Half a century ago, in the days before the phrase ‘green laning’ had been invented, a bunch of suave young chaps-about-town borrowed an Austin Champ and put it on the Motorail train to Devon for a weekend of japes and wheezes. With their King’s Road haircuts and Sgt Pepper clobber, they must have looked quite a sight as they explored the countryside, and they certainly got noticed… and reported to the local police a couple of times.
Their story survives today because they told it in, would you believe, an early issue of Custom Car magazine. And it’s being told again now because the publishers of 4x4 have just bought Custom Car, giving us the chance to unearth what has, over time, become a really valuable historical document. Notably, while their laning was as anarchic as you’d expect, by the end of the weekend they had learned some of the lessons that have become everyday wisdom today.
Bringing things right up to date, we’ve been laning ourselves – aboard an all-electric Skoda Enyaq iV. Those 4x4-haters who
