Overlander 4x4 September 2024 by Assignment Media Ltd

LATEST: LAND ROVER’S £160,000 DEFENDER | DRIVEN: ISUZU D-MAX STEEL | SPORT: BXCC IS BACK!

A CLASSIC IN KENYA Two-door Range Rover still going strong in the wilds

September 2024 £5.99

GLACIER GIANT Arctic Trucks’ new Defender AT35

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HOMECOMING The long road back to Britain

LR MOTORHOME Self-contained travel taken to new lengths

19/07/2024 15:06

SUBARU FORESTER. THE NO-NONSENSE SUV. EVOLVED TO EXPLORE.

£2,000 SUBARU DEPOSIT CONTRIBUTION*

5.9%

APR REPRESENTATIVE†

3 YRS SERVICING FOR ** £299

We typically receive commission or other benefits for introducing you to International Motors Finance Ltd. This may be a flat fee or percentage of the amount you borrow. Vehicle shown is a Forester Sport, OTR price of £40,790. Model shown price includes optional special paint finish at £595.

Tough, practical and virtually indestructible, the Subaru Forester e-BOXER will never let you down. Whatever the weather, wherever you want to go, this reliable workhorse will get you there. It’s calm, understated and up for any challenge.

SCAN ME TO FIND OUT MORE.

SUPERB FEATURES. FITTED AS STANDARD. • 2.0L Petrol e-BOXER Engine + Electric Motor • Permanent Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive • X-MODE with Hill Descent Control • 1,870kg Towing Capacity (braked) • 220mm Ground Clearance • EyeSight Safety Package • 509L Boot Space • 8” Touchscreen • Apple CarPlay™ & Android Auto™

SUBARU FORESTER fuel economy and CO2 results (WLTP): Combined 34.7mpg, CO2 emissions 185g/km. MPG figures are official EU test figures for comparative purposes & may not reflect real driving results. Fuel consumption achieved in real life conditions & CO2 produced depends on a number of factors including accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles & vehicle load. Offers available until 30.09.2024. Stock subject to availability. Subaru reserves the right to amend or withdraw offers at any time without prior notice. Private customers only, not available in conjunction with any other offers. Excludes Personal Contract Hire and Business Contract Hire. Available at participating dealers only. *£2,000 Subaru Deposit Contribution (incl. VAT) on a Forester e-BOXER XE, Sport or XE Premium. †Credit is subject to status. Must be 18+. This credit offer is only available through Subaru Finance provided by International Motors Finance Limited, St William House, Tresillian Terrace, Cardiff, CF10 5BH. **3 services for **£299.00 (incl. VAT) offer applicable when you purchase a brand-new Subaru Forester. All services should be taken at the relevant service intervals - either 12,000 miles or 12 months, whichever comes sooner. All services must be completed by an authorised Subaru Retailer. The customer's failure to redeem the services within the designated mileage or time will void the manufacturer's warranty. Available to retail customer only. Does not cover any non-service related parts or repairs or general wear and tear. Servicing is transferable with the vehicle. #A comprehensive 3-Year Recovery and Assistance Programme is included, valid in the UK and Europe. ^Forester e-BOXER battery is covered by a 8 Year Warranty.

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TERRA CANS ACCESSORIES TERRA CAN ACCESSORIES

TF1757 - Replacement Bar Lock Type Mount

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MOUNTING KITS

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Defender 1983 - 2006 Defender 2020 Onwards Discovery 2 Discovery 3 & 4 Spare Wheel Carriers

TF1782

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Mount your Terra Cans to your vehicle, flat Terra cans can be stacked and locked, ensuring your Terra Cans are safely stowed!

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03/07/2024 12:14

TERRAFIRMA TERRA CANS TERRA CANS Red

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TF1752R

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100x343x876mm

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MOUNTABLE. STACK ABLE. SUPER TOUGH. Integral Pouring Spout & Breather

Overlander4x4_2024_09_Sept_Allmakes_3PS_Gatefold.indd 2

Ratchet Lock Cap

03/07/2024 12:15

TERRAFIRMA TERRA CANS THE NEXT GENERATION OF FUEL AND WATER CONTAINERS! Constructed from tough LLDPE plastic, the Terra Cans are easy to carry & store. Suitable for petrol, diesel & water, making them perfect for all off-road & outdoor activities. Included is a ratchet lock cap, preventing the cap from accidentally opening. The integral pouring spout & breather vent reduce pressure and make pouring quick and easy. Available in a variety of sizes, each Terra Can is supplied with either lockable or screw type mounts. The Terra Cans can be stacked and paired with our Terra Can accessories.

STRONG & LIGHTWEIGHT

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Tel: 01283 742969 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

Design

Ian Denby-Jones

Contributors

Graham Scott, Mike Trott, Gary Martin, Olly Sack, Gary Noskill, Dan Fenn, Paul Looe, Tom Alderney, Chris Collard

Photographers

Steve Taylor, Richard Hair, Harry Hamm, Vic Peel

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Subscriptions Agency

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e tend o do a Land Rover issue once every year, and without ignoring the rest of the market that’s what you’ve got in your hands. You’re also looking at an issue containing two stories of overland travel, both of them using Land Rover products – and guess what? In both cases, it’s Land Rover products from several decades ago. I was on a press event recently when someone asked me what I would buy, out of all the modern 4x4s. As always, it goes back and forth and you compare opinions, and as always it ends up with ‘if only it didn’t cost so much money.’ So next time I was at one of these events, I decided to throw it back at the world and ask everyone else the same question. Brand new vehicle, daily driver, adventure truck too – what’s it to be? Almost everyone said some sort of pick-up. Interestingly, that’s what most of them actually said, too – ‘some sort of pick-up.’ Almost no-one named a brand, though with those who did it was invariably Isuzu. Take note. Most mentioned the Grenadier, too. And then the thing about money. But

literally no-one said anything about the new Defender. I do spend quite a lot of my time sneering at how ridiculously expensive and laughably pretentious Land Rover has become, and that can’t help but have damaged the Defender. All the same, it surprises me that people don’t take it more seriously. Perhaps it’s because it has become a symbol of something off-roaders don’t like. As a mate of mine put it, ‘I’d have a Defender, but I don’t want to look like a twat.’ Yet there’s a thin line between love and hate. Arctic Trucks’ new AT35 conversion for the latest 110 was bred from the need to perform in extreme terrains – yet in a world of urban 4x4 owners who want their trucks to be bigger, wider and more butch than the next guy’s, it’s like taking a howitzer to a pop-gun ﬁght. As off-roaders, we love that look (and the ability that goes with it) – but we don’t want to be mistaken for that guy. Which is ironic, because that guy wants to be mistaken for us. Perhaps someone should tell him the secret is to buy an ancient Land Rover instead… Alan Kidd, Editor

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

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overlander4x4.co.uk

4x4 Contents Sep AWAITING SUBS CONF_IDJ.indd 2

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LATEST: LAND ROVER’S £160,000 DEFENDER | DRIVEN: ISUZU D-MAX STEEL | SPORT: BXCC IS BACK!

A CLASSIC IN KENYA Two-door Range Rover still going strong in the wilds

75% OFF

September 2024 £5.99

GLACIER GIANT Arctic Trucks’ new Defender AT35

HOMECOMING The long road back to Britain

HOUSE ON WHEELS 110 becomes a full-on motorhome

Six issues for the price of 12 sounds like half-price – but when you subscribe to Overlander 4x4 for a year, you actually end up getting 75% off the price on the cover

CONTENTS SEPT 2024 4x4 Scene 4

News

Full specs for the ultimate Defender, fancy named for Range Rover Sport option packs and a sudden proliferation of Grenadiers

10 Products

More usability for new Defenders, more lockability for your diffs and more visibility for the heavens from your roof top tent

Every Month 53 Subscribe

Get Overlander 4x4 delivered for a fraction of the cover price

64 Next Month

Back to Kenya for more adventures… and a guide to prepping your truck for world travel

Driven 18 KGM Torres

Rugged looks and a choice of ICE and EV drive trains for an SUV with a great deal going for it

24 Isuzu D-Max Steel

A dress-up kit and some useful additions for a limited-run double-cab with a top-spec base

Vehicles 26 Arctic Trucks Defender AT35

Iceland’s masters of the massive create a vehicle ﬁt to dominate school runs everywhere

44 110 Motorhome

Roof tents might still be the go-to solution for most overlanders, but sleeping in, rather than on your vehicle is gaining in popularity all the time

48 Old-School Elegance

After a decade or more of off-the-peg ‘uniqueness’ in Defender modding, one man’s vision yields a Land Rover of truly jaw-dropping individuality

Travel 34 Kenya

On safari among dangerous animals and really dangerous humans in the relative safety of an ancient Range Rover Classic

56 Long Way Up

More classic Solihull tin doing what it was made for, as a convoy of old leafers travels home from South Africa to the Weald of Kent

Our 4x4s 62 Isuzu D-Max GO2

Returning to the site of a previous lane route to check out the surface condition of some sensitive rights of way September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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NEWS

HIGH-PERFORMANCE OCTA MODEL PUSHES DEFENDER PRICES TO £160,800

he new Defender Octa will cost from £145,300 when the order book opens at the end of July. And the Octa Edition One, whose availability will be limited to the first year of production, is set to take the price still higher to £160,800. Powered by the 4.4-litre twin turbo V8 from the Range Rover Sport, the Octa is SVO’s take on the Defender 110. The engine delivers 635bhp and 553lbf.ft – figures which translate into a 0-60 time of just 3.8 seconds and, when equipped with 22” road tyres, a top speed of 155mph. This doesn’t make it quite as fast as some of its similarly priced rivals in the ultra-SUV market. However JLR promises that unlike them, it will be ‘as fun to drive on‑road as off‑road, with no compromises.’ Helping it achieve this, the vehicle receives major revisions to its chassis and suspension. Longer wishbones widen its track by 68mm and raise its height by 28mm while promising ‘both maximum wheel articulation off‑road and reduced roll on‑road.’ Aiding it here is Land Rover’s 6D Dynamics, a system using hydraulically‑interlinked semi-active shocks to reduce pitch and roll almost to zero while also freeing up more suspension movement in off-road use.

As always these days, the vehicle’s hardware is trimmed by a palette of drive modes. The vehicle can also detect the terrain under its wheels for itself and choose its own settings automatically – however if you take charge using the mode menu, Dynamic Mode provides ‘the ultimate performance‑focused on‑road experience, tuning the vehicle’s steering, throttle and suspension settings with one press of the transparent signature logo button on the steering wheel.’ The off-road equivalent is Octa mode, which allows ‘off‑road driving with a performance focus.’ Shades of the Baja mode on the Ford Ranger Raptor. Features include Off-Road Launch, allowing for fast take-offs on loose terrain, and there’s also the usual range of options in the Terrain Response menu. The Octa’s 400mm front brake discs and Brembo calipers, as well as the fastest steering ratio of any Defender to date, help allow it to be as controllable as it is biddable. It’s also every bit as imposing as you’d expect. In addition to its higher, wider stance, it’s the first Defender equipped with 33” tyres – meaning enhanced bodywork to keep it legal. Extended wheelarches flow into the vehicle’s ‘off‑road‑optimised front bodywork’ (hands up if you thought the

old Defender had that) with unique grilles to allow greater under‑bonnet airflow. The rear bumper houses quad-pipe active exhaust finishers and there are exposes recovery points front and rear, as well as ‘tough underbody protection including an aluminium alloy front under shield with graphite finish.’ When you took out your Disco Tdi’s sump on a rock that time, what you really needed was a graphite finish. Another difference between this Defender and all those old bits of junk from when Land Rover made things you could afford is that you won’t be slinging a set of 7.50s on it and going out to have fun. Those 33” tyres include an Advanced All‑Terrain developed by Goodyear specifically for the Octa. Colours? They matter, because if you’re doing two grand a month on this thing you want everyone to notice that you can afford it. The choices include Petra Copper and Faroe Green, both premium metallic finishes which are exclusive to the Octa; the latter is in fact so exclusive to the Octa that it’s exclusively exclusive to the Octa Edition One. So too is Chopped Carbon Fibre detailing. Used on the vent surrounds on the bonnet and, they actually said this, ‘fenders’ (the word is WINGS, thank you),

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as well as the Defender bonnet script and, in the cabin, on the centre console trim and front seatbacks, this is ‘a highly distinctive finish which includes recycled raw materials.’ Recycled raw materials. Take a minute to get your head around that one. Since we’ve started on the cabin, it might worry you that we’ve made it this far without the C-word cropping up. But don’t worry, the people at JLR haven’t lost sight of what made Land Rovers great. ‘Inside, curated (hurrah!) selections set New Defender OCTA apart.’ These include a hand-painted roof by Michelangelo and artfully soiled rear seats by Tracey Emin. Oh, hold on. You can curate your Defender by choosing from two Ultrafabrics seat options in lieu of the standard leather. Or they’re standard on the Edition One. Now, that’s what you call curatorial. Those seats are unique to the Octa, with more supportive bolsters and integrated headrests. Additionally, ‘Defender’s close association with music (answers on a postcard) is brought to the fore with immersive Body and Soul Seat audio technology… allowing the driver and front passenger to feel, as well as hear, the music.’ To be fair, this would have been

very useful back in the days when listening to music in a Defender was an exercise in trying to hear anything above the nonstop noise. Additionally, ‘six wellness programmes are available to help relax occupants or improve cognitive responses on the move,’ which sounds clever.

If you really want wellness, though, we refer you back to that engine. And to the notion of Off-Road Launch Control, even if it sounds like the gimmick to end all gimmicks unless you live in Dubai. Which a good proportion of Octa customers probably will.

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NEWS

GREEK MYTHOLOGY INSPIRES NEW OPTION PACKS FOR RANGE ROVER SPORT SV

LR has unveiled the Range Rover Sport SV Celestial Collection – a group of five styling packs ‘inspired by ancient mythology and the cosmos.’ These are available as options on the standard Sport SV, whose base price is £171,600. Called Gaea, Theia, Io, Vega and Sol, the packs represent ‘the debut collection from the SV Bespoke Design team’ and feature ‘bespoke colours and finishes, 23” wheels, carbon ceramic brakes, carbon fibre bonnets and unique symbolism throughout their luxuriously appointed interiors.’ JLR describes this as ‘meticulously curated content’ and says the collection ‘will be offered to selected clients.’ Highlights of the option packs include: Gaea: Themed on The Earth, this is matt green and has carbon tail pipes and brake

calipers for ‘a natural modern look’ as well as silver birch trim inside. Theia: In Greek mythology, Theia was the personification of heavenly light. She also had sex with her brother, which is a little less heavenly but not enough to stop JLR using her name for a ‘curation’ featuring satin grey paint with a hint of metal flake, 23” champagne gold forged rims and a satin carbon finisher in the centre console. Io: Pronounced as in ‘I owe the bank a small fortune after my new SUV depreciated by a twice my salary in a year,’ this is painted bright orange to represent the similarly named moon of Jupiter, which is even more volcanic than a Range Rover owner who’s just had their insurance quote. Vega: No, it’s not named after Suzanne Vega. Or the Chevy Vega. It comes from

the Arabic al-nasr al-wāqi, apparently. And it’s blue. Sol: The Range Rover is a proudly British vehicle and every year, thousands of magnificent Brits proudly travel to the Mediterranean to wear football shirts, drink themselves silly on Sol lager and get arrested. Named after the sun, and also former Spurs and Arsenal man Sol Campbell, this version of the Sport SV is bright yellow with black wheels and blue calipers. You can choose between these two colours for the interior, too. It never fails to wind us up when Land Rover uses the word ‘curated’ for items like alloy wheels and leather seats. It seems to work for the sort of people who spend this kind of money on its cars, though – and with these new packages, the company has clearly stepped it up a notch.

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HAS YOUR

FREELANDER GOT AN ISSUE WITH THE REAR DIFFERENTIAL HALDEX POWER TRANSFER UNIT

DEFENDERS AT WORK AS LAND ROVER SPONSORS GLASTO

and Rover sponsored the recent Glastonbury Festival by supplying a fleet of Defenders to provide all-weather mobility for staff and first responders. In addition, 25 Defender 110 PHEVs were used to chauffeur artists to and from their stages during the week of the event. Defenders were also used in a pilot scheme, organised by the festival in association with 10 charities and community groups, which allowed people facing social, cultural and financial barriers to experience the benefits of volunteering. Around 100 fully funded volunteers were shuttled to the festival from local public transport stops, allowing them to gain work experience and in some cases credits towards professional qualifications. ‘Volunteering as a young person is a great thing to do,’ said Meera, 20, one of those supported by the scheme. ‘You get to meet and learn from so many different people, grow your confidence and really feel like you’re making a difference. ‘Arriving in the Defender electric-hybrids was a particularly cool way to start our Glastonbury experience!’

Here at FreelanderSpecialist.com, not only will we fix the problem but we will look to determine why the problem occurred and discuss with you how you can avoid it happening again in the future. Our differential units are uprated, making them stronger than the originals.

DON’T JUST FIX IT.... FIX IT FOR GOOD!

WE SHIP PARTS WORLDWIDE Tel: +44 (0)780 9575 421 theteam@freelanderspecialist.com www.freelanderspecialist.com September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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NEWS

EVEN MORE GRENADIER

orporate slogans are often fairly meaningless – Hilton’s hotel slogan used to be ‘Travel should take you places’. Holiday Inn’s was ‘Look again’. But to be fair to Ineos, their new campaign states that the Grenadier is ‘Built For More’, and they’re busy backing up that statement. This campaign also underscores just how far the Grenadier has already penetrated round the planet, and just how many useful partners the brand already has. What you see here represents imaginative work from Germany to

Botswana, with components from Austria to the UK. Five new interpretations of the Grenadier were first shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Bear in mind these aren’t some rough cardboard cutouts, they’re finished vehicles, or virtually so. They focus on everything from competitive speed to even more off-road ability for a wide variety of practical purposes. Like the Station Wagon and Quartermaster Pick-Up from LeTech which, despite the name, is a German vehicle modification company and an Ineos

partner. Portal axles are the key here, along with offset wheel hubs and larger tyres. The effect is to raise ground clearance by a whopping 250mm, with over 200mm added to the wading depth. Practical? Models are already in action with a German fire brigade. Taking that practicality further, the Safari version has eight seats in three tiered rows, along with enhanced security for the occupants from stronger front and side protection bars. This conversion from Ineos Kavango in Botswana is aimed at the game-viewing market but also has

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applications for various sectors including veterinary, anti-poaching and healthcare. You’re not going to get eight people in the Shortermaster, unless they’re Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This doublecab pick-up has a significantly shorter loadbed, truncated by 305mm. That also pushes the rear seats forward, so there’s a definite loss of practicality – but it would still make us more Happy than Grumpy. At the more performance end of the conversions, the V8 Prototype no longer has a BMW 3.0-litre straight-six. Instead Magna’s engineering apprentices have

somehow squeezed in a 6.2-litre GM V8, an operation that required a total rebuild of the engine bay and its components. Still, what price 425bhp and 461lbf.ft of torque? Finally, taking that performance envelope and posting it into the stratosphere, there is the FIA-compliant Grenadier. Prepared for the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship, it features 20% more power and torque from the BMW straight-six petrol engine, plus uprated everything, including race suspension from R53, a company based in Warwick. Created by Buzz Special Vehicles, it features a

totally stripped-out cabin with roll cage, carbon door panels and race seats. A bit different to the Safari version. Taken together, these five push out the parameters of what the Grenadier can do and indeed be. What’s great is that they’re not just meaningless concepts, they all have practical applications, from delivering medicine to delivering race results. What’s mildly irritating is that the one we want is the least practical – just look at the lines of that shortened pick-up. We want one. Could they fit the V8 in as well, please? Yup, we want more.

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Motorsport

ROWLANDS RACES INTO EARLY BXCC LEAD

fter the ﬁrst two rounds of the revitalised Motorsport UK British Cross Country Championship (BXCC), the title race is led by Paul Rowlands on 162 points – ahead of his closest rival, his son Jason on 156. Aston Cox currently sits a further point behind in third. The championship did not run in 2022 and 2023, but it’s back this year thanks to the efforts of a dedicated organising team – not to mention the support of a long list of sponsors. Thanks go to Par Homes, Voxcloud, Roodsafe, Roadﬂash, Gregg Motorsport, Fairview Farm Machinery, Fairview Farm Log Cabin and Holiday Accommodation, Aspire Park and Leisure Homes, Johnnie Drysdale, Whitecliff 4x4, Dynatech, NickyGrist.com, Whitchurch MOT Centre, Staffordshire Signs, PD Extinguishers and OR Tyres.

The opening round was held near Pickering in North Yorkshire. Cox and navigator Simon Kerfoot had been leading mid-way through day one but a throttle sensor problem caused them to stop on the course, dropping them down to 27th place. They were able to battle back on day two to ﬁnish ﬁfth. Amid issues for several of the leading crews as they tackled the tough course, which was made worse by torrential rain, it was Jason Rowlands and Liam Dudley who took victory in their Lofthouse Freelander. Paul Rowlands and Neil Lloyd powered their Can-Am Maverick R to second with Rob Bool and Philippa Tennant, in a BMW M3-engined Lofthouse Freelander, in third. ‘It was a good weekend and I’m very happy with the result,’ commented Jason. ‘The weather had made the course very

muddy in places so it was a case of put your foot down and see what happens!’ For round two, Ceri in Mid-Wales was a familiar venue for some competitors, having hosted the BXCC in 2017. The organisers laid out a challenging course, with fast gravel tracks interspersed with more technical sections. After his round one victory hopes were dashed, Cox was keen to make up for it in the hot and dusty conditions. He was fastest on the opening run and continued to set the pace all weekend to emerge with his ﬁrst ever championship win. ‘We had some drama before the start, having had to drive to France to get parts for the gearbox,’ said Cox. ‘SWR turned the box round within four days and the boys in the workshop got the car looking top tier. ‘We knew we’d have to push hard right from the start and we set fastest times

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4X4 & ATV TRAINING on the ﬁrst two runs, but then we lost drive to the front near the start of the course. It was like driving a Mk2 Escort, which was mega fun but not great for our time! ‘We managed to keep our lead despite the tough competition – it was a great battle. It was an unbelievable moment to win a BXCC event – from the age of eight it’s been a goal of mine to win! Huge thanks to all the marshals and to the organising team for a cracking event.’ Paul Rowlands repeated his opening round second place to go into the championship lead. Third BXCC crew was Dave and Antony Hooper, who survived a tree smashing the windscreen of their Lofthouse Fiesta to equal their best ever British result. Third overall on time, and winner of the BXCC Trophy class, was Ben Cundy in his Polaris RZR. Cundy also won the Trophy at the opening round. The BXCC returns to Wales for round three, which will have taken place at Penybont the weekend before this magazine is published. Following that, a brand new Yorkshire Hill Rally makes up round four on 13-15 September. For more information on the championship, please visit crosscountryuk.org.

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PRODUCTS

A handy solution to oil leaks

£7.99 | www.americantechnology.co.uk

Proper wheels for proper trucks

ca £105 inc VAT | www.britpart.com Recently introduced by Britpart, this steel wheel is a welded and tubeless version of the classic heavy-duty rim from the Land Rover 130. Rated to 1200kg, it has a 115mm centre bore and 5/165 PCD, plus a 20mm offset. Suitable for Land Rovers coming under the Series and Defender umbrellas, the wheels come in black and can be mounted with 7.50R16 or 235/85R16 tyres.

Nice rack

ca £850 inc VAT | www.britpart.com

Britpart’s Explorer roof rack is suitable for the Defender 90 Station Wagon and Hard-Top from 1987-2006 and the Defender 110 and 130 Double-Cab Pick-Up, also from 1987-2006. Measuring 1.6 x 1.4 metres, it’s available in two forms – DA3812 for gutter mounting, and DA3813 for fixing to a roll cage. In each case, the rack’s design is flat, with no luggage rail, making it ideal for mounting long or large items like roof tents.

Stopping oil leaks is like painting the Forth Bridge if you own a certain vintage of a certain make of 4x4. The belt and braces answer is to keep topping it up forever… sorry, silly us, to renew the oil seals with high-quality OE items. But since that’s an enormous bind and they’re just going to let go again, an oil treatment that helps prevent leaks happening in the first place sounds like rather a promising alternative. Step forward Ametech’s Restore Oil Anti-Leak. This is an additive which ‘swells and rejuvenates neoprene rubber seals and O-rings to slow down, stop and prevent oil leaks in engines, manual gearboxes and power steering.’ And that’s a LOT of potential oil leaks right there. What does it do? It ‘conditions new seals to keep them soft, pliable and lubricated’ is what, restoring the elasticity in your seals and O-rings to get them back to a condition in which oil can’t get past them. Ametech says it’s compatible with all mineral, semisynthetic and synthetic single and multigrade engine oils – and that it can be used in all petrol, diesel and LPG engines, with or without a turbo, as well manual boxes, standard diffs and PAS systems. Auto boxes are out, as is anything else with a wet clutch. However the treatment is safe to use with catalytic converters and it won’t have any affect on the viscosity or characteristics of the oil to which it is added, nor will it clog your vehicle’s filters or oilways. The price above is for a 250ml bottle of Oil Anti-Leak. Ametech says this should treat 3-6 litres of engine oil, and that 100ml is about right for a typical manual gearbox.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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Working tools for new-shape Defender

ca £515 inc VAT (90); £550 inc VAT (110) | terrafirma4x4.com

Terrafirma has just released a new range of products for the L663 Defender – including various accessories designed to help you get the best from it on expedition. Sure to be among the most popular is a close-fit aluminium roof rack, which is available to suit both the 90 and 110. The rack is strong enough to carry any commercially available roof tent, including Terrafirma’s own inflatable unit. It was designed with this kind of use in mind, and comes with a full fitting kit plus instructions. Terrafirma’s new range also includes kits for carrying various other accessories on the company’s roof racks – a selection of these are listed below, with prices from Maltings 4x4…

Storage Box Mounting Kit | ca £40 This is a tailor-made solution for mounting Terrafirma’s own heavy-duty storage box on your Defender’s roof rack.

COMPLETE READY TO DRIVE CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS • Build manuals & full kits, & ready-made bodies available controlled speed, lights, horn, • Manual includes full component • Pre-cut panel sets and body cutting dimensions & ready-made bodies available • Battery powered DIY kits or parts • Manual includes full component For more information please contact 01291 626141 sales@toylander.com www.toylander.com and body cutting dimensions For more information please contact 01291 626141

COMPLETE READY TO DRIVE •CARS BatteryOR powered kits or parts SELFDIY BUILD KITS

sales@toylander.com • Build manuals www.toylander.com & full kits,

COMPLETE READY TO DRIVE controlled speed, lights, horn, CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS

• Pre-cut panel sets • Build manuals & full kits, & ready-made bodies available controlled speed, lights, horn, • Manual includes full component • Pre-cut panel sets and body cutting dimensions & ready-made bodies available • Battery powered DIY kits or parts • Manual includes full component COMPLETE READYsales@toylander.com TO DRIVE For more information please contact 01291 626141 COMPLETE www.toylander.com and body cutting dimensions READY TO DRIVE

CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS CARS OR SELF BUILD KITS

• Build manuals & full kits, • Build controlled speed, lights, horn,manuals & full kits, controlled speed, lights, horn, • Pre-cut panel sets • Pre-cut panel sets & ready-made bodies available & ready-made bodies available • Manual includes full component • Manual includes full component and body cutting dimensions and body cutting dimensions • Battery powered DIY kits or parts • Battery powered DIY kits or parts

Toylander kits and ready built vehicles available in stock, hand built cars that children love to drive. For more information please contact 01291 626141 sales@toylander.com www.toylander.com Please contact us for more infowww.toylander.com at For more information please contact 01291 626141 sales@toylander.com sales@toylander.com For more information please contact 01291 626141 sales@toylander.com www.toylander.com For more information please contact 01291 626141 sales@toylander.com www.toylander.com

Awning Mounting Bracket Kit | ca £25 Terrafirma offers a range of awnings for use with 4x4s, and this kit is designed to let you mount any of them on to any of the company’s roof racks – including these new ones for the latest Defender.

RLG Tyres

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27/02/2024 10:08

Tyres cheap. Not cheap tyres!!

OFFICIAL STOCKIST

Light Bar and Spot Light Mounting Bracket Kit | ca £50 It’s not an off-roader if it doesn’t have a light bar. This kit allows you to fit what is the essential accessory for any self-respecting roof rack, and can also be used for individual spot lights.

Jerry Can Holder | ca £65 You don’t need to be a long-distance off-road adventurer to want a jerry can about your person (just being a bloke with a chainsaw is enough). But the further you’re planning to go, the more capacity for spare fuel you’ll want – and even with an auxiliary tank, a jerry or two is never going to be a bad idea. Hence this cradle which will hold one single can… maybe you’ll want more than one of them!

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www.rlgtyres.co.uk

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PRODUCTS

Rooftop camping beneath the stars £1386 inc VAT | www.expedition-equipment.com

Eezi Awn says its Galaxy roof top tent is ‘designed to revolutionise the way outdoor enthusiasts experience camping.’ That sounds like quite a promise. The Galaxy is a soft-shell tent whose folding mechanism is aided by gas struts – meaning it takes less than 40 seconds to open and close. It comes with its own aluminium rack system and weighs just 45kg – and Eezi Awn says it offers ‘unparalleled comfort, convenience and versatility.’

The tent itself is made using 260gsm ripstop canvas and has a 70mm laminated high-density mattress. Its design features two large windows on either side and a clear PVC roof panel so you can sleep beneath the stars. Conveniences include a fly sheet, two storage pockets per side and an aluminium extruded access ladder. The tent can be installed or moved from vehicle to vehicle by two people, and it packs down to a size of just 210cm x 140 cm x 16cm. Naturally, it comes with a PVC cover for when you’re on the move.

Detroit Truetrac from Rimmer Bros £639-£750 plus VAT | rimmerbros.com

There’s more than one way to lock a diff, as the old saying goes. For whatever reason, most people in Britain tend to turn instantly to the air-operated type – however auto-lockers can be incredibly effective things too. They do their job without you having to think about them – and they’re far easier to use without detection, too, should you be planning to cheat your way to RTV success… If your chariot of choice has a green oval on it, Rimmer Bros supplies lockers from a range of brands. On the auto-locker front, the legendary Detroit Truetrac is available for front and rear axles in both 10-spline and 24-spline configurations. This goes back a long way to when it was introduced under the Eaton brand name. Its helical gear design means no wear in its parts moving, ‘resulting in maintenance free traction.’ It certainly results in effort-free traction. We’ve driven Land Rovers with Truetracs installed and they operate seamlessly – and very effectively indeed. As good as an Air-Locker? Well we certainly didn’t manage to find any terrain capable of defeating it, and that was a mixture of angry ruts, sharp axle-twisters and knee-deep mud.

‘Power transfer is so smooth, it literally goes unnoticed by the driver,’ says Rimmer. And yes, that’s what we found. Nothing alarming to worry about on the road, either – the diff remains open until it needs to lock, rather than the other way round. The Truetrac is available in 10 and 24-spline form for the Defender, Disco 1 and 2, Series III and Range Rover Classic, and for the 24-spline Salisbury found under the back end of the 110.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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Minilite Alloy Wheels

Iconic Genuine Minilite Wheels now available for your Land Rover!

DA3785

The original Minilite wheel, was probably the most successful competition wheel of the 1960’s and 70’s. As the name suggests, it was originally developed as a magnesium competition wheel for the then revolutionary new Austin ‘Mini’, but its instant success meant that it was soon to be seen on many of the serious race and rally cars of that era. A new iconic style was born, and to this day, all genuine Minilite wheels are made to that original classic design. Originally conceived for race and rally, demand soon grew for road car applications, and has remained so ever since. Minilite wheels are ‘Low-Pressure’ die cast, in high grade aluminium alloy; machined on the latest CNC equipment, 100% pressure tested, and finally powder coated for maximum protection against the elements.

Series 3, Defender 1987 - 2016 Range Rover Classic & Discovery 1 DA3785 8 x 18 Anthracite DA3786 8 x 18 Black DA3787 8 x 18 Silver > Load Rating: 1,220kg > Offset: ET0 > PCD: 5 x 165.1 > Weight: 11.7kg > Test Standard: JWL DA3785

DA3787

DA3786

britpart.com Find your nearest stockist - britpart.com/stockist Part numbers used for identification purposes only and do not imply or indicate the identity of a manufacturer. Products available from a Britpart stockist. E&OE.

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Simtek adaptors let you put a new dash in an old Land Rover 01706 854857 | email bodylogic@simtekuk.co.uk The DashDapter3 from Simtek is available in S, C and A models (Standard, Comprehensive and Advanced), each of them bringing increasing levels of capability and functionality. It acts as an interface for vehicle converters, resto-modders, customisers, upgraders and engine transplanters.

The unit promises to be ideal for a wide range of purposes: • When you want to remove your engine and replace it with a different one • When you want to put a Puma dash in a resto-mod 90 • When you want to upgrade your Puma Defender with a late Freelander dash • The Advanced model allows operation of the original AirCon functions in the 2.2 Puma ‘So far,’ says Simtek, ‘we have focused on the Land Rover Puma dash (2.2 and 2.4). Our most recent addition is the more colourful Freelander 2 dash, which offers more functionality. DD3 is available with a plug kit, generic harness or bespoke harness, and comes with a user interface.

Still not ditched that EGR? £39-£69 plus VAT | www.allisport.com

EGR valves are like high-maintenance girlfriends who post thinly veiled memes about your relationship on social media when you don’t notice that they’ve had their nails done again. It’s not until you’ve had one that you realise just how annoying they are. Another similarity is that everybody who’s got one wants rid of it. The good news is that if you own a Land Rover, AlliSport offers a wide range of EGR Removal Kits. This one, for the Td5 engine, comes in silver or black and is suitable for Defenders and Discoverys with or without a boost gauge. The unit is TIG welded by hand and has a CNC milled 6mm aluminium mounting flange as well as a swaged tube to stop the connected hose slipping off under boost. AlliSport promises that it won’t interfere with the engine’s ECU system or otherwise fire up any warning lights, and that as well as keeping hot, dirty air out of the engine (where it pulls down power output and results in black smoke) it will remove the restriction on air flow created by the original-fit EGR valve. This is significant, in particular on engines from 2001 on. On earlier engines than this, it’s possible to delete the EGR without touching the exhaust connections. Later units, which were fitted with EGR coolers, need the exhaust outlet to be blanked off at the front of the cylinder head, and kits for these engines come with a 6mm stainless steel plate to let you do just this. AlliSport promises that the kit is simple to instal, with just a bit of bolting up and connecting of hoses required. A lot less hassle than getting rid of a high-maintenance girlfriend, certainly… and an awful lot better value for money, too.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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250ml

400ml

£18.99

£24.99

£49.00

£21.99 Prices shown are plus P&P. Ametech Automotive Ltd, Technology Centre, Station Road, Framlingham IP13 9EZ

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KGM TORRES 18

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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sangYong had been making good vehicles for a long time now, but they’ve been held back in this country because people didn’t know whether to order their SsangYong with noodles or rice. Well, last year the company changed its name to KGM – so maybe now British 4x4 buyers will start taking them at face value instead. You’ll be familiar with the Rexton, Musso and Korando, but the Torres is the first vehicle to be launched under the KGM badge rather than inherited by it. It’s a medium SUV with a distinctly chunky, up-for-it sort of off-roady character, and it’s available with either a 1.5-litre petrol engine or an electric motor. That’s ‘an’ electric motor, singular. This is plenty powerful enough but only drives two wheels; the petrol version is available with all-wheel drive in the range-topping model, but that aside the Torres (which takes its name from Torres del Paine, a spectacularly mountainous region of Patagonia) is built to be a family SUV rather than a true off-roader. The name is quite cool and definitely suitable, though there are parts of Scotland where people will pronounce it ’Tories’ and a good number of those people will never buy one for that reason. Not that they were going to anyway, probably… though if they were to give it a chance, they just might. It’s definitely got the look. By the bucketload. Huge, haunched wheelarches give it a presence way beyond its size, and everywhere you look there are cues that nod towards other elements of off-road design. The vertically slotted grille might put you in mind of Jeep and, on a more modern level, people told us the headlights and in particular the tail lights reminded them of a Range Rover. Mainly, though, to us KGM’s designers have been trying to capture the look and feel of a Hummer. Those slots on the grille, again, and the haunched shoulders are even more pronounced than they were on the neo-legendary US leviathan. But there’s more besides. Down below the grille, and above the expanse of plastic that mimics the leading edge of a steering guard, there’s a prominent red thing that’s meant to look like a heavy-duty recovery point. It may be that the actual tow point, where you rummage around in the tool roll and find a steel eye to screw in to it, is hidden behind this – we poked at it and it

didn’t come off, but that would seem likely. And to be fair, if you’re not some snobbish off-roader looking down your nose at anything that can’t winch itself up the face of a dam, it does look groovy.

Hummertime

So too, again in a very Hummery kind of a way, is a handle mounted well to one side on the tailgate. It looks like it’s going to be side-hinged but when you pull it, an electric motor takes over and the gate lifts vertically. And then on the bonnet you’ll find the ultimate homage to the H2 and H3, a couple of grab handles. Different position, but the same idea. ‘Useful for dogging,’ commented one of the editor’s friends, which may say something about the company he keeps. It might also be a good time to tell you that the back seats fold flat. This is a sure sign of an interior that’s had some investment put into it, and the Torres is indeed an impressive vehicle in which to sit. Less rugged than it looks from the outside, possibly, and more SUV-style crafted, but the materials and build quality have a pleasing feel to them that says it’s going to stay the course – something not all SsangYongs in the past were much good at. They had gone a long way to fixing this well before the change of name, but still it looks like as KGM they mean business. It looks classy in here, with a one-piece digital display and media screen mounted in a dash combining a leather-look upper surface with orange stitching, a copper metallic shroud around a full-width carbon black heating vent binnacle and a muted blue LED strip, again full width, which provides subtle mood lighting after dark. Various trapezoidal elements make it look chunky and all the controls are easy to identify and use. It’s pleasingly practical, too, with huge door pockets and a big, deep cubby box in a solidly stout centre console which also houses a large floor-level stowage tray. This has a non-slip coating, and ahead of it there’s a bank of USB outlets – while up top, you’ll find an inductive charging point. You’re well looked after in lots of ways, then, and the same is true for the vehicle’s seating. There’s an excellent all-round view from a driver’s seat that has plenty of adjustability in every direction, allowing you to get comfortable with ease and stay that way on a long journey. The fronts are heated and cooled, too, though on a warm

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and sultry day we found the latter function strangely ineffectual. Headroom is excellent both up front and in the rear, though here if you’re trying to fit one tall adult behind another they’re both going to have to give up some knee room. The view out from the back seats is good, though – your eye line is bang in the middle of the windows – so you won’t feel claustrophobic. As we mentioned, the back seats fold flat, or at least to within a couple of degrees away, so loading up with cargo is as easy as it can be. The lip at the back is nice and low, too, though the tailgate aperture is a little restricted, and the vehicle’s relatively squat proportions can’t help but limit the available length, but it certainly will swallow a big old load. The boot is nice and big with the seats up, too, so as a family wagon it’ll carry you, your kids and all your luggage without a second thought.

For flick’s sake

Something you will have second thoughts about is engaging drive, because normally it doesn’t work first time. There’s a little toggle switch on the centre console with positions for Drive, Neutral and Reverse, and all you need to do is flick it into position and away you go. The problem is that you flick it and nothing happens. Or you flick it into drive and the ‘D’ lights up but then it goes back to neutral. Or you flick it into reverse and drive lights up, then it goes back into neutral. All these things happened during our time aboard the Torres, which we noted at the time would be a potential deal-breaker if we were looking to buy one. As far as we can tell, you’re supposed to give it a very deliberate push into position. Though even this didn’t always work. In the end, we resorted to giving it half a dozen or more quick flicks every time we wanted to

engage drive or reverse – we can’t see this being any good for the button’s longevity, but needs must. Even then, when you need to do a quick three-pointer in a gap in the traffic and you’re sat facing the kerb while screaming COME ON! at it as you frantically bash away at a little button by your left thigh… well, it’s not a good look. Everything improves once you’re finally in gear. Well, it couldn’t get much worse but as soon as you get up and running, you’re being impressed by the Torres’ smooth ride and refinement. This would be a good time to point out that we’re actually reviewing two vehicles here, the Torres and the Torres EVX, the latter being all-electric, but even with a petrol engine doing the work it’s as quiet as can be. It’s easy to drive, too, with light and natural steering that points it where you say and doesn’t loll or fuss. Poor surfaces don’t upset it and neither do high speeds – wind

The Torres’ cabin looks classy and feels well put together. It’s practical, too, with plenty of usable stowage areas up front and a split rear bench which folds to create a capacious load area. Boot space with the seats up makes it an excellent family holdall, too 20

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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BFGOODRICH ® MUD-TERRAIN T/A KM3 POWER THROUGH MUD AND LOOSE SOIL WITH OUR TERRAIN-ATTACK TREAD DESIGN KRAWL-TEK COMPOUND THAT ENHANCES GRIP ON ROCK AND SLICK SURFACES COREGUARD MAX TECHNOLOGY TO HELP GUARD AGAINST SHARP OBJECTS

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and road noise are well suppressed, and you could cruise on the motorway without knowing whether you’re in the petrol or electric one. It rides on 18” or 20” alloys, depending on whether you’ve gone for the K30 or K40 model; you’d expect the latter to be less civilised, but that’s the one we drove (they’re 245/45R20s) and its refinement would have done a premium SUV proud. If you take the vehicle at face value, it’s made more for lower-speed exploration on stony trails than for agile B-road antics, but it holds its own here, too. Electric vehicles tend to be heavier than the petrol or diesel equivalent, and sure enough the EVX kerbs at 1915kg compared to the ‘standard’ model’s 1528kg, The latter figure goes up to 1618kg for the sole all-wheel drive version across both ranges (the K40 AWD 1.5 petrol auto), but the EVX is still usefully heavier – though you don’t notice it on the road, nor indeed on the sort of rough, broken

and generally sloppy unsurfaced trails that are appropriate to a vehicle of this nature. Traction is coming from electronics, and just from one axle, but it didn’t falter. The figures say the EVX has 204bhp and 250lbf.ft, though it felt to us like more. It takes off with vigour, and the acceleration keeps on coming. The quoted 0-62 time is 8.1 seconds, but it felt a lot faster to us. Is that because we drove it straight after the 1.5, in which 161bhp and 192lbf.ft get you there in a quoted 10.8 seconds. Prices are £35,080 and £38,080 for the 1.5 in K30 and K40 form, and £39,995 for the K40 with all-wheel drive. For the EVX, it’s £44,495 for the K30 and £47,495 for the K40. Good prices by today’s standards, and in the case of the EVX they should translate into attractive leasing costs. This is one reason why we think the Torres is at its best as an EV. It feels a lot livelier and while the 1.5 is admirably

refined, its electric sibling does take things to another level. It feels more modern in concept, too – and it’s quick enough to charge for anti-EV stick-in-the-muds to feel awkward questions forming in their mind. Most of all, it has party tricks that make your children smile. Without the need for a proper grille, it has a stylised one made up of muted lights – which all come on when you unlock it, accompanied by a little burst of music which plays outside the vehicle. It should be noted that if your children are of a certain age, smiling is the last thing they’ll do, but we’re big kids here and we like it. We’d like it more if the EVX was available with four-wheel drive, though. This, after all, is what SsangYong used to specialise in – and what KGM still does. As it is, every model in the range looks like excellent value – which, clearly, is something else to have survived the change of name.

It’s a bit like a game of spot the influence when you look around the Torres. Even the EVX, which doesn’t need a grille, has a row of muted LED’s which mimic the style of a Hummer – as do the side-mounted tailgate catch and the grab handles on the bonnet September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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ISUZU D-MAX V-CROSS STEEL

suzu has never been shy about playing the special edition game with the D-Max, and the new Steel model is a perfect example of that. Based on the range-topping V-Cross, it’s available in manual and auto form with a limited run of 300 vehicles. We drove one recently during a media event featuring a range of D-Max models. It’s mechanically identical to the V-Cross, however with a variety of additional features it offers something on top of what is already a well equipped package. To recap, you get 18” alloys, leather, heated seats, dual-zone climate, cruise, a rear locker, front and rear parking sensors, reversing camera, a range of advanced driver assist safety systems, DAB and a 9” touchscreen running Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The V-Cross is also marked out by its gunmetal styling theme. Oops, we’re talking about the V-Cross but this is the Steel. Well it is, but they’re not pretending that it’s anything other than a V-Cross with a bit more. They’ve not even done away with the V-Cross identity, adding Steel branding as well as rather than instead of the original badges. Much more importantly, they’ve also added an exclusive paint colour. Steel Grey, it’s called, and while this doesn’t sound very exciting it does actually stand out pretty well – when you see it next to the Obsidian Grey that’s available on the everyday range, it looks lively. The image is helped by a set of dark grey roof rails and black wheelarch trims,

as well as a ’Steel’ graphic running along the bottoms of the doors. The vehicle we drove also had a couple of LED spotlights attached to its front grille and a Sport Lid over the rear load space, which did the overall appearance no harm. Other fun stuff includes power fold door mirrors containing puddle lamp projectors which illuminate the word ‘Steel’ on the ground as you approach. There’s branding on the tailgate, too, as well as a pair of LED scuff plates which welcome you on board as you open the front doors, then the same logo is embossed into the leather facings on the headrests. When we’re talking about details like this, you know it’s not a truck with a gamechanging spec list to win over the world with. However we’re saving the best to last, possibly. Not the sexiest, but it’s good. Open the tailgate, and it glides down on a two-way damper which, when you go to close it again, lightens it up so it’s no more effort than closing the tailgate on an everyday car. You can’t quite do it with one ﬁnger, but you certainly don’t need to heave it upwards either. This is a good, practical feature which genuinely adds to the vehicle’s ease of use, even if it is just in one small way. Elsewhere, it’s a lot like driving a V-Cross, which is to say it pulls well, rides and handles well, is generally easy to get about in and looks after you while you’re sitting in it. This one was an auto, so there was a certain amount of extra engine noise to put up with while it was encouraging the box to

change up, but it’s not unreﬁned and even though it does feel its weight, you can roll over more or less anything without the ride getting harsh. We didn’t drive this particular D-Max offroad during the event, however we did do so with mechanically identical vehicles on the same tyres and as always, it handles well on remarkably tough terrain. Even on standard tyres, it was able to maintain traction on steep, wet and very muddy hills, both on the way up and, with low ﬁrst engaged and hill descent control switched on, back down. The big question is whether you see the Steel accessories as being worth the difference in price between it and the everyday V-Cross. This costs £36,495 CVOTR, with the Steel adding exactly £2000 on top of that. A steal? (Geddit?) Or are you being robbed? Well, don’t forget that the Steel comes with mica paint as standard – and on any other D-Max, you’ll pay an extra £600 if you want it to be anything other than Sunday Sport White. On a lifestyle model like this, if you ever want to be able to sell it on again that immediately brings the difference down to £1400 – which, if you like the look of what you’re getting, starts to sound alright. And yes, it is about a look. That’s never stopped anybody from buying a pick-up in the past, and we can’t see it stopping anybody from buying this one. Steeling a march? It’s all about having a positive metal attitude…

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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ICELAND ROVER

aking Land Rovers look bigger is all the rage. The bling Defender craze may have peaked, and values of originalshapers have dropped from the insane heights they reached a couple of years ago, but there’s a new fashion on the street. Taller and wider. You know the look. The aftermarket is all over it, and so too are several OEMs. Land Rover itself, for example – the new Defender Octa is engineered to within an inch of its

life to perform like a supercar, but mainly people are going to buy it because of the way it looks. More aggressive, chunkier… but mainly, it’s taller and wider. Land Rover is adamant that the Octa is better off-road than any other Defender before it. You might be adamant that simply by costing £160,000 or whatever it is, this is the strongest evidence yet for Land Rover’s complete abandonment of everything that made it great. But however far removed it may be from what a Defender once was,

there is still a point: being taller helps offroad. And being wider helps with being taller. We don’t know if Land Rover wants you to think they’re the only ones who do this. They’d certainly like it to be the case, having previously boasted that they were going to put the aftermarket out of business with vehicles like the Octa. Bless. The Octa is the first Defender ever to leave the factory on 33” tyres. Gasp. Do you remember when those were considered

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Arctic Trucks built its reputation on converting Toyota Land Cruisers to run on up to 44” tyres. The company’s latest vehicle is a Land Rover Defender on 35s – and though it might be aimed at a look-at-me market, like everything the company does it has glacier-bashing off-road ability baked into its soul Words and pictures Mike Trott

unusually big? The ubiquitous off-road tyre of the time was an old-school 7.50, and while you were listening to them drone their way up the road from a playday or RTV you might have turned the stereo up to max and tried to drown them out with a bit of Wham! or Bucks Fizz. At around the same time, Toyota’s Icelandic importer started noticing that a huge number of its 4x4 customers were putting brand new vehicles on much bigger tyres in order to cope with the conditions

there. Terrain blanketed in deep snow needs lots of rubber and very little air. So they set up their own workshop and began offering re-engineered Hiluxes and Land Cruisers – with overwhelming results. Soon, up to 70% of the new 4x4s coming in to Iceland were being modified before delivery. In 1996, the company’s re-engineering arm, which has until then simply been called Toyota Accessories, was given a new name: Arctic Trucks. It continued to be part of Toyota Iceland until 2005, when it became

fully independent and started working with other manufacturers too. By now it also had an operation in Norway, and since then it has expanded into Finland and Sweden, Poland, America, the UAE and Britain. Obviously, the off-roading need for Arctic Trucks’ conversions is marginal at best in these countries, and in the main completely absent. But in converting a 4x4 to suit being operated at low tyre pressures on terrain like snow fields and glaciers, what do you do? You make it taller and wider.

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And you give it much bigger tyres. The conversions on offer go all the way up to 44”, which is available in both four and sixwheel drive form. Obviously, though, there’s a colossal amount of engineering work (and therefore cost) in that, so most customers go for the AT35. As the name suggests, this sits on 35” rubber – various sizes are used, with the Defender 110 you see here being on 325/60R20s. is typical. In the pipeline ever since the new-shape Defender first came out, the vehicle ‘has undergone extensive development with Arctic Trucks’ experienced team of off-road mobility specialists to allow it to handle challenging and inhospitable landscapes with even greater ease.’ They’re adamant that this is a serious off-road conversion, of course – but they’re not hiding from what

most people want it for. ‘The Defender AT35 benefits from greater ground clearance, articulation and increased approach and departure angles,’ they point out. ‘But let’s be honest, these enhancements also look utterly fantastic!’

Laughed off the street

Now, admitting that people buy Land Rovers for their image rather than their ability is something Land Rover itself has not always been very good at. But of course, as with all cool cars, the ability needs to be there. Only a fraction of supercar owners take them to track days, for example (most just hope it’ll get them laid) – but anything that looks like a Ferrari but goes and handles like a knackered Mondeo will soon be laughed off the street.

The same goes for 4x4s that look hardcore but aren’t. We all know that guy who put huge tyres on his Defender but found that an old 2.25 engine could barely turn them, or smashed a diff every time he went round a corner, or sold it again after learning an ugly lesson about brake fade. None of that would be alright, and nor would a vehicle that shakes, bumps and drones. I’ve driven an AT44 and while you do of know about the size of its tyres every time they hit a bump, it’s nowhere near as intimidating as you might expect and its refinement was hardly affected at all. By contrast, I’ve also driven a badly modified Cherokee on 33s and it was almost uncontrollable. So, the AT35 needs to be just like driving any other new-shape Defender. Or better, when you take it off-road.

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“It’s for the guy who wants to rise above it all… or to turn up to a pop-gun fight with a Howitzer”

How many of them will actually do that? Well, Isuzu has been selling the D-Max AT35 as part of its full main dealer line-up for almost a decade. Back when they launched it, one of the company’s senior executives told us that he ‘hoped’ buyers would use the vehicle to its full capabilities. I asked the same guy the same question a couple of years ago, and this time he had the benefit of experience to inform his answer: ‘They buy it as a second or third car because they like the way it looks.’ No doubt, no bull: it’s all about the image. And that’s with a traditional off-roader. The Defender might be an off-roader, and a pretty good one in its own very electronic way, but people buy them to be an upyours school-runner. And there’s a strong aftermarket making them a little taller, a little

The Defender’s cabin is already a pretty nice place to be, with its carefully thought out looks and reverential nods to its forebears. Compared to what’s going on outside, the difference here is minimal – though with branded stitching in the headrest covers and carpet mats, you’re never far from a reminder of why everyone’s looking at you

wider and a lot chintzier for customers who want to say no, up YOURS is what. And then there’s the AT35. It might cast a passing glance at all that silliness and laugh quietly to itself, but it’s for the guy who wants to rise above it. Literally. Or, to put it another way, it’s for the guy who wants to turn up to a pop-gun fight with a Howitzer. In Arctic Trucks’ own words, it’s ‘the most cool, capable and stylish Defender available on the planet.’ Many of you reading this will say that actually, an old Tdi or Td5 with the right set of mods to make it a consummate off-roader or expedition truck is the coolest Defender on the planet. But if you were forced to buy a current SUV, a Defender is still the one you’d choose. And if you could stretch to it, an AT35 conversion is probably

the way you’d go about making sure you weren’t mistaken for a tragic school-runner trying to one-up their fellow mums. So what would you get? Starting with the fundamentals, you’d get a Defender with its original suspension lifted by +15mm. That’s about three-fifths of an inch. As an option, you can instead choose a replacement set-up using adjustable 10-position Bilstein front coilovers and rear springs and shocks; this hikes the lift to +20mm, so now you’re looking at more like four-fifths of an inch. More important than the lift, though, is the fact that it allows for those tyres – 325/60R20 BFGoodrich KO2 All-Terrains as standard or, a no-cost option, the same company’s KM3 Mud-Terrains in 35x12.50R20. In each case, these are fitted

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“When you’re looking for someone to make engineering upgrades to a vehicle that’s already cost you the thick end of a hundred grand or more, cheapness is unlikely to be high on your list of must-haves” on Arctic Trucks’ own forged 20x10” ET-25 dual-valve alloys in satin black. If you’re screaming in frustration at this, the good news is that the vehicle’s brakes remain standard, so you should be able to fit a proper set of rims around them and instead choose a fitment with enough sidewall to be worthy of the name.

Almost like standard

Does less than an inch of lift really allow the Defender to take a 35” tyre? You wouldn’t expect so on its own, but Arctic Trucks has always believed in gaining lift from every available source – in other words, not putting all its eggs in one basket. The aforementioned badly modified Cherokee on 33s had an 8” suspension lift and nothing else, whereas those AT35 Isuzus have a little in the suspension, a little in the body mounts and a little in the wheelarches, and they drive almost like standard.

In the case of the Defender, the Arctic Trucks package includes ‘extensive reengineering and metalwork to body and bodywork’ and ‘widened fender flares featuring a recessed Arctic Trucks tyre pressure detail.’ So, a virtual lift to go with the actual one. And while buying in suspension from Bilstein and tyres from BFG can’t have been cheap, this is where the biggest part of the price is going – anyone can bash a hammer against a set of wheelarches until their tyres don’t rub any more, but it takes skill to do it so it works, it looks right and, critically, it’s repeatable. The Arctic Trucks detailing on the arches is not the only example of the company’s badge you’ll find around the vehicle. Indeed, the spec list also includes a badging and detailing package on the grille, doors, side steps, tailgate, wheel centres, mud guards, interior mats and number plate surrounds. You get an Arctic Trucks 30th Anniversary

decal, too, as well as a certificate of authenticity to say this is a real one. Also included in the AT35 package are heavy-duty aluminium side steps, bigger and stronger mud guards, rear recovery points, locking wheel nuts, carpet mats and Arctic Trucks’ Obsidian Black styling pack – which includes trims for the front and rear bumpers, side panels and grille. They re-calibrate the truck’s speedo to suit its new wheels, too – and, just in case you have a warranty claim and the Land Rover dealer starts strutting around like an excited traffic warden, a choice of warranties. You want more? Options include a bespoke leather interior (seats, doors, dash, centre console, steering wheel) featuring debossed Arctic Trucks logos, a tailgate mount for the spare wheel and a roofmounted Lazer Linear-42 Elite LED bar. Lots of ways to add to the final bill, then – which, since you’ve already bought

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a new car from Land Rover, will not be an unfamiliar feeling. Neither will the, shall we say, reassuringly expensive price on the package as it comes, which is £29,995 plus VAT. Not as cheap option, then,, but when you’re looking for someone to make engineering upgrades to a vehicle that’s already cost you the thick end of a hundred grand or more, there’s a fairly strong argument for saying cheapness is unlikely to be high on your list of must-haves. Three decades of heritage, on the other hand? Well, if you’re a Land Rover buyer you appreciate the importance of a brand. We can argue all day long about what that brand actually means, but people DO trust a name they know. And for Arctic Trucks, just as surely as for Land Rover, that’s the entry point for a vehicle that looks at the competition and laughs. The AT35 is taller, and wider… and so much more.

There are companies that make vehicles taller and wider because people want vehicles that are taller and wider. Arctic Trucks makes vehicles taller and wider because it wants them to be able to drive up a mountain with a blanket of snow on it; however self-conscious the detailing now is, when all’s said and done this is still a classic case of form following function September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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TRAVEL

WILD WILD LIFE PART 1 Travelling in Kenya aboard an old Range Rover with panel gaps you can get a ﬁst through, you feel particularly close to the wildlife. Especially when the wildlife is two-legged and armed to the teeth… Words and pictures: Chris Collard

In the shadow of a baobab tree along the Tanzanian border while en route to Tsavo National Park 34

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The typical bush traffic jam is usually caused by herdsman moving cattle on the highway

lat on my back with my ear pressed against the gearstick, the beam from my headlamp pierced the omnipresent blackness that surrounded us. My eyes followed light from the throttle pedal to the brake as I shoehorned my Leatherman pliers into a tangle of wires in pursuit of the accelerator cable. My legs stretched out the open door into the land of the Boogieman. Friend and fellow journalist Sam Watson kept a vigilant watch on the bush, scanning an abyss of inky shadows with his torch. Iridescent green dots, the tell-

As soon as children can walk, they are tasked with watching the family herd of goats or cattle

Searching for a bush camp late one afternoon

tale of a lion’s eyes, were the last thing he wanted to see. We had taken a right turn at the last village and, as per our instructions, driven ‘about an hour on a rocky two-track’ in search of Meru National Park. Realising we had gone askew, I stopped to make a U-turn. That’s when our Range Rover’s throttle pedal fell to the ﬂoor. She refused to move. Near midnight, we decided it might be best to pull into a clearing, throw up the roof tent and try again in the morning. Sam checked his phone for a signal. One bar. He

sent a text to Victor Mutumah, our contact in the park, advising him of the plan and where we thought we might be. His eightword reply was vague but clear: ‘Bad idea. You need to return to town.’ The rumble of an engine and tyres bouncing off the rutted two-track broke the silence and a pair of headlights appeared, approaching in haste. A Land Cruiser pickup stacked high with white bails of something bounced by, the driver never lifting from the throttle. A minute later the scene hit instant replay, followed by a third, identical Land Cruiser, the glow

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Bush camping in Africa offers some of the clearest night skies in the world. But wandering away from camp unarmed is not advised

We had come to Kenya not just as tourists, but to report on conservation efforts in Meru National Park to the north and

witness the plethora of wildlife in Tsavo National Park to the south. A week earlier, we landed in Nairobi and received news that the Defender 110 we were to borrow had other plans – a major problem. Sam got on the horn and contacted Erikson Rover Safaris, a company he had dealt with a decade prior. ‘Sorry mate,’ said the voice on the other end of the line. ‘All our vehicles are out.’ Sam, who is a pre-eminent disciple of British civility, replied: ‘I am glad to hear, good sir, that your business is thriving. Kindly, do you have a suggestion for any four-wheel drive we might ﬁnd in Nairobi?’ After a hesitant moment, he was advised that they had a shop vehicle, an old Land Rover, that might be available for our twoweek trek. Enter stage right Mama ya Simba (Swahili for ‘mother of lions’), a retired 1974 Range Rover Classic with more character than Indiana Jones laying in a pit of vipers. Decades of bush trekking had left her once-youthful body wrinkled and scarred. None of her doors locked, the hand-crank windows begged for service and the rear tailgate and window

A typical breakfast included coffee infused with Amarula, a cream liqueur made from the fruit of the marula tree

Most farmers transport goods to market in carts fabricated from old truck frames and axles

of its taillights disappearing at speed to the northeast. TIA is the acronym for This Is Africa, a time-worn aphorism used to deﬁne the quirky uncertainty and bizarre things, good and not so good, associated with traveling the Dark Continent. This was a TIA moment. Quiet again, I focused on the task at hand. A length of baling twine and a few wraps of duct tape set us right, and we gingerly massaged the Landy back to life. ‘Smugglers. Khat smugglers heading for the Somali border,’ Victor informed us when we eventually made our way back to the village at about 2am. A wrong turn had put us on the contraband expressway, apparently not a good place for a lost Brit and Yankee to be in a disabled vehicle. Fortunately, our armed drug-runners had a more pressing purpose than to harass a couple of wayward tourists. It was our lucky day.

Mama ya Simba

Ecosystems in Tsavo National Park range from grassland savanna to semi-desert bush broken by the occasional river

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Enter stage right Mama ya Simba, a retired 1974 Range Rover Classic with more character than Indiana Jones laying in a pit of vipers September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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Many miles from services, bush travel in Africa requires you to be fully selfsufficient. Extra water, food, fuel, tyres and spare parts and tools are standard equipment

were an inch shy of closing properly. She rattled like an antiquated boardwalk roller coaster, exhaust fumes filled the cabin, her brakes worked slightly better than dragging a foot along the ground and her transmission had seen its best days decades earlier. She was equipped with a roof rack and tent, however, extra jerry cans and a 3.5-litre V8 which fired up with the first turn of the key. Mama ya Simba was no pageant queen, but she knew the bush and how to survive. She was perfect, and in the coming weeks we would come to love our mother of lions.

With a V8 engine and dual carburettors, stopping to dump jerry cans became a routine task

Fossils and Slaves

Though this was my ﬁrst visit to Kenya, I’d made several trips through the countries of Southern Africa and read much of the region’s history. Considered the birthplace of humanity, it was here in Kenya that paleontologist Louis Leakey discovered a million year old axe in 1929 and where Martin Pickford unearthed hominid fossils dating back six million years. The ﬁrst semi-modern inhabitants of the low-land savanna are said to be the Hadza people, hunter-gatherers who migrated north from the Serengeti Plateau near the third millennium BC. Arabic

influences swept into the region in the first century AD, but it wasn’t until the Portuguese arrived in 1593, erecting Fort Jesus near present-day Mombasa, that life would change significantly for the Hadza. Masters of the slave trade, the Portuguese exploited the indigenous tribes for more than a century, trading blows with the Omani multiple times for control of the port city. Kenya eventually became a protectorate of the British Empire and would remain so until it gained its freedom in 1964. As is the case with many indigenous cultures of the world, the Hadza succumbed to slave

While most of us have seen zebras and other game in zoos, there is nothing like witnessing them in their natural environment

Tsavo National Park has Kenya’s healthiest elephant populations, with an estimated 12,500 savanna elephants and a large number of super tuskers

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raiders, introduced diseases and forced displacement. Today, it is estimated that fewer than 500 continue to live in the bush, practicing traditional means. Maasai pastoralists also inhabited the region, but most were pushed south into Tanzania when the park was created in 1948.

Poachers and Ivory

Navigating the chaos and congestion of Nairobi, the nation’s capital and a seething whirlpool of central African culture, we made our way south to Tsavo. Resting in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro on the Tanzanian border, the park encompasses

Tsavo hosts the tallest animal on the planet, the Masai or Kilimanjaro giraffe. At up to 18 feet in height, they can reach foliage unavailable to competing herbivores

9000 square kilometres and is home to leopard, hippo, Cape buffalo and Maasai lion. It also has one of Central Africa’s healthiest elephant populations. We met Rikki Agudah and his group from the Bundu Rovers Club, and would spend the coming days learning about the club’s preservation efforts in the region. They work closely with Tsavo Pride, a conservation group whose focus is teaching indigenous communities that they can make more money with a live elephant and tourism than with a dead one. Although global demand for ivory has diminished and hunting elephants for their

tusks has been illegal since 1989, it is still a highly coveted commodity in many Asian cultures. Conservation campaigns and increased enforcement have reduced supplies, but this has driven the price up significantly. A single tusk can be worth up to $22,000 USD, and in a country where per capita income hovers around $2000 per year the temptation to take part in this profitable, albeit dangerous endeavour often wins. In Tsavo’s case, poachers usually cross the border from Tanzania under the cloak of darkness, kill an elephant, cut off its tusks, leave the carcass to rot and then disappear into the night.

Ungulates such as the Hartebeest are a prime target for predators and are constantly on the move

The Athi and Tsavo Rivers are home to healthy hippo populations. Though they seem rather complacent, lazing around in water holes most of the time, they are September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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A good bush vehicle should have a flip-up hatch to access gear on the roof rack or gain a 360-degree view of your surroundings without getting out – and becoming part of the food chain

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to stake a claim on East Africa. Though most names have been changed, this 16th Century map by Italian cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi identifies Madagascar, Lake Victoria and Malawi, as well as various tributaries leading to the continent’s interior

There are few paved roads in the park, but there are more than a thousand miles of dirt two-tracks crisscrossing its bush and grasslands

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After a close late-night call with Somalian khat smugglers, the author and his colleague Sam took time to do a proper repair on Mama ya Simba’s throttle cable

Where in the world but Kenya will you meet such a jubilant and delightful extortionist… who will even pose for a photo?

Rikki’s group had been raising funds to help build a proper game (human) fence to protect endangered species in the park. They also work with local villages, helping them to secure small plots of land and develop sustainable agriculture. One afternoon, we visited one such farm to review the operation and enjoy a delicious meal of traditionally prepared organically grown vegetables.

like people everywhere their fundamental life goals are to provide for their families and raise their children as best they can. Our brief glimpse into the natural beauty of Tsavo was coming to an end, and it was time to head north to Meru National Park and our work with the Kenya Wildlife Service. We said goodbye to Rikki and thanked the Bundu Rovers for sharing their world with us.

Life on the Savanna

A Goat for my Family

Mama ya Simba seemed happy to be back in the bush, her V8 mill and ageing exhaust emitting a throaty timbre as we chugged across the savanna. Her dual carburettors, we quickly realised, were quite thirsty, sucking down petrol like an elephant at a Kalahari water hole. After a few nights, though, we had sorted out the ageing roof top tent (duct taping torn screens and zippers), massaged the crusty singleburner propane stove to life and wedged branches and rags into doors that wouldn’t latch securely, and were settling into life in the bush. One afternoon, we sat near the shores of Lake Amboseli, taking in a live cinema show that would put armchair YouTubers to shame. Across the vast savanna, herds of various ungulates nibbled low-lying grasses while keeping a keen eye on the tree line for lions, hyenas, wild dogs and other predators. Packs of pachyderms were a bit more relaxed as they meandered along the water’s edge or through acacia and mopani groves, their long trunks keeping to the ground as they sniffed for anything that might be edible. If you haven’t spent time in third-world countries, the standard of living in urban areas can be shocking. However, I find the bush to be different. It is not that tribal people have more money; they have much less. But rather than existing in abject poverty surrounded by crime and filth, they live much like their ancestors have for a thousand generations – a few key differences being the use of woven clothing, plastic and steel pots… and the occasional mobile phone. The typical abode is the rondavel, a traditional round hut built of branches and insulated with elephant dung. People’s days consist of tending livestock, cultivating crops, collecting water and cooking over an open fire. They are usually the friendliest people you will meet, and

While Kenya has much to offer the intrepid traveler, it is a poor country and behaviour we Westerners might deem corrupt is simply a way of doing business. While en route north from Nairobi along the Great Rift Valley, a divergent zone between the Somali and Nubian tectonic plates, we met Peter. Sporting a neatly pressed uniform and ear-to-ear smile, he waved us over at one of the many police checkpoints and greeted us with a welcoming ‘hello my friends.’ In a matter of minutes we had learned about his family and children’s school activities – and that, to no surprise, we did not possess the appropriate driver’s licence to operate a hired vehicle. Regrettably, he said woefully as if we were dear friends, he must impound Mama ya Simba and we would need take a bus back to Nairobi to sort out a steep fine with the judge. ‘However,’ he continued with a beaming smile, ‘because we are friends, maybe I can help you.’ Sam and I glanced at each other in the here-comes-the-bribe kind of way. ‘Maybe you can help my family buy a goat for dinner tonight?”’ Calling the hire company to query the licence in question, we were told it was not required but that it would be easier for all parties if we complied with Peter’s everso-pleasant request. A few Tusker beers later, after a long yarn about how he was related to Barak Obama in a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of way, a wad of Kenyan shillings exchanged hands. We bid our adieus with heartfelt handshakes, goat-eating smiles and best wishes for the family. While I have never been one to surrender to roadside bribery, I’ve also never become pals with such a pleasant extortionist… Join Chris and Sam as they search for rhino poachers and stalk lions in the next issue of Overlander 4x4

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THAT SINKING

FEELING S

omething that was clear for all to see at the recent Bath and West edition of the Great British Land Rover Show was the huge number of Defender fans now who have turned their vehicles into camper vans or full-on expedition vehicles. There’s a lot of home-brewed ingenuity to be seen among this new breed of modiﬁed Landy, however an increasing number of owners are turning to professionals to help them create a true

motorhome-style interior. And here’s an excellent example of the latter. It’s an early Puma, dating from 2007, which makes it a 2.4 TDCi. Its owner, Lewis Maynard, bought it last year with about 120,000 miles on the clock and a freshly installed camper conversion on the back. The work was done by Black Paw 4x4, who installed everything including, yes, the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink, IndelB 30-litre fridge-freezer, Dometic Smev two-burner

hob with automatic lighter, you know the sort of thing. As always, making the most of every square inch is critical to a good installation, and the sink has a large storage cupboard beneath it. There’s also a pair of large pull-out drawers under the worktop and a large underbed area for storage, as well as a small medicine cabinet on the rear wall. Like every good kitchen area, there’s a toilet hidden away in the corner too. Ideal for

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Everything but the kitchen sink? No, this Defender 110 camper, built last year by Black Paw 4x4, has one of those. And actually, it’s just the beginning… Words: Gary Noskill Pictures: Lewis Maynard

when your camp cookery goes wrong and your home-made korma comes out more like an emergency-level vindaloo. If this all conjures up the wrong image in your mind, rest assured there’s lots of ventilation. And storage space for a can of Glade, but mainly ventilation. The habitation compartment has two double-glazed Dometic side windows with built-in blinds and ﬂy screens, while the roof has a vent in it to let air circulate. Said roof also happens

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“It’s the kind of 4x4 you can buy, or indeed build, with your head and your heart working in unison” to be a double-height pop-top – something that’s becoming increasingly popular as people start to discover that there’s an alternative to roof tents. One thing there deﬁnitely is no alternative to is proper electrics. Lewis’ 110 has a split charge system which keeps the leisure battery healthy when driving, as well as a 110 Watt solar panel on the roof with an MPPT controller to keep it topped up when operating off-grid. Obviously, if you buy a Defender-based camper you very much do intend to go offgrid, but the reality is that most people use sites most of the time. Hence the full 240v rig which lies ready for when Lewis wants to hook it up.

Well planned

Elsewhere, the gas locker will hold two 12kg bottles and there’s an external BBQ point underneath. Now, that’s planning. A Shurﬂo pump in the sink draws fresh water from a 60-litre tank under the ﬂoor. This is all good mini-motorhome stuff, though it could be used on more or less anything on four wheels. But this is a Land Rover, dammit, so those aren’t just any old wheels. They’re ZU alloys with General Grabber AT2, don’t you know.

Of course you know, you’ve been looking. So you’ll have seen that the 110 is also equipped with hefty bumper that’s home to a military-grade Winchmax 13500 – which, Lewis assures us, has never been used. Further additions include a snorkel, wind deflectors, black ally wing tops, a black grille and a full LED conversion plus two spotlights on the A-bar. Underneath, moving from front to back there’s an uprated Terrafirma steering damper, heavy-duty drag link and track rod, new anti-roll bar and reconditioned radius arms. Even further underneath are Ratel X diff and steering guards, then properly at the back are double heavy-duty coil springs to take all that extra weight. Terrafirma heavyduty shocks and polybushes all round help keep it all under control. Talking of keeping things under control, the chassis was Waxoyled in July last year and Lewis says the paintwork is keeping the cab well protected too. There’s a ‘very minimal’ spot of rust on the bulkhead, but nothing that’s not well within the realms of just needing preventative maintenance. So that’s a keeper, then? Well it would be, but it’s not. During the year or so in which he’s owned it, Lewis has done the aforementioned suspension upgrades,

prettied it up cosmetically… but only managed a couple of trips away in the vehicle. ‘Other life commitments,’ he explains, and ain’t that always the case. That’s why the 110 was for sale when we spoke to Lewis, who was after £36,995 for it. Not cheap for an old Puma on six-ﬁgure miles… but then, if you think that an old Puma on six-ﬁgure miles is all this is, there’s not a lot that can be done to help you. As we all know, few things hold their value better than Defenders. But one of them is motorhomes. Here’s a Defender that’s also a motorhome, so if it’s worth that now it should still be in the thirties a decade hence, after you’ve driven it round the world and made the sort of memories in it that last forever. So it’s the kind of 4x4 you can buy, or indeed build, with your head and your heart working in unison. Spend that sort of money on a new hatchback now and by the time a couple of elections have been and gone, you’ll do well to get the cost of a half-decent holiday for it. Spend it right, on a good expedition vehicle, and after that same time has passed you’ll still be having holidays in it. We can’t think of many current hatchbacks that come complete with a kitchen sink, either…

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PUT THE BOOT IN Using off-the-shelf parts to build a unique Defender is a tough ask. Ashley Russell, on the other hand, took a late Td5-engined 90 and created a Land Rover that looks standard for the outside – but has a scratch-built cabin modelled on the design of a Georgian boot room Words Olly Sack Pictures Ashley Russell

‘I

built this truck for life,’ says Ashley Russell. ‘But life had different ideas.’ A somewhat sobering introduction to the story of a very, very special 2006 Defender 90 Hard-Top, but who among us hasn’t at some time had to make a painful decision about a much-loved Land Rover? In Ashley’s case, it was simply a change of circumstances. Which could mean many different things, but we’re fairly sure the circumstances in question didn’t involve him going from being a guy who loves Land Rovers to one who wants to drive a sad Audi instead. When it’s in you, it’s in you. And Ashley definitely had it in him. The 90 he got down to work on was by no means an old nail – it had started getting tugged for things like perished tyres, thinning brake discs, worn shock bushes and leaking swivels, but there was no one big MOT failure that said it was time for

action. It had only covered about 4500 miles a year during its life, too, so said life had barely begun. A perfect Defender to restore into the truck of your dreams, for sure. And that’s what he did – with help from a list of suppliers whose names read like a roll call in the Defender Hall of Fame. Retro Works of Kelso, for example, were his go-to guys for ‘fast fixes and every little piece I drew blanks on.’ Which was quite a lot, by the sounds of it. ‘James Black at Retro Works is just a total whizz and super speedy with delivery and orders. A game changer having him on board.’ Even after Ashley had restored it and subsequently found himself no longer able to keep the relationship alive, the 90 had only covered 76,000 miles. Not much in the lifetime of a Defender, so long as you don’t include the rear chassis which had done the usual thing. Rather than just do

One of the very best things about the 90 is that despite its show-stopping interior, from the outside it’s basically just a white van September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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Above: The seats were trimmed by Adam Smith at Stitchsmith – who also contributed the full panel you see behind them here. The mango wood cubby box is the work of Ty Worthington at Built Motor Works, who happens to be a trained cabinet maker as well as everything else

Right: The Welsh dresser pretty much does your head in with its detailing and fit. And the fact that it’s a Welsh dresser, in a Land Rover. Adam Guinness at G Force installed it over the course of a weekend, with Ashley providing creative input and getting called a vandal for supplying such a beautiful antique piece to butcher in the first place. We can think of no better use for it… the crossmember, he opted for a galvanised rear 1/3 chassis – an early indication that he wasn’t planning on doing anything by halves. Having done that, he shot it full of wax to help keep it solid for decades to come. That same approach can be seen in the renewal work on the 90’s suspension and running gear. Basically, if it wasn’t pukka it wasn’t going on. Standard-height Eibach comfort springs hold it up, controlled by Fox shocks and poly bushes, and a Bilstein performance steering damper adds a bit of zest to the handling. All this was entrusted to another Scottish outfit, Engine 701, which trades out of a fabulously situated workshop in Port Edgar Marina on the edge of South Queensferry – literally in the shadow of the old and new Forth Road Bridges. ‘Engine 701 did all my other Land Rovers before this one,’ explains Ashley. ‘With this build, they designed all

the suspension, roll bars, wheels, brakes, shocks – all the heavy lifting. Doug knows me well and just knows what I want without words. Cool people, too – high-end, nononsense engineers.’

Thumbs-up

Interestingly, though Engine 701 did the design work it was Vanstones, an independent specialist in Launceston, that installed it. A bit more local and another company that gets a huge thumbs-up from Ashley. ‘Vanstones were my absolute go-to for everything else,’ he says. ‘The twins and the team there have hearts of gold. They go to any lengths to get that Landy into the real world and Dave has wonderful ideas to keep it all exciting and new.’ Talking of things that are exciting and new, the Td5 engine was warmed up by a Stage 2 remap and Ultimate intercooler from

Alive – which also fitted a silicone hose kit, EGR delete and high-flow air filter. The engine is running Alive’s rad and intercooler hoses, too, and it breathes out through an exhaust from Demand Engineering. So this is on the quick side for a 90, and it’s got the dynamics to match. But one thing it’s not is showy. In fact the restraint in its appearance is remarkable – it sits on standard height (265/75R16) tyres, which are mounted on steel rims with a slightly higher offset to add an inch or two to the vehicle’s track, but that aside you could be looking at any old Hard-Top. In fact, the only thing distinguishing it from a run-of-the-mill site motor is that it’s clean as a whistle and not covered in scratches and dents. That’s how it looks from the outside. Open a door – any door will do – and you instantly see that as well as being a bit of a street sleeper, the 90 is also a bling sleeper.

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Yes, of course that’s a thing. Well, at least it is now. What we mean is that it looks so plain from the outside, nobody expects what it’s got within. Ashley says it was ‘inspired by a Georgian boot room, with hooks, boxes and generous space for it all,’ which sounds anything from ingenious to pretentious depending on your level of cynicism but, however jaded a Landy watcher you might be, can hardly help but spin your head with its style and the quality of its execution alike. It’s quirky (boy, it’s quirky) but in a world where people try to buy individuality by ordering products off a page it’s an object lesson in what it takes to be truly unique. Wood, leather and premium textiles are all familiar materials in the premium Defender market – but hand-crafted antique wood and reclaimed timber? This one is special, in every good sense of the word.

Tremendously classy

The seats are trimmed in a thick, oatmealcoloured woven fabric with contrasting brown leather side bolsters from Adam Smith at Stitchsmith, creating an effect that’s tremendously classy but also convincingly vintage. There’s heavy-duty medium brown carpeting by Martrim around the seat boxes, too – yet the floors and tranny tunnel are clad in the rubber and vinyl of a true hose-out Land Rover. Up top, there’s a warm brown wool headliner, also from Martrim, and the visors match the seat fabric – as does the surround for a media screen on the dash provided by an Alpine iLX 705D system running Apple CarPlay and pumping out tunes through a set of JL Audio speakers. While it’s normal for bling Defenders to be full of stainless metalwork inside, the dash hardware, speaker rings and gear and transfer knobs are all in a bespoke

anodised finish from Croytec, giving them a warm golden hue that fits perfectly with the ambience of the interior. And we’re just scratching the surface with that lot. The cubby box, for example, was hand-made from mango wood by Ty Worthington at Built Motor Works, a trained cabinet maker who also contributed no end of ideas about under-floor stowage and battery charging systems. Look at the details here and you’ll see that this too is the work of a true craftsman, with what looks like a leather skiver on each side and insets trimmed in that same oatmeal cloth – again by Adam at Stitchsmith. The amount of time that’s gone into making it is more reminiscent of the custom car scene than what we’re used to seeing on Land Rovers. Behind the seats and cubby, the bulkhead isn’t made of wood – you’d like to

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think the MOT man would raise a concerned paw at that – but it’s clad and topped in dark stained panelling which then extends along the sides of the wheel boxes and above them to create storage bins. There’s even a matching skirting board running along the bottom, with a woven oatmeal coir carpet perfectly fitted to match up to it. Straps attached to the bulkhead hold a rolled-up blanket in place, and ahead of it the cubby has brass cupholders inserted into its top surface. Back behind the bulkhead, a vintage hamper and Fortnum and Mason bag are attached using more leather straps. It all comes across as a wonderful work of whimsy – yet it’s also beautifully practical, if Ashley wants it to be. But the best is yet to come. And when we say ‘the best,’ we’re not just chucking words around. We’ve seen many Land Rovers with all sorts of interiors, from high-tech to did-you-get-that-leather-from-a-brothel, and some make you want to cry they’re so beautiful while others make you want to weep for whoever thought it was a good idea. At best, the treatments we’ve seen given to Defenders can be phenomenal. But we think we might have seen our favourite ever here. It’s clever, it’s classy, it’s elegant and most of all it’s so, so creative.

Fabulously retro

To the sides of the seats, where the belts are mounted, more the woven oatmeal fabric is decorated using domed brass nail pins, creating an effect that’s fabulously retro –

perfectly creating the Georgian image he was going for. It’s there on both sides of the vehicle – however on the passenger’s side, it continues back the whole way along the side panel. We’re rarely seen anything as wonderful inside a Defender – and if we have it’s on the opposite side of the vehicle, where mango wood has been crafted into a hand-made Welsh dresser with pegs and hooks for bags, coats, hats and so on. Honestly. It’s a Welsh dresser. In a 90. If you’re a hardcore cabinetmaking obsessive, you might look at this and tut because you can see screw heads in its top rail. If you’re normal, though, you’ll just adore it for being so utterly imaginative and, indeed, so utterly, utterly right. We were gazing at it so much we almost didn’t notice the denim headliner on the roof above. Ashley says that no expense was spared on his 90. While we have no doubt that this is true, though, it’s something you could say about all sorts of Land Rovers – some of which, however good they might be, have all the individuality of a brick in a harbour wall. And there certainly are a lot of bought-in products on show here – but what makes this one stand out is the thought that went into creating it. The build had a theme, and that theme was followed through fastidiously to achieve something absolutely unique and supremely cool. Car manufacturers like to talk about ‘craftsmanship’ when they mean someone operating a copy machine, and we all know one that trots out the word ‘curated’ ad nauseam to describe common-or-garden

options packs. But if you want to see a Land Rover that displays what both truly mean, you’re looking at it. For something so personal to be anything other than its maker’s car for life seems wrong somehow, but as Ashley says life does have that bad habit of getting in the way of your best-laid plans. Which brings the story of this phenomenal Defender to a slightly wistful conclusion. Wistful, but not without at least a bit of a silver lining. The 90 may have gone to a new home, but it was a good one. ‘It went to a lovely fella, actually, who was a gentle Landy newbie,’ says Ashley. Which is all you can hope for, really, when you sell something that means so much to you. So there’s a guy out there who hasn’t had a Land Rover before and now he’s got one of the best we’ve ever seen. It’s a bit like never having been to an art gallery before, but then you decide to see what it’s all about and next thing you know you’re coming home with a Picasso. We’re pretty sure that in order to have taken it on, the 90’s new owner can hardly help but be the sort of person who understands what he’s got. In this world of off-the-peg individuality, truly creative Defender builds don’t come along all that often. When they do, it takes a good eye to spot them – and an even better one to have imagined them in the first place. Let’s hope life’s plan includes Ashley being able to embark on more Land Rover projects in the future. They’ll certainly be worth watching.

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TRAVEL

SE T TING OUT

From Chartwell, South Africa to Chartwell, Kent. That was the aim of c2c22, an expedition which saw seven classic Land Rovers being driven home with a noble charitable aim Words: Paul Looe Pictures: c2cMissions

ust over seven years ago, Robert Eriksen-Miller paid a visit to Chartwell House, the former ancestral home of Winston Churchill in the village of Chartwell, Kent. Nothing unusual about that; it’s a National Trust property and sees thousands of visitors every year. Except Rob is a resident of Chartwell. Not Chartwell, Kent, but Chartwell, South Africa, a rural suburb on the northern edge of Johannesburg. And that’s not his only connection to Ye Olde Country. Rob also happens to be a Land Rover specialist… and therefore by definition enthusiast. And as he stood in Churchill’s sitting room, gazing across the

Pink Terrace at the soaring views across the Weald of Kent, he mused upon the shared history of these two places with the same name – and resolved that at some point in his life, he would travel across Africa to join the dots. The perfect excuse for an expedition – and of course, being a Land Rover man, he already knew what he was going to do it in. Fast forward a couple of years and we find Rob and a fellow entrepreneur and Land Rover devotee, Mark McClue, discussing why it is that people take on such challenges. They reflected on stories such as Rob’s ‘Put Foot Rally’ (driving 12,000 kilometres around Southern Africa with his family and friends) and Mark’s first

descent of the crocodile infested Kafue River in Zambia more than 20 years ago. Both were done using Land Rovers. But it’s the choice to take on something like this, when one could just stay at home, that often raises the question… why? ‘Because it’s there’ is a common answer, though perhaps a slightly simplistic one. Both Rob and Mark ventured outside of their comfort zones from an early age, choosing interests, career paths and opportunities on the roads less travelled. Both were passionate about Land Rovers because of what they have enabled people to see and experience. And as Rob and Mark chatted, an idea was conceived.

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2C THE WORLD

The team was made up of participants aged between 20 and 78 – and vehicles aged between 22 and 66. Their route took them through Africa in all its various guises (and Europe in all its various guises, for that matter) as they piloted the seven old Land Rovers home to England September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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Like all good ideas, it began to grow. It became something more significant, it took a few turns and as time went on, it began to morph into reality. A reality which never lost its core goal or purpose.

Spirit of Adventure

That goal was to drive from Chartwell to Chartwell – in a Series Land Rover. And so the c2c22 Land Rover Mission was born. The more Rob and Mark researched, the more apparent it became that this was going to be more than a holiday. More even that an overland expedition linking two places of the same name, too. ‘The history of Chartwell and The c2c Mission joins Continents 2 Continents, Countries 2 Countries and Communities 2 Communities, says Rob, ‘all with a culture that embraces the spirit of adventure. ‘People have always taken calculated risks to address needs and problems, to explore or to advance the boundaries of knowledge to survive. It’s something installed in us at an early age, indeed from our first steps, and something we believe is important to foster within the youth to create future leaders and adventurers.’ Which brings us back to Churchill. By no means was he only adventurer with links to Chartwell, but he was definitely an adventurer and certainly had stories to tell. Being arrested as a war journalist aged 22 in South Africa; escaping from Pretoria Boys’ High; and becoming allies with his

former adversary Jan Smuts, who went on to serve as a Field Marshal for the empire, founded the South African Air Force and advised Churchill to start the RAF. Some impressive examples there of the art of the calculated risk! So when Rob discovered an abandoned Series III decaying slowly beneath a tree in the Cradle of Humankind, it was almost like fate. The project was born – and the Land Rover was given its name: Winston. As if that wasn’t enough, while the Landy was being restored to its former glory Rob found out that it was no ordinary export model. It had arrived in Africa after being driven there from the UK – and so the challenge become to return it by driving from Chartwell to Chartwell. Working out how to cross about 20,000 kilometres and 20 countries, not to mention the countless challenges that lay ahead, was the initial topic of conversation among friends who had made it through Covid by appreciating the privilege of living with space in Chartwell. ‘We knew we had had it much better than most during that time,’ says Rob. ‘But we still missed the freedom to take part in a Land Rover trophy, drive our vehicles to one of South Africa’s game reserves or cross to a neighbouring country.

Commitment

‘This is what sparked the commitment to make sure that as soon as we could, c2c

had to happen – which is why the c2c22 Land Rover Mission was set in motion.’ And what a mission it became. From Rob’s initial plan to drive a Land Rover home to England sprang a full-on expedition undertaken by no less than seven very different Land Rovers. What’s that we were saying about good ideas starting to grow? The seven Landies were: •W inston – a 1985 Series III driven by Rob Eriksen-Miller and son Dylan •B lue Blick, a 1956 Series I with Rick Currie and Mike Deacon on board •B ehnjane, Steve Dahl’s 1958 Series I copiloted by ‘the doctor’ •M ark McClue, plus ‘jump seat’ guests, in his 1967 Series IIA Jan Smuts •R ocinante, Trevor and Helen Stiebel’s Series IIB Forward Control • Thomas, a 1996 Defender 90 piloted by Mike Eriksen Miller and his daughter •B etty Boop, a 2000 Defender 110 with Alley Grunewald, aka Pink Defender Girl, and company A number of the group were travelling to England with a mission of their own. On 6 October, Duke’s Auctioneers of Dorchester was scheduled to hold a sale of Land Rover vehicles, parts and memorabilia at Bovingdon Tank Museum, titled Icons of Motoring – and several of the South African vehicles were entered in it, with the funds raised going towards developing sustainable opportunities for the next

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The men behind the expedition: Rob Eriksen-Miller and Mark McClue came up with the idea while discussing why people take on such challenges

generation, focused specifically on food and water management techniques. ‘In the main,’ explains Rob. ‘primary drivers have self-funded their participation in the Mission. Mark and I formed a nonprofit to assist with some sponsorship to aid the Mission and its purpose. Our vision was “to see borders define and unite people, instead of dividing us” and our purpose was “to develop opportunities for the youth within sustainable environments”.

Icon of Adventure

set out to break down some of the barriers erected during the pandemic, faced unexpected hurdles put in its way by war in Ukraine – and culminated in a number of successful sales which went towards the team’s aim of raising five million rand for the causes Rob and Mark support. Overall, the auction at Duke’s saw a wide variety of classic and modern Land Rovers find new homes. The accent was firmly on the older stuff, though a number of 90s and 110s went under the hammer too – albeit it with mixed results. A Spectre style 110, for example, remained unsold –

whereas Rocinante, the 300Tdi engined IIB from the expedition, comfortably exceeded its estimate to sell for £15,000. When people go travelling in their Land Rovers, it’s normal to become so attached that you never want to let them go. So driving all the way from Chartwell, South Africa, to Chartwell, Kent in order to sell the vehicles must at times have felt like a bittersweet experience. With such a strong focus on their charitable aims, however, Rob and Mark were very much men on a mission – and they had exactly the right vehicles to get them there.

‘The Chartwell 2 Chartwell Land Rover Mission has taken shape using vehicles recognised as an icon of adventure, to restore linkages across the continents for tourism as it reawakens and as a research and trade mission for businesses wanting to understand and build relationships across the largest environment and marketplace on Earth. ‘With Africa and Europe home to over a billion youth under the age of 35, this presents massive needs and at the same time an opportunity; c2cMissions hopes to be a way to address some of these perceptions and provide experiences to participants that can create leaders and managers of the 2030 generation.’ With participants aged between 20 and 78 and vehicles aged between 22 and 66, Chartwell 2 Chartwell truly was an expedition that spanned the generations. It

September 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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Our 4x4s INFO

VEHICLE: Isuzu D-Max GO2 YEAR: 2018 RUN BY: Alan Kidd LAST UPDATE: June 2024 FLEET DEBUT: January 2020

ON SECOND THOUGHTS

Looking back at a green lane route from a few years ago, the history of one right of way tells a story of never-ending change… Words Olly Sack Pictures Richard Hair

This hole was significant when we last drove the lane, but we kept it in the route we were making as it wasn’t enough for us to need our rear Air-Locker. A mistake? Possibly. We did always remind people in our roadbooks that ground conditions can change, but we certainly weren’t expecting it to degrade the way several Trailwise users warned it had before being repaired around a year back

ack when we used to run rights of way roadbooks every month, people sometimes blamed us when lanes we had included went on to become over-used. Our instinct was to say nah, not our fault, but it’s a fair question and one which we debated long and loud in the editorial oﬃce. Fact is, we probably did sometimes use lanes which we shouldn’t have. Not often – ﬁngers of one hand over the course of 20 years – but it’s something we became very sensitive about. While we were always ready to show people rights of way that weren’t getting any use, what we didn’t want to do was encourage a mob of 4x4s to descend on a lane that was being left alone because it couldn’t take it. Lanes that were already a bit cut up – that was another matter. Obviously they were being used already and, so long as they weren’t in a state where what they needed was a rest, we’d see that as fair game. And always, always, we’d remind

people using our roadbooks that the onus was on them to be responsible. There was always the risk of a headbanger or two who’d get the magazine every month and make it their mission to wreck the lanes on the roadbook. Same as how, back in the 90s, there was a group of scabs who’d pick up the tuning mags every month and try to steal the cars featured in them. We don’t have any concrete proof that anyone ever actually did go around trashing the lanes on our roadbooks, but anecdotally there was some evidence that it may have happened. That’s one reason why we were always careful about the lanes we included. Long, grassy hills, for example, we would only use going down. And we’d be very cautious about directing people towards climbs that were showing signs of getting dug out. One such lane appeared in one of the ﬁrst roadbooks we set out using our Isuzu D-Max GO2. If you know it anyway, you’ll recognise it from the pictures. It drops into

We only ever run hills like this down the way in our roadbooks. Sure, we’d climb it all day long ourselves if the ground was dry, but anything that encourages people trying to do so in the wet would, to us, be a bad idea

and then climbs out of a deep valley that’s wide but steep enough to warrant a bit of concentration. Maybe not quite low range on the way down, but certainly much more relaxed with it going back up. We would only ever use it in one direction because the valley side at its north end is a grassed ﬁeld. Here, it’s one of those lanes on which you’re driving next to the boundary fence and there’s no real sign of tyre tracks on the ground. It would only take one set of aggressive tyres coming uphill in the wet to change that, though, and deﬁnitely not for the better.

Dug out

So we ran it downhill on that side, which meant climbing the other side of the valley on a much better deﬁned track. Better deﬁned, but a little rutted – and at one point, a hole had started to become quite dug out in the rut on the right. That’s how it was when we drove it last. But one of the great things about off-

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Green laning is a great way of exploring the UK, but many insurance companies don’t cover off-roading and green laning. That’s why our Isuzu – pictured here – is insured by Adrian Flux, a specialist insurance broker that covers off-roading and green laning. Whether you’ve modiﬁed your 4x4 or you own a classic 4WD, they can help. Give them a call on 0800 085 5000 for a quote.

roading (or green laning, in this case – they ARE roads at the end of the day) is that the ground changes with time. Our judgement was that the hole, which we cruised through without needing to lock our Isuzu’s back diff, would hold up to reasonable use over time, and so we decided it would be okay to include the lane in our route. Had we done it a year or two later, it would have been a very different matter. Something we do with every lane we’re planning to drive is check it on Trailwise. This is the Green Lane Association’s online rights of way database, fully mapped and including oﬃcial and user-updated information about the status and condition of each byway and unclassiﬁed road. If you use green lanes, or you’re even slightly interested in doing so, being a GLASS member and having access to the site is the best £49 you’ll ever spend. Sounds expensive? Well, for one thing you’re not lining someone’s pockets with it. Every penny you give GLASS goes

towards the work it does to keep the lanes open – and without it, there’s little doubt that there would be none left by now. And for another, even if it were a commercial product it would still be an absolute bargain. For the amount of detailed and directly relevant information it gives you, for the price of a couple of rounds of drinks or a deeply average pub meal, the value for money is phenomenal. This lane was a case in point. Last time we drove it, the grassy side was smooth as anything and the ruts had a moderate hole in them. But comments on Trailwise from people who have used it since then tell a story. A story of the hole developing into something that could roll your truck on to its side; of the grassy side becoming rutted; and of a farmer putting up home-made ‘road closed’ signs to keep people away. Then, finally, of the field edge recovering and the bomb hole, as people were calling it, being filled in. It would appear that this work was done about a year ago, turning

what had become an undrivable lane back into the unchallenging one we remember from back before it started to break down. The moral of the story is that, while you often hear people say they know the lanes in this or that area, all they can ever know is what it was like last time they drove it. Unless they keep their research up to date. Which means constantly driving every lane in their area or keeping abreast of Trailwise. Had we been back in the area a couple of years ago, we’d have gone for it on that lane without a second thought – and been given a major surprise for our troubles. If you get into serious diﬃculty on a green lane, would you pay £49 for someone to get you out again? Every single time, of course you would. For the same money, you don’t even need to get into it in the ﬁrst place. Our roadbooks have run their course now – but if you’re a member of GLASS, Trailwise gives you better information on rights of way than we ever could.

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2pp Our 4x4s Leics lane.indd 63

21/07/2024 10:29

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WISH YOU WERE HERE? How to make your overland dreams become reality – without turning into nightmares

PLUS Roof tent or live-in conversion: what’s best?

Unique modded Grand Vitara gets serious

Harcore hell on the 2024 Breslau Rally

OCTOBER 2024 ISSUE: ON SALE 29 AUGUST 64

overlander4x4.co.uk

Next Month Aug 24_converted.indd 64

19/07/2024 15:27

www.osram.co.uk

NEW

Enter the next light level with NIGHT BREAKER® 220 – the brightest halogen automotive light from OSRAM! These cutting-edge headlight lamps impress with up to 220% more brightness and up to 20% whiter light compared to the minimum legal standard and generate an up to 150m long beam. More light and improved visibility can help drivers identify and react to traffic hazards more quickly. The ideal lamp for drivers who appreciate the difference that powerful automotive lighting makes. Available in H4, H7 and H11 with a new gold cap. Insist on OSRAM – the No. 1 in Automotive Lighting. Available at:

Overlander4x4_2024_07_July_Ring Automotive_FP.indd 1

Compared to minimum ECE R112/R37 requirements

See and be seen with NIGHT BREAKER® 220 The world’s first +220% bulb

20/05/2024 11:52

THE TRADE - IN

For a limited period, get £1000 extra for your part exchange. Any make. Any model.

DON’T MISS OUT. FIND OUT MORE AT ISUZU.CO.UK Part-ex vehicle must be under 7 years old. Available on vehicles ordered and registered before 30.09.24, while stocks last. Retail purchasers only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Starts 01.07.2024. Ends 30.09.2024. Terms and conditions apply. For full details please contact your local Isuzu dealer or visit isuzu.co.uk. Isuzu (UK) Ltd a subsidiary of International Motors Limited.

ISU06137 Isuzu Overlander 4x4 September Issue_AW.indd 1 Overlander4x4_2024_09_Sept_Isuzu UK_FP.indd 1

17/07/2024 18/07/2024 11:24 13:49