V8 was replaced by a 6.0-litre Vortec crate engine warmed up by a 1577 Edelbrock blower. It’s bolted to a six-speed 4L80e crate box whose output goes to all four wheels via standard rear and custom 1350 front props

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Not quite. Because the bodywork beneath that wrap is not exactly standard either. Those are fibreglass pre-runner wings you’re looking at. They

were shipped in from a manufacturer in California, and they give the Suburban the sort of stance a proper rock crawler ought to have.

So too do those bumpers. The front unit in particular matches the huge full-length roof rack with its tube-andplate design, while the rear is made fully from plate and incorporates a receiver hitch for when smoking around the place in a Suburban on 40s just isn’t big enough. There’s a variety of auxiliary lighting on the rack and front bumper, with the latter protecting its LED bar beneath what could be seen as a small-scale stinger. There’s a whole new interior in the cabin, with the leather-clad largesse full-size American SUVs pull off so well, and then up front there’s a really nice touch – the Chevy badge has been redone with a muted stars and strips design bearing the military number 1054. ‘We built the truck as a family project,’ explains Ben. ‘My grandfather was in World War II and the number on the front of the truck was his ship number during the war.’ We’ve seen a few vehicles before that have been built as tributes to their owners’ forebears, and this one is right up there with the very best of them. In this little detail, the Suburban is an intensely personal machine that was created very much as the vision of its owner and his family. But all good things come to an end, and it’s currently up for sale. Obviously, it’s up

“We are a family that loves beautiful vehicles. I wanted to build a truck that no-one else has and that is unique – I think I accomplished that!” Above, right: This is vinyl wrap design of the very highest standard, and it works amazingly to give the Chevy a sensational bare-metal appearance

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for sale in Alabama, and you’re likely to be reading this on the other side of the Atlantic, but importing cool vehicles is very much a thing – and they don’t come much cooler than this. ‘We are a family that loves beautiful vehicles,’ concludes Ben. ’It is a beast and a project that I

have loved doing. The truck is all brand new with less than 50 miles on it since it was finished two months ago, and I am selling it because it is so perfect and a real show truck. I wanted to build a truck that no-one else has and that is unique – I think I accomplished that!’

We think so too. If you love ‘em American and you love ‘em to stand out, you just found your next true love. This astonishing, unique, no-expensespared one-off from the Peanut Capital of the World may not be ready salted – but it definitely comes ready sorted…

Above left: A 14-bolt Ford rear axle provides monumental strength and has been fitted with a locking diff – in case you feared that the truck is all show and no go, it’s definitely the real thing Above right: The cabin looks stock, but in fact the entire interior has been renewed Right: The Chevy badge has been reimagined in a muted stars and strips design, complete with the fleet number of the US Navy craft Ben’s grandfather served on during World War II Ben’s Chevy is currently up for sale at an asking price of $129,900 (that’s about £105,000). That’s a fearsome sum, but it reflects the cost of the build – and besides, what’s it worth to be unique? You could spend it on a premium performance SUV that sheds half its value in the course of a finance deal… or you can contact Ben and prepare to own a great truck and true work of art rolled into one. He’s at benebrown1978@gmail.com.

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OUR 4X4S Vehicle: Isuzu D-Max GO2 Year: 2018 Run by: Alan Kidd Last update: April 2020 On the fleet since: January 2020

Nip and Tuck PROJECT D-MAX GO2 is well underway now. The suspension went on in last month’s issue, giving us room to fit a set of 285/75R16 General Grabber X3 mud-terrains – though there was still the issue of whether these would clear on full bump and lock. To give them the best possible chance, we mounted them on a set of heavy-duty rims with an offset of 0 – which doesn’t sound a lot but is. This had the knock-on effect (everything has a knock-on effect) of shifting the tyres’ tread far enough out from the vehicle’s centre line to no longer be covered by the wheelarches. So, there’s another job to add to the list, then…

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First, though, it was time to figure out where it was going to foul and how this was going to be addressed. The first part of this is easy – just cycle the steering on full bump and see if the tyre hits anything. And it did. It hit the inner arch, not by much but by enough for the lip holding the mounts for the liner to need to be removed. It also hit a chassis outrigger carrying one of the body mounts, and fouled slightly on the trailing edge of the bumper. The latter wasn’t a problem as the original bumper was going to be getting replaced anyway, by an ARB unit supplied by the good people at Britpart. And the inner arch was a

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Above: With the wheel and tyre fitted, the suspension and steering are fully cycled – showing which parts of the vehicle’s bodywork will need to be trimmed to prevent them from fouling Above right: The wheel is seen here fouling on the inner arch and liner mounts, which means they’re going to have to go Below: The inner arch is marked up and trimmed away, using first the grinder then the air hacksaw, after which the edge is smoothed off Below right: This is the portion of the inner arch that needed to be removed – it’s not much, but it makes all the difference

simple enough matter of marking up the portion to be removed then getting in there, first with the grinder and then the air hacksaw. The tricky bit, obviously, would come later when it was time to reattach the liner, as it would need to be shaped to fit into a whole new set of mounts. That’s one of those let’s-pretendit’s-not-there-until-we-run-out-of-

other-things-to-do-instead jobs. Though the guys in the workshop already had a plan, which was reassuring. They also had a plan for reshaping the body mount outriggers. Which was to get the lads from the bodyshop on the case. Now, watching a good mechanic in action is always a fine thing, but watching a good

bodywork man is like looking on as magic happens. In what seemed like no time at all, the outriggers had been marked, cut, smoothed off, welded up, ground flat and painted, and bish bosh, job done. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it – and that’s how it looked, too. We’ve got some of the best technical guys in the business working on this build, but

part of knowing what you’re doing is knowing when to stand back and leave it to the experts – and that’s exactly what these guys are. As well as trimming down the outriggers, they also brought along an arch roller – a tool which is attached to the hub and then used to gently and smoothly flare the arch outwards, little by little until it covers the tyre’s tread the way you

Above: At 285/75R16, as well as being taller the new tyres are usefully wider than standard. This means they need to be on very well offset rims to keep them from molesting everything in sight – which in turn means they’re pushing the limits of legality in terms of how close their tread gets to overlapping the line of the wings. The solution is an arch roller, which bolts to a mounting plate on the hub and can then be used to gently push out the line of the arch Above right: Having flared out the arch, it’s minutely adjusted with a panel hammers and die to match it to the portion of the original bumper that was left behind as a trim panel when the ARB unit went in (more on that in a future issue)

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OUR 4X4S

Above: This compound body mount was the next hurdle. You can see a second, unoccupied hole in it – this is only used on models built for certain markets, but it’s present on all D-Maxes. This means it can be cut off and the mounting plate reshaped, which is good news as otherwise, it would get right in the way of our tyres Above right: The portion of the body mount that needs to be removed is marked up – deﬁnitely a case of measure once, cut twice, because overdoing it and weakening the remaining part of the body mount doesn’t bear thinking about Below: The body mount is then marked up for cutting using masking tape and the corner ground off

Left: The edges are smoothed off inside and out to ensure a clean edge and good contact when welding in the new piece, then a steel fillet is cut and prepped, ready to be welded in to fill the cut-out in the body mount Below left: The new piece is welded in to fill the cut-out, then once cool the area is smoothed off Below: Here’s the finished repair, all done and ready for painting

need it to. Again, it’s a beautiful thing to watch, and the results speak for themselves. No need for ugly extensions or ﬁller jobs from hell when you’ve got one of these babies on your side. The seam carrying the liner mounts needed to be knocked back

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before the shaping started, and a few bits of cracked paint needed rubbing down and touching in afterwards, but those are details. The biggest job here by far was at the leading edge of the front arches, which wanted to be shaped smoothly into a small section that

had been left from the front bumper to act as a kind of valance around the ATB unit. This meant cutting and remaking a couple of brackets, the result of which we’ll show you in a future issue – along with whatever the guys come up with as a way of remounting the inner arch liner.

Which they will. Did we mention that we’ve got some of the best guys in the business working on this truck? There’s only one problem with all this: it’s going to look so good once it’s ﬁnished, we’re a bit worried they might not want us to take it off-roading after all…

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â&#x20AC;¢Rei nf or cedSl ot t edRoofBar s

OUR 4X4S Vehicle: Land Rover Defender 90 Td5 XS Year: 2006 Run by: Alan Kidd Last update: November 2019 On the fleet since: December 2017

Strip Show THE STOP-START STORY of our Land Rover Defender 90 Td5 has focused largely on the Editor’s enormous indecision as to what to actually do with it. The vehicle came to us two and a half years ago as someone else’s modified off-road toy – something we’d normally be cautious about, but in this case the seller was an old friend and the 90 was a known quantity as a result. The original plan was to use it as-is, add a few mods of our own and end up with a more hardcore variation on the same theme. Or was it to do six months of as much green laning as possible then take it off the road and turn it into a British homage to the NAS 90s of 25 years ago.

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Yes, the NAS 90 was 25 years ago. Way to feel old… Anyway, fate intervened and it turned out that the 90 wasn’t really fitting the bill for what we wanted to do. One reason for this was that it was one of the last with inwardfacing rear seats, and these have been long since discredited from a safety point of view. A definite issue for the Ed, who has young children to think about. Of course, there are ways of addressing this, but they tend to involve either spending a small fortune or making do with a bodge. Not being able to park anywhere for more than about five minutes without worrying that it’s going to be nicked is a bit of an issue, too.

We all know what a massive, neverending problem this is for Defender owners; there are various ways of protecting yourself, but all you can really do is fix things so it’s easier for the scabs to thieve someone else’s instead. Finally, and this is a little embarrassing, the off-roading we do tends to involve a lot of motorway

miles to get to and from the clusters of green lanes scattered all around the country. And if there’s anything you don’t want to be using for motorway miles, it’s a 90. So, after many months of prevaricating, we decided to do what so many people are doing with Defenders now. We were going to take it back, if not to showroom

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Any programme of work on a vehicle that’s done much off-roading is likely to start with WD40 being sprayed all over the place. In this case, it started with a load of dried mud being fetched out for access to the ﬁxings that wanted freeing off. The towbar isn’t exactly an item of off-road equipment, but it’s not a pretty sight either. It had to come off, as the crossmember behind it was rusted out at each end, but we’d have been removing it anyway in our quest to get the 90 back as close as reasonably possible to its original spec standard, then to as close as we could get to the way Land Rover intended it to be in the ﬁrst place.

You see an awful lot of tarted-up stinkers for sale at idiotic prices, but that’s not what we’re about.

With very low miles, few owners and a proper wad of history, the 90 is a sound one. Still, we didn’t

want to turn it into a blinger. The aim instead is to remove the accoutrements of its life as an

As we’ve mentioned before, we wouldn’t normally take a punt on someone else’s old off-roader. But the 90 was a known quantity as it had spent all its life with a good friend, so we knew its history. We didn’t know a pile of broken glass would coming pouring out of the roof lining when it was dropped away, though…

The Safari Snorkel wasn’t designed to be used with an exo cage, so a bit of inventiveness was required when it was originally ﬁtted. With the breathers unclipped and the cage mountings freed off, it’s unﬁxed from behind the wing and lifted away. The blanking plate over the original intake in the wing shows where the snorkel would normally have sat

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OUR 4X4S 5

5: The front hoop is fixed through the wing to stays mounted to brackets on the chassis outriggers. Both will be removed; first, the cage is unbolted in preparation for the external part being lifted away 6-10: To free off the exo part of the cage, the bolts through the roof to the rear hoop need to be freed off. As it turns out, this is (much) easier said than done. First, though, the headlining needs to be undone and dropped off for access to the brackets, which means removing the mirror mount, sun visors, vanity light and door seals. You definitely need to be patient…

11-13: Undoing the bolts from the roof bracket is a truly horrible job – access to the nuts on the inner side of the roof is almost non-existent 14-16: With the cage ﬁnally unbolted, it can be lifted away. It’s pukka kit, made by noted cage specialist Protection and Performance, so we’re keeping hold of it in case the 90’s next owner wants to reﬁt it

Below: The bolt-on diff guard was always scheduled for removal – it’s an effective way of protecting the diff casing from impacts, but we no longer have a need for it. Interestingly, it was showing signs of rubbing against the fuel tank – as was the tank itself, seen here dropped off while changing the rear crossmember

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“The workshop floor was soon looking like the inside of a Gro-Bag” off-road plaything and turn it back into what it was, or is – a high-spec, late-letter Td5 XS with almost all its life still ahead of it. Step one was to strip away the off-road equipment. At the same time, we needed to replace the front wings, which were beaten to death (and, in one case, had had a hole blown through it for the snorkel), and the rear crossmember, which was rotten. That’s the sort of stuff you often tend to buy from Britpart, which is just what we did. The company supplied a replacement crossmember and both wings, along with the hardware required to fit them. We also ordered up a set of side sills and a standard front bumper, as well as four new springs and shocks – more on these at a later date. However well it’s been looked after, a major part of dismantling a vehicle that’s used off-road is going to be fetching dried mud out from every corner of its underside. Sure enough, the workshop floor was soon looking like the inside of a Gro-bag, but before long there was enough access to all the various fixings for the atmosphere to hang thick with the smell of WD40. We’ll look at the crossmember replacement in a future issue, but an interesting feature of the job here was that in order to have enough clearance underneath the vehicle, the roll cage would have

to be unbolted. Not a problem, as it was on the list to come away anyway, but you might not expect the extra body ﬂex to make the difference. That, however, is how tight the tolerances are under there. On the subject of the cage, it has an external front hoop and stays and an internal rear portion which replaces the bulkhead. We decided to leave the latter part in place – it’s providing the strength that the bulkhead would have provided, and while it certainly wouldn’t qualify as rollover protection in the eyes of a scrutineer any more, there’s enough about what remains to keep the roof up in most kinds of inversion. Another good example of close tolerances came when we took a look at the bolt-on guard protecting the rear diff. It had done its job well – but it had also been rubbing on the fuel tank in the process. Just that extra thickness over the top of the axle case was enough to make the difference. So, lots to come off, and we’ll let the pictures tell the story. But what this covers is the general process of stripping away the off-road kit, not including speciﬁc items that were due to be replaced directly. Again, that’s for another issue. Fair to say there’s enough here to convince you there’s nothing to be scared of in taking on a project – or, conversely, that pulling apart an old Landy is too much of a Pandora’s box ever to be attempted…

Astwood 4x4 Ltd LAND ROVER SPECIALISTS

We are a business that cares about your Landy and about the customers’ needs, a company who understands what the Landy is all about. We specialise in restoring, rebuilding Land Rover Defenders, galvanized chassis changes, engine upgrade and all types of mechanical & body work.

We export Land Rovers worldwide supplying not only refurbished but also used Land Rovers. Refurbishment/Restoration Specialist, Land Rover Servicing, MOTs, Mechanical, Diagnostics, SKYTAG Agent, Galvanized Chassis, Body Repair/Paint Shop Works Astwood Bank, Astwood Business Park, Astwood Lane, Redditch. B96 6HH Tel : +44(0)1527 892 377 Mobile : +44(0)7974075932 Email: info@astwood4x4.co.uk www.facebook.com/Astwood4x4 www.twitter.com/Astwood4x4

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WESTERN SAHARA: A RECCE INTO Exploring as part of an organised 4x4 tour is a great way of seeing the world safely – but Words and pictures: Barrie Dunbar

t’s late on a Sunday afternoon at our meeting point, a camp site in the south of Spain not far from the port of Algeciras, and I’ve just ﬁred up the braai in preparation for our ﬁrst BBQ feast of my latest trip. By now, everyone

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has arrived, following the tedious 1000-kilometre slog down the length of Spain. Engines are ticking as they cool, and strangers are chattering as they become acquainted. There’s the usual charge of suspense in the air – only this time,

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O THE UNKNOWN

for every itinerary, somebody had to be one who went first…

it’s a bit different. There’s an extra frisson to the excitement. Normally, the clients who travel with me have the reassurance of knowing we’re following a well established route – but today we’re preparing to venture into unknown territory.

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It’s not just unknown to our group, either. No UK tour operator has ever run a 4x4 expedition to Western Sahara before. There are palpable twinges of nervousness in the air – because tomorrow, we’ll be setting off on a journey into no-man’s land.

All of us acknowledge the possible risks which lie ahead. We’re going to be blazing trails, visiting places that have never before been visited by a convoy of Europeans in 4x4s. This really is going to be an adventure – but it’s also going to

be a leap of faith. Among the group, there’s a heady combination of intermittent excitement, occasionally interrupted by pure fear. It’s a powerful, almost intoxicating mix of emotions, prevalent in conflict zones and dangerous situations – and it’s the motive which fuels the pursuits of adrenaline junkies all over the world. Mindful of the intrepid nature of this expedition, the vehicles have been prepared accordingly. Most resemble the sort of machines you see in Mad Max, bulging with extra jerry cans, recovery equipment and all the other accoutrements required for such an undertaking. Truth be told, we’re all secretly a little proud of our efforts, taking it in turn to scrutinise one another’s perhaps over-prepared motorised dromedaries. Last minute checks are completed, final adjustments made and we’re all ready to board the first ferry the following morning and disembark on the shores of Morocco – gateway to the Sahara. Having reassured the wide-eyed customs officials that we’re not invading their country to execute an impromptu coup, we’re cleared to proceed and begin our lengthy transit to the deep south, via the excellent new motorways skirting the west coast. Now, I have some previous experience with Morocco’s most modern roads. During a previous trip through the country, I found myself in the unfortunate position of having to intrude on a game of football – which was being played on, sure enough, a brand new motorway… The concept of a central reservation can be a tricky one to grasp, too, if you’ve never seen one before – and as I cruise along at the head of the convoy, I’m less than overjoyed to encounter another

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vehicle coming towards me on the wrong side! Fortunately, it’s just chugging along slowly and the driver is able to dodge us without incident, but it does serve as a stark reminder that not for a moment can we let our guard down – especially not on this particular adventure. After a few days, including an exhilarating traverse of the spectacular Anti Atlas mountains, we arrive at the desert town of Assa and take the opportunity to restock with provisions for the expedition proper – which is about to begin. The terrain has morphed from rocky mountain to sandy desert, the ambient temperature has soared and the relative humidity has

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plummeted. We can feel that things are about to get serious. By ‘serious,’ of course, I don’t mean dangerous. But now’s the time to put your sensible head on and turn your back on taking unnecessary risks. We start driving our trucks more sympathetically and, where conditions permit, we prefer to circumvent the sort of challenges which we would otherwise relish. The penalty for getting things wrong down here could be harsh, potentially compromising the safety of oneself and the others. After following the Draa Valley south-west for a while, we swing due south, enjoying lovely warm

days of desert driving and sparkling starry nights of wild camping. It’s not all soft sand en route, however, as we’re also required to cross a more technical mountainous section – the descent from which rewards us with an enormous salt pan, its smooth, level surface baked hard by the searing sun and stretching away as far as the eye can see. At last we can give the cars a good blast. But respite from the bumpy terrain doesn’t last, and it’s not long before we’re back to the ever changing hamada of gravel, stone, rock and sand – which, contrary to popular belief, covers most of the Sahara.

Our target in all this is the frontier town of Smara – from where we will follow one of the old Paris-Dakar Rally tracks, running the length of the interior and at one location just nudging the Mauritanian border. It’s a fascinating town, so we pause a while to mooch around and explore before relaxing at one of the many high street cafes, where we enjoy numerous glasses of the most delicious fragrant coffee. We depart in due course, rightly suspecting that this will be our last experience of civilisation for the best part of the next week. Seeking out the track, I remind myself that I am responsible for the welfare of those who have

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placed their trust in me. But I have of course done my homework, researching and planning right down to the very last degree. So I know the important stuff, like the locations of fuel and water supplies. And of unmarked mineﬁelds… We have an absolutely fabulous time over the days which follow, marvelling at the many splendours of the desert. We experience a type of remote solitude that’s impossible to imagine from afar, appreciating that we are hundreds of kilometres away from the next town or village as we cross an area seemingly unvisited for millennia. We see the most incredible desert geology, at times featuring vast exposed seams of ancient fossils. One of our group ﬁnds a knapped arrow-head, lying peacefully in the sand for who knows how long. Vegetation is scarce, comprising the ubiquitous Acacias and resilient xerophytes. Neither is fauna plentiful. Besides occasional sightings of dromedaries and the elusive desert fox, animal encounters are primarily of the arachnid inclination, with no shortage of scorpions or camel spiders. We eventually reach the most southerly point of the route I have plotted, from where we turn west to join a coast-bound track – a drive which turns out to be surprisingly hard work due to the nature of the terrain. It’s arduous going, but by no means boring, and we encounter tremendous rifts, ravines

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and gorges, all of which require careful navigation to avoid calamity. This is scary, but it’s all in the nature of a recce trip! By this stage, we are all looking forward to reaching the Atlantic coast and enjoying the change of scenery which will be on offer. The desert scenery is beautiful, but it does go on a bit – after a few days, one Acacia looks like the next, and the next, and the next… The coastline is indeed a revelation, and we begin making our way back north along enjoyable tracks overlooking the azure blue of the Atlantic. These cold waters are reputed to be some of the richest fishing grounds on the planet, and as such they are very heavily patrolled by the Moroccan authorities. There is a prominent naval presence on the water, and the entire coast is spotted with military lookouts. The predominantly sandy tracks give way to occasional sections of rocky hamada, and we also find ourselves having to bypass a sizeable area of waterlogged salty marshland – definitely not a place to get stuck. An imposing concentration of massive dunes threatens to halt our progress at one stage, though by hook and by

crook we are able to prevail, getting through them and continuing our passage north. Exiting Western Sahara and back into Morocco, the tide favours our timing and we are able to enjoy the exhilarating beach drive along the renowned Plage Blanche. This fantastic and speedy endeavour is best undertaken between half and low tide, to avoid losing your vehicle to the sea – as some have. Thereafter we continue meandering up the coast, sometimes camping on the beach, at other times using conveniently located campsites. It’s a relaxing time now the risky part of the trip is behind us and we slow

our pace to enjoy the balmy weather, enjoying an occasional swim at some of the numerous beaches along the coast. And before we know it, our adventure comes to an end. I’m pleased that the recce has yielded a new route for my business – and that all my intrepid customers agree that the trip has been a resounding success. During the ferry crossing back to Spain, I reﬂect that despite the not insigniﬁcant risks on a recce trip like this, we have had no injuries, no accidents and no mechanical mishaps. Nothing, in fact, but smiling faces as we say our farewells. What a great result!

Active 4x4 Adventures specialises in unique, fully catered 4x4 tours, all of which include exciting adventure activities at no additional cost. The prices the company quotes are all-inclusive. To ﬁnd out more about its future itineraries, visit active4x4adventures.com.

31/03/2020 14:13

THE RED CENTRE Australia is famous for its deserts, and the long-distance trails that cross them. But there’s

Words and pictures: Betty van Breukelen and Gerard van Vliet

ack in 1999, we spent two months touring Australia aboard a hired 4x4. It was a great trip – but it made us yearn to return with our own expedition-prepped Toyota Landcruiser so we could explore the country in greater depth.

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Finally, in 2012, we got around to making the trip we had been promising ourselves for so long. Over the course of 18 months, with a break in the middle for Christmas back home in the Netherlands, we followed two separate itineraries taking in some of the best off-road

trails Australia, and the world, has to offer. In previous issues of 4x4, we’ve recounted two speciﬁc trips – one on the Anne Beadell Highway, which goes right past the site of Britain’s atomic bomb tests in the 1950s, and the other on the Old Telegraph Track

in northern Queensland. This month, we’re telling a more general story – of what it’s like travel solo in the Australian desert. The ﬁrst thing to say is that it’s hot. Make that HOT. Especially when your air-conditioning isn’t working. We had sought the advice

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a great deal more to this glorious wilderness than just endless sand dunes

of a mechanic in Broome, who diagnosed a broken compressor and ordered a new one. It would arrive in three days, so we were going to have to suffer until then. Not that 60 miles on the wide, smooth, bright red sand road to Cape Leveque can be called

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suffering. Neither can the cape itself, where the track dead-ends at the coast and you sit gazing at a crystal clear and incredibly blue ocean squeezing itself violently through the strait next to One Arm Point. Mesmerised, we watched for a while before walking down to

the beach, where the setting sun turns the fantastically shaped rock formations of the cliffs a deep orange colour. With the Toyota’s air-con finally fixed, and its brakes and steering serviced and once again running sweetly, we could head for the horizon once again. A common sight in northern Australia is signs warning you not to enter Aboriginal lands without a permit, something you need to observe if you don’t want to risk big fines. We camped at Eighty Mile Beach and made plans for the desert crossing ahead – which needed to include a fuel-stop strategy, as our Toyota’s maximum range is ‘only’ about 900 miles. The route ahead would take us through the Great Sandy Desert and Gibson Desert. Soon, we were cruising through lovely open space punctuated with rocky outcrops, then we moved into the hills of the Laga Peak – where the countryside was burning. Wildfire rushed forward with the wind, the air full of thick smoke. It was a beautifully surreal image. We continued to Marble Bar, which claims to be Australia’s hottest town (and that’s hot). This comes from 1923 and 1924, when temperatures above 37.8° were measured for 160 days in a row. This is called natural. Beyond here, the track to Nullagine is magnificent. Orange brown mountains, eroded into sharp pinnacles, overlook slopes covered

with spinifex grass and slender silvery trees with white-yellow flowers. As is so often the case here, the desert is not just endless sand – though there was plenty of that to come… There’s a Hema Atlas called Great Desert Tracks, which as you can imagine is required reading. As well as being essential when you’re planning your route, it contains all sorts of information about the deserts themselves and the plants and animals you’ll see there. The latter does include human beings, especially in parts where mining is prevalent, but mainly you’ll be able to enjoy complete, intense silence when you settle down for the night. It’s wonderful. We found a large community of desert oaks en route to Karlamilyi National Park, where we followed a 20-mile track made up of rough, loose rocks. It hadn’t been used for ages, judging by the amount of vegetation overgrowing it, but it wound through a series of beautiful, rugged mountains and valleys, so it was well worth the effort. With a lot of effort, we managed to fill a few bottles from a water pump we passed on the way to the Talawna Track. Just as well, because next one we found produced smelly, dirty water. There’s a lesson there. Another lesson worth learning is that water pumps are likely to have snakes lurking around them. They’re likely to do a runner when you come

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Above: Following the track alongside the Old Ghan Railway is a bit like Route 66 – it’s no longer used but still as evocative as ever, and along the way you keep passing abandoned relics from the past Right: The marker for Australia’s Geographical Centre is surprisingly unpretentious for something so significant Below: Len Beadell’s old grader is displayed at Giles Meteorological Station. Finding a junction marker placed by the man himself is always a special moment – and a sign telling you that 280 miles away there’s another sign is typical of his sense of humour close (or whatever the anguine equivalent of a ‘runner’ is…), but don’t count on it. Yet another lesson is to take your rubbish with you. We found a camping spot next to the track which people had left looking like a trash heap, and to make matters worse they had burned the vegetation around them. Not cool at all.

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Corrugations aren’t cool either, but you can’t avoid them. Wherever you go in the desert, sometimes the track will be beautifully smooth – and on other occasions, for no apparent reason, it will be savage. You just have to deal with it, and of course so does your vehicle. It was springtime, and we drove for hours between flowering bushes,

shrubs in yellow, silver, purple, white and gorgeous silver-grey flowering trees, the Sandhill Spider Flower. Eventually we saw a camel, too – a feral descendant of the animals brought from Arabia to work on the construction of the telegraph lines and railway across the deserts of the Red Centre. The Talawna Track ends at a place called Windy Corner (which it was), where it meets the Gary

Highway. Here, we found a marker left by Len Beadell, the pioneering surveyor whose teams built almost all the roads through the Australian desert. The Anne Beadell Highway is named after his wife, and the Gary after his son. In each case, ‘highway’ is a bit of an in-joke: they’re just single, graded tracks in the sand. The risk of fire, on the other hand, is no joke at all. We passed a burned out Land Rover and Nissan, as well as no end of warning signs. Grass and flowers grow up from the track, and as you drive over them they can accumulate – perhaps around your exhaust, and of course they’re very flammable. The only answer is to make regular checks. One of these revealed what looked like a bale of hay above the back axle.

31/03/2020 14:28

Big Red wasn’t quite as big as the local tales of a giant sand dune had led the authors to expect. The Super Pit gold mine in Kalgoorlie, on the other hand, is vast, at half a mile deep and with the same footprint as the town itself Amazing how sharp and spiky dry grass can be. That could be sorted with a pair of work gloves, but worse was to come when the air-con let go again. By a happy coincidence, the weather changed the following day and the temperature dropped by about twenty degrees, but still, this wasn’t good. Near Casuarina, we found the Len Beadell Tree. the marker didn’t explain what this particular tree had to do with our hero; perhaps he peed against it. It was a lovely place for a coffee break, anyway, and then in Kiwirrkurra we found Len’s burnedout truck. These are the events

6pp Oz Deserts DRAFT WITH AUTHORS.indd 65

that mean something during a long journey through the desert. Finding an identical Landcruiser to ours in Kiwirrkurra meant something, too, as it was in the process of being stripped and the owner was wiling to sell the parts needed to fix the air-con. That was great, though with the weather having turned much fresher (for now), it was no longer urgent. Finding that a twig had penetrated the rubber boot protecting our front left driveshaft wasn’t urgent either, though it was one to add to the list for when we made it to Alice Springs. Driving through water

would become a concern, but until that we could live with it. Before that, our route took us through the Olgas, a rock monolith which has been eroded over time into a series of mini-mountains, and on to Yulara, a tourist village from which, in the distance to the east, we could see Uluru. Pushing ahead on the Lasseter Highway and Mulga Park Road, we encountered more ridges – and then started to hear a worrying noise. Using the old heads-out-ofthe-window test, we figured that it seemed to be coming from the front bumper – and sure enough, some

nuts had started to come loose, allowing it to rattle. So that was that. Or so we thought. We had run a seed net around the structure to keep spinifex out – and it turned out that this was literally the only thing keeping the bull bar in place. One bolt was sheared, the other pulled out completely… the only answer, we decided, was for it to end up strapped to the roof! A couple of days later, we arrived in Alice Springs, where we could take a rest for a few days and give the Landcruiser all the attention it needed. These are vehicles built

31/03/2020 14:28

It doesn’t matter how well suited and well prepared your vehicle is: when you go overlanding in the desert, bad stuff will happen to it. Broken wood, baked hard as steel by the sun, is very good at puncturing rubber gaiters, and spinifex grass will gather under your vehicle to the point at which it becomes a fire risk. Even something as simple as pulling a tyre off its rim is an ever-present hazard, because you certainly don’t want to be going about on unnecessarily high pressures. With all this to worry about, something as simple as washing your vehicle might be easy to forget about – but when you only get to do it once every few thousand miles, it’s quite the occasion to take a constant pounding in the world’s toughest terrain, but if you want them to keep on doing it you need to look after them along the way – and we had been in Australia for more than six months by now. Servicing and repairs are always part of long-range travel… the air-con still wasn’t right, for example, and we had been living for many miles on a trail-fixed mounting for our long-range fuel tank. So all three of us were feeling suitably refreshed as we hit the road again a week or so later, stopping at the amazing rock formations of Chambers Pillar and Castle Rock en route to the Old Ghan, a trail which used to run alongside the famous steam railway between Alice and Port Augusta. Every now and then, we’d pass ruined railway buildings and info boards telling us about the history of the line. Apparently, the bridge at the Finke River collapsed three times, leaving travellers waiting for weeks on end.

You’re close to Lambert’s Center of Australia here, too, where a flagpole marks the geographical centre of the continent. Pretty much obligatory if you’re passing. Talking of obligatory things, our map contained unusually strong warnings about the Mulga Park Road. This passes through Aboriginal land, and if you pass through these areas without the right permit you can land yourself in a world of trouble. We had a stroke of luck, though, when we stopped at Kulgera Roadhouse, as there was an Aboriginal guy working there – he told us it was a great track and didn’t say anything about permits or prohibited areas, and he was right. As it turned out, the Mulga Park Road is part of the old Gunbarrrel Road – another Len Beadell creation. And it was fantastic, with endless views across the deep red landscape and a beautiful surface that allowed us to cover around 350 miles in a day. To top it off, we

found a beautiful camp site by a mountain road with only camels for company – though we were woken up hours later by dingoes howling in the distance, which was spooky and wonderful at the same time! In Wataranka, you can see the grading machine used by Len Beadell to create the track we were following. There’s a museum about him and the legacy of Outback trails he created while working for the government in the 1950s and 60s. The road was rocky in places, sandy in others, with occasional water splashes and, here and there, small brush fires which appeared to have been started by lightning – which we could see in the distance. Definitely time to keep checking your vehicle at every stop! Further on, we joined the Connie Sue Highway (named by Len after his daughter), and here too there was widespread evidence of recent fires. Now we were entering the Great Victoria Desert, which one of our

guide books says is the toughest in Australia. Sounds like fun, especially when you can still see fires burning in the distance… For days, literally the only people we saw was a quartet of men coming the other way on trail bikes. So we alone were treated to the surreal view of an intense storm, with clouds as dark as night, lit up in a deep orange by fires blazing on the ground below and flashing all around us from the bolts of lightning. Surreal, scary, beautiful… and the following day, the weather had turned cold! In Australia, the surprises never end… We weren’t expecting to be greeted by an exceptionally sourfaced and rude lady at our camp site in Kalgoorlie, for example! But then, nice showers and a lovely Thai-Japanese restaurant were nice surprises, too. Before dinner, we took a ride out to see the Super Pit, a huge opencast gold mine on the edge of town that’s almost half a

Above left: Maps and roadsigns alike carry stern warnings about the consequences of trespassing on Aboriginal land – though in reality, the situation on the ground can be a lot more chilled than all this suggests Above right: Weathered by wind erosion into the shape of a giant breaker, Wave Rock has got to be one of the most extraordinary natural phenomena in the world

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mile deep and covers a similar area to Kalgoorlie itself. After a prolonged spell in the desert, readjusting to urban life takes some doing. Hairdressers, bars, lads out street cruising in their Ford Falcons… and for us, giving our Toyota its ﬁrst wash since Darwin! It’s all very normal but also very odd when your only company has been camels, dingoes and lizards. For us, this was good practice as we’d soon be putting our Landcruiser into storage for a spell and ﬂying home for Christmas. Before that, though, we visited Wave Rock, a remarkable example of wind erosion which has weathered a vast

6pp Oz Deserts DRAFT WITH AUTHORS.indd 69

sandstone massif into the shape of a giant breaking wave, and, at long, last, got our air-con ﬁxed properly. Cue more cold weather, naturally. We had several days of wind and rain as we followed the coastal tourist trail en route to Perth, which woud be our Landcruiser’s home while we ﬂew back to the Netherlands to be reunited with our family. We returned to Australia a couple of months later, but it wasn’t until May that we ventured back into the desert. We headed through Sturt National Park, where ranches were bought one by one to create a region in which nature could take back over, and passed through

the Strzelecki Desert en route to Simpson Desert. Here, about twenty miles out of Birdsville, is Big Red – a monster of a sand dune which everybody in the area seemed to be talking about. First, we spotted a lovely looking dune with tyre marks running up it. Rude not to. Our Landcruiser was in its element, romping up to the top – and what a surprise, beyond this was a beautiful lake. Up, down, again and again… it was great fun! After this, what would Big Red be like? We found out soon enough, when we continued on our route only to ﬁnd a sign pointing back to the dune we had just been on. The stories had made it sound bigger and higher and redder than it really was, but not even as beautiful… A couple of days later, following the famous French Line through the desert, we came across some guys tackling dunes in vehicles with big V8 engines and way too much air in their tyres. Lots of revs, not much brain. We decided to show them how a Landcruiser does it… one or two high, 1200rpm, a little gas and a nice, deep growl, and we were sitting at the top. What a feeling! We weren’t feeling quite so exuberant when, on one of the

endless sand dunes of the WAA Line, we managed to unseat a tyre from its rim. The fact that this happened while we were playing around taking photos of the Landcruiser in the sand didn’t make it any less embarrassing. It was windy and gritty, but with the vehicle jacked up we got stuck in with our shovel and half an hour later we were able to get going again. Still, a reminder that the desert is not to be messed with… It was a timely reminder, too, because a couple of weeks later we were to be taking on perhaps the most famous, or infamous, trail in the whole of Australia – the Canning Stock Route. That’s a story in itself, and one we’ll tell another time –ﬁrst, though, we followed the route of the Old Ghan once again as we headed for Oodndatta, then we encountered rain on the way to Coober Pedy – and, something you don’t normally associate with Australia, mud. And guess what? It was thicker, stickier, heavier mud than you get anywhere else. As we had discovered, the deserts are about a lot more than just sand. And as everyone discovers when they come here, Australia doesn’t ever do things by halves.

The authors must be among the best-travelled 4x4 drivers of all time. Since 2002, they’ve been exploring almost non-stop, aboard a variety of vehicles and on every continent in the world. Their website tells a whole world of tales which will make you yearn to pack your life into your truck and head off in search of adventure – you can ﬁnd it by visiting www.exploringtheworld.nl.

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50 GREAT GREEN

Cubert Common

Barton Lane

Bulverton Hill

County Length From To

Cornwall 1.2 miles SW 780 594 SW 784 603

A very unusual sort of right of way across a mixture of sand and grass overlooking the Cornish coastline, this is a delight to drive in either direction – though particularly from the south, as this is the way to make the most of the scenery. You’ll encounter plenty of walkers, kids and dogs here, and at its north end the trail runs through a caravan park, but mainly it’s one of those lanes that just make it a pleasure to be alive.

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50 Lanes.indd 70

Devon 2.4 miles SS 690 343 SS 706 314

Barton Lane is one of a trio of pretty, technical trails which look on the map as if they form one track but in fact have very distinct characters. You’ll encounter a long, tree-covered gradient on ﬂat ﬂagstones, a washed-out set of axle-twisters and an overgrown farm track – there aren’t many green lanes capable of lifting one of your wheels off the ground even when you’re taking the line of least resistance, but this is one of them.

Devon 2.75+ miles SY 100 895 SY 100 895

Six lanes in one? Just about. Bulverton Hill is encircled by unsurfaced roads, each with its own character. Taking it anti-clockwise, you’ll come to a long climb up the hill’s western ﬂank in an area of recent forestry activity, after which you’ll top out across a ridge and drop down the other side on a sometimes rutted lane next to a golf course. The lanes beyond this are more enclosed and overgrown, but well surfaced nonetheless; the last

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N LANES

one completes the circle back at the junction with the main A3052; we’ve seen illegal obstructions at one end of it in the distant past, but don’t let that spoil what is a mini lane run all in itself.

Wether Hill County Length From To

Northumberland 2.7 miles NU 003 124 NU 019 162

Most of the lanes in this part of Northumberland run along ﬁeld edges, so Wether Hill is a real gem. It climbs high up over the moortops, following a set of tracks in the grass which at times becomes

4x4 50 Lanes.indd 71

With Britain conﬁned to barracks as we write these words, the day when we can climb aboard our 4x4s and venture back out on to the country’s green lanes feels like it might be a long way away. But we can reassure ourselves with the thought that things will get back to normal, sooner or later – and that when they do, the lanes will be waiting. Here’s a selection of 30 from around England and Wales to keep your appetite keen – every single one of them a reason to look forward to the day when lockdown is lifted and life, and laning, return to normal!

faint enough to let you feel as if you’re breaking virgin ground. At its northern end, too, it links up with another unusual lane which zig-zags steeply away uphill. Better still, the extraordinary Brandon Ford is only a mile or so further on.

Slaty Ford County Length From To

of traction. For this reason, unless the ground is dry you should only drive it from west to east. Either way, you need an extremely gentle right foot – and the same goes for the ford after which it’s named – it’s not deep, but it’s on a tight corner and the wet bedrock is as slippery as ice.

Slaty Ford

Northumberland 1.7 miles NY 766 872 NY 742 869

Set high up on the moors bordering Kielder Forest, this long, scenic trail is stony in places but often grassy and, in wet conditions, a real test

MAY 2020 | 71

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Rede Bridge

Tilberthwaite Road

County Length From To

Northumberland 2.3 miles NY 866 846 NY 875 824

Dating from 1715, Rede Bridge is surely the only listed building you’ll ever drive over. The trail running across it offers a couple of options; the most interesting is from the north, where a farm track takes you through a ford and along the edge of several ﬁelds before dropping down to another right of way whose character is quite different. This is the unmetalled road that leads down the valley side to the bridge itself – then climbs back up, passing through what used to be a wayside halt on a tiny local railway.

Long Cross County Length From To

Cumbria / Northumberland 2.7 miles NY 738 499 NY 773 518

Arguably the best of the many unsurfaced roads around Alston, Long Cross features a lengthy gradient as it drops off the moors into Allendale. It can be uneven here, but in the main it’s a ﬁrm, stony track crossing the landscape in splendid isolation. And ‘splendid’ is the word.

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50 Lanes.indd 72

Cumbria 1.7 miles NY 308 014 NY 300 031

This magniﬁcent mountain pass in the Lake District used to be one of the most technical rights of way anywhere in Britain, with no end of tricky, uneven rocks – the reward for which was a never-ending series of glorious views. Sadly, the machinations of green lane politics and petty self-interest mean its surface has been smashed up and turned into something you can drive in an everyday car; this takes some of the excitement out of the adventure, but the views remain as sublime as ever. Be warned, though, that there’s an incredibly narrow bridge at the northern end which wider vehicles won’t get through without scraping against the parapets.

Limestone Hill County Length From To

Cumbria 1.9 miles NY 328 017 SD 342 995

At times on this long Lake District trail, you could half-close your eyes and think you’re in the Rockies. Towering trees cling to the edge of a

wide open valley as you meander along its ﬂanks, pausing at times to tackle the rock steps that’ll make sure you don’t get complacent. It doesn’t take many trails of this quality to make up a great day’s laning, and there are enough here to give you an experience like nothing else in the UK.

Grizedale Forest County Length From To

Cumbria 1.6 miles SD 336 944 SD 357 955

Not many trails start at a visitor centre, skirt a series of art installations and ﬁnish with a set of axle twisters. It’s to the National Park Authority’s credit that they haven’t closed this fantastic lane for their own convenience; they do ask you to do it from west to east, but this means you can stock up at the visitor centre café before you go. The lane’s good, but the pies are better still.

Parkamoor County Length From To

Cumbria 4.1 miles (return) SD 294 896 SD 294 896

Testament to the Blair government’s frenzied anti-freedom lawmaking, this glorious lane was

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Ramsden Road

go. It’s easy enough to drive, though, with three distinct sections – a long run between dry-stone walls, a wide open track that’s a magnet for surface water and a long, stony trail next to a road whose main feature is a deep erosion gulley that’ll lift your wheels as you cross it. At the latter end, it’s handily positioned to take you a few yards along the tarmac to the start of nearby Pindale Road, a tighter, steeper lane but one which goes ideally with Dirtlow to create a nice half hour or so’s action. If you’re in the Peaks on holiday and your family’s forcing you to spend time in touristy Castleton, this is the perfect detour for the road home afterwards.

Houndkirk Moor

Tilberthwaite Road turned into a dead end by the NERC Act of 2006. It’s still worth the drive, not just for the staggering views over Coniston Water and beyond but for a series of rocky passages which are among the most technically challenging anywhere. The good news is that the viewpoint at the top is perfect for a picnic (and wouldn’t be a bad place to spend the day watching and listening to the action on the lake below during Coniston Speed Week), and better still you drive those rock steps again on the way back down.

Ramsden Road County Length From To

West Yorkshire 3.25 miles SE 012 053 SE 130 050

and here and there it has suffered at the hands of illegal off-roaders, but whichever direction you drive it in it’s very special indeed.

Dirtlow Rake County Length From To

Derbyshire 2.3 miles SK 126 826 SK 153 819

It’s not that far from civilisation, but Dirtlow is one of the bleakest places you’ll ever ﬁnd yourself – especially when the weather’s giving it a good

County Length From To

South Yorkshire 2.4 miles SK 270 805 SK 290 835

There aren’t many rights of way where you can feel the bleak isolation of a remote moor top – while still being able to overlook one of Britain’s biggest cities. But that’s how it is on Houndkirk – a long, stony trail near Sheﬃeld that’s suitable for any 4x4 but still manages to be exciting whatever you’re driving. You’ll encounter absolutely loads of walkers, however, so be prepared for a lot of stopping (plus the occasional grumble from those who think the countryside should be their private property) – and keep an eye open for illegal off-roaders, as the land adjoining the lane has been hammered in places by illegal off-roading.

Houndkirk Moor

This is a big beast of a lane, and it’s very varied in character. Down on the valley ﬂoor as you approach from the west, it’s wide, ﬁrm and usable by just about anything – though even here, there’s an optional approach track that’s rocky and very uneven. The trail runs along the base of one dam and over the top of another before striking out uphill through scenic woodlands, twisting and turning its way over rough, rocky ground as a sweeping vista opens out behind you. The lane is currently scheduled for maintenance as it has become washed out in places,

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Wales: The spiritual home of British green laning Lower Claerwen County Length From To

Strata Florida

Powys 2.15 miles SN 895 616 SN 869 633

The lane running along the north side of Claerwen Reservoir is a dead end, thanks to the ridiculous mismanagement of Britain’s rights of way system. But below the dam, a wonderfully varied, uneven track runs through a spectacular valley and alongside (sometimes almost in) the river. There’s a wide but normally shallow ford at the Claerwen end, while at the south-eastern trailhead you need to be careful to take the right route through a farm. In between, the driving is consistently excellent and challenging in places, and the views are never less than superb.

Happy Valley County Length From To

Gywnedd 3.2 miles SH 623 015 SN 669 997

We’re including Happy Valley as a bucket list lane to mark out for the future, as it’s currently under full voluntary restraint requiring motor vehicle users to stay away until repairs have been completed. Since the alternative would be to lose it altogether, it’s a small price to pay. This is a glorious lane, climbing high into the mountains just a few miles inland to follow a route whose terrain and views are nothing short of sublime. Wait patiently, then savour one of the best rights of way anywhere in Britain.

Horseshoe Lane County Length From To

Gwynedd 3.2 miles SH 736 022 SH 750 036

This is an absolute monster. It’s commonly known as Bastard Lane, and you’ll find out why – combine extremely uneven ground with heavy-duty side tilts and a massive rock face with water flowing down it, and you’ve got possibly the most taxing technical lane in the land. Sadly, the vermin of the 4x4 world are all too aware of it, and illegal off-roading has caused serious damage in the surrounding forest – if you spot this happening, film or photograph them if it’s safe to do so and report them to the police, because they’re the reason why lanes like this get closed. Littering is a problem on this lane, too – something that’s unusual on rights of way used predominantly by 4x4s – and a voluntary restraint is in place requiring you to drive it only from west to east to prevent ground damage. Finally, don’t do this one alone – it’s remote, and the potential for vehicle damage or accidents is high. But what a lane it is!

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Pheasant Pen

White Stones

County Length From To

Powys 2.1 miles SJ 171 326 SJ 178 299

Wrexham 2.5 miles SJ 157335 SJ 170 369

The Pheasant Pen is legendary for being tricky to drive (and dangerous if you get it wrong), but signiﬁcant grading work over the last couple of years mean it’s now more of a scenic drive – albeit with some alarming side slopes. It’s still pretty uneven at the head of the valley, but whether you’re travelling up or down the hill you’ll be treated to sensational views. Take care, because there are still big drop-offs into the valley below, but this is now a lane you can approach with relish rather than trepidation.

A stony and at times washed out track across the soggy moorland of Bryn Du, this trail can have your wheels waving – but it’s more likely to have you catching your breath. Hopefully that’ll just be in awe at the expansive views as you crest its highest point, but if you don’t treat the savage off-camber rock faces at its northern end with the respect they demand, it might be for altogether less pleasant reasons.

The Wayfarer

County Length From To

Denbighshire 6.0+ miles SJ 129 355 SJ 040 372 / 050 398

When you go laning in North Wales, this is the one – rocky without being a car-killer, wet without being a swamp and scenic without limits. There’s even a memorial to Walter MacGregor Robinson, the Wayfarer himself, beside the track. You can stop and sign the ‘visitors book’ there, and to savour the glorious isolation of such a majestic place. Don’t linger too long, though, because you’ll surely be back – and with two long forks at the western end, both of which are rights of way, an out-and-back journey is totally appropriate – not least because this is one of the very longest lanes in Britain. It’s under voluntary restraint at present, requiring you to leave it along until repairs have been completed on a short section halfway along its length – but if you’ve never been here before, what a treat awaits you when it opens back up.

Esgair Dderw Powys 3.1 miles SN 921 706 SN 961 685

For some reason, this glorious rocky trail near Rhayader is often overlooked by visitors to MidWales. Maybe it’s the proximity of monsters like Strata Florida and Soar y Mynydd, but in most parts of the country a lengthy track with steep, twisting gradients, a trickily varying surface and views that go on forever would be the undisputed highlight of any day out.

Happy Valley

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Crychan Forest

the right of way. This has mainly been done to avoid water troughs that look scary but are in fact quite benign – either way, there’s no need at all to leave the main track, which is one of the best forest lanes anywhere.

White Stones

Sarn Helen County Length From To

Soar y Mynydd County Length From To

Ceredigion 3.5 miles SN 738 541 SN 785 533

A programme of repairs a few years ago turned this high-level pass into what it should be – an opportunity for anyone with a good 4x4 to experience the splendid isolation of the Mid-Welsh mountains while enjoying a safe but testing drive on a well cared for ancient road. That doesn’t mean it’s a doddle – it’s steep at the eastern end, and washed-out in places – but by and large you can relax and enjoy the view.

Strata Florida County Length From To

Powys / Ceredigion 7.2 miles SN 804 568 SN 755 646

Strata Florida is famous throughout the 4x4 community, both for its sheer length and mainly, the almost unbelievable number of fords you go through on the way along it. They take time to start happening, whichever direction you approach it from, but once you’re into them it’s almost non-stop – and at times you’ll be driving along the river rather than through it. At the time of writing, a section mid-way along the route is closed for repairs, and lockdown will no doubt prolong this – but it was originally due to be open by around the time this magazine is due to come out, so by the end of the summer we should hopefully be able to enjoy its majesty once more.

Gwynedd 4.5 miles SH 727 249 SH 726 315

The classic long-distance sections of Sarn Helen between Brecon and Seven Sisters were stolen by the scheming evil of Blair’s gang when they passed the NERC Act in 2006. But way up north in the quiet of Coed y Brenin Forest, a stretch of the famous old road remains untouched by the scourge of politics. Approached from the south, the trail is easy – wide, smooth and ﬁrm, suitable for the day trippers and mountain bikers to whom it’s a way of accessing the forest. As you carry on, though, the going gets tougher, the ground steeper, the lane narrower and more uneven, and then ﬁnally you emerge from the trees and into a sparse vista of typically bleak Welsh moorland. Be warned – there are some very narrow gates to get through at this end of the track.

Ffridd y Castell County Length From To

Gwynedd 4.15 miles SH 786 218 SH 796 232

Driving this trail round the head of a remote valley is a slightly bizarre experience. Once, it was heavily forested – and also mined, judging by the old stone buildings decaying by the side

of the track. But it was clear-felled some time in the last couple of years or so, giving it a naked, almost lunar feel of recent abandonment. The driving itself is relatively straightforward (just so long as you watch out for the sheer drops no more than a foot or two to your side in places), but as you get used to the landscape at eye level you start to notice the majesty of the rocky horizon all around you.

Nant Helygog County Length From To

Gywnedd 3.25 miles SH 794 206 SH 795 172

Nant Helygog is a series of three or four separate lanes which all join up into one, creating a lengthy run with an ever-changing character. Most of the time, it’s easy enough to drive and, particularly towards its southern end, sweepingly scenic as pine forests give way to open hillsides. But further north, someone forgot to make the bridges wide enough – they’re long and absurdly narrow, with parapets barely inches from your doors. Breathe in – and, if you’re doing it from north to south, take great care not to fall off the side of the raised track as it drops down to meet the main A470.

Horseshoe Lane

Crychan Forest County Length From To

Powys / Carmanthenshire 3.0 miles SN 840 414 SN 881 435

The trail through the eastern half of Crychan is fairly easy to drive – though navigating your way along it might be trickier, as there are plenty of junctions that don’t always bear much resemblance to what’s going on on the map. You’ll also ﬁnd plenty of evidence of people straying from

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Glaisdale Rigg

Wolverns Lane

The Ridgeway

Halfpenny Catch Lane

County Length From To

West Berkshire 4.8 miles SU 567 812 SU 499 811

For most of its length, this once-great old road is now just another dog toilet for its self-appointed ‘friends’. But at its eastern end, a section of the track remains legally drivable by 4x4s. Even this is closed outside of the summer months, but it does give you a ﬂavour of what the landscape around the trail was like back in those happy, innocent days before politics trampled on our rights.

Langdon Hill County Length From To

Oxfordshire / West Berkshire 3.75 miles SU 552 854 SU 531 800

This lengthy, easily driven track runs north to south, crossing the broken remnants of the Ridgeway as it goes. It gets a little rutted here and there, but shouldn’t trouble any competent 4x4. This is an area that’s particularly good for driving on a long summer’s evening, when the gentle quiet of the lush, grassy downs all around feels like an island amid the storm of a region whose proximity to London means the rush of everyday life rarely seems to slow down.

Woolvers Road County Length From To

West Berkshire 4.9 miles SU 489 812 SU 454 803

You can call it a road all you want, but this lane is deﬁnitely not somewhere to go in your mum’s Fiesta. It’s easy enough at its northern end, where it dives off from a busy road junction near East Ilsley, but all of a sudden there’s a side slope to contend with – followed by a lengthy section between trees in a ever-denser wood. At its southern end, the track links with various others to create an almost ﬁve-mile section with just a small amount of road liaison in it. And with so many other byways in this area, you won’t want for more to explore if it whets your appetite.

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West Berkshire 2.2 miles SU 503 810 SU 482 786

This is a slightly unusual lane, in that it passes beneath a main dual carriageway. It’s rutted in places, and can get overgrown in others, but in the main it’s just a delight to be laning so close to four non-stop streams of thundering traﬃc.

Wolverns Lane County Length From To

Surrey 2.75 miles TQ 151 440 TQ 129 473

Meandering through Surrey woodlands, this is a well kept track whose surface at times becomes almost sandy. It’s an easy drive – which also links up with another splendid lane at its southern end.

Hogden Lane County Length From To

Surrey 2.4 miles TQ 162 501 TQ 128 536

A really glorious drive through beautiful woodlands in the Surrey Hills. Whichever way you take it, it’s a feast for the eyes – and, in places, a test of your vehicle control as you pick your way past encroaching trees.

Ponds Farm Lane County Length From To

Surrey 2.0 miles TQ 073 466 TQ 063 442

High Lane County Length From To

North Yorkshire 2.85 miles SE 021 872 SE 062 876

In an area with lots of high lanes, this one isn’t actually the highest. But it’s a classic in its own right, carrying you along a north-facing valley side with crags towering above you to the south. The surface is gently uneven, so most 4x4s can tackle it with conﬁdence, but there’s enough in the way of steep slopes to make a proper one with low box very desirable. There’s no shortage of other trails in the area to combine it with, too.

Busk Lane County Length From To

North Yorkshire 2.2+ miles SD 943 871 SD 934 839

Approached from the north, you’ll feel like you’ve been on an adventure before you even get to Busk Lane. After several miles of single-track road, you’ll see a track stretching out up the hill ahead of you as you reach the farm – and that’s when the fun really starts. It’s rocky in places and rutted in others, with some steep gradients and an ever-present view that seems to go on forever. Then at its southern end, the lane gives you a choice of turning right on a gentler lane or left and enjoying more rocks and ruts over wild moorland. You’d never be able to tell just by looking, but somewhere in the ﬁelds to the west of side of Busk Lane is a WWII tank which got stuck in the peat. Top brass decided that it would be so hard to rescue, they were better off decommissioning it in situ and leaving it to sink…

Busk Lane

When you follow the ‘byway’ sign into Parklands, a rural street lined with smart houses, you can hardly expect what’s about to happen. But then the tarmac turns into a tight, uneven sunken lane with side-slopes, washouts and tree roots to contend with as you ease your way along. It opens back out towards its southern end – really, it’s like two lanes in one. Don’t go out of season, though – it’s only open during the summer months.

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North Yorkshire: Big trails in a big landscape Cam High Road County Length From To

North Yorkshire 4.75 miles SD 925 895 SD863 853

The legend next to it on the map says ‘Roman Road,’ not that you wouldn’t have guessed from the miles of dead-straight stone and gravel that make up this bleak moortop trail. Start from the east and by the time you’ve reached its highest point, you’ve put on almost a quarter of a mile in altitude. It’s a reasonably straightforward drive in any decent 4x4, but one which puts you at the mercy of the weather – snow lingers up here, and if it’s wet and windy back in civilisation it’ll be like Armageddon at this height. At its western end, Cam High Road links via a few miles of single-track tarmac to another lane known as West Cam Road, or the Cam Steps. The steps themselves are gone now, but by combining the two you’ll be able to spend a couple of hours soaring above the surrounding countryside from the seat of your 4x4.

Glaisdale Rigg County Length From To

Rudland Rigg

North Yorkshire 2.1+ miles NZ 768 053 NZ 740 040

West of Glaisdale village is a series of rights of way centred around one main track running eastwest across the moor. It’s very easily driven – just enough to make it an adventure if you’re up here on holiday and fancy surprising the family with a bit of ‘off-road’ action – but its popularity with walkers and horse riders mean discipline remains essential. You won’t want to rush it, at any rate – the effortless views to the south see to that.

Rudland Rigg County Length From To

North Yorkshire 10+ miles NZ 592 061 SE 659 927

One of the longest uninterrupted stretches of off-tarmac driving you can do in the UK, Rudland is actually about the same length as the famous Rubicon Trail. It only takes half an hour or so to drive, though, as opposed to two days, because the bumps are mainly quite small – though towards its northern end, where it zig-zags its way up to the moor tops, there’s a long ﬁeld of rocks that demands respect whichever way you’re taking it. A few miles from its southern end, meanwhile, a crossroads with two other rights of way gives you the chance to create a circuit

including some steeper gradients – and yet more stunning views to boot.

Fountains Earth Road County Length From To

North Yorkshire 8.85 miles SE 159 729 SE 195 757

A simple but very long unsurfaced track that’s kept well maintained for carrying grouse shoots on to the moors, Fountains Earth Road is one of several lanes north of Pateley Bridge which can be woven together into a lengthy lane run suitable for any 4x4. You deﬁnitely won’t be stretched as a driver, but that’s exactly how it should be when you’re riding trails where it’s all about the bleak, everlasting scenery.

West Cam Road

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Wiltshire: More lanes than you can shake a stick at Ox Drove

suitable for almost any 4x4. In effect, it’s several separate lanes sharing the same heading, with liaison sections in between, but you can also weave in the many other tracks branching out to your left and right to make things more interesting for driver and navigator alike. You’ll need to do a bit of this, indeed, as one section of the Fosse itself has been closed to 4x4s in the last few years due to damage caused by illegal off-road use away from the right of way.

Morgan’s Hill County Length From To

Ox Drove County Length From To

Wiltshire 8.9 miles ST 952 207 SU 087 233

One of the classic long rides in the south of England, the Ox Drove runs along the north edge of Cranborne Chase from a few miles south-west of Salisbury. Sometimes wooded, sometimes bordered by hedges, it also opens out on occasion to give you sweeping views of the rolling countryside all around. In an area criss-crossed by byways, the Ox Drove has several junctions with other roads, both surfaced and unsurfaced, as well as rights of way of every level. It combines perfectly with Compton Down, just a few miles further north, for a long out-and-back lane run. The Ox Drove can get rutted in places, and is very good at collecting surface water. As a result, it’s under voluntary restraint asking you to stay away during the winter months – which shouldn’t trouble you, because even in the summer it can feel like driving through a swamp-ridden jungle.

wide, well surfaced lane on which surface water tends to collect in big, deep pools. As with most of the lanes round here, Compton has several junctions with roads and other tracks – some of which are also rights of way for 4x4s. You can combine it with the Ox Drove, as well as the many byways clustered around its eastern end, to spend a whole day almost completely off-tarmac.

Fosse Way County Length From To

Wiltshire 11.8 miles ST 840 796 ST 947 951

Running along the Wiltshire-Gloucestershire border as it strikes north into the Cotswolds, the Fosse is a series of arrow-straight gravel tracks

Wiltshire 3.85 miles SU 017 672 SU 075 683

A gentle set of lanes on and around the Wessex Ridgeway, this is at the heart of an area where you can spend all day behind the wheel and hardly ever be on tarmac. Morgan’s Hill is skirted by lanes to the north and south, both of them eventually joining up to climb east towards Beckhampton – and many more lanes beyond. Many are closed during the winter, and others are under voluntary restraint, but you’ll never be short of trails to explore around here.

White Sheet Lane County Length From To

Wiltshire 3.8 miles ST 797 349 ST 853 338

So easy to drive that you’re likely to ﬁnd a line of dog-walkers’ cars parked at the top, but ﬁrmly gravel-surfaced and great for surface water, the climb up White Sheet Hill gives you fantastic views north over the soaring downland – on the rare occasions when it’s not obscured by mist and low cloud. Take it from the west and then,

Morgan’s Hill

Compton Down County Length From To

Wiltshire 13.5 miles ST 933 239 SU 134 283

Also known as the Herepath and Old Shaftesbury Drove, this is a long ridgeway-style trail running more of less east-to-west from just south of Salisbury. Its character varies in places, with ruts appearing for a spell as you get further west, and as a result parts of it are under voluntary restraint asking keeping it 4x4-free during the winter. For most of its length, however, it’s a

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Fosse Way

for a more challenging drive, continue across the road and on to Mere Down, where a grassy and undulating surface can make the going very interesting, before turning north on the spectacular byway dropping off the edge of the down towards Kingston Deverill.

Violets Lane

Old Marlborough Road

Violets Lane

County Length From To

Wiltshire 6.1 miles SU 174 440 SU 204 524

For a long time, the drivable part of the Old Marlborough Road was limited to a section of wide, ﬁrm-surfaced track running north across the eastern part of the Salisbury Plain military lands. More recently, however, new sections have been upgraded to byway status – including a superb woodland trail north of Bulford whose constantly uneven surface demands non-stop driver input. The Old Marlborough Road is one of very many rights of way in this area that make it a magnet for 4x4 drivers. One look at the local OS map will have you itching to get out there – and with trails like this in abundance, you’ll never regret doing so.

Copehill Down County Length From To

Wiltshire 7.9+ miles SU 036 473 SU 057 446

One of the Salisbury Plain classics, Copehill combines a number of byways which can be woven together to make a long and at times tricky lane run. The high point is your passage around the fabled German Village, built by the Army in 1988 for training troops in close combat should the Soviets invade Europe – not just because of the weirdness of your surroundings, but because the slippery northern transit around it includes a water trough that’ll have you wading bonnet-deep after prolonged rain.

Hertfordshire 0.9 miles TL 437 280 TL 436 294

The words ‘Furneux Pelham’ make all green laners smile. Except for a few, who just shiver. The village is at one end of a unique right of way – which is also the course of the River Ash. For much of the year, it’s a reasonably ﬁrmly surfaced sunken lane with big, long puddles in a chain along a mile or so of its length. But when river levels are high, particularly in winter, that same mile or so becomes a trough of standing water that’ll come right over your bonnet and up your windscreen. You have been warned. And tempted…

Pilgrims Way County Length From To

Kent 10.0 miles TQ 549 848 TQ 986 480

Part of a much longer historical route, this section of the Pilgrims Way runs along south-facing downland in the middle of Kent – where a large proportion of its length is unsurfaced. There are a few road liaison sections here, however for the most part you’ll be driving on chalky ground along

ﬁeld edges. In the main, it’s suitable for any 4x4, though you don’t need to be too precious about your paintwork as it’s scratchy in places. Note also that one section, near the village of Lenham, can be driven only with a permit from the local authority thanks to vandals using it in the part to desecrate a war memorial on the hillside overlooking the trail. That extremely ugly fact is in stark contrast to the beauty of the views as you make your way along the various lanes making up the Pilgrims Way here – which allow you to take it easy aboard your 4x4 while watching as road and rail traﬃc hurries to and forth the continent.

Harling Drove County Length From To

Suffolk 3.2 miles TL 839 888 TL788 881

A straight and otherwise fairly unremarkable right of way in the Thetford area, this long, straight lane is very unusual in that it’s predominantly sandy. No, it’s not like driving in the Sahara – but here and there, the surface is suﬃciently deep and soft for you to feel your engine starting to labour. Combine this with an almost savannah-like landscape of scattered trees and scrubby bush, and you can easily convince yourself you’re somewhere altogether more exotic.

Pilgrims Way

Copehill Down

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