Overlander 4x4 Winter 2025 by Assignment Media Ltd

4x4

LATEST: ELECTRIC VITARA HERE NEXT YEAR | TESTED: RAV4 PHEV | OFF-ROAD SPORT: BXCC CHAMPION CROWNED

OVERLANDER

DRIVEN NEW DUSTER: Dacia’s monstervalue 4x4 is back – and better than ever

FOREVER DEFENDER Has Kingsley Cars struck the perfect balance between big money rebuilds and real-life longevity?

Winter 2025 £5.99

BOTSWANA

Land Cruisers doing what they do best 4x4 Cover Winter.indd 1

LEGEND

An all-time great from the world of modiﬁed Suzukis

ELECTRIC G

Merc legend becomes a pioneering off-road EV 08/11/2024 14:46

EXTREME

3D block pattern inspired by amoeba structures delivers superb performance in all terrains Square tire profile provides a flat contact area with high load capacity

MUD TERRAIN

Special pattern designed with jagged edges for extra traction to maximise off-road performance Pattern’s void ratio optimises mileage and lifespan Unique orange outline sidewall lettering adds eye-catching colour to your vehicle Ribs along the shoulder provide sidewall protection

Optimised pattern design provides exceptional cut resistance, better durability and mileage, and impressive traction on all terrains Wide zig-zag grooves offer great water, mud, stone and snow dispersal Tiger-tooth shoulder design delivers extra traction and provides excellent cut resistance, preventing punctures under hazardous conditions

HIGHWAY TERRAIN

ALL TERRAIN

60% = ON ROAD 40% = OFF ROAD

The tire shoulder area is covered by a special rubber for professional competition in USA and Australia

50% = ON ROAD 50% = OFF ROAD

Wider tread and tire profile delivers extra mileage 3D zig-zag tread design maximises off-road traction and stability Extended grooves in the tire shoulder deliver excellent traction Special shoulder design gives extra grip and traction on hazardous road surfaces and difficult off-road conditions Special armoured shoulder provides extra protection to prevent damage, giving excellent traction on snow, mud, rock terrain Highly rigid steel belts deliver outstanding stability and load capacity

40% = ON ROAD 60% = OFF ROAD Rim 16

Size

Load/Speed Rating

Pattern

Rim

Size

Load/Speed Rating

Pattern ATM

LT 285/75 R16 6PR OOL

116/113Q

AT2

LT265/60 R18 8PR

114/110Q

LT 315/75 R16 8PR OOL

121/118Q

AT2

LT265/60 R18 10PR

119/116Q

ATM

LT 265/65 R17 10PR

120/117Q

AT318

LT 265/60 R18 10PR

119/116Q

AT318

LT 275/65 R17 10PR

121/118Q

AT318

LT 285/60 R18 8PR OOL

118/115Q

AT2

LT 265/70 R17 10PR OOL

121/118Q

AT2

LT 285/60 R18 8PR

118/115Q

AT318

LT 265/70 R17 10PR

121/118Q

AT318

LT 265/65 R18 8PR

117/114Q

AT318

LT 285/70 R17 8PR OOL

121/118Q

AT2

LT 285/65 R18 8PR

121/118Q

AT318

LT 285/70 R17 10PR

121/118Q

AT318

LT 265/70 R18 8PR

119/116Q

AT318

LT 305/70 R17 8PR OOL

119/116Q

AT2

LT 315/70 R17 8PR OOL

121/118Q

AT2

OOL = Orange Outline Lettering

For more information go to www.csttires.eu www.rhc.co.uk

Overlander4x4_2024_12_Dec_Maxxis_FP.indd 1

+44 (0) 1284 778509

11/10/2024 11:43

PROEVO+ Air Springs

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PROEVO+ PROVIDES EXCEPTIONAL RESPONSIVENESS AND STABILITY Overlander4x4_2024_12_Winter_Allmakes_3PS_Gatefold.indd 1

31/10/2024 11:35

PROEVO+

BRAND NEW QUALITY SERVICE AND REPAIR PARTS MAINTAINING THE STANDARDS OF COMFORT, HANDLING AND SAFETY Engineered to the highest standards, PROEVO+ meets the demands of the JLR aftermarket in terms of performance and reliability.

BUILT TO EUROPEAN SPECIFICATION PROEVO+ products are manufactured to European specification, giving customers and vehicle owners peace of mind.

EXCEPTIONAL RESPONSIVENESS AND STABILITY High quality materials and advanced manufacturing processes ensure there is zero compromise in vehicle dynamics and handling.

+ www.proevoplus.com Overlander4x4_2024_12_Winter_Allmakes_3PS_Gatefold.indd 2

31/10/2024 11:36

PROEVO+

+ PREMIUM QUALITY, EUROPEAN SPECIFICATION STEERING AND SUSPENSION COMPONENTS Manufactured to exacting standards to maintain your vehicle’s ride and handling. PROEVO+ Steering and Suspension products are selected to meet the stringent level of performance & durability associated with Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles. PROEVO+ provides customers: > Exceptional value > Premium quality > Built to OE specification > Extended warranty

www.proevoplus.com Overlander4x4_2024_12_Winter_Allmakes_3PS_Gatefold.indd 3

31/10/2024 11:37

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

Mike Trott, Gary Martin, Olly Sack, Gary Noskill, Dan Fenn, Paul Looe, Tom Alderney, Barrie Dunbar

Photographers

Steve Taylor, Richard Hair, Vic Peel, Harry Hamm, Louis Dunbar

o the company car loophole for double-cabs is being closed. It was only a matter of time, but it still feels like the end of an era. We all loved the idea that you could get an old-school off-roader with all the kit and loads of image – and then laugh in the face of the taxman while using it as a car and nothing else. But the taxman tends to get his way with stuff like that. The real surprise is that it’s taken so long. Some people will take a party political view of it, which I think would be to miss the point, but one wa or the other it is politics – and as we know, the government always wins.

So it this the death of the doublecab? Not for a minute, no. The VAT exemption hasn’t been touched, which for most people is the main thing, but more than that I think a lot of company car drivers will stick with their trucks. They won’t be happy with the higher tax bill, but a double-cab is still going to hit them for a lot less than a similarly sized SUV. More to the point, though, once you’ve driven a pick-up you tend not to want to drive anything else. The tax breaks may have got people into it – but it’s the trucks themselves that will keen them there. Alan Kidd, Editor

Advertising Sales

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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

Overlander 4x4 is published by Assignment Media Ltd, PO Box 8632, Burton on Trent DE14 9PR

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4x4 Contents Winter.indd 2

11/11/2024 16:52

4x4

LATEST: ELECTRIC VITARA HERE NEXT YEAR | TESTED: RAV4 PHEV | OFF-ROAD SPORT: BXCC CHAMPION CROWNED

75% FOREVER DEFENDER OFF OVERLANDER

DRIVEN NEW DUSTER: Dacia’s monstervalue 4x4 is back – and better than ever

Has Kingsley Cars struck the perfect balance between big money rebuilds and real-life longevity?

Winter 2025 £5.99

BOTSWANA

Land Cruisers doing what they do best

LEGEND

An all-time great from the world of modiﬁed Suzukis

4x4 Cover Winter.indd 1

ELECTRIC G

Merc legend becomes a pioneering off-road EV

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

08/11/2024 14:46

CONTENTS WINTER 2025 4x4 Scene 4

News

The double-cab gravy train hits the buffers for company car drivers, and a famous name in comp safari racing prepares to close its doors

Rights of Way

Further High Court successes for the Green Lane Association in Wiltshire and North Wales

10 Products

An all-new mud-terrain… and the perfect answer to winter for yourself and your vehicle

Every Month 44 Subscribe

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

64 Next Month

4x4 of the Year: we’re set to deliver our verdict in the benchmark 4x4 and SUV awards

Driven 14 Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 TDI Black Edition

Fourth-generation of the premium SUV is as plush as ever – and surprisingly game for a laugh

18 Toyota RAV4 PHEV GR Sport

The RAV4 is one of the best plug-ins around. Does the GR Sport treatment make it better than ever?

26 Dacia Duster

All-new second generation model continues to be great value – and a lot more besides

Vehicles 20 Electric G-Wagen

Plugging in an off-road legend

30 Kingsley-built Defender

They wrote the book on Range Rover restoration. Now Kingsley Cars have started doing Defenders

38 All-time great Samurai

John Wasley’s RTV motor inspired a generation of Suzuki builders

46 Monster Range Rover

A crate engine in a CSK body shell equals much more than just a monster truck

Travel 54 Botswana

Cruisers in convoy on an overland adventure in one of Africa’s most welcoming nations

Our 4x4s 50 Isuzu D-Max GO2

The lowdown on the CST Sahara II A/Ts we’ll be rolling on as soon as someone agrees to ﬁt them Winter 2025 I Overlander 4x4

4x4 Contents Winter.indd 3

11/11/2024 16:52

NEWS

INCOME TAX BLOW FOR DOUBLE-CAB DRIVERS

s was widely expected, the government’s autumn budget statement introduced a set of new rules for double-cab pick-ups. These are essentially the same as those brought in earlier in the year by the previous government but then hastily abandoned in the face of protests by the farming industry. From April 2025, double-cabs (even those with a payload of 1000kg or more) will be treated as cars for most taxation purposes – though not for VAT. This means employees choosing them as company cars will no longer enjoy the minimal beneﬁt-in-kind (BIK) allowance that comes with driving what has previously been classiﬁed as a van. If you’re already in this situation, there’s no need to panic. Existing company car drivers with double-cabs will continue to be taxed at the current rate until April 2029

– though if you sell the vehicle or its lease ends before that date, the exemption won’t roll over to its replacement. Prior to the budget, double-cabs were classed as light commercial vehicles for income tax purposes, meaning they were subject to a ﬂat BIK rate of £3960 a year. This meant employees would pay £66 or £132 a month, depending on their tax bracket. Under the new rules, the rate will be based on the truck’s P11D value – to all intents and purposes, what it would cost if you were to buy it yourself. Everyday cars (and indeed SUVs, and double-cabs not capable of carrying more than 1000kg) are already taxed this way; for a typical one-tonner, it will see your tax bill rising by around 350%. While this is clearly a crippling blow for double-cabs in the company car market, sole traders and small businesses can take comfort in the knowledge that they’ll

still be able to claim their VAT back on future purchases. However it’s not all good news, even here. Businesses have until now been able to claim back 100% of a double-cab’s value as a capital allowance – however the figure will plunge to 18% with their reclassification as cars. While the changes are the same as those brought in and quickly scrapped again by the previous government, this time the prospects of a reprieve are as good as zero. With an election looming at that point, the Conservatives could ill afford to alienate one of the few sectors they could still rely on for widespread support – whereas with a huge majority and half a decade in which to use it, the new Labour administration has no such concerns. It doesn’t mean the era of the double-cabs is over, but for some drivers the gravy train will shortly be drawing in to its final destination.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

4-5 Non-LR News AWAITING ADS.indd 4

11/11/2024 17:16

ELECTRIC VITARA HERE IN SUMMER

Cynghordy Llandovery Carmarthenshire, SA20 0NB Tel: 01550 750274 e-mail: info@cambrianway.com

www.cambrianway.com

Green Lane Holidays in Mid Wales Family run guest house and self catering cottages with spectacular views, en-suite bedrooms, comfortable lounge bar and excellent home cooked food. Pressure washer, drying room, map room with local lanes marked, on-site 4x4 course, guides and GPS hire available. SUZUKI HAS UNVEILED THE E VITARA – an all-electric 4x4 which will go in sale in Europe next summer. Promising off-road capability as well as strong performance on the road, the vehicle will be built in India on a new EV-specific platform. UK versions of the e Vitara will offer a choice of 49 and 61kWh batteries, with 4x4 models getting the latter as standard along with an output of 181bhp and 221lbf.ft. Entry-level models will be front-driven only, with 142bhp (49kWh) and 172bhp (61kWh). All-wheel drive is achieved by adding a second 48kWh motor to the rear axle. Suzuki calls this Allgrip-e – vehicles thus equipped will feature a Trail Mode setting in which braking force is used to mimic the function of a limited-slip diff. The e Vitara will measure 4275mm in length, with a 1635mm wheelbase and 180mm ground clearance. Models with all-wheel drive will weight 1860-1899kg and, depending on trim, ride on either 225/55R18 or 225/50R19 tyres.

A very popular venue for both individuals and groups of 4x4 enthusiasts

• Suzuki has also introduced a range of updates to the existing Vitara for the 2025 model year. These include a new-look for the front bumper, grille and rear upper spoiler, plus a new design of 17” alloys and two additional paint colours. The Vitara is available in two grades, newly named Motion and Ultra, both of which gain a new 9” media system with wireless phone pairing. There has also been a strong focus on improved crash prevention across the range, with all models gaining a range of additional support functions. In addition, the previous Brake Support system has been replaced by a more powerful radar set-up that’s better able to spot pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and vehicles at night and when approaching junctions. The new range continues to offer a choice of full and mild hybrids, as well as manual and automatic gearboxes and two or four-wheel drive. Prices start at £26,949, with a £1700 premium on the Ultra trim level – which adds polished alloys, panoramic sunroof, suede and leather seats, front parking sensors, electric mirrors with built-in indicators and an overhead storage console. You also need to select Ultra if you want all-wheel drive, which adds another £1800 on top. The new Vitara is on sale now, with a 0% APR offer on PCP finance until the end of March.

Winter 2025 I Overlander 4x4

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11/11/2024 16:49

NEWS

BOWLER FACTORY TO CLOSE AS JLR CONSOLIDATES ACTIVITIES JLR HAS CONFIRMED that Bowler Motors’ premises in Belper, Derbyshire, is to close. The famed motorsport specialist, which became part of Land Rover in 2019 after falling into ﬁnancial diﬃculties, will be absorbed into JLR – though in a much reduced state, with only parts of its operations to continue.

‘JLR bought Bowler in 2019 for its expertise in low volume production techniques and extreme all-terrain vehicle durability,’ said the company in a statement. ‘Following ﬁve years of Bowler operating as a subsidiary company, JLR has decided to consolidate Bowler’s viable activities into its central business.

‘Regrettably, while this means not all Bowler activities will continue, we will continue to produce and sell Bowler parts, and service and repair Bowler Classic Defender vehicles, through JLR Classic Works.’ This appears to conﬁrm that Bowler will no longer be active in the ﬁeld of off-road motorsport – a bitter irony as this was the

HALEWOOD TO BECOME ‘FACTORY OF THE FUTURE’ JLR’S HALEWOOD PLANT, which was originally built in 1963 to produce the Ford Anglia, is well on the way to becoming the ‘factory of the future.’ The Merseyside complex, which is currently home to Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque production, is midway through a £500 million transformation which will put it at the heart of the company’s operations in the electric era. The first part of the development, which is already complete, has seen more than £250 million invested in new production lines, machinery, people and digital technology. As the programme continues towards completion in the coming years, Halewood will be able to accommodate the parallel production of internal combustion, hybrid and pure electric vehicles – while an ongoing focus on renewables, fuel switching and energy reduction will lead to the removal of 40,000 tonnes of CO2 or the equivalent from its industrial footprint. Work done so far has included a major construction project, extending the site by 32,364 square metres to produce mediumsized electric SUVs on JLR’s new EMA platform. The new building has been fitted with technology including new EV build lines, 750 autonomous robots, ADAS calibration rigs, laser alignment technology for part fitment and the latest cloud based digital plant

management systems to oversee production. They don’t mention anything about people with spanners, however as part of the plant’s modernisation more than 1600 employees have been given High Voltage training, enabling them to work on battery assembly. Further elements of the factory’s transformation include the creation of a new body shop, capable of producing 500 vehicle bodies per day, and an automated storage tower capable of storing 600 painted vehicle bodies at any time. Almost a mile of the paint shop itself has been modified, with the expansion of ovens and conveyors in response to increased demand for contrasting vehicle roofs, and vehicle build stations have been extended to seven metres to facilitate the different proportions of the new EMA electric vehicles. Said stations are also now equipped with 40 new Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), which have been introduced to assist employees with the fitment of high-voltage batteries. Consequently, the final production line has been increased in length from four to six kilometres. In addition, £16 million worth of viable equipment from JLR’s Castle Bromwich site, ranging from assembly robots to automated guided vehicles, has been integrated for reuse at the new facility.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

6-7 LR News AWAITING AD.indd 6

11/11/2024 16:42

field in which its reputation was forged. The 2024 Defender Rally Series will now prove to have been the last, and the current-shape Defender 90 on which it was based will no longer be offered as a factory build – though the parts Bowler developed for it will presumably be among those now to be offered by Classic Works. In addition, while JLR will continue to support owners of existing Bowler-built old-shape Defenders, the announcement seems to confirm that there will be no further examples. This is no surprise as these would be seen as chasing the same customers as Land Rover’s own Classic Defender Works V8 models. Bowler was founded in 1985 by the late Drew Bowler, who ran it for many years from his family’s Over Lane farm near Hazelwood, a couple of miles west of Belper. It was here that he became a pioneer of hybrid building and in particular of using Range Rover front suspension to locate the rear axles of comp safari vehicles – a technique which traded articulation on extreme terrain for stability at speed. His designs met with great success, leading to the demand which saw him becoming a vehicle builder – first with kits for customers to finish then later, with the launch of the Wildcat, as a fully fledged turn-key manufacturer. Like the Tomcat before it, the Wildcat design was eventually sold on as Bowler moved ever further into the international rally-raid and baja market, achieving notable results in events including the Dakar. Following its founder’s sudden death in November 2016, Bowler became part of JLR some three years later – a move which we now know provided only a reprieve for its Belper operations. The company’s staff are currently in consultation over their jobs; JLR says this will include ‘the opportunity to apply for open roles’ within the company as a whole, while some have been courted on social media by other independent Land Rover specialists. The name will live on – however the era of the Bowler vehicles a generation of off-road racers came to worship is at an end.

HAS YOUR

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

This modernisation is part of JLR’s strategy for becoming carbon neutral by 2039. It plans to instal 18,000 solar panels around Halewood, equating to 10% of the site’s energy consumption. Additionally, the company is investing £20 million a year on training, allowing employees across all its sites to gain the skills needed to work in the automotive industry of the future. ‘Halewood will be our first all-electric production facility,’ says JLR’s Operations boss Barbara Bergmeier. ’It is a testament to the brilliant efforts by our teams and suppliers who have worked together to equip the plant with the technology needed to deliver our world class luxury electric vehicles.’

WE SHIP PARTS WORLDWIDE Tel: +44 (0)780 9575 421 theteam@freelanderspecialist.com www.freelanderspecialist.com Winter 2025 I Overlander 4x4

6-7 LR News AWAITING AD.indd 7

11/11/2024 16:43

Rights of Way

High Court victories see rights of way in Wales and Wiltshire saved by Green Lane Association action THE GREEN LANE ASSOCIATION HAS WON legal actions against illegal Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) in two parts of England and Wales – saving a number of rights of way from wrongful closure. The High Court cases – one in Conwy, North Wales, the other in Wiltshire – are the latest in a series of successful legal challenges the Association has undertaken in defence of Britain’s rights of way. In both cases, the local authorities declined to contest the court actions and costs were awarded costs to the Association. In the first case, the Association sought to overturn a broad TRO which Wiltshire Council had imposed on various Byways Open to All Traffic (BOATs) west of Marlborough. Including routes at Avebury, Berwick Bassett, Fyfield, Winterbourne Bassett and Winterbourne Monkton, these were originally imposed in an attempt to close one of the few stretches of the Ridgeway to have survived the 2006 NERC Act. These lanes are already closed during the winter months to protect the ground from damage when it’s at its most vulnerable. In the years before Covid, however, the local authority took to using Temporary TROs to fill in the gaps – creating a piecemeal permanent ban. More recently, it attempted to formalise these as a full closure – which is when GLASS stepped in.

1 GLASS.indd 8

‘The Green Lane Association’s challenge was based on several factors,’ the Association says. ‘Including that the council had extended a 2023 Experimental Traﬃc Regulation order (ETRO) without properly considering the results of the experiment and that the council had not consulted widely enough about the 2023 ETRO, preventing the Association from objecting at the time.’ The second case saw the quashing of a TRO imposed by Conwy County Borough Council on a route near Llanrwst known as Siambar Wen Llanrwst, or Bro Garmon. This challenge was raised on the basis that the council failed to present suﬃcient evidence to the relevant cabinet member that would let him to make an informed decision on issuing the TRO.

‘This is a great result for everyone who wants to access the countryside in a responsible way without encountering accessibility problems,’ said Green Lane Association chairman Chris Mitchell. ‘Although our strong preference is to work with local authorities to maintain these public rights of way for all users, we will take legal action to protect this access where necessary. ‘While we recognise this as a signiﬁcant success in our ﬁght against the unfair exclusion from public rights of way of any recreational users, the Association is reminding its members, and other users, that they are expected to comply strictly with our Code of Conduct when green laning, especially given the expected seasonal weather.’

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

08/11/2024 20:51

Discovery 3 Winch Bumper

DA5691 Discovery 3 winch bumper This impressive winch bumper is manufactured from 5mm steel and all the appropriate mounting brackets are made with 10mm steel. Smart powder coated matt black finish. Supplied with Wipac fog lights & aluminium washer bottle.

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.

Overlander4x4_2024_12_Winter_Britpart_FP.indd 1

23/10/2024 15:11

PRODUCTS Davanti adds M/T to Terratoura range £various | davanti-tyres.com

DAVANTI HAS BEEN IN THE UK FOR SEVERAL YEARS with its Terratoura All-Terrain, a solid all-round performer that does a sterling job of bridging the gap between the premium and budget ends of the market. It’s a good bit of kit at prices that don’t make you cringe, in other words. Now there’s another good bit of kit to go alongside it, because Davanti has followed it up with the new Terratoura Mud-Terrain

(M/T). This has a more aggressive tread pattern along with a rugged construction designed to let it get you where you want to go off-road without getting wrecked in the process. Most are classified as Professional Off-Road, making them exempt from certification, however a few sizes do carry the EU label. Features of the Terratoura M/T include: Prominent shoulder blocks which continue on to the tyre’s sidewall to help maintain traction in situations with minimal lateral grip Wide shoulder grooves for efficient dispersion of mud, sand and other debris Notched alternating shoulder blocks arranged in a ‘sawtooth’ pattern to bite into rutted tracks and cling on to rocks from all steering angles A robust carcass construction, designed to ensure high load endurance and strong resistance to damage and punctures in extreme conditions The Terratroura M/T underwent development testing in a variety of conditions at sites including proving grounds in northern Finland, where it faced punishing arctic conditions, and the UK. Here, its performance on mud, sand and grass was put to the test, as was its braking capability on loose gravel. ‘We’ve always known there was an opportunity to expand our off-road range

• • • •

to ensure even in the trickiest of terrains, motorists had the right tyre to provide excellent performance and confidence behind the wheel,’ said Davanti’s General Manager Peter Cross. ‘It’s taken the team time to develop the tyre, with the Terratoura M/T meticulously designed and thoroughly tested. We’re thrilled to now offer a mud-terrain tyre which will take on any adventure with ease and allow drivers to push it to the limits.’ The Terratoura M/T is available now in a range of sizes for 15-20” rims, including most of the classic fitments for a range of vehicles. You can find out more by visiting davanti-tyres.com.

Davanti Terratoura M/T sizes 31x10.50R15 33x12.50R15 235/85R16 265/75R16 285/75R16 245/65R17 265/70R17 285/70R17 275/65R18 255/55R19 265/60R19 255/55R20 275/55R20 285/50R20

109 108 120/116 123/120 126/123 111/108 121/118 121/118 123/120 111 119/116 110 117 119/116

Q Q Q K K Q Q Q K S Q S H Q

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

1.5 Products Winter AWAITING ADS.indd 10

11/11/2024 16:51

Keep your windscreen clear and your engine healthy with Webasto and AC Automotive

The Gritters Are On Their Way!

Tired of battling water & salt exposure? Rust can cause serious structural damage and depreciation, especially during harsh winter conditions. However, with Lanoguard you can protect your investment and preserve its value. Our easy DIY kits shield your vehicle from the elements, maintaining its safety and helping you avoid costly rust repairs. Lanoguard is made and sourced in the UK and has been proven effective in highly corrosive and harsh environments. It’s relied on by industrial companies, used on snow plough fleets and runway de-icers. Trusted by thousands of vehicle owners, has over 4,000 5* reviews and its unique lanolin formula has benefits over conventional rust treatments. With Christmas just around the corner, why not subtly drop a hint to loved ones that a Lanoguard Kit would make an excellent Christmas present compared to the normal socks you get, or maybe just treat yourself!

£various | www.ac-automotive.co.uk

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR when we think about parking heaters. Often, we think about them while scraping ice off our windows with a credit card or driving haphazardly away from home first thing in Email: info@lanoguard.co.uk | Tel: 0330 100 1959 the morning while blasting ice-cold air upwards at a completely www.lanoguard.co.uk/4x4 opaque screen and craning our heads out the side of our trucks in an attempt to see. As well as being dangerous, this is no good at all for your engine. The old one about 99% of wear taking place in the first 1% of yourOverlander4x4_2024_12_Winter_Lanoguard_QP.indd 1 11/11/2024 11:47 journey may or may not be a chestnut, but it’s definitely old and if Tyres cheap. Not cheap tyres!! people have been saying it for that long it’s probably worth listening. So you’re thinking about heaters, which means you’re thinking about Webasto, which means you’re thinking about AC Automotive. They specialise in this stuff. And specialists are good, as you’ll know if you’ve ever had an MOT done on a modified 4x4 by somebody who wasn’t one. Based in Gloucester, AC Automotive is an authorised Webasto partner with the facilities to fit new systems and test and repair faulty ones. They sell parts, too, as well as full systems for customers wanting to fit them themselves. Which you might, but we’d refer you back to what we just said about specialists. The classic Webasto unit for use in a 4x4 of the Thermo Top Evo, a petrol or diesel-burning water heater which comes with a choice of Main supplier of 2.5-4.0 and 2.8-5.0 kW outputs. You program it or fire it up remotely, and all major 4x4 tyres it warms your engine’s coolant which in turn warms the cabin, defrosting the windows, and when you come to set off you’re driving in a comfortably cosy space and you can see what you’re doing. Oh yes, and your engine is running warm from the word go, which as well as being better for it also means it’s not starting its day by gulpGroundcare • Car • ATV • Tubes • Mobile Tyre Fitting Puncture Equipment & Repairs • Four Wheel Alignment ing down fuel like Olly Reed on a 17-day bender. Remarkably, or possibly not, there were times when Reed actually Durrants Farm, Rushlake Green, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 9QB Workshop: 01435 830664 Mobile: 07710 372672 spent more on a session’s worth of beer than it’ll cost you to get one Email: chris@rlgtyres.co.uk of these units supplied and installed. He’d have been less likely to sit www.rlgtyres.co.uk quietly in your vehicle and clear the ice off its windows for you, too.

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UNDER THE STARS ADVENTURE TREK WEEKEND 31ST MAY - 1ST JUNE 2025 PERTHSHIRE, SCOTLAND

Join us for an unforgettable adventure trek and camping weekend "Under The Stars." Following our successful events over the last 3 years, we're back with even more driving adventure, family fun and memorable moments. This is a weekend for all 4x4 enthusiasts – a chance to get together, drive your own car through stunning scenery, enjoy the live music campfire sessions and try your hand at all sorts of vehicle activities.

WHAT ELSE DO WE DO? Give the gift of adventure with our Half Day, Full Day and Young Off-Roader Experiences. Need something for the whole family? Our Family Defender Adventure gives both adults and kids the chance to drive a brand new Defender 90 off-road. And for the off-road enthusiasts? Our new Classic Defender drives are perfect for the person who has everything. It's a must-try for classic Defender enthusiasts, combining both thrill and nostalgia on this legendary 4x4 Experience. Head to our website to browse all of the activities we offer. info@landroverexperiencescotland.co.uk | 01350 727 720 | highlandoffroad.co.uk

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Winter 2025 I Overlander 4x4

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VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG 3.0 TDI BLACK EDITION

e’ve always been huge fans of the Touareg, all the way back to when the original model arrived on the scene with its thumping great 5.0-litre V10 engine. Now here we are on the fourth generation of Volkswagen’s premium SUV, and what started out smooth is, predictably, smoother than ever. There are currently three models in the Touareg range: Elegance, Black Edition and R. Each has an engine of its own. The Elegance and R have 3.0 TSI plug-in hybrid units with 381 and 462bhp respectively, while the Black Edition has a 3.0 TDI with 286bhp and 442lbf.ft.

We added the torque ﬁgure there because it’s the Black Edition we’re testing here. You can have it in any colour you want so long as it’s black (or white, silver, grey, beige, brown, blue or red) and of course you can have it with an almost limitless range of options. Ours came with an on-the-road price of £68,215 and an extras list beﬁtting what was after all a press demo vehicle; were you to tick all the same boxes, you’d be paying £80,470. That’s a hefty sum even today, though it puts the Touareg right in the midst of the market for large, premium SUVs where it’s competing with the likes of the BMW X5, Merc GLE, Lexus RX, Porsche Cayenne and

Land Rover Discovery and Defender. That’s some seriously good competition, and a set of vehicles which all give you something different, so to get noticed it needs to be able to make a case for itself as a 4x4 that rewards you for spending all that money. It gets off to a good start by being allround wonderful in the cabin. There’s never been a Touareg that hasn’t felt superbly crafted inside, and as always it serves up a lavish array of equipment framed within a structure whose overall build quality is pretty much peerless. There’s a full-width digital dash which ﬂows straight into a massive infotainment screen – the effect is exceptional before they even light up, and

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when you see the whole display in its crisp, high-resolution backlit glory it makes you feel very good about what you’re driving.

Straight bat

Nonetheless, we found ourselves musing that the Touareg feels a little conservative compared to previous models. We couldn’t put our ﬁngers on why, because it’s always been an SUV that plays a pretty straight bat, but while there was plenty of delight there was nothing much in the way of surprise. That’s not to say it doesn’t do everything well. The seats are extremely comfortable, your view of the road is commanding, the cubby and glove box allow you to keep

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everything tidy and there’s masses of room in both rows – enough for a full crew of six-footers to travel together in first-class comfort all the way. The second row folds a little way off flat; it leaves plenty of room for carrying bulky stuff, though it’s space that would be more practical with a totally flat floor. The combination of leather and piano black plastics leaves you in no doubt that this is a premium vehicle, and underneath it the dash and floor console feel hewn from rock. The controls are all easy to see and reach, they feel positive in use and above it all a full-length panoramic room bathes you in light and, if you wish, fresh air (or rain and pollution, but we’d imagine you’d choose to keep those out and enjoy the excellent climate control instead). The infotainment system typical Volkswagen, which is to say it makes sense and works well. We did find that time after time, when we climbed aboard and switched on it took forever to re-establish its connection with Apple CarPlay; it always did it in the end, though several times we had reached the point of thinking something must have gone wrong. By this time, we’d be well on the way and enjoying the sound of an actual diesel engine, would you believe. Yes, they still exist. It’s a nice, purposeful note – though we’ve got so used to wafting around town on electric motors now, to start with it almost felt like a bit of a commotion.

Mortar fire

You’d cope with that, but the commotion from the suspension on the way over pot holes might take more getting used to. We had upgraded air suspension on our test vehicle, but we felt a definite firmness to the way it handled the admittedly desperate urban roads around our office. Whether the standard fit 21” wheels and 285/40R21 tyres hindered it here, we can’t say, but we certainly don’t think such a low sidewall helps when you’ve got two tonnes of car trying to negotiate a surface that looks like it’s been hit by mortar fire. On the plus side, steering it is completely effortless around town. But then it weights up nicely with speed – which, it turns out, is where the Touareg comes to life. From the word go, we felt like it was wanting to be let off the leash – and when it finally is, it transforms itself into an absolute express of a thing. Our first experience of this was on a slip road, when the brooding torque turned into a wave of power that slingshotted us up to a very healthy motorway speed with one of the most urgent mid-range displays we’ve felt in an SUV. And it’s not finished, either – should you want to, acceleration from 80-90mph is eye-opening. You’re into three figures before you know it. At this point we’re supposed to say something selfrighteous about an autobahn; rest assured, anyway, that we’re telling you this as a warning rather than an encouragement.

More importantly, anyway, the Touarag has the agility to go with its pure pace. Its steering, so light and easy around town, is pin-sharp at speed, tuning you directly in to the road below your wheels while the body stays flat to the floor and grips like a limpet. It’s only dramatic in the sense that it’s very, very entertaining if you want it to be – leave it in comfort mode and it’ll cruise its way down to the Riviera, but if you can throw in a mountain pass or two en route there are few 4x4s that could make them more fun. If those mountain passes are the unsurfaced kind, so much the better. The Touareg has a lot of electronic aids available to help you off-road; low box has long since left the building, and we refer you back to those 285/40R21s (the alloys on this particular model look like they were specifically designed to get damaged the moment they see a rut, too), but given the right kind of conditions it has the ability to keep moving where it has no right to. Sand, snow and loose, stony, even fairly rocky conditions will be right up its street. In a manner of speaking, the new Touareg is like a GT car on an even grander scale. A GGT car, if you will. It’s a longlegged continent crusher with epic space for people and their luggage, and whether you do the whole thing on two-lane blacktop or take the route less travelled it will step up with resolute competence. It might feel more conservative now – but the spirit of that glorious V10 original lives on.

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TOYOTA RAV4 2.5 PHEV GR SPORT

ime flies. It’s approaching four years since we first tested the RAV4 in plug-in hybrid form, and seven since the current model was introduced. And the fifth-generation version of the original soft-roader, which celebrated its 30th birthday during 2024, has proved to be the best of a very good bunch. It’s not clear how long the current RAV4 has left before it’s replaced, however it has already been around for longer than either of the first two. And we’ve already seen an element of range rationalisation in its model line-up, which in PHEV form now offers only two trim options. Of these, the spotlight is firmly on the GR Sport model tested here. This arrived pretty much exactly a year ago, adding sportier springs and shocks as well as bold exterior styling, 19” black alloys and an enhanced level of equipment inside the cabin. It’s a natural range-topper with a price tag of £48,990. That’s just over two grand more than the everyday hybrid version of the same model.

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So it doesn’t take much more to get you into the plug-in – and with a combination of 306bhp, 22g/km, free road tax and 8% BIK it sounds worth every penny. Of course, the tax rules rules are ever-changing as the government keeps on trying to encourage us all into full EVs, but the plug-in still makes a strong case for itself. It wouldn’t matter if the vehicle itself was no more than a cheap way of getting about, though. And let’s be clear, no-one’s ever going to accuse the RAV4 of that. We’ve been big fans of the vehicle itself from the word go, and when the plug-in model arrived it sealed the deal. Build quality is outstanding, the cabin is spacious and well equipped and whether in electric or petrol mode, it’s a pleasure to drive. So what difference does the additon of the GR Sport model really make? Climb in and from your leather and suede seat, suitably monogrammed with GR Sport badging, you immediately get an excellent view all around. The RAV4’s seating position and cabin layout were already excellent

and they still are – as is the quality of the controls and trim materials. It still has big switches and chunky heater controls, and there’s ample space in both rows of seats for a full crew of tall adults. Behind them, the boot is huge and when you fold down the rear seats, it turns into a something more like a small van.

Brought up to date

The big change here is that the infotainment system has been brought up to date. The old one worked ﬁne, but phone integration is what it’s all about now and Toyota’s Smart Connect system does that through a newer, sharper display which loses the old version’s physical buttons to make the interface almost entirely digital. It’s still mounted on the dash rather than in it, but there’s nothing aftermarket about its appearance. Elsewhere, it’s little changed inside. There are GR badges lurking all over, and wherever there’s leather it’s used with contrasting silver stitching, but for trim you won’t beat the suede ﬁnish to the central

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seat bolsters. This doesn’t get cold the way leather can, and it grips you far better whether you’re hammering it round corners or pushing it to angles off-road. Shall we talk about hammering it round corners? It would take something approaching malice aforethought for any vehicle packing 306bhp not to be fun – and while the RAV4 is a million miles from the GTI-on-steroids the original was, it’s still thoroughly enjoyable. You admire it and relish it now, rather than hooting and cackling with madcap glee the way people tended to when they had their ﬁrst go in a Mk1, but that’s been a long process – and the upshot is a RAV4 with a sophisticated blend of dynamic skills which encompasses every area of ride and handling. Even with the GR Sport’s tautened suspension, this is still a supremely smooth vehicle to drive. It copes just as well as those on standard springs and shocks with harshly broken urban roads, drawing the sting of pot holes with supple ease while maintaining the composure of its body attitude. Even if you hit a bump when the springs are loaded up on the way through a hard corner, there’s no chassis drama at all. As this suggests, it has the handling to go with its sports-bred styling too. It’s eager on turn-in and pleasingly neutral in corners; it’s not designed to be a Supra-style sports

car and the dynamics are always those of a family SUV, but the extra gusto in the springs and shocks just takes it that little way further along that road. You don’t need to press the mode button and bring up the Sport setting to make it handle, but doing so adds a nice little nth degree to it.

Thoroughly spirited

It’s quick, too. It’ll project you from 0-60 mph in six seconds flat – yes, faster vehicles do exist, even at the money, but we’d defy you to find much that can do as many things as well while also putting on a thoroughly spirited performance when you want it to and coming back with heroic fuel figures all the way. On the latter score, we were particularly impressed by the RAV4’s economy when it was running on petrol alone. Yes, naughty us, we didn’t plug it in one time – but we still got well into the 40s, and we know from experience that on long runs it can do even better than that. What we also know from experience is that the RAV4 has a decent level of green lane skills. More than just your average softroader, certainly – with Trail Mode engaged, the traction control becomes a form of locking diff which allows you to ease it over rough ground without needing to use the kind of unwanted momentum that ends up

causing damage. You need to take care, because its tractability is more than enough to get it into places where it will run out of ground clearance, but this does mean there’ll be plenty in reserve for any kind of conditions that are appropriate to a vehicle of this nature. If there’s going to be much of that in your RAV4’s life, it may be relevant to mention that the GR Sport has 235/55R19 tyres in lieu of the Design model’s 225/60R18s. Not a huge difference, but certainly more roadbiased. You’re far more likely to be swayed by what else you get from it, though – which, as well as the enhanced suspension, styling stuff and suede seats, includes paddle shifts, head-up display, blind spot assist, surround-view monitor, wireless charging, puddle lights and memory settings for the driver’s seat. Quite a random set, that, and it also opens up further options including a panoramic roof, premium JBL stereo and bi-tone paint. Put that lot together and actually, you might be of the view that you’d need a pretty good reason not to pay the extra money – which, at £4815, represents a hike of around 10% on the entry-level PHEV. Either way, you’re getting a RAV4 that makes as much sense as ever – and which, beyond doubt, is the best vehicle yet to have worn its illustrious name.

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ELECTRIFYING ELECTRIFYIN G

t’s a symbol of modern excess. And it’s forever being dropped by rap stars who don’t have the imagination to spec up a lowrider instead. But the Mercedes-Benz G-Class is also a legendary off-roader – and the new G 580 EQ promises to build on that legend, not just trade on it. Yes, EQ is Merc’s code for electric. Not a hybrid: all-electric. And no you can’t carry spare electricity in a jerry can to get you across the Sahara. So take to the forums and fulminate on, o worthy soldier of diesel.

None of us wanted it to change. But it has. And you know what, it might mean our grandchildren will get to live until they too are old enough to hate everything that’s new and unfamiliar, and there’s an outside chance that that’s worth a bit of inconvenience to us lot now. Anyway. Whether you like EVs or think they’re the devil, the technology has come an incredibly long way in a short space of time – and it’s still developing as quickly as ever. So while it’s true that you can’t put

electricity in a jerry can, it’s equally true that the equivalent is on its way. In the meantime, the G 580 EQ is possibly the most convincing sounding electric off-roader yet to come from a mainstream manufacturer.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

Good vehicles don’t need gimmicks but the G 580 has one anyway. You’ve probably seen it on social media by now. G-Turn, they call it. Well actually, they call it G-TURN but

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It’s a long time since the Mercedes-Benz G-Class was officially known as the G-Wagen. But that’s what it will always be to us lot in the off-road world – even in its latest incarntion as an all-electric super-SUV with a starting price of £180,860 Words Gary Martin Pictures Mercedes-Benz

that’s a bit shouty and we’re civilised people here so we’ll call it G-Turn. It works because the G 580 EQ has four motors, one driving each wheel; by selecting it as a function in the off-road menu and using the steering wheel paddles to tell the vehicle which direction to turn in, you can make the wheels on the left and right spin in opposite directions – so that with lots of scrabbling at the ground and dust flying everywhere, it will rotate about its axis. Watch while I make my G-TURN, everyone!

Why’s it a gimmick? Because people have been off-roading perfectly successfully for generations, actually, without needing a 4x4 to do that. To be fair, having done a bit of offroading in our time we CAN envisage situations in which G-Turn could be useful. Class 1 Modified trialling, mainly, where the editor remembers the good old days when everyone else was driving a V8 special with fiddle brakes and he was the funny duffer in a standard Series IIA. Obviously, a full-

bodied three-tonne, fifteen -foot behemoth with a 114” wheelbase would be a bit of a ticket in a Modified trial, but at least you’d have fiddle brakes. Well, electric fiddle brakes. Fiddl-E sounds way more catchy than G-TURN, right? And less shouty. Unfortunately, for G-Turn to activate you first need to have the brake pedal down, so you’ve already failed the section for stopping. Still, the function could be useful if you’re following a green lane and come to a blockage. So long as the trail’s at least

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fifteen feet wide, of course (but, presumably, not much wider, otherwise you could just do a three-pointer).

Showing off

It’s not a gimmick, though. I mean, it only allows you to do two full rotations before cancelling itself. And what use is that for showing off? Come on. But fair enough. Let’s be honest, we all love showing off and there’s not one of us who wouldn’t be doing it at every opportunity if we had a G 580 EQ. Though you could argue that merely having one at all is showing off enough in itself, because to do so you’re starting at £180,860 and taking it from there. Yes, even more than a Land Rover Defender Octa… The G-Class is a traditional off-roader in comparison to that vehicle, even in allelectric form. It has a ladder frame chassis and a live beam axle at the rear, with the

batteries and motors integrated within the former. No small matter, it also has low range, allowing it to tackle severe terrain at the right speed. Needless to say, the vast array of high-tech driver aids includes crawl control, too. Let’s go back to basics for a moment. Those four motors give the G 580 a total output of 579bhp and 859lbf.ft. That’s a whole lot of torque, and it’s available from a whole lot of no revs. You can lob it from 0-62 in 4.7 seconds, and though a towing weight is not quoted you can safely assume that even with the full 3500kg on the back it probably won’t take much longer to get up to speed. More relevant is a range of 270-294 miles. Battering it repetitively up to speed at full throttle will do a job on that, of course, as will towing a trailer or carrying a heavy load. Especially if it’s a roof tent; the G 580 has various aerodynamic tweaks to help

it get the most from every minute spent charging, but carrying your home on top of it will more than wipe those all away. Mind you, you’d need to carry quite a lot before you add anything significant to the mass of the vehicle itself. A kerb weight of 3085kg means those motors are definitely going to be working for their living. This is very much the real thing, though, with all the traditional off-road engineering that comes with the territory. Mainly, it’s a tremendously high-tech and very, very luxurious truck. Nappa leather, carbon fibre, pretty much the best infotainment system money can buy… you get the idea. It’s fabulously well equipped, fabulously well appointed and just generally fabulous, and it’s more digital than the typical 16 year old schoolboy’s sex life. We could go on at enormous length about the G 580’s off-road features (Mercedes’ press release certainly does).

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OVER 10,500 LOCATIONS STORES NATIONWIDE 0115 956 5555 01304 373434 01332 290931 01302 245999 01382 225140 0131 659 5919 01392 256744 0191 493 2520 0141 332 9231 01452 417948 01472 354435 01482 223161 0208 518 4286 01473 221253 0113 231 0400 0116 261 0688 01522 543036

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02392 654777 01772 703263 0114 258 0831 0208 3042069 02380 557788 01702 483742 01782 287321 0191 510 8773 01792 792969 01793 491717 0208 892 9117 01925 630937 01942 323785 01902 494186 01905 723451

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But you’re probably hoping to do other stuff as well today, so we’ll stick to the highlights. These include the ability to climb a 100% (1 in 1) hill, assuming a suitable surface, and to tackle a side angle of up to 35%. It can wade to a depth of 850mm, too – which is 150mm better than G-Wagens with conventional engines.

Low box

Then there’s low box. Not something you associate with EVs, but Mercedes achieves it by having two electric motors, each with its own gearbox, plus a double inverter on each axle. When low range is selected in the Rock driving programme on the off-road control unit (a digital display, naturally), a 2:1 reduction ratio is activated and handling and response are primed for optimum performance on extreme terrain. Further features include G-Steering, which in retrospect is the one that’s closest

to fiddle braking. When activated, it brakes the inside rear wheel in turns while sending full torque to all three of the others, forcing to the vehicle to pivot about it. Less dramatic than G-Turn but significantly more useful in the real world, and you don’t have to stop first in order to use it. Then there’s the transparent bonnet. Oh yes there is. This is of course not an actual transparent bonnet, but something achieved using exterior-view cameras to act as a virtual spotter by creating a digital view of the terrain immediately in front of you. The G 580 also gives you a thing called G Roar. Sorry but yes, this is indeed what it sounds like. And what does it sound like? Like a deep-throated V8, that’s what – modelled on the real exhaust note of the engines in the traditional G Class, the sound is generated synthetically and piped into the cabin with a level of restraint, or otherwise, that’s

governed by the chosen drive mode. You get an ‘aura’ sound played outside the vehicle when you approach and unlock it, and various event sounds for when you close the door, switch on, get out again and start charging. So if the G was already not a 4x4 for shrinking violets, it’s less so than ever now. It might be quiet in terms of its power supply, but it’s downright loud in lots of other ways, and hurrah for that. Hard as it is to believe, the G-Wagen will celebrate its 50th birthday during this version’s life cycle. Few would have believed, back in 1979, that one day Mercedes would make an electric one – but most would have agreed that if such a thing were ever to happen, they’d make a crushingly good job of it. The price tag might be pretty crushing too – but there’s little doubting this is a genuine leap forward for off-roaders in the EV age.

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DACIA DUSTER

ince the Dacia Duster went on sale in Britain, we’ve bought enough of them for every single resident of St Albans to have one. There’s a factoid to reckon with. Our editor was in St Albans a couple of months ago, taking photographs of a hot rod for Custom Car magazine (never a dull moment in this job), and he can conﬁrm that that would be a lot of Dacia Dusters. Apparently the actual number is around 105,000; the boss man from Dacia told us that at the UK launch of the all-new one, before dropping the St Albans thing to drive the point home. He also told us that since orders opened for the new model, 1000 punters have put down a deposit for one. And that’s before

any actual vehicles have arrived in the company’s showrooms. They’ll be doing that very soon, though – and in such numbers that despite having all those orders ahead of you in the queue, at the time of writing you’d still be able to stump up and get one on your drive by Christmas. Hint, etc. That’s if you go for one of the high-spec models, which are predicted to be the big early sellers. For an entry-level version, you’re looking at early in the new year. Either way, not long to wait. The new Duster is very different to the old one, yet it’s also very similar. Similar in that it does the same thing, by offering a sound, practical, well specced SUV at prices which give you more of just about everything per pound.

The money is such a big deal with this vehicle that it’s good to start there. The base spec Essential TCe100 Bi-Fuel costs just £18,745 and gives you air-con, cruise control, reversing sensors, Bluetooth streaming and a long list of safety features. Move up to the Expression and you add alloys, a reversing camera and a 10.1” media screen with wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. At the top of the range, there are two models depending on whether you want to go rugged or posh. The Extreme gives you modular roof bars (which can be used lengthways or across the way), washable upholstery, rubber mats, an interior mounting system for accessories and a further upgraded media system with built-

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in sat-nav. Then comes Journey, with an electric handbrake, wireless phone charging and a six-speaker surround sound stereo. Every trim level from Expression upwards is available only in TCe100 Bi-Fuel form and can therefore run on petrol or LPG. The rest of the range is petrol only, with a choice of full and mild hybrids. The former, called the Hybrid 140, comes with an auto box but, like the TCe100, only drives the front wheels. The TCe130 is to all intents and purposes a petrol engine mated to a manual box – this too is front-wheel drive as standard, but for an extra £2200 it can also be specced in 4x4 form. This gets you more than just all-wheel drive. Models with the 4x4 drivetrain also have a raised ride height, all-season tyres, a

The media screen adds a layer of sophistication to the Duster’s interior, but it doesn’t come over as being premium. The dash is a vast wall of plastic and the seat bases feel short on support, and we thought the steering wheel was bizarrely oversized. We were dazzled by glare from the sun reflecting off the top of the dash, too. Having said all that, though, it’s snug and well put together, with all the equipment you need and a decent driving position. All things considered, it’s hard to believe they can do it at the price Winter 2025 I Overlander 4x4

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Left: The rear seats fold acceptably close to flat to create a large and very usable cargo area. The rigid false floor in this Journey model is not standard across the range, but it makes a big difference Above: Exterior plastic are made from Starkle, a recycled material that’s dyed during manufacture – meaning scratches can be expected not to show unique front bumper to aid approach angle and parallel link rear suspension in place of the 4x2’s torsion beam. The numbers and angles are 217mm ground clearance, 31° approach, 36° departure and 24° ramp. There’s also a set of drive modes including Snow and Mud/Sand – as well as Off-Road, which is intended for the toughest terrain the vehicle can tackle. How tough is that? Well, this isn’t a Wrangler or Grenadier but a test track in a used quarry was enough to demonstrate that the Duster can definitely get about. It has the traction, or rather the traction management, to haul itself over wheels-up axle twisters and the torque to clamber up impressively sharp hills. There’s no low box, of course, but first gear is deep enough to let you get about without any overreliance on clutch-slipping and the bodywork

is well enough shaped to keep itself out of trouble so long as you’re sensible about where you drive.

Rough tracks

Nonetheless, we’re talking about an 1199cc three-pot petrol engine with 129bhp and 170lbf.ft at 1750rpm. It’s not stump-pulling grunt and nor is it deep in the depths of the rev range the way you’d want it to be for lowspeed work. For this reason, while the Duster does let you wrestle it quite effectively over uneven ground, our feeling is that it will be at its best on rough tracks. So long as you do your research and steer clear of the kind with deep ruts, it promises to be a capable companion on green lanes. It’s pretty good on the road, too, whether in TCe130 or Hybrid 140 form (we tried both). The full hybrid allows you to get about

town without the petrol engine firing up, though even when it does its so smooth that the only way you’ll notice is if you’ve got the stereo off. And even then, on the open road there’s no engine noise at all to speak of – though if there was, it would probably be drowned about by the wind which buffets about the front of the vehicle with increasing volume from about 45mph up.

We tend not to say much about roof bars, but the modular ones on the Duster are worthy of a mention. The centre sections can be lifted out and refitted cross-ways – ideal for mounting a roof rack, and a feature which gives the Duster next-level practicality 28

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This is definitely the low point in the Duster’s refinement, which is otherwise better than you’d expect. There’s very little vibration from the road or drivetrain, and the same goes for the TCe130. We found it quite easy to stall this engine when taking off from a standing start, but once up and running it proves impressively torquey, allowing you to pick up pace without dropping a ratio when keeping in line with the traffic flow or spiriting it through the bends of a twisting B-road. Obviously, you’ll be using the gearbox if you really want to thrash it, but we tried that and found that mainly you get noise rather than any great increase in urge. Not that the Duster is aimed at people who’re going to do that. It’s meant to appeal to families and individuals with a sense of adventure, to whom the outdoor life is more than just an image they put out to the people they see at the gym or on the school run. It’s a tough, up-for-it tool for getting you into the thick of the action. At first glance, the Duster feels solidly made and adequately well trimmed. We weren’t sure how comfortable the seat bases would remain over many hours, as they felt soft at the corners to us, but we know better than to place too much store on

first impressions. The seating position itself is fine and there’s a decent view all around – and while putting two tall adults behind two more of the same might be a squeeze, your kids ought to be happy in the back. Boot space is ample, too, whether you’ve got the rear seats up or down. We started with the money, albeit only at entry level, and we’ll finish there too. Looking solely at TCe130 4x4 models, the Expression lists at £23,445, the Journey at £25,145 and the Extreme at £25,945. You pay the aforementioned £2200 less for the same engine with two-wheel drive, or £800

more with two-wheel drive and the Hybrid 140 engine. Which would we go for? On the basis of this short sample of a few models in the range, the Journey didn’t feel much more lavish than the Expression. So we’d be tempted to stick there – though of course all-wheel drive would be non-negotiable, especially with the ancillary kit it brings. That leaves us looking at a £23,445 vehicle with all the important stuff – and however you stack it up, that’s incredible value for money. Which, of course, is what the Duster has always been all about…

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ENGINEERING THE FUTURE It’s easy to sneer at big-money Defender rebuilds. But when they’re designed to create a vehicle that will last the test of time, rather than one which will simply make an impression here and now, it’s easier still to accept that the high price is a sound investment Words Tom Alderney Pics Kingsley Re-Engineered

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hen a new Land Rover gets its debut at the ultra-posh Salon Privé concours in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, you can be fairly sure it’s not for bringing home dead a deer or towing half a ton of mangel wurzels in from the field. And we’re pretty sure you didn’t think that another stratospherically priced Defender restoration company was just what the world needed. Kingsley Re-Engineered is not as expensive as some. Step forward Land Rover itself, among others. Still, to most people its ‘definitive Defender series’ might as well cost a trillion quid for all the chance they’ve got of being able to buy one. Available in 90 and 110 form, this ‘retains the essence of a Land Rover Defender while transforming it into a perfect companion for both off and on-road trips.’ Sounds like marketing guff – but this is the work of a company which has, for approaching a quarter of a century, been turning dilapidated Range Rovers into some of the best and certainly the most usable classic vehicles in existence. Pedigree is good. Pedigree is good, and so is choice. Originality is rather wonderful too, and as standard Kingsley’s Defenders come equipped with an overhauled factory engine. Get going with the options, though, and you can have a 4.2-litre V8 putting out a delightfully lazy sounding 220bhp and 265lbf.ft. The company quotes a top speed of more than 100mph and a 0-60 time of 9.5 seconds, and if either of these figures is relevant to you then you shouldn’t buy a Defender. Further choices include Chevy LS3 and LT1 V8s, as well as auto boxes with as many as eight ratios.

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‘The new Defender line is not just a restoration,’ says Kingsley. ‘It is a reimagining of the iconic Land Rover model. Each vehicle is crafted with an estimated 1500 hours of meticulous attention to detail. This comprehensive process includes signiﬁcant upgrades to performance, comfort and durability.’

Generations to come

It also includes making them right, not just making them posh. ‘Every Kingsley build goes through a meticulous restoration process – we leave no stone unturned,’ says MD John Sawbridge. ‘This includes

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everything from removing corrosion from the donor chassis to ensure longterm durability and protection for future custodians, to full internal wax protection of the chassis and panels, alongside our proprietary future-proofing techniques. We don’t just build cars for today – we build them for tomorrow and generations to come.’ Which ought to be music to your ears. We’ve all come across the sort of people who’ll chuck some leather and shiny trim at an old stinker and call it a high-end resto, after all. Further mods are made to the vehicles’ brakes and suspension. Happily, ride height

stays the same rather than being dropped on to the floor and into the bin, though you get electronically controlled active damping to keep the truck under control – as well as Stage 1 upgraded brakes with larger front calipers. A set of 18” light alloy wheels is shod with BFGoodrich TA all-terrains, which is both pleasingly restrained and impressively purposeful. If you just want a Defender that’ll last forever, Kingsley’s build palette starts with the complete refurbishment of the vehicle’s original trim. But the word ‘bespoke’ is never far away, and nor are nappa leather and alcantara. The 90 in the pictures is trimmed

in sandstone leather with Spinneybeck leather weave seat centres, while its upgraded instrument cluster dials in to a system running wireless Apple CarPlay and steering is by a smaller, sportier wheel. You can, of course, choose no stereo and a standard wheel, should that be your taste in Defenders, and the trim materials and colour combinations are entirely down to you. On the outside, Kingsley has its own paint shop, meaning the vehicle never needs to leave its site, or indeed its sight. With every build

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Kingsley builds Land Rovers to commission, so if you don’t like the cabin trim, bespoke wheel and digital dashboard you can spec whatever else you want instead. Things like sandstone leather, Spinneybeck leather weave seat centres and wireless Apple CarPlay are the finishing touches – what really matters is the breadth and depth of the hidden work that goes into remaking a Defender to better-than-new being done to commission, customers can spec whatever colour or finish they want, all the way down to custom film and ceramic coating. Told you they were built to last…

Body styles

Further opportunities for making it your own include hard-top and panoramic glass body styles, as well as full canvas and open top with a bikini cover. Heated seats are nothing new in a Defender, though they might be in yours, and the high-tech stuff ranges from tyre pressure monitoring systems to more or less any audio rig you can physically fit in it. Kingsley has previously restored Defenders as part of individual customer projects, however these vehicles represent

its first series of overhauled Defenders as a cohesive collection. The company says the new line ‘embodies the essence of Kingsley’s craftsmanship, combined with the benefits of extensive research and development to create a unified product offering for customers worldwide.’ It’s been said that instead of buying a new Range Rover, if you spend that sort of money on getting an original one brought back to perfect condition and modernised into the bargain you’ll have something that’s worth far more money in ten years’ time. Make that worth having at all in ten years’ time. And with the advent of the L663, the same can now be said about a Defender – for what it takes to put even an entry-level

new model on your drive, you can built a proper one that’ll work for its living every day and, with nothing more than routine maintenance, outlive you. Whether Kingsley’s high-spec, high-end 90s and 110s fit the bill for an everyday work truck is for you to decide. But you can guarantee that more or less every newshape Defender in existence right now will have been scrapped long before any of these trucks reaches the end of its natural life. And easy though it is to sneer, that has a lot to do with the deep-down engineering upon which the company’s restoration work is based. So as it turns out, another stratospherically priced Defender restoration is just what the world needed after all.

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Merry Christmas AND HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM KS INTERNATIONAL TEAM

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f you built your 4x4 a long time ago and haven’t changed it much since, you might be familiar with the feeling that the world has moved on while you’ve been having fun. A truck that was once state of the art – maybe with an inch or two of lift, a rear locker and slightly upsized mud-terrain tyres – now barely qualifies as an average playday machine, and next to the latest hardcore wagons it’s absolutely nothing. That might be John Wasley’s tale. Thirty years ago, he bought a written-off Suzuki Samurai with a view to rebuilding it for RTV trialling, and though he added a few more upgrades along the way it always remained

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the same truck he put back on the road a few weeks later. The difference is that while the modding world has moved on big-time since the early 1990s, John’s motor never stopped being able to show them a thing or two in an RTV. That’s Suzukis for you… But it wasn’t always like this. Back before even those days, John had an SJ410 which he used for ‘a bit of playing.’ It was, he says, too nice to put through the mill – so when a mate rocked up in a Daihatsu F50 he liked the look of it and got himself one of those. All good, and then one day he was out ‘playing in the snow’ when he met a guy who introduced him to the Midland Off Road

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CHANGED

DAYS

Club. Along he went to do his ﬁrst trial: ‘And that was it – I was hooked.’ Now, the F50 was a truck you’d think would be ideal for trials, but John replaced it with an 80” Series I Landy. Itself no slouch between the canes, but ‘I got fed up with breaking everything. Axles, gearboxes… I think having a Jap motor had spoilt me!’ You know what’s coming. Yes, a Suzuki Samurai. This Suzuki Samurai, indeed. John’s wife Justine was into RTV trialling too, and drove an LJ (if all this isn’t giving you nostalgia pangs, it should be), so she suggested that a Sammy would make the perfect replacement for his fragile Series I.

Thing is, he didn’t want to buy something nice (and therefore expensive) then cut it up. He was after a vehicle speciﬁcally for modding, and with RTV in mind he wanted to truck-cab it from the word go. No so easy in an era when the Samurai was still very much in production.

Fresh ticket

But then the ideal motor turned up. A car had smacked into the side of it and rolled it over, so the back body was a mess but the wings and bonnet were ﬁne. Enough to write it off, but for John it was all just repairable damage – so much so that having bought

Three decades have passed since John Wasley built his Suzuki Samurai. And while the cutting edge of off-road engineering may have moved on, it proves that a truck built to survive will keep on doing exactly that Words and pictures Dan Fenn

it on 17 January 1994, he drove home from the MOT station with a fresh ticket as early as 28 February that same year. The key was another top find, in the shape of a second-hand bodyshell which cost the princely sum of £200. Bear in mind that this was in the days before anyone had heard of the internet, and you’ll see that this is a man who knows how to track stuff down. He satisfied himself with a shackle lift and 215x15 Mud-Pluggers, and entered it in its first trial. ‘The first thing I learned was that shackles don’t like hitting rocks!’ To be fair, they don’t like hitting anything very much. He also found that the position of the Samurai springs was getting in the way of the front wheels as he went for full lock, so a very early refinement was to get a set of offset rims machined up. Bearing in mind that all this was happening before the market filled up with off-the-shelf conversions, John was finding his own way to a great extent. A rear disc-brake conversion, for example, meant making up his own brackets to hold the calipers in place, and the power steering was a home-brew using a box and pump from a Vauxhall Carlton. Much of this was happening during the first year or so after the Suzuki went back on the road. But John was busy in other ways too – we mentioned his wife a moment ago, and that’s what she became in 1995. Why are we telling you this? ‘We went to America on honeymoon and the first thing I did there was buy a Lock-Right for the rear axle!’ That’ll be why… It was his wife who suggested the PAS conversion, too, as she started doubledriving with him after selling the LJ when the impending arrival of their first child put paid to her own RTV-ing. ‘I didn’t think the

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Above left: John started out by raising the suspension on a shackle lift, but the shackles kept hitting things. These days, a set of +2” Old Man Emu springs does the job of putting some extra space between the truck and its arches Above centre: Front shocks are Monroes which a friend donated after the Old Man Emu originals got clobbered Above right: Rear suspension uses another pair of +2” Old Man Emu springs. This time the dampers are from the same manufacturer, for the very good reason that John hasn’t managed to bend them yet…

Above left, top centre: Here at the leading edge of the front springs, the interesting thing is the stop plates John made up to prevent the shackles from over-centering if they ground out – something he’s found they’re a bit prone to Above centre: Fitting a Lock-Right in the back was the key to getting the most out of the Samurai. It was also the key to having to reinforce the axle case – in John’s words, ‘the locker didn’t like the axle being bent.’ A year later, he also fitted heavy-duty shafts from KAM Above right: You can get off-the-shelf rear disc conversions these days, but when John built the vehicle he had to make his own from scratch. He used Samurai front calipers, securing them on brackets adapted from front brake mounts

Samurai needed it,’ he admits. ‘But it’s one of the best mods I ever made. Once it was on, I never looked back.’

Everyday life

The looking back started later. For near-on ten years, John and Justine combined the RTV scene with an everyday life of bringing up their daughters Bethan and Annie, while he worked as a mechanic and MOT tester and kept the Samurai ticking over in the garage. But times change and hobbies move on, and with Britain returning to normal after the foot and mouth crisis of 2001 John started getting into bikes instead.

What followed was almost half a decade during which the Samurai sat untouched in the garage. But as we all know, once you’ve had off-roading in your life you can never be without it, and it was only a matter of time before he fetched it back out again. When he did, he discovered that, surprise surprise, the worms had been at it and the back body was going rotten. First job, then, was to cut out and plate up all the rust, which gave it its strength back, but he didn’t want to finish it off with filler that would just fall back out once it started getting shaken off-road. So instead he chequer-plated the sides, giving it a very distinctive look that

finished off the truck-cab body very nicely. We’re not big fans of using ally plate in places where only box-section steel will do, but with a Drew Bowler roll cage and tubular nerf bars shouldering the task of protecting the truck a nicely shaped outer skin is completely appropriate. Those nerf bars were added when John put the Sammy back on the road, as were an X-Brake, KAM heavy-duty rear shafts and a snorkel he made himself in stainless steel. So, more protection than it used to have, but nothing much to make it more capable offroad – yet, as John told us at the time, ‘it’s old school now but still competitive at trials.’

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If you know your way around a Samurai’s engine bay, you could try counting all things you see here that aren’t standard. A tenner says you still wouldn’t get them all, either. One you probably will is the Ford Mondeo alternator – which was dirt cheap from a scrappy and chucks out 90 amps, making it the perfect find. As for the Samurai’s original carb, this isn’t known for its ability on steep hills, and it didn’t take long before John had replaced it with a 1¾ SU and electric fuel pump. Look beyond the reservoir for a PAS system taken from a Vauxhall Carlton, meanwhile, and you’ll see the hot end of a full Janspeed exhaust. The snorkel was only fitted in 2007, when John put the Samurai back on the road after a fouryear break. He bent it up himself in stainless steel, plumbing it to a K&N filter in a Land Rover air box – which has had a mighty great Suzuki sticker plonked on it just to throw people off the scent

Gentle art

The gentle art of the RTV is less dramatic than hardcore winching or safari racing, but it’s still one of those things that people tend to find themselves doing less of as life expands to take up more and more of their time. Having a family is the big one on that score, though children grow up and

eventually they take the wheel themselves and once she was old enough that’s exactly what Bethan did. Which you could see as life coming full circle, because it was when she was on the way that the family’s old LJ had to move on. So John’s family have a lot to thank him for. And it works the other way, too: ‘Thanks

to Justine, Bethan and Annie for letting me spend time in the workshop,’ he told us. And there was a nod to his profession, too: ‘I don’t think I’d have got into off-roading if I hadn’t been a mechanic. You always need to be working on something, and I can’t see it being possible if I hadn’t been able to do it myself.’ Which brings us to a conclusion many Samurai owners reach in the end. ‘As the years go by, I’m finding that sites have got more used and the ruts have got deeper, so much that I’ve bent a few front springs. It all comes down to money, but I’d love to coil it.’ Another conclusion a lot of us find ourselves reaching, there. For most of us who do it, off-roading appeals because it’s a cheap game with plenty of DIY potential, and as soon as the price goes up that appeal falls down. Even when you’ve got a truck that was once state of the art, that fact never really goes away.

Keeping it real

Some people start small and go on to bigger things, and respect to them for that. John started by building a truck that was very

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Above left: Behind a couple of Cibie Super Oscar spots is a Superwinch X9 running synthetic rope. The wincg bumper was home made, with the tubular sections bent up by Drew Bowler Above centre, right: the cage is also a Drew Bowler job. The scars of time haven’t made it any less sound Below left: A sheet of ally plate won’t save your sills. But a set of tubular sliders attached to your roll cage, complete with really neat nerf bars, will do the job very nicely Below centre: The fuel tank is protected by an elegantly shaped guard in 6mm aluminium Below right: A 3mm lid over the rear body provides a handy storage area for recovery gear

cool for its day, and by keeping it real over the last couple of decades he’s ensured that it’s every bit as cool now. We know of younger off-roaders who say it was this vehicle that inspired them to get into the 4x4 game – and that they studied it the way

an aspiring sculptor might study a Rodin or Henry Moore. Praise indeed. It’s stood up to a lot on the RTV circuit, this Sammy, but there’s no bigger challenge than the test of time. Three decades on from when it was written off then rescued

and rebuilt, though, it continues to fly the flag for its owner’s ability on the tools. Want proof? Just take a look at John’s website, www.jwmobilemechanic.co.uk – and under the ‘About Me’ heading, the first thing you’ll see is the profile of a true survivor.

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BIG

DEAL Orange Crush is a Range Rover monster truck that won a string of trophies on the show scene a decade or so ago. But beyond the huge tyres, it’s a rarity with the body of a CSK and the Suﬃx A identity of a true original Words Olly Sack Pics Sean Parker

eople who are into off-roading have a certain kind of relationship with monster trucks. You kind of recognise that they’re cut from the same cloth as your own vehicle… suspension lift, big tyres and all… but you don’t want the outside world to think that’s what you’re all about. We’re off-roaders, dammit, these big tyres aren’t for show you know, we understand you can have too much lift, leave us alone, etc etc.

Except those big tyres are actually for show most of the time, and when you go to an RTV trial and some old boy on 6.00-16s drives his completely standard Series II everywhere your butch 90 can go, you get all yeah but no but yeah about the fact that your 37” Super Phallus Radials were absolutely necessary cos you know there’s that green lane near you and one time my mate Gaz got down it and I was still on standard 235s and, and, werp, cringe… Which is why offroaders don’t like monster trucks. If you’re not into offroading but you are into Land Rovers, on the other hand, you might not care

much one way or the other. Monster trucks will be about as relevant to you as top fuel dragsters. Except you might bristle just a bit at this one, because that’s a Range Rover CSK up there. Pause while you wipe up the cornﬂakes you’ve just spluttered everywhere in indignation. Let’s go again, shall we? Actually, maybe I ruined your breakfast unnecessarily there. The identity is not that of a venerated classic. But it could be said that the body is.

Believe in it

Wot? ‘The two-door shell was bought new from Land Rover direct in 1992 or 93,’ explains Sean Parker. ‘So it could be classed as a CSK shell.’ Perhaps a little bit of a stretch, but if you know your Range

Body-wise, the Rangey is a sort-of CSK, so quite rightly it’s V8-powered. Not that a 5.7-litre Chevy V8, even one that was fresh out of a crate, is the sort of thing a concours judge would be happy to see aboard anything with a Solihull badge on its bonnet 46

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The big Chevy spins the Range Rover’s original four-speed auto and two-speed transfer case via an Overfinch adaptor. The axles are controlled by a set of home-brewed radius arms that are longer than the wheelbase on some 4x4s, and you might need a notebook to keep count of all the dampers. That’ll be what a set of 49.00x21R20 tyres does for you, then… Rover history you’ll know what he means. It’s a bit like Santa – if you want to believe, well then it’s true. So, what we have is a man who bought an entire shell from Land Rover more than 30 years ago. This is going to be a project with a bit of a story to it, then. And the first part of the story… he put it away in a barn and next thing you know it was 2004. By now, the vehicle is in its thirties. Not the shell, the chassis and therefore the identity, which dates from 1973 and makes this doubly confounding for classic Rangey sniffers as we’ve now got a sort-of CSK perched on a suffix A identity. ‘Although not much of the donor is left,’ says Sean, ‘to me I think the shell and registration are where the main value is. Kingsley Cars will sell a bare shell that’s been made up from new panels for £24k, so it’s hard to value what I’ve got as it’s a genuine bodyshell from Land Rover.’

Genuine and unmolested, too, save for welding up the openings for the shock turrets on the inner wings. But what’s this talk of value? Sean is currently thinking the unthinkable and considering whether to strip the Range Rover for parts. ‘I’m currently in the throes of what to do with it,’ he admits. ‘Do I break it for spares or spend a month of Sundays getting it looking A1 again, or sell it as a complete truck which can be driven away?’ Well, we’d pitch in by suggesting that while the shell and registration are indeed where the main value lies, in terms of what’s going to get someone to put their hand in their pocket, you don’t have to spend much more time listening to Sean to understand what really makes the truck worth its salt. ‘We have spent 1000s of man-hours on this project… eaten over £1000 worth of take-aways… drunk over £1000 worth of beer (well, one of us has anyway!) We’ve each smashed our heads and other body parts at least 10 times, lost our tempers, well, just once or twice… Grown a few more grey hairs… and lost some. Celebrated two Christmases and two birthdays each… a wedding… and a few close divorces!’ The ‘we’ in question are Sean himself plus Chris Caluori and Ian Standen. ‘We’ve used so much power, we’ve added an even bigger hole in the ozone layer!’ Sean

continues. ‘We’ve put far too much money, effort and time into this truck. But most of all, a group of mates that have known each other almost all our lives have built a monster truck out of an old British legend, the faithful Range Rover!’

First timers

As the above suggests, it took two years for the trio to see the Rangey through from bare chassis to show-ready condition (it took first prize first time out, as if you didn’t just know that anyway). That was in 2008, since when Sean reckons it might have covered 500 miles in total. That’s 500 miles on a 5.7-litre Chevy V8. No, not some old hunk of rust fetched out of a dumpster in Alabama – this was a brand new crate engine, bought in 2004 and mated to the Range Rover’s own four-speed auto box using an Overfinch adaptor. The transfer box is still in place, and custom props (plural – it’s still fourwheel drive) spin the diffs in a pair of modified Range Rover axles. These in turn are bolted up to a set of custom tractorstyle wheels wearing 49.00x21R20 Irok Super Swampers – ‘the largest road legal tyres you could buy at the time,’ says Sean. You’d assume that with all this going on, between the engine note and tyre noise you wouldn’t be able to hear a stereo but Sean fitted one anyway. He also made

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You might expect it to look horrific in here, but it’s quite the opposite. This is the interior of a nice, well preserved and carefully looked after Range Rover Classic. Well, it always did make you feel like you were elevated above everyone else on the road… just not normally in such a literal sense… a full set of custom door cards and rear inner trim, fitted a 1993 dashboard and finished the exterior with a set of genuine Brooklands bumpers, which he modified to mate with the extended wheel arches, setting the seal on a monster truck that could be driven to shows and admired once at them. And it was, for a while, but now here we are a decade and a half later and what you’re looking at is a Range Rover that’s freshly into its second half-century but facing an uncertain future. Is Sean going to end up deciding to take it back to its showwinning state, or will he go after the money and pull it apart? Or will someone else take it on and turn it into their own vision of the perfect Range Rover?

all about, you could certainly argue that a Suffix A with a late body and a Chevy lump is actually very appropriate. Drop it back down to a more normal height and you’ve got a Range Rover that’ll make the right people ask the right questions while going over the head of a majority who don’t know a history sleeper when they see one. Just promise us you won’t turn it into an off-road beater… And there we are talking about offroaders again. And you know what they’re like with monster trucks. We’d take Orange

Crush back down to its original ride height, lose the big arches and Brooklands gear, put it in paint from the early 70s then stand back and watch while people try to figure out what they’re looking at. And then we’d set off at a nice slow pace, listening to the burble, and get down to the business of finally running in that Chevy V8. The possibilities in this Range Rover are endless – and so is the potential. Thanks to Sean Parker for his help in compiling this article

One classic or two?

If it’s to become a classic, it’ll need to become two classics. A ’73 identity and a ’93 shell, even a two-door, don’t add up to much in the eyes of any scrutineer we’ve ever met. Though if you’re like us and consider the owner-builder community to be intrinsic to what the Land Rover vibe is

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Our 4x4s INFO

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

FIT FOR PURPOSE

e mentioned them brieﬂy last month, but there’s a new set of tyres sitting in the editorial lock-up and waiting to go on our D-Max. They were waiting last month and they’re waiting still, thanks to a long list of tyre ﬁtting places round our way refusing to touch anything they didn’t supply, so for now we’re just going to tell you a bit more about them. They’re CST Sahara A/T IIs. This is, would you believe, one of four all-terrains the Taiwanese company makes; it’s presented as having a 60:40 bias between on and off-road use respectively. CST also does a Sahara M/T as well as three extreme off-road tyres, the M-King,

Land Dragon and Dragon Claw. The latter are the ones you’re most likely to know it for, but the company makes tyres for everything from bikes and scooters to buses, trucks and agricultural plant. It’s part of Cheng Shin Rubber, which also owns Maxxis and in 2023 was ranked 10th among the world’s tyre makers by revenue. Cheng Shin was founded in 1967 by Jie Lo (not the one from the block) and established itself in China in 1989. These days, it has six brands, 17 factories and more than 20,000 employees worldwide and it says its products are sold in more than 200 different countries. Quite an achievement, that, since the UN thinks there are only 193, but an output of

1,500,000 tyres a day speaks for itself. This is a big, big operation. So while CST is not necessarily the ﬁrst name that comes to mind when you think of 4x4 tyres, it certainly should be on your radar. Its presence in the UK is growing fast – and the Sahara A/T II is set to be at the centre of that. So what have we got? The Sahara is a typical all-terrain designed for good all-round abilities on and off-road. Its construction uses multiple plies to achieve rugged strength and resistance to cuts and damage, and its tread pattern is designed to disperse water, sand, mud and stones as eﬃciently as possible. The blocks are heavily siped across the whole width of the

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Appearing in these pictures, our Isuzu D-Max GO2 is insured by Adrian Flux Insurance Services, which specialises in modified 4x4s. We’ve used the company many times over the years for our project trucks and they have always provided an ideal balance between quality cover (which includes offroad and green lane options) and affordable prices. Get a quote by visiting www.adrianflux.co.uk.

tread, adding still further to the available grip and promising good performance in snow. Something we’ll be all too willing to test if Britain is finally favoured with a proper winter after all these years of unrelenting greyness. While this is an all-terrain rather than a mud-terrain, in keeping with other manufacturers CST has learned from what people like about more aggressive off-road

tyres and applied it to the Sahara’s design. The shoulders feature arrow-shaped notches to aid self-cleaning and ‘alternating jagged gear’ to create a pattern of vaguely mountain-shaped side-biters; these are there to give additional grip when climbing over rocks, though it’s surely no accident that they also look cool. The shoulders also have connecting ribs whose purpose is to enhance the tread’s resistance to being torn on the toughest surfaces. CST also says they help prevent deformation at low pressure – presumably not the kind of deformation that you actually want to happen when you air down, though to be fair if that’s a technique you’re expecting to be using you’ll almost certainly be in the market for a mud-terrain instead. What people really want from an allterrain is brute strength. Longevity matters, as do traction to an acceptable degree both an and off-road and refinement fit for a working life likely to feature every kind of road and terrain as well as plenty of towing. Basically, an all-terrain is the jack-of-all-trades workhorse of the tyre world. The Sahara promises to do all that, and with enhanced shoulder shields

on top of its multi-ply construction it certainly ought to be plenty strong too. As we said last month, we’ve always tended to use mud-terrains. Our old Patrol had BFG A/Ts for a while and did very well on them, and there was a short-lived and flirtation with the long gone Grizzly-Claw, but we’ve had more muds on our trucks than we can remember. So the CST Sahara II is going to be an unusual departure for us, and one which might open our eyes to something we’ve always kind of suspected – that for the sort of all-round mixture of scruffy roads, site work and green laning we do, we tend to over-spec our tyres. Is a mud-terrain really necessary if you don’t actually go in mud? We’ll see. The General Grabber X3s we’ve had on our D-Max up to now have been brilliant; the Saharas have a tough act to follow, but with winter blowing in fast and plenty of hard work on the horizon, the time is ripe for them to show us what they’re made of.

The Sahara AT II is a businesslike looking tyre with plenty of strength and traction elements built in. It promises to be ideal on our D-Max because, while the General Grabber mud-terrains we’ve had on it thus far certainly are excellent, and with plenty of life left in them we’ll be storing them for future use, the fact that we use it mainly for green laning means this (main picture) is as muddy as the going has ever got Winter 2025 I Overlander 4x4

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TRAVEL

THE ASCENT With unique landscapes, bountiful wildlife and a positive attitude towards 4x4 adventurers, Botswana is a country like no other Words: Barrie Dunbar Pictures: Louis Dunbar

very year, I lead a 4x4 hire-drive tour in Botswana through my company, Active 4x4 Adventures. It’s a bit different to our normal European tours, where customers use their own vehicles; here, we all fly in to Gaborone where a fleet of fully equipped 4x4 campers awaits us. Each is supplied complete with a roof-top tent, fridge freezer, cutlery, crockery, camp furniture, recovery gear, freshly laundered linen and pretty much everything else required for self-sufficient independent travel through the remote wilderness areas of Southern Africa. You want to be living out of a truck prepared to the standard you’d do it yourself if it was your own, and that’s exactly what we strive to provide. From the airport, we head directly into Gaborone itself to stock up with provisions, have a look around the Botswanian capital

and generally acclimatise ourselves to being in Africa. Which comes more quickly to some than others – I’m South African born and bred, so I’ve got a distinct advantage here! About 50 kilometres west of Gaborone is Molepolole. It’s a traditional Bakwena village (as villages go, with about 75,000 people it’s quite a big one) and is known as the Gateway to the Kalahari. A couple of hours later, the much smaller town of Letlhakeng gives us our last opportunity for fuel for some 1200km – and fuelguzzling kilometres they are too, many of them through thick, soft, deep desert sand. Needless to say, we ﬁll up all of our main tanks, reserve tanks and jerry cans. Fuel is cheap compared with what we are accustomed to paying, and one can never have enough where we are going. We enter the Central Kalahari Game Reserve through the Khutse Game Reserve

in the south-east and, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, we visit the waterholes at the pans of Molose and Moreswe – where we get lucky and spot lions, wild dogs and brown hyenas. All on our very first day in the bush! That night we camp at Mahurushele Pan, enjoying the first of many delicious braais (BBQs) on white hot coals of the local Mopane wood. We bought this on the roadside before entering the reserve – it’s forbidden to help yourself to any flora or fauna, dead or alive, within any of the reserves. Quite rightly, too.

Unspoiled wilderness

We continue our journey north-west through the Kalahari Desert towards Bape Camp, which is not so much a camp as a clearing in the bush. In Europe, it is what we would refer to as a wild camp, a secluded place of natural beauty devoid of

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OF MAUN

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any infrastructure or development of any sort. Perfect if you appreciate immersing yourself in the unspoiled wilderness environment of Southern Africa. We enjoy a relatively short followed by an easy day’s driving along well-defined tracks without too much momentumsapping deep sand – that will come tomorrow, a tiring day of proper desert driving. Our route takes us through the heart of Bushmanland, the ancestral homeland of the stone-age San Bushmen people. We pass a number of San villages, including those at Kukama and Mothomelo, locations of the last few remaining clans still living their huntergatherer existences within the reserve.

The next day is tough on the cars, and some of the people, as we negotiate the unforgiving soft, thick, deep sand of the desert while covering more than 200 kilometres through Black-Maned Lion territory. It’s a true test of endurance, desert driving, and a stark illustration of the importance of being adequately equipped and prepared. While there is nothing unsafe about doing this stretch carefully and responsibly, this is definitely not the time or the place for playing games or taking chances. The track between Bape and Xade (to where we are headed) is a demanding one, cutting right through the middle of the Kalahari, and it is the last place you would

want to suffer any sort of mechanical mishap. For those who enjoy sand driving through the desert, though, this is a day of great fun, rewarded by a real sense of achievement at its conclusion. Plenty of beers will be sunk around the fire tonight! From here we head due north en route to Piper’s Pan, location of a veritable plethora of wildlife and a beautiful semiwild camp adjacent to the pan. It’s a relaxing day in comparison to yesterday’s desert-driving challenge as we drive slowly along easy tracks, passing huge herds of Springbok and occasional isolated groups of Gemsbok. Giraffes, ostriches and the like are common – but this is also the land of the Black-Maned Lion, a specific

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sub-species with different behaviour and appearance to other lions.

Raucous noise

In adaptation to the environment of the Kalahari, these lions generally exist in smaller prides, hunting over greater distances and thriving on smaller prey. Kalahari lions are smaller than other lions and are able to survive without water for much longer periods. Their bushy black manes give them an imposing, threatening appearance. These are the guys who keep us awake at night with their raucous noise. From Piper’s Pan, we continue northeast towards Deception Valley, pausing at the numerous water holes en route, and chalking up additional sightings of all manner of African wildlife. Think of any African animal which comes to mind and the chances are, if you haven’t already seen it, you will soon. Lions are plentiful in this

area, as are cheetahs and of course their preferred fare of springbok, gemsbok, red hartebeest, wildebeest and the likes. Deception Valley is an ancient fossilised river bed, providing good grazing for the huge herds of antelope frequenting the area and in turn attracting the predators which so enthral us. During our game drives in and around Deception Valley, we will encounter lion, cheetah, jackal, hyena and bat-eared fox. There are leopards in this area too, though they can be shy and much harder to spot. We exit the Central Kalahari Game Reserve at Matswere Gate in the north on our way to the town of Rakops, where at last we can fill our dwindling fuel tanks, stock up on fresh water and provisions and enjoy a bit of banter with the locals. The Tswana are a fantastically friendly and welcoming people, always with huge smiles and great humour. And they love

their country and their wildlife – an attitude that does them enormous credit. From Rakops we take the road (potentially the most pot-holed in Africa, which is saying something) west-north west to Maun – gateway to the Okavango Delta and base for most of the safari operators. We are done with the desert for now. From the mighty Kalahari to the awesome Okavango, this trip offers diversity in spades. You might even see the elusive Fukawi bird! We stay at Audi Camp, on the river just north of Maun, from where we enjoy a sunset boat cruise. Witnessing hippos, crocs and all manner of water fowl, it’s a wonder filled experience set against a backdrop of the blood-red evening sun. Then back to camp for yet another meat feast from the braai. Steaks, chops, boerewors – you name it, we serve it, in authentic South African fashion.

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For those with an interest in overlanding vehicles, the visitors to Audi Camp provide an endless array of different 4x4s, from Land Cruisers to Land Rovers and everything in between. All well kitted out.

Naughty elephants

From Maun, we head to Moremi National Park in the Okavango Delta, to our bush camp base located near South Gate.

It’s a semi-wild camp which, although located deep in the bushveld, is equipped with toilets and showers. Game roam freely through, however, and the naughty elephants regularly destroy the water pipes – much to the chagrin of the manager, who seems to spend an inordinate amount of time on remedial plumbing works. For the next few days, we will be making excursions into and around Moremi

National Park – an absolute treasure of a nature reserve, providing the most amazing and exciting wildlife viewings at very close quarters. If you’ve come for the big game, you will be in your element for the next few days. Moremi was the first ever wildlife sanctuary to be established by a local tribe, and very proud of it they are too – with good reason, as it is exceptional, offering varied vegetation, terrain and conditions in

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which to experience the best of Southern Africa’s big game. The legendary Third Bridge, Fourth Bridge and Khwai Bridge – we cross them all, exploring everything in between, and experiencing the occasional challenging river crossing to boot. After the exhilaration of Moremi, it’s hard to imagine there is anything left to be excited about. But there is, and it comes in the form of the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan National Park to the east. Here we stay at South Camp, marvelling at the spectacular wildlife which abounds around the main waterhole. August is the perfect time of year for big game – because the bushveld is so dry, rather than spending all their time out grazing under cover the

animals need to come and take water. South of Nxai Pan, we camp out at Baines’ Baobabs – where surely some of Africa’s largest examples of these magnificent trees stand like sentries overlooking an endless flat salt pan. Then finally, from this imposing natural spectacle we make our way east to the luxurious resort of Elephant Sands for a luxurious conclusion to our adventure. Heading back to the airport at Gaborone, where we return our vehicles

before checking in for the flight home, I reflect on another rewarding job done in my career as a 4x4 tour operator. Participants have described it as the trip of a lifetime, which is music to my ears. Coming home to southern Africa is always a pleasure – and when it’s to introduce people to the magnificent landscapes and animals of Botswana, what could be more of a joy?

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

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