Land Rover Yearbook 2024

The essential annual for Land Rover owners and enthusiasts

Land Rover

2 024

YEARBOOK 11 £9.99

the year’s pages of cts for u best prod over R d n your La

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PERFECTION

Brought back from the brink of oblivion, this Series IIA has probably the best paintwork ever applied to a Land Rover The Coolest Camper

Street and overland come together in a stunning 130

EVOLVED DEFENDER

Air springs, auto gearbox: not your typical 90…

✔ Enhanced ✔ Restored ✔ Preserved ✔ Modified

One great Land Rover after another inside

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88” TO AFRICA

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CUSTOM BUILD PROJECTS

Full Body Respray

Restorations

Bespoke Builds

In house Interior

In house Exterior

Headlining and Trims for 90, 110 & crew cab

Aluminium Styling upgrades

Light upgrades

Bumpers & Guards

Standard

Specialised

BESPOKE ENGINEERING

In house accessories INTERIOR

Seat Covers EXTERIOR

Roof Racks for 90, 110 & crew cab

WINDOWS

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Contents 24

Stories 4

8

ROYAL ROVERS

Goodwood Revival sees the largest ever gathering of Landies and Range Rovers with connections to the royal family

FAREWELL LAND ROVER?

Panic abounds as the famous name is relegated to ‘trust mark’ status

10 £250,000 RANGE ROVER

Limited edition SV Lansdowne goes on sale at a quarter of a million quid

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32

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NEW- LOOK DISCO SPORT

Mild facelift concentrates on the cabin

POSH OSHE

Boutique resification programme for old 90s starts at £225,000 per vehicle

EMERGENCY 130

JLR converts a Defender into a ‘modern luxury’ response vehicle

ARMY EVS

Military Defenders in the workshop being turned into electric battlefield trucks

LEGO LANDY

Finally, a 90 whose clutch you can’t burn

EVERRATI

Classic EV conversion specialist adds Defender and Range Rover Classic to list of base vehicle options

FAILED ENGINES

Neglect and other people’s ham-fisted maintenance go together to mean good business for 4x4 Engine Rebuilds

INVERTED RANGE ROVER

Another EV conversion specialist joins the market in a bid to create forever vehicles

AID TO UKRAINE

Delivering a pair of early Freelanders to help provide medical help where it’s needed most

CLASSIC ACCESSORIES

Land Rover Classic launches new kit for upper-crust 90s and 110s

PRODUCTS

An array of things you never new you couldn’t live without

92 90 CHASSIS SWAP

Day-by-day diary as AL Services breathes new life into an old Defender

118 BUYERS GUIDE

It’s a buyer’s market, so here’s the place to come to learn how to be one

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Vehicles 4

Land Rovers

Adventure

24 BOUTIQUE CAMPER

96

RIG Automotive converts 130 ambulances into the ultimate blend of luxury and livein-it practicality

28 LS3 RANGE ROVER

A tired Classic lives again – only this time with a proper V8

50 HARDCORE P38

That rarest of things, a Mk2 Range Rover converted into a playday wagon

An expedition to Africa aboard a cheap Series III turns out to be the perfect way to travel

102 EUROPE DISCOVERED

It might have been a holiday rather than a full-house expedition, but thanks to a Discovery 2 it became a 12-nation epic

110 JOURNEY’S END

When you’ve set out to drive from A to B, only with 18,000 miles between them, reaching your goal is a bittersweet feeling

54 ULTRA-CLASSY IIA

Starring on the front cover is an 88 rebuilt

by Gumtree 4x4 and finished in the world’s most expensive paint

LIBERIA THE £950 WAY

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60 PATCHY 110

From the team that brings you…

01283 742969 enquiries@assignment-media.co.uk Web: www.thelandy.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/thelandyuk Founding Editor Alan Kidd Art Editor Samantha D’Souza Contributors Mike Trott, Graham Scott, Gemma Pask, Paul Looe, Olly Sack, Gary Noskill, Tom Alderney, Gary Martin, Oscar Scafidi, Raymond and Nereide Greaves Photographers Steve Taylor, Harry Hamm, Richard Hair, Vic Peel, Kayleigh Costin and Phil Uden, Ashton Radcliffe Advertising Sales Manager Colin Ashworth Tel: 01283 742969 Publisher and Head of Marketing Sarah Moss Email: sarah.moss@assignment-media.co.uk To subscribe to The Landy, or renew your subscription, call 01283 553243 Current price for 12 issues: UK £28

A hi-cap with a demountable camper back, a wood burning stove and a harlequin style colour scheme

62 REBELLIOUS DISCO 2

The Landy is available from newsagents, priced at £2.99 a copy, and free through selected Britpart dealers

66 BEEMER POWER

Every effort is made to ensure the contents of The Land Rover Yearbook are accurate, however Assignment Media Ltd accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions nor the consequences of actions made as a result of these

An ex-cop motor with a sober white suit but the loudest set of alloys you’ve ever seen

An early 90 rebuilt with an M57 diesel – and whole lot more besides

70 READY FOR ACTION

An unusual ex-MOD 110 becomes an overland wagon that never went overlanding

76 COOL DAD MOTOR

Having kids who want you to drive a 90 done up for off-roading… that’s got to be every father’s dream

80 IIA DOUBLE-CAB

Land Rover never built a four-door pick-up in the Series era. Doesn’t mean you can’t have one, though

86 BOWLER’S CENTURY

88

When responding to any advert in The Land Rover Yearbook, you should make appropriate enquiries before sending money or entering into a contract. The publishers take reasonable steps to ensure advertisers’ probity, but will not be liable for loss or damage incurred as a result of 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 The Land Rover Yearbook is published by Assignment Media Ltd, Repton House 1.08, Bretby Business Park, Ashby Road, Bretby DE15 0YZ

© Assignment Media Ltd, 2023

110

The company started by a man on a farm celebrates its 100th Defender 90 build as Land Rover’s official tuning arm

88 BAGGED 90

What looks like an everyday playday wagon turns out to be a pioneering work of off-road engineering

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109 07/11/2023 15:46

NEWS

Goodwood Revival hosts largest Land Rover’s relationship with the royal family goes back to the very earliest days of the Series I. Today, there’s a rich variety of all kinds of vehicles with connections to the crown – and on the first anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Land Rover brought together the biggest collection of them that’s ever been in the same place at once.

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his year’s Goodwood Revival got underway on 8 September – the first anniversary of the late Queen’s death. To mark the event, Land Rover put on a unique show of historic royal vehicles in Her Majesty’s honour, with a total of nine lapping the Goodwood circuit while two more were presented on static display.

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The procession featured Landies and Range Rovers used by the Royal family in either an official capacity or privately as part of the household collection. It included vehicles from the Royal fleet and JLR Classic as well as those now in private hands.

The pair of Land Rovers remaining on static display were two of the earliest Royal vehicles – the first Series I State Review vehicle and

another Series I ordered by HM King George VI. While all these vehicles are well known to enthusiasts, this was the first time they had ever been brought together.

Land Rover has had a long association with the Royal Family, and as part of JLR today it continues to display the Royal Warrant in recognition of its status as an official supplier.

Lennard Hoornik, JLR’s Chief Com-

mercial Officer, said: ‘We are proud of our Royal associations, which stretch back to the very origins of the business, and wanted to honour HM Queen Elizabeth II with a fitting tribute on the anniversary of her passing. We have never gathered such an extensive collection of Royal vehicles in this way and the commemorative parade was a fitting moment of remembrance.’

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NEWS

ever gathering of royal Landies

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NEWS

Above: The 110 in the foreground was a personal vehicle used by HM Queen Elizabeth II at the Sandringham estate. It’s part of the private Royal collection and, having been commissioned by HM The King, remains part of the active Royal fleet. Behind it is Jumbo, a stretched 130 with not two but three doors on either side. This was built to support Royal Family outings at the Sandringham Estate, where it remains a working vehicle; its use at Goodwood was personally sanctioned by HM King Charles III Right: Now part of the Royal Collection at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, this 109” Series IIA Station Wagon was the first such vehicle to be fitted with the 2.6-litre straight-six. It was equipped with side steps, as can be seen here, as well as leather seats.

There’s also a wooden dog guard ahead of the rear tub, which can just about be seen through the windscreen. The 109 is known to have been driven by HM Queen Elizabeth II. Alongside the Series IIA is the 1974 Range Rover State Review vehicle, which went into service in 1975 and was used until 2002. Its specially modified rear included fold-away seats and a lectern containing concealed umbrellas, and underneath the exhaust was fitted with an additional silencer to keep noise from the V8 engine to a minimum. This vehicle, too, is now in the Royal Collection at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon.

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2024 Land Rover Yearbook 04/11/2023 23:54

NEWS Right: The 1990 State Review Range Rover featured in the image chosen by HM Queen Elizabeth II for her 1994 Christmas card, in which she and the Duke of Edinburgh, were pictured attending the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in Arromanches.

This vehicle is now part of the British Motor Museum collection. Next to it here is another Range Rover, this one an L322 model dating from 2009, which was the Queen’s favourite vehicle after joining the royal fleet Inset: Behind the 2009 Range Rover here is the current State Review vehicle.

Designed and engineered by JLR’s Special Vehicle Operations division, it’s based on a long-wheelbase diesel-electric hybrid dating from 2015 and can run silently on electric power alone during processions Left: Now in a private collection, L31 is one of the 48 pre-production prototypes Rover made before introducing the 80” to the world. Its royal connection comes from its use in publicising the new Land-Rover, as it was then called, in which role it was photographed with HM King George VI. Below: Seen with L31 here is the second official ceremonial review Land Rover to be made. This features blue side light lenses, which were illuminated whenever a member of the Royal family was being carried – a similar feature can be see on the 1974 and 1990 Range Rovers on these pages. This particular Series II, which now resides in the Royal Collection at Gaydon, was used as a reserve vehicle – the result being that it has only ever covered around 13,000 miles in its life

Opposite: In the foreground is the first State Review Land Rover, a Series I featuring a custom-designed rear platform. It accompanied HM Queen Elizabeth II and HM The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on a six-month tour of the Commonwealth, and today forms part of the Royal Collection at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon.

Behind it is a Series I originally ordered by HM King George VI and used by HM Queen Elizabeth II and other senior members of the Royal Family at Balmoral. It was restored in 2010 by Land Rover apprentices and now resides in the Land Rover Classic collection

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NEWS

Land Rover name relegated to ‘trust mark’ status as JLR becomes ‘house of brands’

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aguar Land Rover, henceforth to be known as JLR, has a lot of brands, and there’s nothing crazy about trying to separate those brands out so they stand on their own four wheels. After all, Range Rover is a strong brand name in its own right and so too is Discovery, among others. But you have to think something’s gone seriously wrong when the Sunday Times writes a feature entitled: ‘LAND ROVER BRAND WILL NOT BE KILLED OFF, SAYS SPOKESPERSON’.

The alarming use of shouty capitals indicates this is a branding and PR exercise that has been carried out with all the forethought and skillsets shown by Bud Light.

Also, rule one of journalism, is that if something is denied then it’s true.

Rule two is that you never repeat the claim you’re trying to refute. More own goals for JLR. This response was caused by headlines which included: ‘Land Rover name killed off after 75 years.’

‘JLR drops “Land Rover” brand.’

And, our favourite: ‘JLR dealers “flabbergasted” by plan to axe Land Rover brand.’

So what is actually going on?

The answer is perfectly simple. So long as you don’t think about it too much, just keep moving, nothing to see here. Sigh, look, we’ve made it perfectly clear that we’re rebranding under the JLR umbrella, making more of the individual brands, and

of course we’re not getting rid of the Land Rover brand.

In fact JLR has gone so far as to say that: ‘Land Rover will remain the trust mark that underpins the world-leading capability offered across Range Rover, Defender and Discovery vehicles.’

The trust mark, that’s a nice title, with all those vehicles appearing under a House of Brands. That seems perfectly sensible when you consider you will now refer to the Range Rover rather than the Land Rover Range Rover.

And it’s got muddled over the years with Range Rover Sport/Evoque and so on. But what about Defender?

It looks like it’s going to be known simply as Defender. There may be a small Land Rover badge on the rear.

In a nutshell, it looks like the company – and don’t forget it’s no longer Jaguar Land Rover, it is simply JLR – is going to make the Defender a brand identity on its own, just like Discovery and Range Rover are. That means a downgrade of the Land Rover element of the vehicle, and its extensive Land Rover DNA. For marketers, that’s great. It’s no longer – deep breath – the Jaguar Land Rover Land Rover Defender. It’s the Defender, made by JLR. We hope we’ve clarified this situation for you.

And we haven’t even used shouty capitals. You’re welcome.

As part of this House of Brands, the Halewood plant is to become a facility making only electric vehicles.

What was the Engine Manufacturing Centre becomes the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre. And that rebranding exercise is to be called the Reimagine Strategy.

We’re wondering what their new brand name will be for the people who buy into this utopia. People formerly known as customers, drivers, enthusiasts. We don’t need to wonder about the name those enthusiasts have come with for said utopia, though, because we’ve heard it often enough. Probably best not print it, though.

The Defender will henceforth be just the Defender. By JLR. There’ll still be a Land Rover badge on it, because that counts for something in terms of trust, but the company’s legendary title will no longer be part of the vehicles’ names

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2024 Land Rover Yearbook 05/11/2023 00:00

Off-roading Protecting Carrying Towing Enhancing Repairing Diagnosing Improving Winching Lighting Servicing

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Upgrading Restoring

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Series / Defender / Discovery / Freelander / Range Rover / Range Rover Sport / Range Rover Evoque

NEWS

Mayfair unveiling for first quarter of a million pound Range Rover

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hose of us of a certain age are still reeling at the thought of a £100,000 Range Rover. But we’d better get used to it fast, because that figure has now ridiculousnessed its way up to £250,000.

The Range Rover SV Lansdowne Edition was unveiled to mark the opening of Stratstone Land Rover’s revamped showroom (soz, ‘luxury boutique’) in Mayfair. It features ‘a colourway inspired by Mayfair’s iconic architecture’, which means it’s grey. Inside, it’s trimmed in rosewood and ebony leather.

Given one of the epithets most frequently used for people in very expensive SUVs, it’s quite appropriate that the vehicle first saw the light of day in a street with a porn mag named after it.

The word ‘curated’ was recently voted the most abused in the English language. And sure enough, Land Rover uses it to describe

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the Range Rover’s specification.

This features the top-of-the-range 530bhp V8 engine, and the vehicle rolls on 23” forged alloys.

What else do you get for your money? Apart from ‘concierge levels of personal service in a modern, luxury environment’, of course? Well, the Landsdowne Grey gloss paint is exclusive to the vehicle (it would probably look less like an old Kia colour if you saw it in the metal) and contrasts with a darker roof and darker still accents for the door mirror, rear splitter and so on.

Inside, there are black ceramic controls and mohair carpets, plus a black anodised finisher (no, we don’t either) and Moonlight Chrome accent finishes (no again, though this time we’re talking about the name as well as what it actually is).

There’s a Tailgate Event Suite at the back (we’re not making this up) and SV Bespoke puddle lamps as well as illuminated tread plates bearing a

‘Lansdowne Edition 1 of 16’ script.

Yes, sixteen. So there’s more than just the one born every minute, then.

Each vehicle also gets a pair of black chrome two-piece metal script badges which, says Land Rover, were hand-crafted by Fattorini. Britain’s oldest family-owned jeweller, don’t you know.

So how do you get your hands on one of the special sixteen? By being one of the people who pre-ordered the whole lot of them before they were even announced, that’s how.

Usually when the likes of Aston and Ferrari do special editions like this,

they’re bought by speculators who lay them straight down, wait half a decade then punt them through a brokerage for an obscene profit.

Profit. A thing you’ll be familiar with if you can even think about spending this sort of dosh. But not to worry, while you’re picking it up you’ll be able to afford another Range Rover as well. That way you’ll have one to actually drive, too.

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NEWS

Disco Sport gets mild facelift and new cabin

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LR has lifted the wraps on a mildly facelifted version of the second-generation Discovery Sport. This is only subtly different to look at from the outside, however its cabin features a range of updates making it more luxurious than ever to travel in.

This includes details like a new gear selector, a digital instrument cluster, gearshift paddles on all models and a simplified centre console. The latter is home to the undourbted star of the show, a floating 11.4” curved glass touchscreen running the latest version of JLR’s Pivi Pro 2 infotainment system. Covering vehicle controls and functions such as media, volume, climate and navigation, this allows users to access 90% of tasks within two taps from the home screen.

The new media system takes care of various jobs previously done by physical controls, thus freeing up a huge amount of extra oddment storage space in the centre console.

This now features wireless charging as standard, too. Each row of seats also has access to two USB charging points; the Disco Sport continues to be available in five and

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seven-seat form, with every row also having its own climate control.

Staying with the in-vehicle climate, this now features enhanced air quality technology with the latest particulate filtration and CO2 management, promoting well-being for all occupants and heightening alertness for the driver. The system helps prevent odours, allergens and bacteria from entering the cabin, and allows you to monitor outside air quality at your location and, through an Air Quality Index app, your destination. The 11.4” screen also carries images from a suite of exterior cameras, giving you the option of 3D surround and bird’s-eye views of the vehicle.

From the outside, the Discovery Sport gains full body-coloured lower sills, a new gloss black grille, silver skid plates and Bright Atlas Discovery script on the bonnet. Dynamic models come with a contrast roof and gloss black exterior accents, including the grille, wheelarches, lower sills and bumpers, and the range of alloy wheels grows to include new black and diamond-turned options in 19” and 21”. There’s also a new paint option, called Varesine Blue; JLR

describes this as ‘curated,’ though to us it appears to be a colour.

As before, the Disco Sport can be had with P200 and P250 petrol engines and D165 and D200 diesels.

The P300e also remains – though its battery has been upgraded to deliver an improved EV range of up to 29 miles.

Not too much more than a set of tweaks to what was already a winning formula, then – though in the cabin it will feel like a useful step up. Prices start at £44,790, with the Dynamic HSE bumping that up to £57,850 in plug-in form.

Where the Disco Sport shall tread, the Evoque shall follow. And so the baby Range Rover also now boasts the same 11.4” curved glass touchscreen, Pivi Pro 2 and so on.

Sophisticated cabin air quality tech? Check. Enhanced EV range?

Got it? Completely spurious use of the word ‘curated’? Can’t believe you

even had to ask. It’s like looking at a Discovery Sport, only one whose ‘optimised stance, taut detailing and Range Rover design DNA make it instantly recognisable’ as something you still associate with that woman who was a Spice Girl in the 1990s.

The kit list is sky-high, and in addition the Evoque is available with ‘a comprehensive range of curated options packs.’ Or ‘options packs.’

The revised Evoque range starts at £40,080 (OTR), with the top-spec P300 Autobiography hiking that to £60,440. We went to the configurator on JLR’s website and, no word of a lie, it presented us with the ‘trending’ model before inviting us to ‘accept this curation.’ They do say your choice of car says a lot about you…

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NEW 4X4S

Oshe introduces thunderous take on Land Rover Defender Boutique restification programme • V8 engine, auto gearbox, semi-active suspension • Luxury interior • Production limited to four vehicles per year • Priced from £225,000

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his quite took me back.

Not to South Africa, which I motorbiked to in the 1980s. But that quote: ‘The last thing you want to do is break down; if the heat doesn’t get you, the wildlife might.’ Those summer nights in The Projects in South London, ah yes.

David Lane, heading up Oshe Automotive, probably doesn’t go to that part of town. His Land Rover certainly wouldn’t. It looks far more comfortable in the surroundings of the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, further north in London than in Sarf Lunnun.

When we looked there were only a couple of properties for sale in Pall Mall, both of them just one-bedroomed apartments, both of them with price tags of over one million pounds. To be fair, one of them had a tiny balcony and if you leaned out (assuming you weren’t a Russian who would never now do such a thing) you could see the RAC Club.

And there, inside, not outside, you would have found the Okavango.

Fortunately not the African river, but the latest in a long line of Defenders that have been upgraded into the stratosphere but with a price tag that means, if you didn’t buy the

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NEW 4x4S

apartment, you could afford about four of these vehicles.

Which would be tricky as production is planned at four vehicles a year. With just a handful coming on stream (sorry), the Okavango is the beginning of a range that will add the 110 model to the 90 you see here. Further projects will be called Zambezi, Sabie and Limpopo.

(Or ‘the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees’ as the Just So Stories so eloquently put it. There’s a wraparound graphic that needs doing.)

So what’s with all the Africa vibe?

(Not exactly channelling Rudyard

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Kipling I’ll admit.) To be fair, this is a programme based on heart and life and experience, as well as pampering the one percent. Owner David Lane grew up on a South African wildlife reserve, and that’s where you learn how important a reliable vehicle is when you’re out in the bush.

In those early days there were Land Rovers and old Willys Jeeps and that’s when he made that quote at the beginning of this story. True enough. After adventures around the world, he settled in London and started a company with the name of an African thunder god. Oshe Automotive therefore is based on some solid, real-world experience although it’s quite hard to see how sweating round a game reserve in this open-top Land Rover 90 would end well. Perhaps the red interior is to disguise all the blood that might get spilled.

The idea is that this is what Land Rover might have been or might have been developed into. Hardly a novel idea, as it’s a rich seam several companies are currently mining. This is ‘a clean, historically respectful, modern interpretation of the Land Rover legend.’ Ain’t they all.

However, hurrah, they haven’t gone down the electric vehicle route – it’s doubtful the founder’s past involved finding many electric recharging points amid the rondavels. Instead there’s a ‘beating V8 heart’, in this case a 3.5-litre but the long-wheelbase versions will have an LT1 6.2-litre V8 to make the heart beat a little faster.

Feeding through an auto box, this should give decent grunt whether deep in the Serengeti or deep in Sloane Square traffic. And while it may look like all the effort has gone into the shiny, fancy bits, there’s a

really solid underpinning that should engender confidence whether tackling a rocky slope in the Cape or driving over one of the hated ULEZ camera cars in Bexleyheath.

In this Adventure spec the Oshe Land Rover has semi-active suspension, with the five mappable settings electronically controlled, assisted by a G-sensor to further smooth out the handling. Add in AP Racing brakes and even a bespoke wiring loom. There’s attention to detail here – even the bulbs in the headlights have ‘Oshe’ tags.

Much of that remains unnoticed at rest, but the interior, sometimes covered with a bikini hood, is all about being noticed. You will notice the Muirhead red leather seats and red German woven carpet, with accents of both mahogany and acacia wood – very African of course.

The dash has been reworked extensively so now features more retro dials, an Audison and Moreli audio system feeding through Burmester speakers, Bluetooth audio, wireless charging and all the other modern

necessities. I’m not sure I’d want to have a crash with that mahogany steering wheel in front of me but maybe owners will employ a driver so they won’t worry too much.

OF course, it’s still a 90 and no amount of magic is going to make the interior a truly comfortable place to lounge. But they’ve done their best, with reprofiling of the heated seats, and different pedal and handbrake arrangements to try to make more room. You can’t say that Oshe Automotive hasn’t had a really good, thoughtful and thorough go at converting a 90 into a luxury automobile, yet one that is still capable of tackling some serious outdoors.

Which is good as prices start at £225,000 but we all know the end point will be nowhere near that as owners never can resist adding more. David Lane puts the appeal like this: ‘For the connoisseur, the improvements will be very noticeable and are a dramatic improvement.’ If that connoisseur is you, you can find the company at www.osheautomotive.com

13 04/11/2023 23:59

NEWS

JLR converts Defender 130 into emergency response vehicle ‘in line with its modern luxury principles’

A JLR DEFENDER 130, specially converted into a crisis response vehicle to mark the Platinum Jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth II, has entered service with the British Red Cross in North Wales. The vehicle’s role will be to support the charity’s efforts to reach communities in remote areas such as Snowdonia, Lleyn Peninsula and the Isle of Anglesey.

Developed in collaboration with the Red Cross, of which the Queen served as Patron for an extraordinary 70 years, the 130 has undergone various adaptations to prepare it for service. Astonishingly, JLR says this has been done ‘in line with (the company’s) modern luxury principles.’ It’s a crisis response vehicle, remember?

The luxuries in question include a built-in phone linked to an enhanced 4G-connected antenna, providing a strong signal whatever the location – no small matter, with Wales having been ranked as the second-worst part of the UK for data coverage in rural areas. The 130 also carries a VHF radio for communications and an upgraded telematics system with GPS tracking, as

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well as a roof-mounted solar power system charging an auxiliary battery to power accessories when the engine is not running.’

To optimise storage capacity, the vehicle’s third row of seats has been removed to make way for a fitted drawer system. This allows it to carry equipment such as blankets, food and first aid supplies which may be used when responding to emergencies including storms, floods, fires and freezing conditions. The Red Cross crew will be able to provide people with hot drinks, too, thanks to a built-in water boiler, and the 130 also carries rechargeable torches – with charging points provided, natch. It’s also fitted with anti-bacterial seat covers, because you don’t want one one crisis turning into another.

‘From fires and floods to storms and power outages, our partnership with Defender has helped us to be there for people in a crisis,’ says British Red Cross’ Head of Emergency and Crisis Response Chris Davies. ‘This generous donation will have a massive impact on our emergency responders in North Wales, ensuring that we can continue to support people wherever they are and whatever the British weather can throw at us.’

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 05/11/2023 23:37

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31/10/2023 15:53

NEWS

British Army contractors team up on devopment work as MOD seeks to put electric vehicles on the battlefield

THE BRITISH ARMY, MOST OF IT HAVING RECENTLY BEEN USED FOR MARCHING ABOUT AT THE CORONATION, has any number of threats and situations to consider. And just one of them is to become nice, and kind and to worry about the planet. And one of those worries is going to be how to keep electric vehicles moving on a battlefield.

As that old saying goes, when looking at an army, an amateur counts the tanks while a professional counts the trucks. Getting supplies to and then on to a battlefield is something that’s become even more critical and challenging over the last couple of centuries. And now the British Army is

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looking at adding another element to that – how will they get electricity or electricity generation to the battlefield?

It’s a very difficult question they’re going to have to find an answer to since they’re already trying out electric Land Rovers. Babcock International, the defence company, has teamed up with Electrogenic, one of the main players in electric vehicles, to trial four electric Defenders.

These are current serving vehicles, and two of them are relatively standard Army trucks while the other two are armoured and therefore heavier.

The idea is that they take out the diesel engines and replace them with a drop-in kit and a heavily modified battery system.

In this way they’re keeping as much standard as possible, since that’s the best way to ensure the quartermasters don’t go completely insane.

It’s called Project Lurcher, so hopefully they won’t make a dog’s dinner of

a project aimed at testing battlefield scenarios including steep terrain, wading and towing in a variety of climates. Clearly the electric powerplant could have some advantages. Not belching out tell-tale smoke, being quieter, these are all positives to anyone trying to move on a battlefield.

As is the lack of filters that continually clog with sand or dust and all the other fun parts of elderly turbo-diesels, plus fewer moving parts should extend life expectancy and make routine servicing that much simpler.

Importantly, these tests are not being carried out in isolation but will be done using diesel and hybrid alternatives to see what works in the real world – or on a battlefield, which is a very different thing altogether.

Chris Spicer, MD of Babcock’s Engineering and Systems Integration arm, takes the bigger picture: ‘This is a great opportunity to investigate alternative engine technology, which will enable the British Army to extend the life of its Land Rovers as diesel becomes obsolete.’

This is a one-year contract and the results will be fascinating. One of the advantages of Electrogenic is that the company is in control of every element of the electric drivetrain. It’s hard to over-estimate the levels of stress that a battlefield places on people and equipment. It’s been estimated that a truck in a combat zone wears out in just over 20% of the time it would normally take for this to happen under non-combat conditions.

How electric vehicles perform in these circumstances will be fascinating to see – as will the plans to deliver electricity or the means to generate it to the front lines.

05/11/2023 23:38

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NEWS

Lego launches a Land Rover that won’t ever spring an oil leak

BEFORE THE NEW DEFENDER WAS LAUNCHED, Lego did a sort of sneak peek of it which those in the know said was actually a pretty accurate replica of how the real thing was going to look.

Whether they were on a deliberate wind-up, or just deranged, is unknown, but now there’s a new Lego model of the original Defender – whose accuracy has to be seen to be believed.

The Lego Icons Classic Land Rover Defender 90, to give it its full name, was created to cash in on Land Rover’s 75th anniversary. It measures 32cm when built and has a two-in-one format, allowing you to create an everyday road-ready model or one that’s been customised for off-road adventures.

For the latter, the kit comes with a roof rack, raised air intake, front winch bumper, side rails and

toolbox, plus traction plates for crossing mud and sand. There’s a functioning winch to go on its front bumper, too.

The model has fully functioning steering and suspension, which actually sounds like a bit of an authenticity fail in the case of some Defenders we could tell you about, as well as opening doors and bonnet. No seized release cable here, thank you. The doors in question are fairly certain not to rot from the inside, too. The interior, meanwhile, is ‘based on the full-size Classic Defender,’ so look out for someone’s trousers hanging from the door catch and a dashboard that’s been chewed to pieces by a dog.

Lego launched the set with a challenge worthy of Land Rover itself. The company parked a real Defender in the Scottish Highlands and used it to house what it calls the hardest-to-reach Lego Store in the world. Then it set adventurers Raha Moharrak and Aldo Kane (you know, them) the task of racing to be the first to find the vehicle and build the new set. There’s a film of the whole caper at www.lego.com/Defender.

‘Bringing the Classic Defender to life in bricks was no easy challenge,’ comments Lego Design Master (an actual job title, apparently) Kurt Kristiansen. ‘Defender can take you anywhere, so during the design process we wanted to infuse the set with that sense of adventure. We can’t wait to see fans’ reactions.’

The full kit contains 2336 pieces, which ironically is the same as our old 90’s CV joint ended up in one morning after we’d left it parked up for the night. It costs £209.99; finally, some authenticity we can actually recognise.

Defender plays tour bus to headline acts at Glastonbury LAND ROVER HAS ASSOCIATED ITSELF WITH MANY DIFFERENT EVENTS DOWN THE YEARS. But the Glastonbury Festival is a new one on us.

Nonetheless, the Official Vehicle Partner of this year’s Glasto was the Defender. Yes, the Pop, Blues and Folk Festival of 1970 is now a thing with an Official Vehicle Partner.

Anyway, JLR supplied the festival organisers with a fleet of 20 Defender 110 plug-in hybrids which were tasked with transporting acts to and from the iconic Pyramid Stage. Not a job for any old vehicle, as you’ll know if you’ve endured Glasto in one of its muddier moods; no such worries this year, as it happens, but even so JLR points out that Defender’s air suspension can switch to off-road height to clear festival obstacles. We don’t know what a ‘festival obstacle’ is, save possibly from someone passed out on the ground, and we’re not sure if even 145mm of extra ground clearance would be enough for that, but Elton and Co made it to their gigs on

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time so obviously it all went off alright.

Glastonbury has a long association with the Defenders, a vehicle which the event’s founder Michael Eavis has been seen to drive regularly on his farm. The venue is home to a range of low-emission energy sources including a

250kWp solar array, which is responsible for saving 123 tonnes of CO2 each year, and it was power from these sources that kept the 110s’ batteries fully charged during the event – allowing them to carry the likes of Guns’n’Roses in serene silence. If only, huh?

05/11/2023 00:06

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NEWS

Everrati adds Range Rover and Defender to portfolio of restified electric Land Rovers

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verrati is already known for the super-premium electrified classic Land Rovers it builds. The company specialises in ‘the redefining and future-proofing of automotive icons through the integration of state-of-the-art electric vehicle powertrains,’ which has already seen ‘multiple’ examples of the leaf-sprung classic shorn of their petrol and diesel engines for the benefit of rich clients around the world. And now it’s starting on the Defender and Range Rover too.

‘Both vehicles remained at the apex of desirability throughout their production run,’ says Everrati, and at least in Britain it’s hard to argue with that. Now the company wants to keep it that

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way by removing the Rover V8s, Tdis and Td5s without which they would surely have been more desirable still and replacing them with a ‘proven, state-of-the-art OEM-grade electric powertrain.’

Like the Range Rover and Defender, this was developed and created in England. Oxford, to be precise. And also like the Range Rover and Defender, it’s intended to be a success story for the British export trade.

Everrati describes itself as a car custodian, promising to ‘stay true to the timeless quality of the vehicle’ while bringing it into the modern world with an electric powertrain whose performance exceeds that of the original. This way, it says, the Land Rovers will continue to provide

‘unparalleled enjoyment and fun’ for generations to come – the inference being that while its builds are expensive, they’re an investment.

Rather than trying to be a jack of all restoration trades, the company does the electric bit and engages ‘best-in-class marque-specialist build partners’ to do the restoration to what it describes as OEM standards. Each vehicle is built to order, ‘retaining (its) original character and DNA – both dynamically and aesthetically’ while being bespoke to its customer’s own specification.

‘Perfectly at home in London, Cornwall, Monterey or The Hamptons, these vehicles are right in the current zeitgeist,’ says Everrati boss Justin Lunny. ‘Rolling pieces of art that will give their owners, who are mavens of sustainability and responsibility, a clean and distinctive and luxurious way of travelling.

‘At the same time, these progressive machines will have a legacy, being preserved for generations who will be able to continue to use and enjoy them guilt-free, with zero emissions, as the automotive landscape changes around them.’

Talking of changes to the automotive landscape, Everrati’s Defenders and Range Rovers are priced at £185,000 and £230,000 respectively. In each case, that’s before VAT and doesn’t include the price of the donor vehicle, so realistically you’re looking at a quarter of a million for a 90 or 110 and fifty grand more for a Rangey.

If your reaction is ‘how much diesel could you buy for that,’ you’re not thinking along the right lines. If your reaction is ‘how many Land Rovers could I buy and restore for that,’ though…

05/11/2023 11:37

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NEWS

Missed oil changes and ham-fisted maintenance by non-experts lead to long line of catastrophic failures keeping 4x4 Engine Rebuilds busy THE TEAM AT 4X4 ENGINE REBUILDS has been kept busy during the last few months – not least by Land Rover owners neglecting to keep their vehicles’ oil services up to date.

Looking through the Essex company’s job list shows that an extraordinary number of Discoverys and Range Rover Sports have been through its workshop for repairs to their 3.0 SDV6 engines. But its expert team of engine specialists also work on petrol units – including the 5.0 V8 from a Range Rover SVR which came in having suffered catastrophic damage as the result of a missed oil change.

Also destroyed for the same reason was a 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel in a Discovery Sport, which arrived at 4x4 Engine Rebuilds not long before Christmas. This too suffered catastrophic failure – though whereas the SVR’s V8 had turned itself into a very expensive piece of scrap, the smaller unit was able to be fixed before going back to its owner in full working order.

It’s not just owners being lax that have left Land Rovers’ engines in need of specialist attention, though. Earlier in the autumn, yet another 3.0 SDV6 came in – this one with its timing out of kilter after being incorrectly rebuilt by another garage. Messy.

The company might get a lot of business out of people who neglect their vehicles, but it has a very simple reminder to every Land Rover owner: ‘Don’t leave engine servicing too late.’ The guys there can help you with that, too – they’re at 4x4EngineRebuilds.co.uk and always remember, a stitch in time…

Kahn celebrates 20 years of Range Rover conversions with inaugural model in new Racing Green programme

IT’S BEEN 20 YEARS SINCE KAHN’S FIRST RANGE ROVER PROJECT. You probably remember the company as making some moderately extreme versions of Solihull’s finest over the intervening two decades. And now it’s celebrating the 20th anniversary with a vehicle that encompasses Range Rover, motorsport, aeronautics and Princess Diana.

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Even for a vehicle the size of a Range Rover that’s quite a lot to fit in, but the Bradford company has given it a good go. It’s perhaps instructive to remember that, while Kahn’s base is in West Yorkshire, its main showroom is in Chelsea.

This is the first iteration of the company’s new Racing Green programme.

The Racing Green Fintail shows the direction it will all be going in. As Kahn says, ‘We’re aiming to create the gnarliest, most extreme off-road version of the new Range Rover ever made’.

Oh no, hang on, I’m misquoting. What the company actually says is: ‘With the arrival of the latest Range Rover comes an exciting opportunity to return

to the roots of Kahn, while focusing firmly on the future of automotive fashion.’

So, luxury 4x4 as fashion. In the same vein, have you noticed how some of the most expensive, cutting-edge men’s watches are now actually quite hard to tell the time with?

As far as we can tell, all the changes are to the bodywork. It apparently draws on ‘diverse influences’ including ‘the best of British engineering on land and in the air’. Which means a single-sweep front bumper valence that merges into the vented bumper extensions. Some may see in this a homage to the first Kahn Range Rover.

At the rear there is a winged diffuser with stabilising fins, which the name of this vehicle gave us a clue to in the first place. And between front and rear are sideskirts that add to the width and presence.

They hint at ground-effect racing cars and jet fighters, although that may be too subtle for some.

You may also have noticed the wheels, which are perhaps rather less subtle. These three-spokers are ‘a modern take on those found on Princess Diana’s 1995 Range Rover’. If you agree that this is in the best possible taste, you’ve found exactly the right company to build the 4x4 of your dreams.

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 05/11/2023 00:12

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Tip-top pop-top RIG Automotive is the brainchild of a car enthusiast who saw the potential in buying a fleet of 130 ambulances and turning them into campers. Nothing original in that, you might think – however as the first vehicle to roll out of its workshop demonstrates, the company is taking a particularly imaginative approach to carving itself a niche at the top of the premium Defender market Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Vic Peel

T

urning Land Rovers into high-spec, high-value leisure vehicles has become big business in recent times. So too has turning old 130s into mobile homes.

Depending on your view of what ‘leisure vehicle’ means, these two sentences could mean more or less the same thing. But it’s very, very unlikely that you’ll have seen anything quite like the Land Rovers built by RIG Automotive. If you have, it’s probably because you were at one of the Great British Land Rover Shows last year and saw these same vehicles there.

The RIG in RIG Automotive is Richard Gill, who’s based in Newark and is one of those people who does all sorts or cars but always well.

He knows his way around a classic Porsche 911 as well as anyone and has also previously done a restified ’87 Fiat Panda 4x4 and an absolutely show-stopping Mini Cooper S. It’s not so much a hard-nosed business (he’s already been successful in other unrelated fields) as a passion that pays – and that passion, as well as an almost limitless imagination, is there to be seen in everything the company creates.

And ‘creates’ is the word. Not ‘builds,’ not ‘restores’ – obviously these acts are going on, but

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what makes these Land Rovers stand out is the extent to which they differ from other high-end examples of the breed.

RIG 1, which you’re looking at here, is a good example. From the outside, at first glance it’s an ambulance-bodied 130 with nice paint. But the deeper you delve, the more you discover.

First off, it’s on 270x70R18 Cooper Discoverer STT Pros and these ride on gloss black alloys. That’s definitely not standard, and neither are the DRL bumper, Adventure grille, satin black steering guard and gloss black bonnet, arches and light surround.

All these things help add to the air of sophistication, as does a beautifully applied coat of Land Rover’s own Havana Brown. But you’re unlikely to notice any of them, at least to start with, if the pop-top roof has been deployed and the vehicle is in full camping mode.

As campers go, the Land Rover is both practical and very, very classy. It’ll sleep four of you if required, with a fold-down double bed and wood-lined roof bed structure, then a slide-out kitchen area gives you not one but two gas hobs, an electric fridge and a full hot water system. The latter also supplies a high-pressure shower, with a separate leisure

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Left: The console to the left of the camper area is incredibly clever and flexible in its design. It’s a double bed in this configuration…

Right: …while here, it’s folded up into a sofa. The bike slide runs underneath it, with storage space below that – this really is a masterful work of packaging battery and full monitoring for the water and electrical systems alike.

All good, but that really is just the beginning.

There’s a wall mount for an iPad, which might give you an idea of how contemporary this conversion is, and a Nebula Projector and screen for when you want to turn your Land Rover into a selfcontained cinema. This is backed up by an Audio Pro Bluetooth speaker, and there’s a pair of Bowers and Wilkins wireless headphones hanging on one of the walls – alongside one of the various

pot plants which add a distinctly homely edge to proceedings.

Something else you’re apt to have spotted is a slide-out bike rack. This is big enough to house two adult bikes, though here it’s carrying just the one. Not just any old one, though, but a Whyte 146 – the product of a company founded 20-something years ago on the back of the now legendary PRST-1. Designed by MTB guru Jon Whyte, this was a bike that rewrote the rules and gained a cult following among riders who dared to be different. Does that sound familiar?

Up top, a solar panel is linked in to the electrical system by an MPPT controller, allowing the most efficient possible interface between it and the leisure battery.

There’s an external hook up too, of course, as well as staple camping necessities like fold-down tables, window blinds and a hybrid washing line and shower rail.

Neither has RIG ignored the behind-the-scenes basics while speccing the 130. Poke around long enough and you’ll find an on-board compressor, tool chest and safe, and there’s a diesel-burning space heater to keep the cabin warm.

Up front, it’s a bit like the premium street Landies so many companies are building now.

You get XS leather seats, Exmoor carpets, a Momo steering wheel, aluminium door handles and a gloss black centre console housing a Pioneer DAB radio system running Bluetooth, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay though a 6.2” touch screen. Further leather is appended to the dashboard and cubby box, with contrast stitching adding to the feeling of class. Naturally, the cabin is air-conditioned… well, maybe it’s not natural, with this being a Defender, but it is.

Air-conditioned cabin is appointed with XS leather seats, Exmoor carpets, a Momo steering wheel, aluminium door handles and a gloss black centre console housing a Pioneer DAB radio system running Bluetooth, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay though a 6.2” touch screen

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 4pp RIG 1.indd 26

04/11/2023 23:50

These are typical of the sights you’ll see when you open the rear doors of a 130 ambulance and climb aboard. At least, they are if the 130 ambulance in question is this actual one

“It’s not so much a business as a passion that pays – and that passion, as well as an almost limitless imagination, is there to be seen in everything the company creates” Talking of this being a Defender, it’s a 2010 model with the 2.4 TDCi Puma engine bolted to the back of the standard six-speed Getrag manual gearbox. The engine itself isn’t standard, though, at least not entirely, because it’s been treated to a Stage 1 tuning upgrade to help it shift all that weight. An Air Lift helper air bag kit assists the rear springs when it comes to keeping said weight supported, too.

With so much tech already on board, not to mention the small matter of a back body large enough for four people to live in, it won’t surprise you that Richard specced a reversing camera. He replaced all the standard lights with LEDs, too, both inside and out, and added four LED floods to the exterior. Safe to say you’re unlikely to be missed in this thing.

Some people will look at a Defender like this and say it’s over the top. Others will instinctively get what it’s all about. The point is, of course, that you might not need a slide-out bike rack or a couple of pot plants in your overland vehicle, and a TV projector and screen may represent everything you want to get away from when you climb aboard for a weekend’s off-grid camping – but the level of quality in the spec and fittings is there to show you that whatever you do want, this is a company that’ll do it well.

Richard tells us that he’s had plenty of interest at the shows he’s done so far, and that the overwhelming response has been of admiration.

The signature quirks like that mountain bike have gone down well, too.

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Naturally, you needn’t expect these vehicles to be cheap. But they’re based on good, low-mileage 130s from a source that looked after its fleet, and the workmanship, materials and equipment in the conversions is top-class. Whether you see it as a

camper van with a difference or a self-propelled executive pad, RIG Automotive’s first creation is an eye-catcher like few others – and a promising sign of things to come from one of the most imaginative builders around.

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BJORN AGAIN ‘Manufactured by the Rover Co Ltd Solihull England’, it still says on this Range Rover’s VIN plate. But what you see before you is the product of a life in Sweden… followed by a new life wrought by a three-year restoration by one of the world’s top 4x4 builders

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Words: Graham Scott Pictures: Legacy Overland

I

t’s easy to get all anthropomorphic about stuff. Does your dog really know what you’re thinking, for example?

Of course, that has its downsides. Imagine being able to actually hear what your cat thinks of you. But we take this over into inanimate objects as well, like politicians or indeed this Range Rover.

Back in 1975, it rolled off the Solihull production line in England. Then at some point it went to live in Sweden – presumably that was its first destination since it’s always been a left-hooker. Then it crossed the Atlantic to live in the USA. Why did it do that? Was it on the run after not being liberal enough for Sweden? Did it refuse to play Abba on its radio?

Who knows. Of course the Americans view it differently. According to them this old Classic was ‘rescued from the northern expanses of Sweden’.

Obviously nobody would want to live there; the world would much rather live in the USA, whether people, objects, pets or garden ornaments.

‘The Americans’ in this case are the hard-working folk at Legacy Overland who, in their own words, make ‘new vintage motors’. They’re based in Connecticut, and so not that far from New York, which is actually the sort of location you’d see this gleaming 4x4, amid all the street camps of people living rough, as it burbles through the misery, more than capable of dealing with any homeless debris or obstruction. So much nicer than the frozen lakes and snowy mountains of northern Sweden.

But here it is, not far off half a century old, looking way, way better than when it rolled off that production line, even though now it is called The Exeter. After the Duke in various Shakespeare plays who was once played by Brian Blessed, no

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doubt, the man who went on to find fame as the voice of Peppa Pig’s grandfather, or possibly the city in Devon that became known as England’s worst clone town.

Or not. They could have called it The Swindon or The Hull or something. Anyway, foreign travel has obviously suited this old Classic. And naturally, it has picked up some foreign parts after travelling in foreign parts.

Actually, before we get into it, it’s simply impossible to not stop and stare at that paint job.

Even as you get near, your eye is drawn to that lustrous glossy black. The original body sprayers at Solihull would have choked on their Woodbines if they’d seen something like this.

Beluga Black is a Land Rover colour, but we’ve never seen it applied in quite such a glossy way. Obviously various things are Beluga Black, including caviar, a whale and, umm, some lentils, but photographing this three-door must have been tough for the man with the lens as everything is mirrored back to you from the paintwork. Sorry if you think we’re going overboard about it but it really is extraordinary.

Of course, one reason it seems so amazing is that it is so evenly reflected. And that requires flat panels, not the usual ones that aspire to flatness.

Which is just one reminder that this wasn’t a quick respray and a bit of titivation. This was a total rebuild involving every nut and bolt, everything

04/11/2023 00:11

Above: The Range Rover had a V8 when it was new, and it has a V8 now. So, nothing to see here, then.

Except of course the old 3.5-litre Rover engine was mainly just a thing that made it move, a bit. You could tune them, for sure, but since the one in this Rangey was approaching its 50th birthday a far better and altogether more American solution was to replace it with a crate engine – and what better candidate for the job than 6.2 litres’ worth of LS3 goodness?

Right: The Range Rover had disc brakes when it was new, and it has disc brakes now. Do you see a pattern forming? Same goes for its springs and shocks, too – the suspension set-up is the same but the former are comfort ride jobs and the latter are from Monroe, so its owner won’t still be rebounding his or her merry way up the road half a mile after making a gentle lane change

taken back to the frame, which was then treated and restored after all those dismal years in the glittering wilderness of northern Sweden.

Whoever the original owner was, it probably wasn’t Bjorn Borg or Bjorn Ulvaeus (air guitar and real guitar respectively), although of course there was a Land Rover in Mamma Mia! Anyway, whoever it was, they didn’t sit in the kind of luxury that you find inside the Legacy Overland version.

Slide in behind the wheel and perhaps there are echoes of the 1970s. The words ‘velour’ and ‘shag’ have their place here although it’s better if you imagine the Carry On team saying them. Titter

ye not. So what we have is a cabin in handcrafted saffron-coloured velour, and the floor is covered in a dark brown shag carpet with beige floor mats.

All that’s missing is the avocado-coloured bidet and we’d be away.

But it is, as a later comedian would attest, ‘all in the best possible taste’. It really is, with Palomino leather trim also lavishly applied to doors, seats and even the cubby box. The detailing is exquisite, like that Lokar vintage-style gearlever finished in Midnight Black, matched by the transfer case shift lever. Notice how the main dials may have been meticulously rebuilt, but there are new,

smaller gauges for everything from the oil pressure gauge to the clock.

Naturally, unlike in a Rolls-Royce, you won’t be hearing the clock tick for several reasons, including the new Alpine UTE sound system. The head unit fits in where the original radio would go and is partnered with a massive amplifier and speakers in the doors and rear roof. Never will Dancing Queen have sounded so good.

But there’s another reason you won’t be hearing the clock tick, and that’s because of one of those aforementioned foreign parts. It’s what happens when things go Stateside. They just get bigger.

Legacy Overland has a team of professional restorers who know exactly how to turn a piece of rolling scrap into a work of remanufactured automotive art, but it still took them three years to turn the Range Rover around. When you see the plight of what first arrived with them, the sheer size of the task does become apparent – it’s hard to believe that someone could let a vehicle get into such a horrendous state in the first place

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2024 Land Rover Yearbook 04/11/2023 00:11

It takes a certain amount of taste and discernment to spend the better part of $300,000 on a 50-year-old 4x4 The original V8 is gone. Too small, too weedy, too European. Instead there is another V8 fro General Motor only this one, straight out of its crate, displaces 6.2 litres.

Legacy Overland don’t go into performance figures so much, but the LS3 engine should be good for about 430bhp. That is just a smidge above the original V8 which might have made 124bhp on a good day, and not all days were good. Not forgetting the new figure of 425lbf.ft of torque.

While that’s all jolly marvellous and exciting, the more thoughtful among you must be wondering what that torrent of power would do to the rest of the vehicle, apart from the grinning driver.

There’s a six-speed automatic fitted but that still feeds through the LT230 transfer case, which has been rebuilt. We bet it has. The entire drivetrain has been meticulously rebuilt to cope with it all and there’s an aluminium radiator, power steering with its own cooling system and a custom

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exhaust. To paraphrase a disgusting breakfast cereal, it rumbles, crackles and pops.

Stopping such a beast would necessarily require an upgrade, and sure enough there are high-performance disc brakes all round with braided hoses to keep things tight. The handling appears to be aimed more at the US than the UK market with ‘comfort ride’ springs and Monroe shock absorbers. With such a set-up you’d probably hardly notice those tented encampments under the BFGoodrich All Terrains, which run on restored Rostyle steels sporting custom wheel caps.

Legacy Overland really do the details. Which is one reason why this restoration took them three years. It must be said that when they got it, in a sort of tired Camel Trophy drab yellow, it looked like it had been hit by a moose while being driven by a bear. Now it looks as good and to a higher standard than many modern supercars.

Only it’s not a supercar, it’s an absolute classic, one of those shapes that pretty much anyone would recognise and smile at. It manages to look

period but on-point, extravagant but almost modest. That’s what real money can buy you.

Any BlackRock senior exec could buy the US-only Range Rover Carmel Edition at north of $300,000, but it takes a certain amount of taste and discernment to spend the better part of that on a 50-year-old 4x4. We reckon this elder English vehicle would smile quietly to itself at its restoration to high status. See, it reallly is easy to be anthropomorphic.

31 04/11/2023 00:11

NEWS

Range Rover restoration options grow yet again as Inverted joins the market using reused Tesla batteries to create ‘forever classic’ EV

A ‘REGENERATION SPECIALIST’ SOUNDS LIKE A COMPANY THAT PUTS TOGETHER DELUDEDLY WEALTHY PEOPLE AND CRYOGENIC TANKS. In fact it’s a company that puts together very wealthy people with electrified classic vehicles. In this case, #001 is a Range Rover Classic.

The world seems awash with companies ‘reimagining’ or in this case ‘regenerating’ high-end vehicles but there’s no doubt the market is there among the 1%. They’re buying luxury and moral purity – plus they can drive them to their offices in The City without any worries. Plus it’s a way of stopping some venerable old delights, like early Range Rovers, being consigned to the great rustheap in the sky.

This whole area is not without its dilemmas.

Should we be gushing over a vehicle that now costs heading towards quarter of a million pounds while other people are desperately trying to get

1 Inverted RR.indd 32

their old motors through their MOTs? Or would we rather these old 4x4 were scrapped or crushed?

Or are we overthinking this? And what does that mean? Discuss noisily in enormous detail over an absinthe in a Left Bank café in Paris.

Oh I don’t know. Let’s ask Harry Millington, founder and director of Inverted, what he thinks he’s doing. Harry?

‘With a passion for the classic Range Rover and a desire to future-proof this iconic model and reduce environmental impact, I founded Inverted. As part of this ethos, I made the conscious decision to recycle and re-use existing Tesla batteries, rather than increasing footprint with carbon intensive new modules.

‘Each car is lovingly restored and tailored to the individual customer’s specification. With no road tax, congestion or ULEZ charges and zero emissions, our electrified Range Rover Classic offers effortless, comfortable and reliable motoring in town or country. I believe we have created the ultimate, luxury forever-classic icon.’

Well, okay, but he would say that wouldn’t he? Notice though the emphasis on city driving, particularly London.

Let’s not kid ourselves these old classics are being restored so they can show off their off-road prowess.

But there’s no doubt that, whatever the use, this first

Inverted model is right up there for quality and imagination. And indeed performance. There’s now the equivalent of 450bhp and 440lbf.ft of torque, thanks to a reused Tesla 80kWh battery module and Large Drive Unit.

All of this means the original axles have been uprated, plus there’s a limited-slip diff, while Alcon brakes deal with the extra performance. This particular vehicle also has an optional extra, the road handling pack, so the shocks are adjustable as are the anti-roll bars plus the springs are 25% stiffer to cope with, yes, life on the road at a fair clip.

Naturally the whole thing has been body-off restored and it looks luscious. None of it more so than the interior, which features Harris Tweed and Muirhead Mocha leather. That’s a very fine pairing indeed, and you can even feel good about it since Muirhead make the world’s lowest carbon leather.

The interior is also bang up to date in terms of electronics and all available luxuries. Naturally you can choose what and how much you want to add or subtract; every vehicle is unique and they’re committed to only making six a year based on either the two-door, four-door or long-wheelbase LSE, with Inverted sourcing the donor vehicle.

Prices start at £225,000 but that doesn’t include VAT and it’s obvious where it starts is not going to be where it ends, but if you’re worrying about the price then welcome to our world.

Back in the day, the grasping priests would sell you indulgences for your soul. Now, thanks to Inverted and other such companies, you can do it without enriching the church or indeed Sadiq Khan.

Such is progress.

05/11/2023 00:17

NEWS

FreelanderSpecialist.com joins effort to provide medical support for Ukrainian defence force

T

he war in Ukraine has brought forth many stories of heroism over the last year, and of incredible acts of compassion shown towards the nation by people in Britain and all around the world. In the 4x4 world, the extraordinary efforts of Gordon Jackson-Hopps, a building surveyor from Norfolk, have seen him delivery humanitarian supplies, ferry refugees across the country, deliver children to relatives and help evacuate vulnerable civilian to neighbouring Romania.

Most recently, Gordon launched Operation Freelander – a project whose goal is to deliver a dozen vehicles to the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Force, which will use them to move casualties and aid. Each of the dozen Land Rover Freelanders needs to be sourced, prepared and

34 2 Freelander Specialist Ukraine.indd 34

equipped for use before being driven across Europe – with the first two being delivered just before Christmas by Gordon himself and Sue Maddock of FreelanderSpecialist.com.

Based in Methwold, Norfolk, Freelander Specialist is a family company which has become known for its expertise in everything to do with Land Rover’s original baby SUV – parts, service, repairs, mods, you name it. The company’s own expedition-prepped Freelander 1 is a self-propelled example of the potential within these vehicles, too.

As well as being part of the driving team, Freelander Specialist’s involvement in the project has seen it donate two 2004 Freelander Estates along with the time and knowledge required to check them over prior to being delivered to Ukraine.

However it is just one of several businesses to help make Operation Freelander happen. Bell Engineering donated new VCUs for the vehicles, Euro Car Parts helped out with spares and Camskill supplied the vehicles’ tyres – which were then fitted by Graham Gillis Autos in King’s Lynn.

Speaking from the road across Europe, Sue also praised Nobert, Ngwenya and Mihai, ‘who have worked tirelessly to make sure these Freelanders can not only make the journey to Ukraine but can then perform their duties to save precious lives’, and Gordon’s wife Vicki – ‘who, even as we are driving, has been raising money to cover our fuel and costs.’

The driving itself started on 17 December, with an early ferry crossing followed by a marathon 16-hour journey to Krakow in Poland. ‘The sudden

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 05/11/2023 00:20

NEWS rush to get these Freelanders to Ukraine was because of a desperate plea from the medivac team of the 23rd Battalion of Special Assignment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,’ explains Sue. ‘Out of 80 medics in the Battalion, 50 have been killed or injured and most of the vehicles destroyed by shelling.’

To prepare it for its new life, one of the Freelanders had been fitted with a brand new heater matrix, thermostat, water pump and so on. Despite this, it lost all heating on the way to the ferry.

With the vehicles being so desperately needed, however, turning back was not an option – leaving Gordon with the particularly grim task of driving across Europe in a temperature of about 12°C. The following morning, having stopped to buy auxiliary heaters, Sue and Gordon continued towards the Ukrainian border with the latter driving in full cold-weather gear and wearing a balaclava.

The temperature had dropped still further, meaning the heaters were no use – and worse yet, at one point one of them fell to the floor next to Gordon’s feet, distracting him enough for the Land Rover to end up in a field next to the road. ’In my rear view mirror,’ says Sue, ‘I saw the Freelander swerving over the icy road, then the worst thing in the world happened and it went over the edge’ It was a steep drop into the field, deep in snow; there was no way the car was going down without rolling.

‘I pulled over and ran back, and to my absolute delight the Freelander was on all four wheels with Gordon moving through the thick snow. I never thought it was going to come out so easily.’ A little reminder of why the Ukrainians needed vehicles with real off-road ability – this was one little mis-

2 Freelander Specialist Ukraine.indd 35

hap along the way, but these vehicles are destined to work for their living on soggy battlefield where traction is essential every step of the way.

Even so, says Sue, the all-terrain tyres they had fitted were barely enough just for the road conditions. ‘We had been advised to cross into Ukraine at a more remote, less busy border post.

As we left the beautiful main roads, we began to realise this was not the best advice we had received. These road conditions needed proper winter tyres!’ That was the prelude to Gordon’s wild ride, and after that Sue says the roads went from bad to worse. ‘Mountain passes with hairpin bends and steep falls, completely covered in ice and snow. What a slow journey that was!’

With the border now just two minutes away, the two vehicles were pulled over by the police for running a stop sign neither Sue nor Gordon had actually seen. What do you need most in your life when you’ve taken unpaid leave from work and sold personal possessions to fund a mercy run?

To be fined, of course. Charmingly, the Polish cops made Sue and Gordon stand outside while they sat in their warm car doing the paperwork.

Not a good precursor for dealing with a border crossing, but happily the officials here were as good as the police had been bad. ‘After we finished with immigration and were moving on to customs,’ says Sue, ‘the immigration officer gave us both an orange. We were starving, having not eaten or even had a coffee break since morning – I never thought I’d get a gift from an immigration officer!’

Crossing into Ukraine also meant dealing with the endless bureaucracy that goes with arriving in a vehicle you’re going to leave behind. And

the customs officer wanted to know what all the equipment in the back of the Freelanders was for, too. ‘That’s for stopping the blood flow when somebody has been shot or had a limb blown off’ is one of those things you kind of hope you’ll go through life without having to say.

By the time the two vehicles cleared customs, it was dark and they still had a three-hour drive ahead of them to Lviv. The weather wasn’t any better, either – but they made it. Late and, presumably, exhausted, but you can only imagine the satisfaction of knowing that Operation Freelander’s first two vehicles were at last in their new home and ready to be handed over the following day.

With these two down, however, that still leaves another ten to go. And though this first chapter in the story has been completed, there’s still so much to be done – which means Operation Freelander is still in desperate need of funds.

Which is where you come in, dear reader. There are various ways of helping this incredibly selfless mission – you may be able to help in person or, if you can spare a few quid, make a donation towards the cost of getting 12 Freelanders into the hands of people to whom they will make the difference between life and death. You can contact the organisation on operationfreelander@ gmail.com, or donate at www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/operationfreelander. It’s on both Facebook and YouTube, too.

‘When people ask what I’m doing driving all this way into a war zone,’ reflects Sue, ‘my answer is that I am saving lives for Christmas.’ War creates heroes – and as Operation Freelander shows, it’s not just on the front line.

05/11/2023 00:20

NEWS

Goodwood launch for Land Rover Classic accessories

2pp Classic LR Accessories.indd 36

05/11/2023 00:23

NEWS

I

f it’s important to you that the parts and accessories you use are as official as possible, Land Rover Classic has launched a new range for the original-shape Defender. These were introduced at this year’s Goodwood Revival, where the company showed them off by displaying a quintet of vehicles including an expedition camper, a Black Pack equipped 110 Hard-Top, a 90 Station Wagon with a heritage aesthetic and two Classic Land Rover Trophy support trucks.

Describing the range as ‘a curated new collection of original OEM quality parts and accessories for the Classic Defender,’ Land Rover also previewed an official roof tent,

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 2pp Classic LR Accessories.indd 37

designed in partnership with TentBox, which will become available for the Defender in 2024. This was displayed on the Expedition Camper model, built by camper specialists The Ply Guys, whose spec also included a drawer unit, kitchen module and cooking station as well as Harris Tweed upholstery, Sawtooth alloys and a natural birch ceiling with integrated downlights.

‘In the Expedition Camper, the team have created a stunning vehicle that showcases the adventure capability of the iconic Classic Defender,’ said Land Rover Classic’s Glen Kelly. ‘Alongside this vehicle was an impressive display of our official authentic Land Rover Classic

parts and accessories, fitted to a variety of different Classic Defenders, all with individual looks to suit different tastes.

‘We are reacting constantly to customer demand for OEM quality items in the aftermarket, and engineer and source our parts and accessories to the highest standards.

Both The Ply Guys and TentBox are ideal partners as they both clearly share our commitment to quality and love the Classic Defender as much as our customers do.’ Land Rover describes the vehicle as ‘expedition ready’; other accessories included side steps, a bespoke cubby box and black headlight surrounds.

The Black Exterior Pack also featured on a 110 along with 18” Sawtooths, LEDs, an Expedition roof rack and ladder and, on the inside, a leather steering wheel and SVX alloy gear and transfer knobs. The heritage-look 90, meanwhile, ‘provided an entirely different character’ with

‘bright silver finishes for an understated luxury aesthetic.’

Rounding off the five-strong display were Defenders fitted with the Trophy I and Trophy II Tribute Packs.

Devised to trade on the image of the ultra-exclusive client events organised for buyers of various Works V8 editions, these include a Heritage grille, nudge bar, winch, winch bumper and painted Wolf steels in the case of the Trophy I, and an Adventure grille, black 18” Sawtooths and headlamp surrounds, winch, winch bumper, and full Expedition Camo wrap on the Trophy II. In Land Rover’s words, ‘this collection of unique, individual vehicles showcases the full breadth of the Land Rover Classic parts and accessories catalogue, catering for customers who demand OEM engineered parts in the aftermarket that deliver the opportunity to customise and enjoy the Classic Defender as it should be.’ Prices for Defenders on the JLR Classic site at the time of writing range from £64,950 for a 2012 110 Pick-Up on 89,500 miles to £265,950 for a bespoke 2011 Works V8 on next to nothing, so ‘as it should be’ in this case appears to mean ‘very expensive.’

37 05/11/2023 00:23

PRODUCTS

Britpart introduces Intelliride kits for converting Defenders to electronic air suspension Price: Ca £3500 plus VAT Available from: Britpart dealers

C

onverting a Land Rover Defender to air suspension is something people have done in the past, but it’s still quite a rarity. Thanks to Britpart, though, it might be about to become less so.

That’s because the company’s range now includes full Intelliride Electronically Controlled Air Suspension kits from Airbag Man. Promising comfort on the road and a constant ride height, irrespective of load, these also allow you to raise and lower the vehicle at the push of a button, with three pre-set heights adding ground clearance beneath the body when you go off-road and allowing easier loading for luggage and passengers alike.

Converting both axles to air ride, the kit has front-to-back and horizon levelling options. Handy if you’re fitting a roof tent and don’t fancy sleeping on a slope. As well as offering manual control, its fully automatic operation continuously monitors inputs and responds accordingly to potholes, cross-articulation and extended cornering.

Britpart says the kits include OEM-grade components for reliable performance and high-volume air springs for optimal ride quality. Its

main components are heavy-duty rolling sleeve air springs (Dunlop at the front, along with shock relocation brackets, and Firestone at the back), a 12-volt, 150psi AMK air compressor and a lightweight 1-gallon seamless aluminium air tank and a hand-held controller with a 9m lead. The kit, which promises easy installation, also comes with an ECU and valve block, vehicle-specific air supply mounting brackets, rocker switch and height sensors. It uses 6mm high-quality nylon tubing throughout and comes with all the hardware you need, including quick-fit push-to-connect air fittings, easy-on electrical connections Defender 90 Defender 110/130 and sealed relays and Front Rear Front Rear harnesses. You get Height Range Automatic Mode step-by-step fitting Ride Height up to Raised Height 40mm 40mm 40mm 60mm instructions, too, as Ride Height down to Access Height -80mm -80mm -80mm -90mm well as an operator’s manual to make sure Height Range Manual Mode you’ll be getting the Maximum Height from Ride Height 50mm 50mm 50mm 70mm best from it once it’s Minimum Height from Ride Height -100mm -100mm -100mm -110mm up and running.

Do so and the The system brings the promise and improved braking, steering and promised benefits will include of lower maintenance costs, too. handling. In addition to all that, the adjustable levelling You can see the kits in action at air cushion in the springs will also control, stabilised body roll, safer www.britpart.com/airbag. prevent them from bottoming out. load carrying, reduced tyre wear

AlliSport swirl pots fight fuel starvation in extremes Price: £105-£110 plus VAT Available from: www.allisport.com IF YOU USE YOUR 4X4 HARD ENOUGH for fuel starvation to become an issue in hard, long corners or at prolonged extreme angles, a swirl pot is in order. We’re talking winch challenge and comp safari use first and foremost, and when you do that it won’t be long before you start talking AlliSport.

The company offers 1.0-litre and 1.5-litre options, each with a 3mm base. They have two Dash 8 JIC male connections, one Dash 10 JIC male and one 8mm push-fit top bleed, though they’re also available with push-on connections all round. Both are 4” in diameter; the 1.0-litre unit is 130mm high, while the 1.5-litre extends this to 180mm.

9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 38

05/11/2023 02:48

PRODUCTS

Series Flex Shackles promise to transform your leafer’s articulation Price: £260 plus VAT (£312 inclusive) Available from: www.designdevelopmentengineering.co.uk

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERING’S SERIES FLEX EXTENDING SPRING SHACKLES open when the wheel next to them wants to droop, allowing greater articulation. As the name suggests, they’re designed specifically for leafsprung Land Rovers.

The shackles have a closed length of 4” (101.6mm) and a maximum extended length of 10.5” (266.7mm). Thus they help to compensate in an area where coils traditionally have an advantage over

the old tech. They’re made from CNC-machined high grade steel with stainless pins and saddle, custom polyurethane bushes and a highload Oilite pivot point bush – which is maintenance free.

So, you’re thinking, that’s all very well but what happens when you’re out there on the road and the very last thing you want is your spring shackles yawning open and closed every time you go round a corner?

Well you evidently weren’t the only one thinking it, because they incorporate a locking feature to keep them closed in just that scenario.

Who knew simple cart springs could be so clever?

Universal bulkhead for pre-Puma Defender Price: ca £3300 inc VAT • Available from: Britpart dealers IF YOU’VE GOT A DEFENDER, or pre-Defender, dating from 1983-2006, there’s a pretty strong chance that if it doesn’t need a new bulkhead yet, it soon will. Hence this British-made Universal Replacement Bulkhead from Britpart, which comes in a kit with loose brackets allowing for all the differences with which they came out of the factory from model year to model year.

Britpart warns that when you’re installing one of these, you may need to make some modifications to the transmission tunnel. This will, for example, be the case with a V8 model. Any alterations that are required will, however, only be minor.

Cool looking light pods for new Defender GRP 4X4’S ROOF LIGHT FOR THE CURRENT LAND ROVER DEFENDER features a pair of 14” LED spots housed in an aerodynamic pod made in-house using high-quality materials. It comes with all the wiring you’ll need to install it and the pod itself is attached to the vehicle using 3M two-way tape, meaning no drilling ought to be required.

The harness allows a variety of light settings – including a strobe function. The unit comes with a fob switch, too, so you can use the lights to help you locate your Land Rover in a gloomy car park.

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 39

39 05/11/2023 02:48

PRODUCTS

BOWLER MOTORS LAUNCHES 20” WHEEL FOR NEW DEFENDER Price: £500 + VAT per wheel From: ww.bowlermotors.com

ONE OF THE THINGS WE LIKE ABOUT THE NEW-SHAPE DEFENDER is that at the bottom of the range, you get it with steel wheels. But one of the things Bowler Motors likes about it is that we’re not most people.

Bowler has been making top-notch kit Land Rover kit for something scary like about 35 years. The company is best known for rally raid vehicles like the original Tomcat and Wildcat, as well as the current Bulldog and various generation of Challenge comp cars, and there was also the small matter of the Spectre 110 having come out of their workshop. But it also makes accessories, and rather good ones they are too.

Like this 20” Challenge Performance Wheel, for example. Engineered for a rally-bred combination of toughness and light weight, it’s TUV approved and available in a choice of Gloss Black and Anthracite finishes.

The 20” wheel, whose 120 x 5 PCD makes it a tailored fit for the new Defender, was developed from the existing 18” unit used in the 2022 Defender Challenge. ‘We have seen these wheels driven literally miles without tyres and still be serviceable,’ says Bowler’s Rob Cooney. With a 30% increase in strength over standard, the new Challenge wheels are a true performance addition to any Defender.’

Hardcore shock towers for Discovery 2 Price: Ca £125 plus VAT Available from: Britpart dealers WITH P38 PRICES GOING UP, the Discovery 2 is now probably the most affordable option if you’re looking for a Land Rover to turn into a modified off-road machine.

The most affordable to buy in the first place, at least, though that’s another story.

Unlike the P38, the Disco 2 has a wide range of kit available for owners wanting to do a gnarly project. Such as these skeletonised shock towers from Britpart, which are stronger and much easier to clean than the original mud traps. They’re available to suit standard height vehicles and those with a 2” lift and come powder-coated for a heavy-duty finish.

Sliding window latches for Series Land Rovers Price: £114.00 Available from: www.designdevelopmenteng.co.uk BACK IN STOCK AT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERING are the company’s Series Truck Cab and Safari Sliding Window Latches.

Made in aluminium and stainless steel as a direct replacement from for the originals, these come as kits including one complete short latch and one complete long latch, plus rubber seals, stainless detent plunger and external finisher.

Osram launches new plug-and-play LED headlamp bulbs OSRAM HAS LAUNCHED A NEW RANGE OF PLUG-AND-PLAY LED HEADLAMP BULBS. Called LEDriving HL EASY, these are designed for use in applications with a high and low beam function – in which they will operate with no need for adapters or caps.

To make the bulbs as easy as possible to use, especially for drivers upgrading halogen bulbs to LED for the first time, Osram made them socket-based. This means there’s no need for an external driver – you can just remove your 4x4’s old halogen bulbs and replace them with these new LEDs. The ultra-compact replacement bulbs provide a cool white LED light with superior brightness to go with its stylish look, while an optimised highspeed fan ensures efficient cooling and heat dissipation.

The LEDriving HL EASY has a colour temperature of up to 6500 K, creating a daylight effect with reduced glare that means better visibility and a longer field of vision. Osram does point out, however, that the bulbs are not road legal and can therefore be fitted for off-road use only.

The bulbs are backed up by smart CAN-BUS accessories to cancel out error messages which may come up when using them on some newer vehicles. You can check compatibility with your own particular vehicle by visiting www.osram.com/ledcheck.

9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 40

05/11/2023 02:48

PRODUCTS

Mountney steering wheels for giving your Land Rover the classic look Price: ca £145 plus VAT From: Britpart dealers THERE WAS A TIME WHEN A LAND ROVER’S STEERING WHEEL was only there to make it go round corners. Ugly to look at and nasty to hold but as tough as a rottweiler’s chew toy, an early Landy is not what you’d call an aesthetic masterpiece in this department.

But then along comes the modern world, in which old Land Rovers have transitioned into classics. You might want to take yours back to showroom or turn it into a retro street machine, but either way it’s all about the image. And that includes its steering wheel.

NUMBER 47 IN THE CATALOGUE OF WAYS in which old-shape Defenders make you wonder what the people in Solihull were thinking is the way water can get into their rear light fittings from behind. Whether it’s from wading or just rain, over time it causes corrosion in the lights’ wiring – leading to short circuits that knock them out.

Obviously, these 15” Mountney jobs are not showroom. But they are very, very cool. Each has a three-spoke centre in polished aluminium, surrounded by a rivited wooden rim in a variety of styles for the traditional appearance of your choice. Seen here, the two wheels to the left and right have slotted spokes and a silver centre ring in a semi-dished layout, with a choice of natural or darkened wood rims, while the design in the middle has a flat dish layout with holed spokes in a one-piece design. In each case, the wheels are fitted using a Mountney boss kit, making them suitable for a wide variety of Landies.

The answer comes from Polybush, which is better known for suspension bushes but has developed a Rear Lamp Boot to keep your lights dry. Designed for use with the Defender’s standard fit items, it provides a barrier that keeps water at bay – and being made from polyurethane rather than soft rubber, it won’t perish over time or be degraded by oil, fuel or other conta minants.

By preventing the sort of damage that costs money to make right, the Rear Lamp Boot is as

cost-effective as it is easy to fit. And if the first thing you know about your tail lights being out is when an artic punts you up the back, it could save more than just your money. A wise investment for any Defender owner – and doubly so if you use yours off-road.

Heavy-duty clutch for hard-worked Tdi engines Price: £210 plus VAT From: lofclutches.com THE TDI ENGINE REMAINS A POPULAR CHOICE for the title of Land Rover’s best ever. The clutch behind it, on the other hand, might need some work.

And if you want a clutch that works, you know where to turn. LOF Clutches are renowned for this sort of thing, whether in everyday RoadSpec or the heavy-duty PowerSpec we’ve got here.

9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 41

This is designed for vehicles whose owners use them as workhorses – whether that’s as tow trucks, off-roaders or expedition motors. It’s the one to use if you’ve had your Tdi breathed on, too. This particular clutch doesn’t fit with the 2.8 TGV ‘Brazilian’ – as you might expect if you know your LOF, the company does have one to suit this unit, but that’s another story.

What it does work with is anything that was fitted with a Tdi as standard.

So that’s the Defender, Discovery and Range Rover Classic – in each case, whether in 200 or 300 Tdi guise.

The kit includes a heavy-duty friction plate, uprated clutch cover, heavy-duty release bearing, spigot bush and fasteners. It doesn’t include a clutch fork, but you’d be mad not to while you’re in there – and LOF have thought of that, because they also offer a bundle deal including one of these plus a rear crank seal and alignment took for just a few quid more.

As it is, you also get OEM spigot and fork bushes, a high-tensile bolt pack fro the cover, a tube of G90 high-temperature grease and CNC wire formed bearing and pushrod retaining clips. Everything you can think of, basically, and quite a lot besides that you almost certainly hadn’t.

As always, LOF promises that the clutch’s pedal weight will be no heavier than original. Its lifespan, on the other hand, ought to be incomparable – especially if you ask the sort of questions of your vehicle that its original specs would rather you didn’t.

05/11/2023 02:49

PRODUCTS

Heritage 1948 promises its Series II/III hoods have the quality to be the best on the market Price: From £445 Available from: www.heritage1948.co.uk

HERITAGE 1948’S FULL CANVAS HOOD for the 88” Series II/IIA and III is handmade in Somerset using nothing but ‘Moorland’ 100% cotton canvas. Chosen for its superior durability and colour fasting properties after extensive testing of many different types and grades of material, this is also treated to protect against rot, fungus and UV damage.

In addition, Heritage 1948’s Land Rover 88” Hoods are fitted with real, solid brass buckles, tips and eyelets – and not, in the compay’s words‘inferior brass coated items that quickly corrode.’

Heritage 1948 says it’s ‘committed to producing the highest quality Land Rover Hoods on the market.’

As anyone producing Land Rover hoods should be. ‘Our Canvas Products (including these 88” Land Rover Hoods) are produced in-house

by our small team of skilled craftsmen at our factory in Somerset,’ it says proudly.

Talking of craftsmanship, each of the company’ hoods is the culmination of many hours’ design and patterning work followed by

testing on a selection of different Land Rovers. The 88” Series II/IIA and III item we’re talking about here costs from £445 – as with all things Heritage 1948, you can order it by shopping direct at www.heritage 1948.co.uk.

UK-manufactured hood stick sets for all short-wheelbase Series Landies Price: £540 From: www.heritage1948.co.uk A HOOD IS A FAT LOT OF USE WITHOUT STICKS, so the good news is that Heritage 1948 has that covered too. The company’s Full Hood Stick Kit contains all the parts you need to convert a short-wheelbase Series Land Rover from Hard-Top to Soft-Top. These are made here in the UK – on Exmoor, to be precise – and are shaped by hand-operated tooling in the same process by which the original parts were manufactured.

‘We have selected a high-quality steel and low-volume galvanising to produce the most accurate, period-correct Land Rover hood stick sets on the market,’ says Heritage 1948. The kits come complete with everything you need to transform your truck, including nuts, bolts and washers.

At £540, a set of sticks actually costs more than the canvas that will be wrapped around them. This has always been a surprisingly pricey item, though – and as always, it pays to get the best you can afford.

ALSO FOR SERIES LANDIES, the latest new kit from Lucas Classic includes a replacement 45D distributor cap for petrol-engined Series IIA and IIIs (far right). If yours is older still, the range also now includes a 6J junction box cover for the 1948-1958 Series I (left) and a floor-mounted dip switch (right), again for the Series I but this time from 1955 onwards. It’s all to be found at lucasclassic4x4.com.

9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 42

05/11/2023 02:49

INTRODUCING THE

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Bikini Hoods offer a stylish alternative to the full hood providing protection from the elements whilst offering an almost open top driving experience. The Bikini hood can be removed and put on in under a minute, a fuss free alternative so you can enjoy driving your Land Rover ‘Hood Free’ but still having the reassurance of adequate protection from showers and sun.

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Product Code: HER-WH-04

Product Code: HER-WH-01

6061 Billet Aluminium

6061 Billet Aluminium

Black Leather Rim

Beech Wood Rim

Black Anodised Body

Mirror finished Body

48 & 36 Spine Boss’s Kits

48 & 36 Spine Boss’s Kits

+P&P

+P&P

Heritage Wood Rim Steering Wheel

Heritage Leather Rim Steering Wheel

(Including Boss Kit)

(Including Boss Kit)

­

Heritage 1948 is dedicated to producing a range of outstanding quality canvas hoods for Series Land Rovers. Unlike some of our competitors, all of our Land Rover hoods are handmade in our Somerset factory from superior quality ‘Moorland’ canvas

Our handmade hoods are inherently more accurate than machine produced counterparts allowing for an enhanced fit and exceptional quality control.

Heritage 1948 has taken great care to ensure all our Land Rover hoods have an enhanced life span and are all finished with period correct solid brass fittings.

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Heritage 1948 supply a Superior Quality Range of British Made Hood Sticks Sets and Component Parts to fit many variations of Land Rover Hoods.

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PRODUCTS

All I want for Christmas is…

IF YOU’RE THE PERSON WHO’S JUST FOUND A MAGAZINE LEFT CARELESSLY OPEN AT THIS PAGE, WE APOLOGISE. Because your mission for Christmas is now to buy a Traxxas Land Rover for whoever it was that helpfully left it there.

There are many remote control models. Some are just toys, some are cheap junk, a few are pukka. And Traxxas is Traxxas. The company’s 1:10 scale TRX-4 is a bit of a legend in RC rock-crawling circles, but it costs the sort of money that would once have got you two or three (real) Series Is. The TRX-4M is smaller, at 1:18 scale, and so too is what it’ll cost you. As in, the right side of £200 rather than the wrong side of £500.

Traxxas says the TRX-4M ‘bridges the gap between the small crawler scene and 1/10 scale quality and performance.’ It has steel frame rails and four-link suspension with oil-filled shocks, and its 45° steering angle is reached by a heavy-duty 2065T servo which, and you can’t say this about the real thing, ‘delivers powerful steering authority, even on thick carpet.’

Something else you’re unlikely to say about the real thing is that it has waterproof electronics.

That’s Traxxas proud boast, at any rate – that it ‘gives you the freedom to drive through wet grass, puddles and streams that force others to turn around.’

The TRX-4M comes complete and ready to race, with a fully licensed ABS body, Titan 180 motor, TQ transmitter and ECM-2.5TM control module as well as a 7.4-volt, 750mAh twin-cell battery and 2.0-amp USB fast charger. You get all the tools you need to look after it, too.

Well, YOU don’t because you’re the person whose mission for Christmas is to buy one of these bad boys for the person who left this magazine for you to stumble on. Although having read this far, you might by now have decided to get your own back by getting one for yourself instead – in which case a visit to www.britpart.com will yield the name of a local stockist.

Best of both worlds at Maltings 4x4 thanks to Terrafirma’s +2” air-to-coil kit for Discovery 3 and 4 Price: £892.22 inc VAT From: maltings4x4store.co.uk LOTS OF PEOPLE WHO BUY A DISCOVERY 3 OR 4 would never have considered doing so were it not for there being air-to-coil spring conversion kits available for their suspension. Those made by Terrafirma, for instance, which eliminate the danger of calamitous air suspension failures which start off by leaving you stranded helplessly at the side of the road then follow

it up by leaving you, still every bit as helpless, with an eye-wateringly expensive repair bill.

Without such a thing, you’d be at the mercy of a system whose antics are right at the heart of the vehicles’ fearsome reputation for being a money pit. But, as with the P38 Range Rover before it, replacing troublesome and complex air springs with simple, effective steel coils is a great way of turning a nightmare vehicle into a dream.

The nightmare in question could come in the shape of a Disco 3 or 4 body, or indeed that of a first-generation Range Rover Sport. This is mechanically similar to the D3, and the kit can be used on it too – just so long as it’s a version without Dynamic Response, which may be something to think about if you’re in the market for one of these vehicles.

Terrafirma already offered a standard-height air-to-coil kit. But this new version is even more appealing – because it also lifts the vehicle by two inches.

Thunderpole introduces ‘most versatile CB radio ever’ with £99.99 T-X handheld Price: £99.99 plus VAT From: thunderpole.co.uk THE LATEST INTRODUCTION FROM RADIO SPECIALIST THUNDERPOLE is the T-X CB 27 MHz AM/FM Handheld Transceiver.

A next-generation portable unit, this offers NRC noise reduction technology, a high capacity li-ion battery, USB charging, frequency display and much more.

Further features include FM/AM operation, four display layouts, nightlight buttons, a BNC antenna, a two-pin (Kenwood) accessory socket, a dedicated band button, multi-band operation with access to all European frequencies, auto-squelch, high and low power operation, VOX, Roger beep and dual watch. It measures in at 70 (W) x 154 (H) x 42 (D) mm and weighs just 356g including battery and antenna.

‘This is our most versatile CB radio ever and has accessories for hand-held, mobile (in a vehicle) or even base station use,’ says Thunderpole. ‘Simply add the BNC Male-SO239 Adaptor to attach any external antenna.

The T-X costs £99.99 on its own. But you’ll be interested in the T-X CB Adventure Pack, for use as a base station in a vehicle – in which case the price goes up, though not by much considering what you get, to £139.99.

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05/11/2023 02:49

PRODUCTS

Security Bonnet Hinges to keep An end to underbonnet woes your Defender together caused by split PAS tanks Price: £120 From: www.designdevelopmenteng.co.uk

THESE ANTI-THEFT BONNET HINGES from Design and Development Engineering come with stainless fixings and hardened pins. They’re supplied as standard in a black hard-anodised finish but can be colour-coded to match any Land Rover factory shade – the set seen here are in Galway Green. These himges are CNC-machined from aviation-grade aluminium and designed to look as close as possible to the originals – while putting up a much more robust defence against attempts to tamper with them.

Price: Ca £75 plus VAT Available from: Britpart dealers

IF YOU’VE GOT A DEFENDER with a Tdi, Td5, TDCi or V8 engine, you may well have noticed the grubby mess they get under the bonnet from vapour leaking through the breathable cap on the PAS reservoir.

This is made of plastic and is prone to splitting, which is when the trouble starts. Not only does the leaking vapour make a mess, the crack it’s coming out of collects dirt – and, of course, creates a way in for water.

All bad.

Made by AlliSport and available from Britpart, this replacement unit is made from 2mm high-grade aluminium with CNC machined pipe connections, a knurled cap and an external breather. The rolled aluminium body is laser cut and fully TIG welded by hand, and the reservoir is fitted with an internal baffle.

Measuring 110mm high (155mm including the cap) and with a 91mm diameter, the reservoir looks after itself and the rest of the engine bay too.

New MT64 shock from Old Man Emu is intended specifically for the rigours of off-road expedition travel Price: TBC From: Britpart stockists ‘THE ULTIMATE ALL-ROUND SHOCK ABSORBER’? Ho hum. ‘The ultimate all-round shock absorber’ and it’s from Old Man Emu? Okay, let’s talk.

It’s called the MT64, and it’s intended specifically for overland travel. Sitting in between OME’s existing Nitrocharger and ultra-high performance BP-51 ranges, it’s a monotube shock engineered to handle heavy loads, long distances, rough roads and heat – resulting in

9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 45

‘excellent responsiveness, whether towing on the pavement or tackling technical terrain off-road.’

With a 22mm shaft, 72mm body and 64mm internal bore, the MT64 features the same 6061 aluminium construction as the BP-51. The size of the bore allows the shock to hold more oil, allowing greater heat dissipation in punishing conditions.

Snap-ring grooves in the shock’s body provide different positions for the forged aluminium spring seat,

allowing a range of height adjustability from 0-76mm.

Old Man Emu says the MT64’s final spec was arrived at through an exhaustive test regime beginning with Finite Element computer analysis, which pointed to potentially weak areas which could then be re-engineered for greater strength.

Following this, the field testing phase saw vehicles run through millions of suspension cycles to simulate real world conditions.

The MT64 will be available with light, medium, and heavy-duty spring options, giving customers more options to help them achieve the ideal set-up for their vehicles – whether they’re towing, carrying heavy loads, travelling the world or using their trucks in every kind of on and offroad situation. A limited range of applications at launch is promised to grow quickly, with Land Rovers expected to be catered for once the full line-up is in production.

05/11/2023 02:49

PRODUCTS

Milltek introduces upgraded exhaust for new Range Rover Price: From £3811 From: www.millteksport.com ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE BUY NEW RANGE ROVERS, and tint out the windows for all sorts of reasons.

Some like to remain below the radar as much as you can in a statement vehicle like the Range Rover. But others like to go large with it: loud alloys, loud paintwork, loud hi-fi. And of course loud exhaust.

And if it’s a Range Rover you can’t just go and wrench off the silencer box. This isn’t a Vauxhall Corsa. Instead you need something bespoke, so you can answer with confidence when someone asks if you’ve knocked your exhaust off running over a sleeping policeman or sleeping poor person.

And Milltek will indeed give you that confidence. Its new exhaust for the new Range Rover, the P530, has been carefully tuned so the 4.4-litre V8 sounds more like the old 5.0-litre in the Range Rover SVR. The system retains not just the routing of the original and the particulate filter-back system, but also the OEM valve functionality allied to a Milltek Sport Valve Controller so it’s like the old system but more so.

The end out the back has ‘discreet downturned tips’ but you’re not likely to wonder where the sound is coming from. There’s enough bore here for the owner to manage some performance enhancements

if desired without having to upgrade the system further.

And it uses T304L. Ah yes, you say, nodding wisely, T304L, just the stuff. Strokes chin. Actually it is.

It’s aircraft-grade stainless steel, a very durable form of the metal that should last for many years without

any loss whatsoever of appearance or performance.

You’ve seen the price and if you own a new Rangey and are in the market for an upgraded exhaust, you won’t care. Maybe it will matter, though, that it was designed, tested and manufactured entirely in Britain.

Wide range of interior parts and trim options available from Alpha Seating

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR BESPOKE UPHOLSTERY for your Land Rover, Alpha Seating might be a new name to you. But the company has been around since 2002, making a range of high-quality passenger vehicle seats and rock and roll beds for vans as well as trims to suit various models from a long list of manufacturers.

These include the one you’re here to find out about. Alpha Seating’s re-upholstery service is available for everything in a Defender’s cabin that ever had upholstery on it in the first place – like centre consoles, cubby boxes, sun visors, dash tops and door cards.

Did we mention roof linings? We did now. Defenders were pretty much born needing these replaced, and this is another area in which Alpha Seating has the answer to whatever questions you can think to ask.

And then of course there’s the seats themselves. The company can do new upholstery for first and second rows alike as well as bench seats, jump seats and headrests

9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 46

– and, no small matter, belts. It can repair and replace these, with M1 industry-standard testing and certification to back up the quality built in to its processes.

One thing that’s not standard, though, is the range of materials and colours it offers. You can have your items reupholstered in Land

Rover’s own original finishes – or you can go bespoke and have it tailored just the way you want.

With everything made in-house, Alpha Seating promises high-quality work and very short lead times on orders. The guys there can repair your existing upholstery, too, if that’s all you need.

Wanting to know more? Alpha Seating is a division of Complete Vehicle Accessories, which can kit your Land Rover out with everything from a towbar to a full specialist conversion. They’re based in Hinckley, near Leicester, and you can find them by paying a visit to www.alphaseating.com.

05/11/2023 02:49

PRODUCTS

Britpart ranges AVM freewheeling hubs for Series trucks – and Defender and Discovery, too Price: ca £250 inc VAT, ca £400 inc VAT (Defender/Discovery fit) Available from: Britpart dealers FREEWHEELING HUBS ARE A FAMILIAR SIGHT ON LAND ROVERS OF A CERTAIN AGE. The originals are not immune to wear, however – hence these replacement items from AVM, which recently became available through Britpart.

Britpart offers these for the Series I, II, IIA and III. ‘AVM freewheeling hubs serve as a robust, reliable, and superior substitute for the hubs originally installed on your vehicle,’ the company says. ‘They’re utilised to either connect or disconnect the front driveshaft assembly on parttime 4WD vehicles.

They are also very useful in the event that you break a front drive shaft on a Series vehicle. Simply disengage the front hubs, put your transfer box back in the 2WD position and you can then drive home.’

The hubs are designed with an inner drive member which is installed on to the driveshaft’s output splines. Surrounding this is an outer drive member, which is linked to the roadwheel, with a clutch to separate the two. The familiar control knob on the exterior of the hub operates the clutch by engaging or disengaging slanted grooves cut within it.

When you twist the knob from ‘4x2’ to ‘4x4’, the operation of the clutch

causing the inner and outer drive members to lock together.

Even with the drivetrain in the 4x4 position, the front wheels will only be driven if the FWHs are engaged.

Many an off-roader and, er, Land Rover magazine editor, has ended up with a red face because of this…

Conversely, with the hubs locked the front wheels will still not be driven if the drivetrain is in 4x2. However the front drive shafts, diff and prop will continue to be turned by the action of the roadwheels as the vehicle moves. This uses energy, and therefore fuel; by unlocking the hubs, then, the vehicle can operate more efficiently.

It’s unusual to see freewheeling hubs on vehicles with full-time fourwheel drive, however Britpart also offers a AVM unit to fit versions of the Defender and Discovery 1 with the 300Tdi engine. ‘(The hubs) can also be retrofitted to permanent 4WD models with stationary hubs to prevent unnecessary differential spinning and the subsequent wear it incurs,’ the company explains.

AVM’s hubs feature a heat-treated steel clutch ring for accurate

and reliable torque transmission.

Made from materials resistant to corrosion, they promise good positioning of the clutch ring, with fully independent springs to engage and

disengage the unit as it operates.

In addition, Britpart promises that they will be simple and straightforward to instal.

The hubs are available in 10-spline and 24-spline formats. In addition, there’s a separate model to suit the later Defender and Discovery models.

Uprated power transfer unit from Freelander Specialist Price: £845 (reconditioned) Available from: www.freelanderspecialist.com IF YOU’VE GOT A FREELANDER 2 (or an early Evoque) and its front Power Transfer Unit has done the usual thing and started trashing the splines on its crownwheel, FreelanderSpecialist.com has the answer. The company has developed a technique for reconditioning the unit – not just reconditioning it, in fact, but fully uprating it.

To do this, the company uses a technique which fuses new splines to the crownwheel – promising better fit and performance, no backlash and greater strength than before. The result is, in the compay’s own words, ‘so good we offer an extended two year warranty.’

Infamously, the drivetrain on the Freelander 2 is prone to failure as a result of different tyre pressures or tread patterns. This means that as the vehicles enter old age, damaged PTUs are incredibly common – and with new crownwheels not being available, reconditioning is the only option. Common symptoms of worn splines are a whining noise which increases under load and a loss of all-wheel drive (though this can also be caused by a failed rear diff, which is the other big consequence of mismatched tyres).

Freelander Specialist can recondition your own PTU and also offers ready-made units on an exchange basis. The price above is for the part only, but there’s a fitting service too if you need it.

9.5 Yearbook 2024 Products.indd 47

05/11/2023 02:50

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MASAI 4X4: A WIDE RANGE OF EXCLUSIVE ENHANCEMENTS FOR YOUR DEFENDER – AND ALWAYS ORIGINAL QUALITY! MASAI 4X4 OFFERS AN EXCLUSIVE RANGE of high-quality vehicle enhancement accessories and parts – mainly for the Land Rover Defender 90, 110 and 130.

Roof racks, spare wheel carriers, panoramic and traditional windows, seat covers, side steps, rear steps, lamp guards, sporting boxes, tree

sliders and winch bumpers are just some of the many top-class products available through the company.

In addition to its accessory range, Masai also offers full Defender restoration and fitting services at its well equipped premises in Hoar Cross, Staffordshire. You can even

wait in a visitor room with highspeed wi-fi, television and unlimited tea and coffee while its skilled technicians work on your vehicle.

In the words of Masai founder and owner Ferzan Kuman: ‘From a family tradition going back to 1953, you can be assured our designs, materials and engineering are of

the highest standards – built to last and Always Original Quality.’

Masai ships its products to customers all round the world.

A selection of those products are featured on these pages – and you can browse the company’s whole range by paying a visit to its website at www.masai4x4.com.

The original and best panoramic windows – from the company that created them MASAI IS THE ORIGINAL creator of its flagship Panoramic Tinted Windows for the Land Rover Defender 90 and 110.

Unique edge-to-edge tinted, toughened glass delivers a beautiful, minimalist appeal. The design delivers looks and performance all in one – modern, sleek and rugged.

Automotive glass, particularly bonded windows, are among Masai’s specialties. As well as Land Rover windows, the company produces a range of windows and side-opening camper style windows.

WARRIOR BUMPER HAS BOTH STYLE AND SUBSTANCE THE WARRIOR WINCH BUMPER is Masai’s secret weapon for your 90 or 110. Suitable for use with most winches, it has a zinc-plated steel base and comes in a three-piece kit, making it easy to assemble prior to fitting.

The Warrior bumper is available with a stylish black powder finish to its centre section, and it can also be painted to match your vehicle. Masai offers it with an optional steering guard, too – and if you choose the standard zinc-coated finish, you can get both parts painted to match your truck.

Seldom can a hardcore off-road accessory ever have looked this smart!

MASAI OFFERS VARIOUS ROOF RACK DESIGNS including Tubular, Flat and Luggage. The racks are designed to be the perfect fit on to your Defender, at an affordable price. Made from zinc-plated steel and black powder-coated, they also offer the option of adding mountable LED Lights and a Rear Access Ladder to give a full effect.

MASAI’S ROOF RACK COVERS are the perfect way to protect and secure your luggage against tough weather conditions. Made from heavy-duty 600-denier polyester, they are extremely hard-wearing, rip-proof and waterrepellent, and they come fitted with straps for securing them to the rack below.

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Masai 4x4’s Interior Trim Shop – a new level of cabin quality Masai 4x4’s interior Trim Shop brings a new level of quality to your Land Rover’s cabin. Defender owners are now able to restore their interior to pristine better-than-new condition with Masai’s signature high-quality head lining and window interior trim products.

An eye-catching way to keep your Defender’s cabin tidy MASAI’S SPORTING BOX AND REAR STORAGE DRAWERS are a fantastic buy if you need secure storage in your Defender and want to keep its interior looking tidy. The Sporting Box itself fits inside the rear internal floor space between the vehicle’s wheelarches and enables you to neatly store, protect and lock away items which you regularly or permanently keep stored in your vehicle.

Available in matte black, the unit comes with soft carpeting on the top and soft-close, smooth-running Accuride drawer runners capable of holding up to 120kg. These can be perfect for shooting season, vets or other medical professionals as well as a wide range of other uses.

HEAD LININGS Masai has the answer to saggy head linings. To avoid water absorption, the company’s roof lining is made from special Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP).

This also gives a much greater degree of rigidity than the Land Rover original, which is infamously prone to sagging.

The roof lining is hand-crafted from high-quality Plush Suede-like material. it’s sold as a complete kit with fittings and comes in a choice of no less than ten colours from Alston Black through to Luna White.

INTERNAL WINDOW TRIMS Masai developed its internal window trim range to complement its head linings, providing Defender owners with access to the same high-quality upgrades. Made from high-quality Premium Suedette and available in the same choice of nine colours as the head-linings, Masai’s internal window trim range fits all Defender models from 1985 to 2017.

SEAT COVERS

MASAI’S TUBULAR WINCH BUMPER is designed to fit the Defender 90 and 110, with or without air-con, and to accommodate most of the winches on the market. It is manufactured from steel, zinc-plated for long-lasting rust protection then powder coated in black. It will give your Defender a tough, rugged look.

Masai’s craftsmen have created a range of seat covers to enable Defender owners to replace or upgrade worn out, torn and scruffy originals. The range includes specific versions for the 110 and 90, covering 200 Tdi, 300 Tdi , TD5 and Puma TDCi models.

Made from cruelty-free soft vinyl leatherette, these seat covers come complete with rear map pockets and, for additional comfort, a layer of foam covering. They’re available to be bought individually, as pairs or as a complete set.

Additional options include covers for inward-facing seats and 60/40 split seats, as well as Deluxe and ‘Flute’ styles with piping.

The covers come in a range of attractive colours – to view the choices on offer, simply pay a visit to www.masai4x4.com.

FITTING SERVICE Masai’s products appeal to Defender owners looking to breathe new life into their vehicles. If that’s you, don’t forget that the company also offers a comprehensive fitting and restoration service at its modern premises just north of Birmingham in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

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07/11/2023 18:30

loud and proud The P38 Range Rover is not a common sight at playdays. When it was new, people said it was too complicated to modify… and for about two decades since it came off sale, they've been saying it's too unreliable to touch. But this one proves that with a bit of well thought out tinkering, you can turn one into an off-road weapon to reckon with… and get a bit of a street machine into the bargain Words: Gary Martin Pictures: Alan Kidd

Sponsored by

R

emember when the P38 Range Rover was new and people said they were so complicated that no-one would ever modify one for off-roading? If the answer is no, well done for being so young. But for the rest of us, the move away from the simple old engineering of the Range Rover Classic seemed to have signalled an end to any possibility of future fun and games.

Then came the L322, and then the L405, and whatever the new one is called, and now it’s the P38 that looks like a simple old truck. A simple old truck with fearsomely complicated and infamously temperamental electronics all over it, of course, but the basic engineering is still as traditional as they come.

It has axles. It has a chassis. It has a transfer case. Those electronics might hate you, but the good mechanical stuff is all there too.

3pp Smale P38.indd 50

Despite this, you don’t see many people modifying P38s. Even the similarlyish old Discovery 2, itself hardly common in the off-road world, gets more love than the second-gen Range Rover. The TD5 engine may of course have something to do with that, though, because the BMW unit in the Rangey screams and runs away at the first sign of a rice pudding with a skin on it.

Now that these are old trucks and you’re more likely to use them as occasional playthings than everyday mile munchers, however, perhaps it’s the V8 options that are more relevant. Especially with the price gap between the two fuels growing faster than your weekly shopping bill.

The Discovery 2 had the 4.0-litre V8, as did the Range Rover, and it was a fairly underwhelming old lump in both. But up at the top of the Rangey line-up, the prehistoric Rover V8 had been pushed to 4.6 litres.

This is where things started getting interesting. In factory form, the first-generation ‘GEMS’ version of the 4.6 put out 221bhp and 280lbf.ft and consumed an average of about 17mpg. Not exactly a world-beating amount of power per pint, then. It was plenty smooth and refined, though, just like the rest of the vehicle.

It was quiet, too. Which is where Steve Smale’s P38 comes in. This is less modified than it might look at first glance. But quiet, it’s not.

Incredibly, the exhaust is still quite standard. It follows the same two-into-one-into-two pattern as the original. But let’s just say there are less baffles than there once was. It’s still entirely legal – a clean bill of health from several MOT tests down the years attests to that – but it’s also entirely lovely. There’s a wonderful deep-throated rumble when he fires it up, rising to a purposeful bellow as the revs climb under load. If the average car

04/11/2023 00:20

nut were to hear it before they see it, they’d most likely expect the noise to be coming from either a latter-day muscle car or a hot rod.

And that’s just when you’re following him around on the road. When he’s booting it up a near-vertical hill at Devil’s Pit, which just happens to be a few miles away from him… well, you can just imagine how all hell breaks loose.

As we said, though, this is not a heavily modified vehicle. It’s still on air suspension, believe it or not. It’s riding on 265/75R16 Malatese Kobras – a sensible mud-terrain remould, and hardly overly huge, albeit plenty taller than the vehicle was built to take. He says it rubs a little on its lowest height setting, the answer being… to not use it on its lowest height setting. Duh. And on full height, it works a treat.

He admits to having popped a suspension air bag once when a full-on assault on a very uneven

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 3pp Smale P38.indd 51

hill resulted in a wheel coming back down to earth with a heftier than normal crash.

And the old-school traction control means a set of brake pads is doing well to last half a dozen playdays. On that subject, the heavy clay mud of Devil’s Pit means the vehicle is currently enjoying life with a brand new radiator. But ultimately, Steve says, it does its thing very well and more reliably than you might think.

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A pair of heavy-duty bumpers is pretty much as far as the mods go, which just shows how little you need to do to turn a posh old gin palace into a playday animal with a mouth like Johnny Rotten. The one at the back took three blokes to lift it into place, and it's not the heavy one…

Above left: These days, there are 1.0-litre engines that make more power than the biggest version of the Rover V8 used to. Safe to say the 4.6 HSE was better at drinking petrol than it was at turning it into forward motion. It was plenty smooth, though – and as it turns out, when you fetch all the baffles out of the exhaust it makes an absolutely lovely noise Above right: Steve's Range Rover has been modified a lot less than you might think to look at it. And in the cabin, it actually looks as if it's ageing quite elegantly. You'd never believe that this was the inside of a 4x4 that's been hammered around Tixover and Devil's Pit Going back to the mods, there are heavy-duty bumpers at both ends and a similarly solid steering guard underneath. And, er, that’s it. Well, the air-con has been removed, because it had given up the ghost and he wasn’t going to keep anything that wasn’t working for its living. But as we said, this is a surprisingly standard vehicle.

Those bumpers, though. When we say ‘heavy-duty’, we’re not joking. Steve tells us that it took three blokes to lift the back on into place.

And it’s not the one with the winch tray…

He doesn’t know where they came from (he bought the vehicle more or less as it is) but it looks like a fabricator’s special rather than something from a production line as the tray doesn’t have any mounting holes or even a slot for a fairlead. It’s a case of doing your own marking and cutting to suit the winch in question, which wouldn’t be a five minute job. As it is, Steve’s never bothered with a winch for the simple reason that you don’t need one for playdays.

And anyway, he’s normally the one pulling other people out. Normally, though not always. He mentions that someone in a Trooper tried to rescue him on one occasion and ended up killing his own vehicle in the process. The P38 was never less than a heavy old lump, and bolting several

hundred pounds of steel to each end is only ever going to take that one way.

Not that getting stuck has ever been a common occurrence for this vehicle. Nor has breaking down, despite the P38’s fearsome reputation – it throws the occasional code, and of course a steady diet of off-roading is always going to mean an enhanced maintenance schedule (especially when it’s done in a village called Bartonle-Clay…), but mainly if there’s a pain point in the story it involves the amount of fuel it takes to keep the V8 happy. Steve talks of a trip he made once to Tixover for an off-road day, and how much it cost…

But you know what, even at something like a pound per mile we just know he came back with a smile on his face. How could you not, after all, in a big old barge like this that's the very definition of growing old disgracefully?

Take some tyres, add some heavy steel and a rude exhaust, pour in a load of petrol and be happy. And they said the P38 was complicated.

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04/11/2023 00:21

Land Rover Defender Upgrades & Accessories

www.masai4x4.com

HEADLININGS & WINDOW TRIMS

/masai4x4

Hand crafted and covered in ten different colours.

Made from GRP & lined with a plush suede-like finish.

Alston (Black)

Stornaway (Dark Grey)

Defender 90 PUMA Silver (Light Grey)

Defender 90

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Honey Biege (Tan)

Sandbank Biege (Sand)

Defender 90 TD5

Luna White (Ivory)

Coffee (Dark Brown)

Cocoa (Medium Brown)

Hazel (Light Brown)

REPLACEMENT SEAT COVERS

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YACHT

OR NOT?

Nobody sets out to do a Land Rover badly, but few have ever reached for the stars like the owner of this Series IIA. It was built to a mixture of Rolls-Royce and superyacht standards and, rather unusually for an old Landy, finished with the most expensive paint in existence

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Words: Paul Looe Pictures: Harry Hamm

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here are many reasons for restoring a Land Rover. Some are good, others not so much. But we’ve just come across the best.

‘I did it to stop my husband from spending the money on something else,’ says the owner of this gorgeous Series IIA. And with that, we’ll boldly predict that every bloke reading this is now jealous of her husband.

You might also be a fan of her Series IIA. Or maybe you won’t, actually, because if you think they should look the way they once did, well, no Land Rover EVER looked like this before.

Its owner herself (who asked us to leave her name out of the story and let her truck do the talking instead) admits that it splits opinion right down the middle. ‘When people see pictures of it,’ she says, ‘it’s 50:50 whether they’ll like it or not. But when you see it for real… not one person hasn’t loved it.’

That’s because this is the story of a restoration with a difference. Yes, it starts with a Land Rover that was knackered and ends up with one that’s better than ever, but this is also a Land Rover whose owner didn’t want to go down the normal route of returning it to the way it looked when it was new. She had other ideas.

‘It is what it is because of what I do as an everyday job,’ she explains. ‘I work in the superyacht industry. We work to a standard for high-end clients who expect high-end results.

That was the standard I put into the truck.’

There’s only a limited number of restorers you’d go to for a job like this. Clearly, technical skills and knowledge were going to matter, just

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The 2.25-litre petrol engine was by some way the best thing about the Land Rover when the project started. It had never been messed about with and just needed some basic fettling, such as new big end shells, oil seals, a head gasket and so on, to get it back into service.

It was bolted to a recon Series III box and treated to a Roamerdrive overdrive, reducing the revs required from it by 28% when engaged as they always do, but of particular importance here would be the ability to listen.

It was a stroke of luck, then, that her best friend already knew the ideal man for the job: John Bowden, the man who brought Gumtree 4x4 into the world, has been working on Land Rovers of all ages since he set up the company in 1981. ‘She uses them as her Land Rover mechanic. When I met John, I knew I would have no problems with the hands I was in. I expected that same standard of him that my customers expect of me, and I was lucky that he saw that immediately. Communica-

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tion with your customer is so important, and his was outstanding throughout the process.’

So, what was it that John was taking on? The Land Rover was little more than a wreck – albeit one his customer had had her eye on for a while.

‘It belonged to a friend who lived in Cornwall,’ she says. ‘He used to use it for windsurfing – it was a beach car.’ With predictable consequences for anything made of mild steel…

‘I’ve always wanted an old Land Rover,’ she continues. ‘He wasn’t going to be able to restore it, but he was keeping on using it until it was ready

to fall apart. So I said that when he was ready to sell, I’d take it on.’ A couple of years later, in May 2017, two failed attempts to make it through the MOT test was enough to convince the truck’s owner that its time had come.

‘There was nothing to save on it,’ she says.

‘There was nothing left. The engine was reusable, but the chassis and bodywork was gone.’

That’s why she was comfortable with tasking Gumtree with the sort of restoration the vehicle has had. Taking it back to the way it was in 1962, when it rolled out through the factory gate all

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The chassis is a new Richards job with a bolt-up gearbox crossmember, however the bulkhead was able to go again after a bit of work. The axles were retained, too, again after a programme of reconditioning, and were fitted with a new set of brakes. The springs and shocks were rebuilt or replaced as necessary, as was the steering, and the wheels and tyres made was for a set of Defender tubeless rims with 7.50R16 Michelin Latitude tyres

fresh and ready for its first registration on 3 January the following year, is something she would have considered if she had been able to look at it and still see a Land Rover, as opposed to a self-propelled piece of scrap. But in her view, that day was well in the past.

‘If I was was starting with something that was restorable,’ she says, ‘that would be different. But to last for another 40 years, a decision had to be made as to what kind of restoration it was going to be. It was an opportunity to do something original with a truck that was impossible to save.’

Again, what qualifies as saving a truck is open to interpretation; you might well feel that that’s exactly what she’s done, whether or not she’s done it to your taste. There’s no shortage of restorers who’ll quite happily ‘save’ a vehicle by renewing every single part on it, especially if there’s a big payday at the end of the project.

But here’s someone who came at it with a fresh perspective. She’s a confirmed long-term admirer of all things Land Rover who also owns a 2002 90

(‘it formerly served as a runway car for the Red Arrows – at least that’s what the salesman said, but it certainly was owned by the Army for the fist part of its life and it will only ever leave me in my will’), but she nonetheless saw the tired old 88 as no more than a donor.

What it donated was its bulkhead, engine, axles and, of course, its identity. ‘I’m as close to HUE as you can get!’ laughs its proud owner. ‘I call him that, but of course there’s only one HUE, isn’t there!’ Well, there’s only one REAL one, for sure…

Anyway, this is XUE, and it first saw the light of day when HUE was 14 years old. So it’s in its sixties now, and for the first time in possibly all its life to date, your money would be on it to stroll on to 100 and beyond. It has its owner’s vision to thank for that, as well as the skills and diligence of John and his team at Gumtree – specifically workshop foreman Martin Stapleton, into whose incredibly capable hands the work was placed.

As you’d expect, the rebuild started on a new galvanised chassis. Gumtree gets these from

Richards Chassis; this one has the bolt-up gearbox crossmember and, to keep it looking right, was painted black before things started being bolted on to it.

The first of these things was the bulkhead, which as we mentioned was able to go again. It needed to be fully reconditioned first, though, a process which involved it being acid dipped and, finally, galvanised. And painted, but we’ll get to that (it’s a whole separate story in itself…)

The engine was quite easily the best part of the vehicle when it arrived at Gumtree. A pleasingly standard 2.25 petrol, it only needed what John describes as ‘basic fettling’ such as new big end shells, oil seals, head gasket and so on. It was bolted to a reconditioned Series III gearbox with full syncromesh, and Gumtree fitted a Roamerdrive overdrive unit which reduces engine revs by 28% when engaged – with all the obvious benefits

Normally when you look at a Land Rover, or even the majority of new cars, the paint is just something that’s there. This IIA is different: the restoration it’s had was professionally done and no mistake, but its paint is the undisputed star of the show. It took an expert to apply it properly, and the paint itself is from the world of superyachts – it’s the most expensive it’s possible to buy

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this brings for fuel efficiency, drivetrain wear and, in particular, cabin noise at higher speeds.

Interestingly, another feature which makes the vehicle more civilised at speed than your average IIA is its soft-top. This is not just your average canvas rig; John specced it to special order from All Wheel Trim, in black mohair with with NAS side and rear windows, and the Oxfordshire company did him proud. ‘It fits a treat and hardly flaps as you are driving along,’ he says – you can actually have a normal conversation at 65mph with no stress at all. Part of this is down to the Roamerdrive unit and part to the quality and fit of the hood, which of course doesn’t drum the way a hard-top would.

As we’ve mentioned, the original Land Rover axles were able to be retained. These were reconditioned and gained a new set of brakes all round, while the steering and suspension was rebuilt or replaced as necessary. On went a set of Defender tubeless rims with 7.50R16 Michelin Latitude tyres, and it was very nearly ready to roll.

Which brings us to what is, perhaps, the single most extraordinary thing about this Series IIA. How often do you see a Land Rover whose

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wheels are colour-matched to its body? Not often, and again it’s not to everyone’s taste, but what you’re looking at here may be the most richly painted Land Rover of all time.

That’s quite a claim, even when you consider the number of them that have ended up drowning under several contrasting coats of emulsion. But just listen to this.

‘When I was visiting John, we looked at another Land Rover in his premises. The paintwork was not up to the standard I expected. He asked what that standard was: I said “Rolls-Royce.”

The paint we used is my own. We use it on superyachts, and it’s the best there is. You can’t get more expensive paint. The colour is unique, with a metallic element that’s not to be found anywhere else – the only way you could match it is by going to the original manufacturer. My horse trailer is the same colour – the paint we used was left over after it was built.’

Of course, a rebuild project will always take time, and of course there’ll always be delays. But a year and a half trying to find the right company to paint your Land Rover? If you’ve just come in from rollering your bashed-up old 110, that will sound both hilarious and bewildering, but just take a look at the pictures. You can’t rush perfection, as they say – and this vehicle’s paint finish really is perfect. We know because it’s its owner’s job to know.

Those 18 months involved two false starts with paint shops which the IIA’s owner searched out but which ultimately couldn’t come up with the goods. In one case, this was a consequence of the chap being struck down with illness, so no hard feelings there, but the other case left some deep scars and hard feelings: ‘I hope no-one else has to go through the same experience I did.’

Third time lucky, though. Accepting that she was going to have to look further afield, she finally gave the job to TGM Sport of Fleet, in Hampshire, whose body shop has painted many a pro racecar in its time. So the panels, and the paint, ended up taking a trip.

And the result? Perfect, remember? Achieving a superyacht finish is part of its owner’s job. ‘I went over every inch,’ she sys. ‘And I couldn’t find even one blemish.’

The panels, some of which were new and others restored, were sprayed while the vehicle was in bits and returned to Gumtree for reassembly.

They went back on along with a set of door and body cappings which, along with things like the windscreen surround and tailgate stays, were all re-galvanised together as a batch.

The result? Every time I’ve driven it, I’ve stopped everyone in their tracks. It’s done with class. This is all about respecting a vehicle that deserved to be given five-star treatment. It takes the Land Rover image and gives it a sense of sophistication.

I know it’s not original, but even purists still love what I’ve done with it!

‘I knew exactly what I wanted the truck to look like. It was up to John and his team to realise what was in my head. What’s really cool is that it turned out even better than I expected.

‘I drove it for two weeks straight after it was finished. It was just pure joy. It’s ready for another lifetime of being a working truck now.’

A working truck with the world’s most expensive paint on it, no less. But not necessarily HER working truck. ‘I’d be more than happy to keep it,’ she says. ‘But we’ve just bought a house that will need renovating.’ Just as well she did stop her husband from spending the money on something else, then…

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“If I was starting with something that was restorable, that would be different. It was an opportunity to do something original with a truck that was impossible to save”

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Patched up

Patch is a 110 Hi-Cap with an interestingly varied set of colours on its body panels. There’s more to this Land Rover than just a comedy paint job, though – like a fully equipped demountable camping pod with everything including the kitchen sink and even its own log burner. And with the camping body removed, you can take it into the woods to collect all the fuel you need for a cosy home from home Sponsored by

Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Ashton Radcliffe

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ne of the most common things you hear people saying about Land Rovers is that they’re like a blank canvas.

Whether you want to build an off-road toy or a work truck, a street machine or anything from a mobile malaria clinic to a self-propelled bar, choose a good Defender and you’re made.

The same goes for living on board. For everyone that’s done it, there’s a slightly different approach to making it happen – but while the spend-it-and-spec-it philosophy is undoubtedly popular among those who can, there’s a fantastic culture of creativity among those who, by necessity or design, do it themselves.

This 110 Hi-Cap is a case in point. Dating from 2002, it’s the base for a demountable camping rig – which might distract you from the fact that the vehicle itself is a bit of a curiosity too.

It’s called Patch (gotta love a Landy with a name) and it’s the property of Ashton Radcliffe, who explains that it was a lockdown project built by ‘a talented young engineer and his girlfriend.’

Between them, the couple rebuilt the 110 using replacement wings and other body panels – which they painted in different colours, harlequin-style.

This, as Ashton says, ‘makes it a rather distinguished and fun vehicle, much admired by many.’

Ultimately, it’s mainly blue. More could have been made of the multicoloured theme, perhaps, but at the same time you certainly do look at it and smile. The camper pod doesn’t do any harm here – though if you were to see the vehicle naked, just a 110 Hi-Cap with various colours going on and, most likely, a load of logs in the back, it would get your attention that way too.

But it does have the camper pod on it, so let’s look further into that. This contains a kitchen with a sink and cooker, the latter supplied from gas bottles, and a water pump running from a bank of three five-litre containers. Electrics are taken care of by a leisure battery running off a split-charge system with a load-sensitive relay, which in turn is hard-wired to the vehicle itself.

So much for it being demountable, you’re getting ready to say. Well, Ashton reckons it takes less than 20 minutes to fully separate the two parts of the vehicle, with five of those going on disconnecting the electrics. In other words, they’ve thought of that. The demountable body

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is served by a camper blade fuse box running various circuits, including those for a 12-volt light set-up including remote switches with variable brightness settings.

The real coup de grace, however, is a wood burner. This, Ashton assures us, ‘makes the camper very warm even in deep midwinter.’

There’s an area for wood storage underneath

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it and a detachable flue which can be removed when travelling then installed prior to use to prevent scenes involving carbon monoxide.

Looking around the inside of the pod, there’s a definite mixture of design influences. The wood burner looks wonderfully retro, as does a water tap made from gas pipe and kitchen cupboard fronts that look like they were jointed up from driftwood. The decor in the lounge area is nicely vintage, too, but then it’s centred around a fitted table that’s vintage in the might-have-come-fromMFI sense.

As with the rest of the vehicle, it was done to the restorer’s own taste. And unless you’re being paid handsomely for the job, why on earth would you do it any other way?

Taste varies, on the other hand, but what makes a good vehicle does not. And if you were to look at the various hues adorning on this 110 and assume it had been lashed up in an afternoon, how wrong you’d be.

‘Despite its colourful exterior,’ says Ashton, ‘the vehicle has been very well restored with a new wiring harness, rear light housings with new lenses, a repainted chassis (no welding required), all new copper brake pipes and flexis and new front swivel joints and seals.

‘It’s had new vented discs all round, new heavy-duty shocks and springs, new Terrafirma steering arms and steering damper and a new steering drop and ball joint. Its bearings have been cleaned and repacked, its steering box resealed and its coolant flushed and replaced with OAT.’

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In addition to all this, everything else that could be drained and refilled has been as part of the restoration – axle oil, gearbox oil, you name it.

The 110 had a new bumper and transfer case, too, and was treated to a full engine service, including the fuel system, as well as a new wiper motor and spindles, indicator and wiper stalks, washer pump, overflow pipe and bonnet release cable. Phew.

Finally, the driver and passenger seats were recovered in material from Exmoor Trim. So, a wide variety of jobs that make up if not quite a full restoration, then certainly an extremely comprehensive refurbishment.

Nonetheless, it’s the sort of vehicle you might not take a second look at were it not for that camping body mounted on the Hi-Cap bed. And to make things even better, Ashton also has a twin-axle bathroom trailer with a hot water system (‘state of the art,’ he proudly claims), shower, basin unit and cassette toilet. Based on an Ifor Williams BV85, it goes behind the 110 to make

quite the rig – and it’s a different colour to both the vehicle itself and the live-in pod, so it keeps up the whole harlequin image.

Would it look better if the whole lot was painted to match? Possibly – again, though, it all comes down to taste. But where’s the fun in blending in.

One of the things we all love about Defenders, after all, is that they make people smile. And if this one were less quirky, it might not make them smile as much. Besides, you’d not be able to call it Patch any more.

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GAMEKEEPER TURNED POACHER

This Land Rover Discovery 2 once ploughed a doughty furrow as a servant of the police. Having been auctioned off at the end of its life on the force, however, it became a bit of a rebel…

Words and Pictures: Mike Trott

Sponsored by

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07/11/2023 15:48

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’ve never been chased down by the police. At least, not to my knowledge anyway. I could be wrong, of course, and may recently have featured in an episode of Traffic Cops while on my way home from work. But generally I’ve always kept my distance.

Being a bit of a petrol head, though, I’d be lying if I said I don’t keep tabs on the different vehicles the police use from time to time. The usual panda cars, in my area at least, consist of Focus estates, the odd Astra still in commission and, once you get further out to the motorways, BMW 3 Series and Audi A4s. The latter are also popular in unmarked form (don’t ask me how I know).

Speaking of all things unmarked, check out this ex-police Land Rover Discovery. When we spotted it, it was in such a good condition that had it still been in service and chasing you down the M4, you’d probably be too busy marvelling at its paintwork to notice the blue lights calling you in.

The ladies and gentlemen of the law do of course maintain their vehicles to a very high standard. But when we found the Disco, it was almost ten years into life on civvy street – and yet it still showed every sign of having been treated with the utmost respect. Since then, we’re not so sure – its recent MOT history shows that the chassis has done the Disco 2 chassis thing in a pretty big way, among other wince-inducing slurs upon its character – but what you’re looking at here is a freeze-frame of a 4x4 which remained very tidy well into middle age.

Very tidy, but still growing old disgracefully. It has obviously tried to rebel in its retirement, with a set of alloys that look about as in keeping on an old Disco as a pink mohican on a 60-year-old man. Perhaps this is one of those dodgy old cops who gets away with it and leaves the force with their lairy deeds undetected. But rather than buying a villa in Spain and getting fat on its

ill-gotten gains, it’s stuck around its old manor and remained in excellent shape.

Even when it was new, though, the Discovery was a bit of a rebel. It’s a fivedoor with rear air-suspension, and everyday people couldn’t get that combination. That’s the power a police order holds over car manufacturers.

The air springs make sense for the sort of work a cop Disco would do, of course. These trucks tended to cover a lot of motorway miles while carrying a heavy load of equipment (it was knocking on for 200,000 when we crossed paths with it), so a self-levelling rear set-up was ideal for them. So too was the deletion of the now-feared sunroofs – perhaps the long arm of the law also had some sort of foresight that made it able to see how unspeakably prone to leaking these would become.

On the subject of mileage, the vehicle may have been well into six figures but its engine wasn’t.

The Td5 engine under its bonnet went in at around the 105,000 mark.

Naturally, the vehicle was finished in white, so all its fluorescent markings could be added. A few years later, many forces started ordering their cars in silver so they’d have a chance of selling them again afterwards, but you have to say it’s quite a dapper old thing in plain white. Not like a 60-year-old with a pink mohican at all.

As you’ll have noticed, it’s not just the fruity choice of wheels that sets this Disco apart from the crowd, and what a crowd, of its slowly disintegrating peers. Having left the force via an auction, it found its way to Churchill 4x4 in Bromsgrove and thence to MJA 4x4, just down the road – where it gained an Extreme 4x4 heavy-duty front bumper and Champion electric winch, as well as facelift-style front and rear lights to give it the look of a later Disco 2.

In addition, the TD5 engine was remapped to give it some more grunt. All of which must have appealed to the guys at Churchill, because next thing you know they had it back.

‘For a while we were using it mainly as a tow car,’ says the company’s main man Jonathan Churchill. ‘Then some months after, a guy was browsing outside and happened to spot the Disco. It wasn’t for sale, but he gave enough of an offer for us to part with it once more.’

You’d think that would be the end of it, and they all lived happily ever after. But no. The guy who’d bought it sold it back to Churchill 4x4 again.

‘It’s quite a dapper old thing in plain white. Not like a 60-year-old with a pink mohican at all’

The TD5 is still a TD5, but it’s not the original one anymore. The clock on the dash reads 187,000, but the engine is just nicely run in at about 80,000 less than that. It was remappped for a bit more oomph during the vehicle’s time as the property of MJA Land Rover – it was after this that the guys back at Churchill 4x4 started finding out what a great two barge it made

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Above: You don’t find many Disco 2s of this age with such a clean interior. One reason for this is that the police specified theirs without sunroofs – which, history has shown, was a very wise move indeed in an everyone-else’s-leak-water-down-their-A-posts kind of way The first thing you’re likely to notice when you clap your eyes on the Disco is that someone has put it on horrible wheels. Well, ‘horrible’ might not be the word that comes to mind, but you’ll definitely notice them one way or the other. At least the spare managed to escape with its dignity intact And as if that wasn’t enough, the next thing he knew Jonathan had sold it to one of the company’s own mechanics… who in turn sold it back after having his fun.

When a car goes through so many pairs of hands in a relatively short time, it can mean trouble. But not in this case, Jonathan told us.

‘That’s partly down to the fact that all the owners have been enthusiasts and they’ve all helped in

keeping it properly maintained,’ he said. ‘It’s a great looking vehicle, it doesn’t look the mileage and it runs very well.’

So that’s good, and every owner up to the point where we stuck our lens in its face had been responsible. One of then must have been responsible in the other sense, though – for those alloys.

Keen though we were to find out, if only so we’d know never to let them anywhere near a vehicle of ours, we thought it would be a bit intrusive to ask.

After all, if you see an old boy with pink hair or a tie-dye T-shirt, you don’t go up to him and ask why he’s chosen to look so silly, do you?

Especially not if he’s the police. I’ve still never been chased down by them, and I’ve no intention for it to start happening any time soon…

Thanks to Churchill 4x4 of Bromsgrove for their help in compiling this article. You’ll find them by visiting www.churchill4x4.co.uk.

The Disco has been fitted with a heavy-duty front winch bumper from Extreme 4x4, as well as a set of later-style headlamps to make it look like a facelift model. The rear was treated to facelift-style lights, too – and it’s so clean, you’d willingly believe it’s a later one

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05/11/2023 00:14

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12/01/2023 06/11/2023 16:13 12:11

heart and soul

More and more Land Rover Defenders now are getting converted using the BMW M57 3.0-litre diesel engine. That’s what you’ll find aboard this tidily presented 90 – though in addition to its new heart, it also has the soul of something altogether closer to home…

Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Richard Hair

I

f there’s one big trend in the world of Land Rover Defenders right now, it’s BMW M57 diesel engine conversions. Blinging them up has been going on for so long it doesn’t even count as a trend any more, but the Bavarian sixpot is relatively new on the scene. It, too, though, is here to stay.

We’ve covered M57 Defenders in these pages on occasion before, but this one is a bit unusual in

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that the engine (and the gearbox, which invariably comes too) are not the only things about it that count as being out of the ordinary. Because down below, this here Land Rover is a 90 that doesn’t think it’s a 90 anymore.

What does it think it is? Apart from a BMW 525d, obviously? The answer lies closer to home and becomes apparent when you clamber below the 90’s rear end (a thing we’ve all got used to

doing over the years). Here’s you’ll find a nice big beam axle – but it’s held to the vehicle by a nice big Watts linkage. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this 90 has had the heart of a German saloon car and the soul of a Discovery 2.

The work was done by a couple of lads who’re well known in Land Rover circles down Wiltshire way, not least because they work for one of the south-west’s best established independent

04/11/2023 00:15

The BMW M57 engine has become the go-to diesel for repowering Defenders. This one has been breathed on to produce 360bhp, which definitely livens things up. The 90’s transfer case was retained in the conversion, meaning its Cooper Discoverer STT Pro mud-terrains are there for more than just show

Sponsored by

specialists. They’re the sort of people who can do more or less anything that’s worth doing when it comes to Defenders.

This incluides rescuing them from death, it would appear. Because prior to the restoration happening, the 90 had been written off (if Cat N can count as a write-off when you’re talking about a Land Rover) by the rather inconvenient matter of an engine fire.

This made it ripe for the job, because it was still sound as a pound but was wanting for an engine that didn’t have scorch marks all over it. Who wouldn’t leap at the chance to buy it back from the insurer and get down to work?

The engine that went in spent the first part of its life in a BMW 535d. It was on 130,000 miles, and for a properly main-

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04/11/2023 00:15

‘The engine and gearbox are not the only things about it that count as being out of the ordinary. Down below, this here Land Rover is a 90 that doesn’t think it’s a 90 anymore…’

tainted one that’s nothing. This one was properly maintained and on top of than that, while being prepped for its new life it was properly fettled too.

In standard form, the M57 engine produced 161-282bhp and 258-428lbf.ft depending on its state of tune. This one is running a bigger intercooler, an alloy rad and a stainless exhaust – among other things, we’d guess, as it now puts out 360bhp, turning the 90 into a bit of a sleeper.

Top speed won’t be enormously higher, but the rate at which it gets there has been transformed.

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In particular, you feel it when blasting out of roundabouts – we’re all familiar with the rising swell of torque you get in a Tdi or Td5, but in comparison this is like racing ashore on the crest of a towering breaker.

Not that this is just a street machine. It certainly is one, not to mention being a sleeper to reckon with, but it’s an off-roader too. It’s not like its builders swapped it to independent suspension from a butchered Jag and dumped its ride height into the weeds, after all – a Disco 2 might not be a flexible as an old-school Landy with an A-frame rear end, but it’s still the real thing even with those more modern axles slung beneath it.

Besides, its new suspension delivers a 40mm lift, and it’s sitting on Cooper Discoverer STT Pros,

so this isn’t one of those, er, dubious Defenders you sometimes see. The Coopers in question are 275/65R18 in size and mounted on Range Rover alloys, which to us sounds a bit on the low-profile side for a proper Landy, but that comes out at 32” tall which is more than a 265/75R16, so what do we know?

Actually, in answer to that question we know that there are M57 conversions out there that do away with the Defender’s transfer case – and we’re happy to say that this isn’t one of those. It uses a Syncro Gearboxes conversion to mate the BMW six-speed auto box to Land Rover’s LT230 tranny, meaning four-wheel drive and low range are both retained. There’s an Ashcroft ATB diff in the front axle, too.

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 04/11/2023 00:15

You expect to see axles when you look under a 90, and at first glance all is reassuringly normal. But then you start to notice the tell-tale signs – the clearest being that the rear unit is located by a Watts linkage rather than an A-frame – that underneath this is a Defender with the running gear from a Discovery 2 Now, we said that the 90 is a bit of a sleeper but it is still a 90. All the power in the world won’t change that, and not will the suspension from a Disco 2. The engine is refined enough but there’s no shortage of noise in the cabin, much of it from the road but to be honest anything that can do it does. There are companies that specialise in trying to prevent this, and all too often what you get is a Defender that’s not a Defender any more but costs twice as much as it should.

That’s not the case here. Despite all the changes made to it, the 90 is absolutely still a Defender.

It doesn’t even feel modified, whether you’re riding in it or poking around beneath the axles or under the bonnet – if it weren’t for the badge on the engine cover, you’d be hard pushed to see that this isn’t a factory instal.

A reasonably recent respray helps here, of course, as does a new rear crossmember (it was done at the start of the year but, given that this is a 1988 vehicle, we’d be surprised if that was the first time the job’s been done). Inside, a 50th

4pp Ross Parker 90.indd 69

Anniversary centre console from Ashcroft helps make it feel more modern, as do Corbeau leather recliners, but once again it doesn’t come across as a blinger. Nice and tidy, yes, someone’s pride and joy even, but still every inch a real, truthful 90.

But it’s only when you get under the bonnet that you learn the real truth. Which is that the 90 has come a long way since its engine fire. This Land Rover was already 10 years old by the time the BMW M57 engine went into production, so for it to be getting a new lease of life courtesy of an old one shows just how much longevity Defenders have.

Engine and vehicle alike are here to stay… and you can expect to see more and more like this one as time goes on and

the logic of putting them together becomes ever-more inescapable.

Thanks to Richard Edmonds Auctions for their help in compiling this article. The company is based in Wiltshire and can be found by paying a visit to richardedmondsauctions.com

04/11/2023 00:15

T

he phrase ‘lockdown project’ has come out of nowhere and gained for itself a certain level of mystique in the car world. Typically, it refers to something thrown together with not a lot of planning by a bloke who ran for his life into his garage one morning three and a bit years ago in a desperate

70 5pp Woodland 110.indd 70

bid to overcome the boredom that had suddenly descended upon him.

Needless to say, quite a few lockdown projects ended up turning into projects themselves. You know, the ‘how in God’s name am I supposed to undo this mess’ kind. But at the other end of the scale, we’ve seen some truly beautiful vehicles

that would still be lying in a corner today if it weren’t for the workshop time lockdown gave their owners.

This 110 is somewhere in the middle. There’s nothing messy about it at all, let’s be straight with that – but its owner, Mark Woodland, readily admits that it was the result of getting very bored

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 04/11/2023 00:18

Sponsored by

Life after lockdown

During the dark days of lockdown, it was hard to believe it would ever again be possible to go overlanding.

But while some of us were fretting, others were building trucks to make the most of it the moment the world opened back up Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Vic Peel

while the country was shut away behind doors doing a whole lot of nothing.

It’s not a resto, and it’s not one of those offroad projects that sets out to take on the world.

Though it was conceived with the idea of taking on the world in another sense. ‘We were going to go travelling in Morocco when Covid was finished,’

5pp Woodland 110.indd 71

explains Mark. ‘But then my son went and got a job in Australia, so that never happened.’

As a result, since being turned into a slick overland camper the 110 has been to Wales once and Silverstone twice. If you’re going to go and watch a grand prix, having a vehicle you can live in is not a bad idea – just ask anyone who’s

queued to get out of the car parks there on the Sunday night.

So this is a 110 that’s kind of all dressed up with nowhere to go. Maybe that’s unfair, but it certainly is all dressed up. Mark had loads of ideas when he started work on the vehicle – which presents itself as an interesting blend

04/11/2023 00:19

of built-not-bought practicality and spend-it-once, spend-it-right investment. Clearly, if this thing was going to get done at all, it was going to get done properly.

The 110 itself is an ex-Army one, but with a difference. Dating from 1991, it’s powered by the 200Tdi engine with which it left the factory.

Smelling a rat? Yes, the MOD stuck with the 2.5 nat-asp back then and jumped straight to the 300Tdi when they first ordered the Wolf. So although this one was registered on military plates, it wasn’t ever destined to be a battlefield

wagon. Our guess is that some sort of top brass wanted a Tdi and whoever they were, there was a rank behind them that meant they got what they asked for.

As if to back up that suspicion, the 110 spent its entire military career in London. So, no drenchings in the abrasive mud of Salisbury Plain, no drownings in windscreen-deep water and no batterings against trees. What it did get, though, is the sort of maintenance the Army gives its vehicles. ‘It has been really well looked after,’ says Mark. ‘The chassis is waxed and is

like the day it left the factory, with no rust underneath at all.’

To make things even better, the 110 has only ever covered 74,000 miles. Enough to leave it needing a new clutch and transfer box a few years ago, but if you know your Tdis you’ll know that that’s barely even run in.

Anyway, the Land Rover was demobbed from the MOD in January 1998, and that leaves plenty of opportunity for the story to turn sour, but whoever has had it since then appears to have kept it up with the kid gloves. The MOT history told a story of everyday Land Rover stuff like fluid leaks, dodgy brakes, disintegrated bushes and ball joints, temperamental electrics and did we mention the fluid leaks, but none of it was major stuff – you can certainly see why Mark, a man who knows his cars, went for it.

Having done so, he got stuck in. The whole project took six weeks, he tells us – and during that time he transformed the old wagon into a truck fit to be driven around the world.

An ex-military 110 with a 200Tdi engine… definitely something a bit out the ordinary going on there. The Defender spent its first seven years in London, which suggests that it may have been issued to top brass – as does its odometer, which shows a paltry 74,000 miles. As always, if only they could talk… the green paint in the engine bay certainly speaks volumes, though

72 5pp Woodland 110.indd 72

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 04/11/2023 00:19

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Inside the 110, Mark has fitted it out with hardly a scrap of space left unused. There’s no shortage of equipment in here, from a 3000W inverter to an on-board air compressor, but the first thing you notice is how tidily the living area has been put together

We mentioned that there’s a blend of built and bought here, and they work together well. Mark’s no slouch in the workshop, and he set about building an arrangement of stowage, seating and bedding units that lends a spectacular degree of flexibility to the vehicle’s rear quarters. As with all the best installations, there’s barely a cubic inch that hasn’t been put to good use.

There’s barely an amp from the batteries that’s not working for its living, either. Mark’s trade is in auto electronics (‘main dealers bring us the stuff they can’t fix,’ he says, and by all accounts there’s a lot of it), and what you’re looking at is a Defender running three batteries via a T-Max split-charging system. That’s one starter and two leisure batteries, since you ask; it may be ex-military, but the 110 left Solihull with everyday civvy-spec 12-volt circuitry.

What does he do with it? Well, there’s a 32-litre Engel fridge-freezer to take some current. Then

there’s a 3000W inverter, with four outlets, that’s capable of running a kettle or Nespresso coffee machine, and an on-board air compressor.

Further fun stuff includes a hefty Alpine stereo with a subwoofer and Focal speakers, and all sorts of interior lights. You’ll find USBs more or less everywhere you look, and on top of all this Mark also installed a CB and a reversing camera.

There’s a solar panel on the roof rack, too, to help keep the leisure circuit running while the 110’s in pure camping mode.

Said roof rack is an Expedition unit from Terrafirma, and it also carries a 2.4-metre Howling Moon tent and awning. So that’s one bedroom upstairs and one downstairs; the plan was for him to sleep in one and his son in the other on the big Moroccan trip that never happened. Rather than messing around with curtains, the rear and side windows got a limo tint film applied to keep it private inside.

So now we’re looking at a very capable twobedroom camper, but you don’t use a Land Rover as your base for a build like this unless you’re planning to keep going where the road ends. And Mark wasn’t going to skimp on this area of the build, either.

You start with the tyres, they say, and in fact with these being LT265/75R16 BFGoodrich AllTerrains there was no actual need to raise the 110’s suspension. It’s carrying a lot of weight, however, so in went a full set of Old Man Emu springs and shocks to keep its ride height right and, just as importantly, help fend off those alarming tank slappers that like to crop up on winding roads.

Should the very worst come to the worst, there’s a roll bar with its front hoop mounted on the chassis and its roof stays to the bodywork.

Not motorsport territory, but a lifesaver in the making if you have one over on a sand dune

265/75R16 BFG All-Terrains are as sensible a choice as you’ll ever see. The 110 runs Old Man Emu shocks to control its weight, while further off-road equipment includes a roll hoop, snorkel, rock sliders and the sort of light bar that makes dark nights a thing of the past

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 5pp Woodland 110.indd 74

04/11/2023 00:19

Up top, an Expedition Roof Rack from Terrafirma is home to a Howling Moon tent and awning. There are areas where the Defender is built not bought – but where he did need to spend it, Mark wasn’t scared to spend it right. You can see the old-school Camel Trophy style snorkel here, too, along with the front-facing LED bar and a solar panel to help keep the three batteries topped up somewhere. Mark also fitted a set of rock sliders and front and rear diff guards – and there’s also a distinctly early-90s’ style bull bar to keep the front panel intact if any mad wildlife chucks itself in the way. The engine’s protected, too, by a Mantec snorkel – which, whether it’s keep out dust or water, is always working for its living.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the vehicle itself. Having been treated to so much prep, it’s never really been used the way an expedition motor should – and with his son

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 5pp Woodland 110.indd 75

having gone off to live on the other side of the world, Mark’s appetite for overlanding might reasonably be expected to have taken a knock.

That’s why, when we met Mark and took these pictures, twenty grand of someone’s money would be enough to write a new chapter in this Land Rover’s story. However you see that in terms of value (and you can pay a lot more to get a lot less), it’s a story with some real twists and turns to it – and plenty more still to come. If you know your Land Rovers, a 200Tdi with 74,000

miles under it is like an open ticket to the world.

And with all this kit on board, you’ve got your accommodation sorted too.

When lockdown happened, there were times when we wondered if expedition travel was ever going to be possible again. Turns out that while we were wringing our hands, people like Mark were building vehicles with which to celebrate freedom the moment the world opened back up.

And however much of the world you want to see, this 110 truly is freedom on four wheels.

75 04/11/2023 00:19

family favourite

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The time in your life when you have a young family is traditionally one when Land Rovers take a back seat. Time is not on your side, and nor is money. But what if the kids themselves are on your side? What better excuse could you have for building a vehicle you… sorry, they… will really love?

Words: Gary Noskill Pics: Steve Taylor

W

hen people of a certain age are looking back over a life spent in the pursuit of petrolheaded happiness, one of the most common refrains you hear is ‘then the children came along.’ Almost always, it’s used to mean something like ‘then the fun stopped for fifteen years,’ or ‘and I’ve been skint ever since.’

It’s easy to sympathise. You can do more on a week at Center Parcs than it costs to fit a lift kit, a cage, a winch and a locker. Kids are the best thing ever, but there’s no surer way to get rid of all your time and all your money. And when your previous way of doing that had four wheels, it stands to reason that the smell of hot mud on your exhaust is going to be getting

3pp Rogerson.indd 76

replaced by the smell of… well, you know what kids are famous for.

Andrew Rogerson managed to buck that trend. Quite spectacularly, too. I’m not sure how it happened, but his entire family decided at the same time that what they needed to do was take up off-roading. Jealous much?

If your kids are going to get rid of all your money, this is a pretty acceptable way for them to do it. Not that Andrew was short of a quid or two, as he already owned a Range Rover and Discovery – and so, knowing it was up to him to make the dream happen, he immediately went out and bought something Japanese.

Joke. He immediately went out and completed the hat-trick by placing an order for a brand new Defender 90 Td5 XS. Yes, this

was a little while ago now, in the halcyon days when a Puma was still just a mountain lion. Not many people are able to start with a brand new vehicle, but this was also a time when there still were brand new vehicles you actually could start with.

‘I’ve always wanted to own a 4x4 with all the extra bits and pieces,’ Andrew told us. ‘I decided that as this vehicle was bought to take the kids in, I should go to town with it.’

He went to town and he also went to Cheviot 4x4, a company local to him which at the time was making a name for itself in the 4x4 game.

He delivered it to them with a sum total of 900 miles under its wheels and asked them to turn it into a truck that was up to the job of showing his kids what this off-roading lark was all about.

05/11/2023 00:16

Above left: Simex Jungle Trekkers are, in truth, far more aggressive than a family fun motor really needs. In addition to their brutal tread pattern, though, they were about the only way of getting something 33” tall and only 10.5” wide Above centre: The combination of +2” springs and +5” shocks with dislocation conea and biger trailing arms allows for plenty of articulation. Nicely colour coordinated with the coils are a set of Dan Bars which keep the steering as good as indestructible Above right: Warn HD9000i sits in a bumper from ARB whose design, along with those Simexes, is very much of a bygone era This meant safety was an even bigger priority than normal, so job number one was to fit a roll cage. ‘Land Rovers are actually made of pretty thin aluminium when you look,’ says Andrew.

‘So it was always my intention to have a cage fitted.’ It came from Safety Devices, which is a good start, and its full exo design means superior tree-rubbing skills and no intrusion on interior space. No hard metal tubes for young heads to bash into, either.

Underneath, on went a suspension kit featuring +2” springs and +5” shocks. Plenty of potential for articulation there, then – and to help the vehicle achieve it, the springs and shocks were fitted along with stainless steel dislocation cones and bigger trailing arms for better droop.

Dislocation was the Big Thing in 90s back then, Not that it’s gone away now, but you don’t hear people talking about it anything like as much these days. Perhaps that’s because everyone’s desperately trying to turn their 90s into blingers instead.

The extra height made space for a set of 33x10.50R16 Simex Jungle Trekkers (ah, those halcyon days again) on black and chrome modular rims. Not the tallest of tyres ever to go on a 90, but you don’t often see a 33 that’s so narrow and with their brutal tread pattern, you can see why Simexes were so popular at every level of the off-road game before they joined the list of Things You Can’t Do In Britain Any More.

Up front, a Warn HD9000i was installed on an ARB bumper. ‘Strong without looking ridiculously aggressive,’ we said at the time, which just goes to show that times do change.

Talking of strong things, Andrew fitted front and rear diff guards as well as an aluminium fuel tank cover and rear corner protectors. The drag link and track rod were uprated to Dan Bars, while a Mantec snorkel was plumbed in along with raised axle and gearbox breathers made from flexible polyurethane. These are joined together through a unique four-into-one fitting, meaning they only require one single

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 3pp Rogerson.indd 77

pipe to go up to the raised air intake at the top of the snorkel.

Talking of air, it comes in to the Td5 engine through a K&N filter and goes out again via a straight-through mid-pipe in the exhaust. Every little helps, as they say, though with a remapped ECU a little becomes a lot – 175bhp’s worth, no less, which more than makes up for all the extra weight the 90 is carrying. There’s plenty of getup-and-go there for the road, and no shortage

of grunt for when Andrew and his family are having a good time in the mud.

Grunt is also required for the 90’s day job – a rather unusual one which involves removing dead horses from where they fell. We’ve met people from a good many walks of life over the years while doing this magazine, but animal undertaker was definitely a new one. There’s a detachable towbar for hauling Andrew’s trailer to wherever its sombre duty needs to be carried

77 05/11/2023 00:16

Above: Breathers are joined together through a unique four-into-one fitting so that only one single pipe needs to be routed up to the top of the snorkel Right: Swing-away spare wheel carrier doubles as a mount for Andrew’s high-lift jack. Detachable towbar allows the 90 to haul heavy trailers in out-of-the-way locations for work, then retain its departure angle at the weekend for play

out, and also at the back of the vehicle you’ll spot a swing-away spare wheel carrier which doubles as a mounting point for a high-lift jack.

At the sharp end (everything’s relative), Andrew decided to have some auxiliary lighting installed. ‘This was mainly for the kids,’ he laughs, ‘to make the Land Rover look the part!’

With seven-inch spotlights on the bumper and aluminium chequer plate wing tops and sill protectors, it definitely has a bit of Tonka toy cool going on – and when you add in the four

78 3pp Rogerson.indd 78

Hella spotlights mounted on the top of the roll cage, it’s moving nicely into larger-thanlife territory. They may or may not mainly be there for playground bragging rights, though, but being able to see what you’re doing when evening is closing in and you’re still out there on the lanes is never a bad idea either.

Still, Andrew’s kids absolutely love the truck and that’s what matters most. They already liked the Range Rover and Discovery, especially the latter as it was where they got their first

taste of gentle green laning, but it was the 90 that showed them how much fun off-roading can really be and now they’re hooked. They love the way it looks, they love what it can do offroad and most of all, they love the fact that their dad did it for them.

‘I sometimes ask them which of our Land Rovers is their favourite,’ says Andrew. ‘And the black one always wins.’ He was already living the dream – and then the children came along and the dream got better than ever…

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 05/11/2023 00:16

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11/04/2023 17:24

Cosmetic Surgery

It took Land Rover until 1983 to come up with the idea of doing a double-cab.

By then, this Series IIA had already been in the world for 16 years – and now, decades later, it’s been under the knife to rekindle the youthful good looks which, in truth, it never really lost Words and Pictures: Mike Trott

4pp Norton SIIA Paloma.indd 80

04/11/2023 00:13

Sponsored by

I

t’s widely held knowledge that Land Rover had already created a double-cab years before the rest of the market caught up. But while the 127 was indeed a smart move, it still took them until 1983 – by which time Solihull had already been building vehicles for 35 years.

So perhaps it’s more of a surprise that it took them that long.

During the leaf-sprung years, Land Rovers came in 80”, 86”, 88”, 107”, 109” and 110” wheelbases. They came as station wagons, chassis-cabs, pick-ups, hard tops, soft-tops and no tops at all. But it still took ten changes of prime minister (in the days before this happened every couple of months) and five of England manager (ditto) before you could get a Land Rover double-cab.

As you can see here, that wasn’t for the want of an opportunity. A Series IIA double-cab? Of course it’s possible. You just needed to build one of your own.

Flippant though that may sound, in the Land Rover community it won’t make anyone bat an eyelid. Among Landy owners, there’s always someone willing to question the original template, to take a literal approach to the oft-quoted saying that a Land Rover is a blank canvas.

That’s what an enterprising owner did when he created Paloma. Nice, isn’t she?

She wasn’t born exactly like this, of course.

Surgery has been necessary. Imagine a Hollywood actress from yesteryear who is

This is unlikely to be the first 2.25-litre petrol engine you’ve seen in your life. How often have you come across one that’s only done 10,000 miles in half a century, though?

4pp Norton SIIA Paloma.indd 81

04/11/2023 00:13

‘That’s the thing with Land Rovers. If there isn’t the exact specification of vehicle available, you just build it yourself!’ trying to get ready for one final blockbuster: a little stretch here, some inflating of the rear end and finally a bit of a makeover to get the whole package looking more youthful.

For some celebrities out there, the story has a less than fortunate tale/tail ending. But for Paloma here, it has worked well.

‘Paloma started her life just as a bog-standard 109” Pick-Up and was used by her first owner from 1967 to 2006,’ says Adam Norton, who was

enjoying her company when we met her. ‘In 2006, the nephew of the first owner became Paloma’s keeper and that was when the work was done.

He must have used a station wagon vehicle as a donor to get Paloma into this state.

‘That’s the thing with Land Rovers. If there isn’t the exact specification of vehicle available, you just build it yourself!’

A decade on, life (or, more likely, the lack of it) had started to take its toll. Nephew guy sold

Paloma to her third owner, who carried out a light mechanical overhaul including a full service, new brakes, a new exhaust, new clutch cylinders and a new propshaft.

‘I bought her from the third owner after the gentleman had brought her back up to a good, roadworthy condition,’ explains Adam, bringing the story up to date. It’s not hard to see why Paloma caught his eye. And now she has caught mine too.

The cabin looks standard up front, but for the fact that it’s in remarkably good condition. But what’s this… behind it is a second row of seats, with a bulkhead bar ahead of them to keep the body structure braced. Something else you don’t see every day in a 50-something Land Rover is a Smiths heater that’s still in good working order – though if you’re trying to find one, a Series IIA with 10,000 miles on the clock would be a pretty good place to go looking

82 4pp Norton SIIA Paloma.indd 82

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 04/11/2023 00:13

Paloma spent the first part of her life as an everyday 109” Pick-Up. When her first owner’s nephew took her on, he decided to get creative using the original load bed and the body from a Station Wagon of the same era. You can see where he put it together – in this way, the down-home image is a little like that of the 107” Series I Station Wagon We mentioned a lack of life. Let’s expand on that. To take it back to the beginning, Paloma’s first owner registered her as an agricultural vehicle and user her on his smallholding. So she was used to hard graft and getting her hands dirty – but if there’s one thing that can make a Land Rover particularly desirable, it’s the word ‘smallholding’. The miles may be quite hard and very infrequent, but there aren’t many of them. In Paloma’s case, here we were half a century later looking at a genuine 10,000-mile Series IIA. That wouldn’t even be run in for some Land Rover engines, and even the 2.25 petrol under Paloma’s bonnet could be expected still to be at its youthful finest after such a gentle life. So too the four-speed manual box behind it, and the chassis and bulkhead holding her up are solid as a rock. Yes, that makeover hides a very standard and completely original vehicle.

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It’s all about the makeover, though, isn’t it?

Defender 110 Double-Cabs from the Td5 era and beyond have always looked a little more brutish and playful to my eye. Attractive, but in a Tank Girl kind of a way. Paloma by contrast wears her capabilities well, but beneath a persona that’s elegant and demure; think Katherine Hepburn as a resourceful missionary in the African Queen, as opposed to Sasha Banks bossing her latest victim in the ring.

Beneath her Bronze Green exterior and Limestone roof, Paloma has the capacity to carry six people upon elephant hide upholstered seats.

She even has a Smiths heater, and it even works.

You could turn up behind her wheel to a wedding or garden party and all eyes would be upon you.

The Bentley parked next to her wouldn’t get a look in. Ditto an RTV trial or Land Rover show; leave her next to a Spectre-style 110 and the only

people looking at it would be the ones who don’t know Land Rovers.

I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with Paloma. It was only brief, but it was a ride to remember. And she’s still the kind of girl you’d take home to meet your mother. Sometimes, cosmetic surgery is all it takes…

04/11/2023 00:13

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07/11/2023 14:22

NEWS

Bowler pulls out all the stops as it

Y

ou have to take your hat off to Bowler. ‘Chapeau,’ as Tour de France riders say. The latest vehicle to raise eyebrows and hats is the 100th Edition Fast Road Conversion.

Anyone who knows Bowler knows this doesn’t mean it’s a vehicle that can only survive on the road.

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Drew Bowler founded what was to become an iconic off-road brand on his Derbyshire farm back in the 1980s (yes, that’s last century children, when you had to dodge dinosaurs on the way to work). After decades of success in creating bespoke road and race variations of the Land Rover, the company was

acquired by JLR in 2019 and is now part of the Special Vehicle Operations division. It’s come a long way and made a lot of vehicles.

Now, you may see that this is a Land Rover 90 and be slightly puzzled by the ‘100th’ tag. I mean, Land Rover’s been going for a long time, but 100? The explanation is

that this is the 100th Land Rover 90 that Bowler has created. Which in itself presents a bit of a problem.

It’s not as if you could base this on the new Defender and convince anyone. So the company had to go find a used version and then set about making it look like new and then some.

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 05/11/2023 00:22

NEWS

creates its hundredth Defender 90

Of course, when you’re part of JLR it’s a bit easier to find the right donor vehicle than someone who’s scouring the small ads, but this is a Bowler so it still needed some upgrades to just a few areas. Including, but not restricted to (as the lawyers say): power, suspension, brakes and wheels. After all, this is the company

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that made Paris-Dakar winners and created the Bowler Defender Challenge with all the bonkers Bowlers that created.

However, it all means Bowler has a reputation to live up to, and just adding some stickers and alloys wouldn’t do the brand – Bowler or Land Rover – any good. So here it is.

And what is it really? It’s a rolling showcase, and it’s designed to be a collectable one. That means it’s probably not going to get driven a great deal. If you’re in a place where you’re paying £78,000 – and don’t forget the VAT on top – for what is still a second-hand Land Rover 90 then you’re probably not planning

on using it for any work or anything mundane or damaging to its value.

Pedestal not included.

So what is included? We don’t know much about the base vehicle, except of course that it’s been comprehensively titivated. Let’s start under the bonnet since so many new vehicle press releases barely mention the noisy bit at the front (no, not him, the engine). For starters, there’s a Stage 2 engine upgrade which includes an intercooler.

‘Various mechanical components’ have been replaced or upgraded, including the transfer case and steering box so one can only assume it’s all tickety-boo. And it should stop as well as it goes thanks to the Bowler Big Brake Kit. It should also sound good as well, as there’s a performance exhaust under there, and it looks good because of a raft of, indeed, goodies that have been added. Naturally it leads with an array of fancy LED headlights with Bowler headlight surrounds, smoked sidelights and all those glitzy bits that make it looks special as it approaches.

There’s also plenty of bespoke graphics and lettering, and even badges that have been commissioned by Fattorini’s artisan badge makers (sounds like you should eat them rather than admire them). But that’s for others to admire. What you want to admire is what it feels like when you’re driving past those people admiring your admirable royal progress.

The interior carries all those labels you want to see – Alpine, Recaro, Momo and of course Bowler.

Seats, soundproofing, leather dash tops, Alcantara everywhere else like roof lining and steering wheel, all lavishly fitted in to create an ambience that means you can sit in some luxury. Apart from your right elbow of course.

Bowler talks about the fortunate ‘owners or collectors’ who may enjoy this vehicle now and in the future. That’s the ‘tell’ isn’t it? It’ll probably enjoy years in climate-controlled comfort, some distance from the Series 1 working on the farm that was its mighty ancestor.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, this particular Land Rover would probably vote for it without hesitation.

87 05/11/2023 00:22

SOMETHING IN

Ian Grayston was only after a family car when, may years ago, he bought a new whole new world of driving fun – one in which he went on to create a 90 whose works of 4x4 engineering in the country at the time Words: Gary Noskill Pictures: Steve Taylor

Sponsored by

B

ack when the original Discovery was new, Land Rover marketed it as a vehicle the whole family could go out in at the weekend and get muddy. It was a moderately fanciful image for what was, to most people, just the latest thing in cool cars, but if you were to go to an off-road playday in the early 1990s you would indeed find people doing it in the family Disco.

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When Ian Grayston bought his 200Tdi Discovery way back when they were new, it was indeed just a car to him. But he wasn’t the kind of person to leave its ability unexplored for long. ‘As time went on,’ he says, ‘and I had a play with it, I became amazed at what it could do.’ As did so many people at the time.

But there was a problem. As there was for so many people at the time, etc. ‘It was too expen-

sive to be giving a really severe test. So I bought myself a Series IIA. I was soon hooked.’

Those were the days when a 200Tdi Disco was worth about ten times as much as a good Series IIA. It’s the other way round now, of course but this was then.

At the time, Ian had access to some private land on a railway siding where he could get the IIA flexing its cart springs. But of course there’s

04/11/2023 00:16

THE AIR

Land Rover Discovery. But having taken it off-road, his eyes were opened to a tough but unremarkable looks hid the fact that it was one of the most unusual

only so far they can go, and soon he was on the lookout for a coiler.

‘I sold it on for a 200Tdi 90,’ he continues.

‘It was a better vehicle all round but I wasn’t convinced that it was the best engine or the best transmission. After three or four new diffs and countless halfshafts, I was ready for a change.’

And what did he change? The gearbox, that’s what. From manual to automatic, would you

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04/11/2023 00:17

believe. Oh, and the engine, too. And from that moment on, his 90 was transformed.

With no love at all for the 200Tdi, Ian wanted rid. And to replace it, he went looking for a good 300Tdi. ‘I was after a bit more torque at lower revs, and that’s the reputation of the 300Tdi.’ When he found one, it was in a Disco that had been written off as a Cat C loss. The engine and gearbox looked to be a steal, but as always when that happens there’s an inconvenient truth lurking around the corner.

‘I quickly realised that it wasn’t as good as I expected,’ admits Ian. ‘So I bought myself a reconditioned block and rebuilt the engine I had.

Next up, I had to graft it into the 90, so I went on to the forums asking for help – but I couldn’t get answers that made sense.

‘In the end, I just thought to myself that it couldn’t be beyond me, and set about doing it. It was a lot of work though, with new crossmembers needed, new engine mounts and the oil coolers to think about.’

After all this effort, it might not be too much of a surprise to learn that there are very few engine mods of any kind. The snorkel is an off-the-shelf item that’s been adapted to fit, but that’s about it.

Many people would have immediately been starting to think about bigger intercoolers and other performance upgrades, but not Ian. He’s happy with the 300’s performance as standard – though of course that may have something to do with the bullet-proof auto box bolted to the back of it.

Front winch bumper is tucked in as close as possible to preserve approach angle. At the rear, a mid-mounted Husky pays out through an aluminium fairlead that’s a rare example of DIY casting

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Air suspension all round, combined with cranked rear radius arms made from steel tube with a 6mm wall thickness, yield what Ian estimates to be thirty inches of travel.

The former was fitted with much modifiation and now uses twin compressors, while the latter are home-made items replacing proprietory parts which kept breaking This is the famously indestructible ZF4HP from the Discovery. Ian admits that he’s a bit rough on gearchanges, and that this was sending shockwaves along the transmission that were exploding diffs and shattering halfshafts.

‘The thinking was that the auto could compensate for my foot!’ laughs Ian. ‘If you grind to a halt, all you have to do is apply a bit more throttle and away you go. Besides, I lay pipelines for a living – and the plant around the sites is all driven by hydraulics. The advantage of sending the power through gradually is less wheelspin.’

So he changed the engine and gearbox, but that was all. Well, apart from the axles, which are also from the same Discovery. Oh, and he fitted the rear one with heavy-duty Salisbury halfshafts.

And both of them with ARBs. By now, you’ll have got the idea. Not a lot about this 90 is standard. The suspension, for example, is, well, not standard.

Actually, ‘not standard’ hardly scratches the surface. He used aftermarket trailing links to keep the Disco axle in place, but they kept bending so he made some of his own out of 6mm wall tube.

Even that, though, will hardly give you any idea of what’s coming next. ‘It seemed to me that buses and wagons have air suspension and it’s in Range Rovers, so it should be okay,’ he told us of his decision to buy an Ogden Air kit. ‘It wasn’t a direct replacement, though – I found it needed a lot of adaptation.

‘The axles’ tops had to be ground down, and there was a lot of work involved. The airbags are kept inflated by the biggest compressor for the kit, but I ended up getting another from Matt Savage so now I have two feeding the air reservoir.’

2024 Land Rover Yearbook 04/11/2023 00:17

Having decided that the rear crossmember was ‘a bit vulnerable,’ Ian didn’t replace it – he welded a 6mm girder to it. This, and mounts at the ends of the chassis outriggers, provide support for a full exo cage he made using 2.25” steam pipe A lot of work, then, but it was worth the effort. ‘I get thirty inches of axle travel. It’s so extreme that when I tried to test it with my high-lift jack, it didn’t reach high enough to get the other wheel off the ground. And each corner is controlled by its own rocker switch, so I have complete control.’

Lest that control should falter, Ian installed an external roll cage which he made himself out of 2.25” steam pipe. When we say external, it really is just that – while the body was off, he created a design that would fit completely around it. There are mounting points on the outriggers at either end of the rock sliders, and on a 6mm girder he welded to the rear crossmember; the only panel that’s pierced is the roof, where it’s bolted through to an interior diagonal brace.’

Further heavy metal comes in the shape of a winch bumper that’s tucked as deeply as possible

4pp Grayston.indd 91

into the front of the 90. Dirty great tangles of tube that protrude so far they need their own postcode might make a statement, but keeping it neat makes an approach angle to be proud of and that’s what mattered to him.

‘The front winch is an X9,’ Ian told us. ‘But I don’t think the brake holds ever so well. I’ll probably replace it with a Husky, which seems to hold better because it has a worm drive.’

He should know, because there’s a Husky hidden away in the rear. It’s mounted just behind the bulkhead in the load bay, well out of the way of mud and water, with its Dyneema rope routed through a ‘letter box’ hole in the floor, round a pulley and out through the bumper. Here, it pays out through an aluminium fairlead which is one of those things off-roaders come up with from time to time that make your jaw drop.

Did Ian machine it? Hell, no. He had a bash at casting. ‘It’s the third attempt, but it works quite well. It’s not hard on the Dyneema cable, and I wanted it to feed all the line towards a central point on the winch drum. It works… sometimes!’

That sounds like quite a self-effacing verdict on anything to do with such a comprehensively planned and put-together vehicle. Looking at Ian in action aboard his 90, he clearly didn’t build it to be looked at and admired, but to be an exceptionally capable off-roader – and he didn’t mind going about it in ways that might raise an eyebrow among traditionalists. The result? A Land Rover that certainly is worth looking at… not least because in its builder’s hands, whenever you see it it’s apt to be doing something that’s very well worth watching. It’s a far cry from that family Disco he bought all those years ago…

04/11/2023 00:17

SWAP SHOP Sponsored by

It will soon be abnormal for a Defender of a certain age not to have had a new chassis. Fitting a galvanised replacement is a hugely popular way of giving an old Landy a new lease of life – and it’s the perfect time to look after all those other jobs that want doing, too, as demonstrated when AL Services got down to work on fitting a customer’s 90 with a new frame from Richards Chassis Words: Tom Alderney Pics: AL Services

R

enewing the chassis on a Defender is one of the surest ways to increase its value – and, of course, to keep it alive long into the future. As a result, most Land Rover specialists have done more of them than the majority of us have had hot dinners – and become very good at it in the process.

Of course, if you’re reading this there’s a chance that you’d want to do the job yourself.

And plenty of amateur mechanics have rebuilt Defenders very successfully indeed, both with and without putting them on to a new chassis, so it’s not to be dismissed.

Typically, a chassis replacement project will be seen as an opportunity to do a few other jobs too – whether it’s maintenance, modifications or just taking the chance to work on something while it’s easy to get at. Every Land Rover is different, of course – but in some ways, each of them is the same, too.

These pictures come from AL Services of Poole, which earlier this summer fitted a Richards galvanised chassis under a customer’s 90. Not a moment too soon, as you’ll see – and while the Defender was in bits, the team took the chance to prep it for a long life to come, as well as adding some enhancements its owner has asked for.

This is definitely not a step-by-step story of how to do the job. It gives you a flavour of what went on during a week in the AL Services workshop, though – and if you’ve got a Defender that’s getting crusty underneath, it’s likely to convince you that a job done properly is the best investment you can possibly make.

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Day 1: The 90 starts to come apart. Try to imagine these pictures with the smell of WD40 and the sound of wire brushes… accompanied, possibly, by a few grunts as an array of rusted-up fixings are persuaded that there’s only going to be one winner

05/11/2023 00:26

Day 2 (above, right): As is often the case, you can very quickly make a huge difference in the way it looks. Removing the bodywork tends to do that. Just a day in, you’ve got an exposed chassis – and the real extent of the rust becomes clear. The old chassis is showing evidence of some pretty crummy repairs done to it in the past, too. With the bodywork out of the way, the 90 is rolled out of the workshop for a serious going over with the jet wash Day 3 (below, below right): They say a Defender is a blank canvas for a world of possibilities, and so too indeed is a Richards chassis. Ready for whatever the vehicle’s owner wants it to be – and to stay that way for a whole lifetime to come. With the engine and box removed from the old chassis, it would be folly not to change the clutch (and, similarly, to save a few pennies by not using a heavy-duty replacement). Rather an enterprising bodge from the vehicle’s past cropped up at this point…

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05/11/2023 00:27

Day 4 (above, right): The axles are fitted under the new chassis – complete with new powder-coated suspension arms, a full SuperPro bush kit and and +2” Terrafirma springs and shocks Day 5 (below): The engine is fitted to the new chassis, along with new fuel lines. Also new is a full set of rigid brake lines made from corrosion-resistant cunifer alloy. The old chassis has been fitted with a new rear crossmember at some point in its life (or death, depending on how you look at it), and while this was happening the wiring loom was cut and rejoined… badly, leaving it grotty and corroded, so this was repaired properly too

Day 6 (below): Down comes the body, and the mounts are bolted up. Time to bleed the brakes, add coolant and refill the fuel tank ready for the engine to be fired back up…

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2024 Land Rover Yearbook 05/11/2023 00:27

Day 7: Job done, and the 90 is ready for a shakedown test run, fresh MOT and final inspection prior to being handed over to a no doubt very excited customer. This isn’t just a case of tossing him or her a set of keys and a hefty invoice, however – the team at AL Services gave them a proper guided tour around all the work they’d done, including showing them what was left of the chassis the 90 had been riding on. Quite a sobering experience, we’d think – and a very positive one as they look forward to life with a thoroughly rejuvenated Land Rover!

“Plenty of amateur mechanics have rebuilt Defenders very successfully indeed, both with and without putting them on to a new chassis” 2024 Land Rover Yearbook 4pp AL Services chassis swap.indd 95

95 05/11/2023 00:27

GOIN’ DOWN SLOW For most overlanders now, the choice of vehicle is between an old-shape Defender or mile into an adventure, try embarking on a 7000-mile expedition from Britain to Liberia Words and Pictures: Oscar Scafidi

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Discovery, a Land Cruiser or Wrangler or maybe a pick-up. But if you want to turn every aboard an 88” Series III Land Rover. Just don’t expect to get there quickly…

W

hen you’re getting ready for a lengthy vehicle-dependent expedition though one of the world’s most arid and hostile regions, it’s advisable to buy the newest 4x4 you can afford.

Having done this, you should spend as much time and money as possible ensuring it’s loaded up with top quality equipment – including anything that will help you cope with the extreme temperatures.

That’s the sensible approach, but there are two major drawbacks to doing things the right way. One, it’s often boring. Two, it’s sometimes just not possible.

When my friend Mark and I began planning a 7000-mile trip to the West African nation of Liberia, we had £2000 to spend. Doing it aboard a heavily modified new Land Cruiser just wasn’t going to happen.

Instead, we bought a 1973 88” Series III Land Rover, fitted with a 2.25-litre petrol engine, for just £950. It was old, it was loud, it was slow and it was very thirsty, but we still hoped that this classic off-road workhorse would carry us every step of the way.

It didn’t take very long at all for us to realise that for this to happen, we were going to need to be able to do more than just change a tyre. And at this point, our collective mechanical knowledge barely stretched to doing even that.

We needed expert help. And they don’t come much more expert than John Bowden, the main man at Gumtree 4x4 in East Sussex.

Although we weren’t sure if our old Landy was realistically capable of carrying us across the obstacles of the Sierra Nevada, the sand of the Sahara, the swamps of Senegal and the forests of Sierra Leone, John told us he was optimistic about our chances – and £1000 later our Land Rover had a brand new air filter, timing chain and front suspension, together with a box of spares (or ‘bodging kit’ as John put it) and a high lift jack. We left the workshop assured that as well as now having a suitably prepped vehicle, we also had the firm belief of a Land Rover expert.

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Above left: Waiting at the docks for a ferry from somewhere to somewhere. It could be in Africa but there are various clues that this was taken as the author was about to leave Britain – the clean shoes, the fresh faced complexion, the fact that the Yorkie on the wing hasn’t melted itself into a sticky puddle and mainly disctinct lack of MGFs and Triumph Spitfires you tend to see crossing rivers in Liberia Above right: Putting this picture next to one from the quayside is probably a bit macabre, but safe to say it’s not what happened to the ferry the author was waiting for. Would have been a bit of a short story if it had After we had persuaded Paul Gowen at the RAC that we weren’t completely mad, he proved particularly helpful in sorting out our Carnet de Passage customs documents – which meant all we had to worry about was packing the Land Rover.

But what to fill this limited space with? After some lengthy deliberations, we decided the most important items were tents, sleeping bags, spare tyres and a range of Sainsbury’s Basic food produce.

People may laugh, and by this stage many were, but those 9p cans of beans turned out to be a sound investment – while a £6.50 bottle of vodka rescued us from a very sticky situation in Morocco…

One week before we set off, our friends were already taking bets on how far we’d get. Rather worryingly, those who had actually ridden in the Land Rover were the most pessimistic. They ranged from an insulting ‘Newhaven’ to the rather ominous

‘you’ll get there, but you won’t get back,’ though we weren’t having any of it. Haynes manual in hand, we set off full of confidence.

France proved a fairly uneventful drive, though cruising at 50mph did not do wonders for our fuel efficiency – which sometimes dropped to an eye-watering 17mpg. It also did little for our driver’s-side door, which due to excessive rust and constant vibrations eventually tried to free itself from its hinges. Having left

our welding kit at home, Mark and I were forced to resort to gaffer tape, meaning that we were then only able to enter and exit the vehicle through the door on the passenger’s side – something by which the countless customs officials we encountered were very much Not Amused, thinking we were just being cheeky in refusing to open the door.

The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that all the vehicle’s windows were rusted shut.

Hazards come in all shapes and sizes when you’re out seeing the world. Flooded roads are nothing out of the ordinary, though the sheer size of the floods in some parts of the world might take some getting used to – as might the condition of the road under them.

Animals definitely have right of way, in particular when they’re being herded by local farmers, and though trucks might not have right of way you’re as well to let the bloke behind the wheel think he has, as he’s going to think it anyway and he’s bigger than you.

Especially when he’s overloaded into the stratosphere, obviously. And when drivers are willing to pull death-or-glory overtaking manoeuvres on the way into sharp corners on narrow mountain roads, as far away as possible is exactly where you want them to be

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2024 Land Rover Yearbook 07/11/2023 15:47

‘We were made aware that the wheel nuts had been air-gunned on too tightly to undo manually.

We were also made aware that we were too incompetent to use our high-lift jack’ When we arrived in the sweltering heat of Spain, the rusted windows bought even more problems.

Remarkably, Land Rover didn’t offer air-conditioning on its options list in 1973, and there was just no relief.

Temperatures outside were reaching the high 30s and with the noisy gearbox overheating, we were being roasted from all angles

In Gibraltar, we accidentally jumped a curb and found ourselves with a flat tyre – though this actually proved quite useful as we were made aware that the wheel nuts had been air-gunned on too tightly to undo manually. However, we were also made aware that we were too incompetent to use our high lift jack.

This was resolved with a quick call

to the AA, but certainly it didn’t bode well for the rest of the trip.

Morocco flew by in a blur as we rushed south before the rainy season began, while in Tangier we were given our first opportunity to use our sand ladders after some spectacularly bad navigation left us digging ourselves out of a beach. Further south, in the Western Sahara at

Laayoune, we met and were invited to the wedding of young man called Mohammed who also happened to have a house in Witney, Oxfordshire.

Particularly memorable on this part of the journey was the beautiful Sahara coastline, which stretched out for miles with nothing on the horizon except the odd shipwreck and, amazingly, an occasional Land Rover Series III. People like to say that something like 75% of the vehicles Land Rover has ever produced are still on the road – it might be a made-up statistic but judging by the sheer quantity of battered old trucks to be seen here, it’s a believable one.

We suffered more navigational difficulties through the two-mile strip of no man’s land between the official end of Western Sahara and the beginning of Mauritania. This eventually resulted in us approaching the Mauritanian border from the wrong side. The guards were baffled as to how we were attempting to leave the country without having had our passports marked with an entrance stamp, and it took my best GCSE French to explain the situation. A few packets of cigarettes later, we were on our way with the guards shouting ‘Toujours les Anglais!’ behind us.

Although Senegal is West Africa’s number one tourist destination, the country brought us the most problems as it was here that we became victims of an attempted mugging, pick-pocketing and our first proper breakdown. The country itself it fantastic, and I was particularly impressed by the beautiful French colonial island of St Louis in the

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north, though I would strongly urge travellers to avoid going anywhere near Dakar!

As with many tourist spots in Africa, the Senegalese capital contains a mixture of genuinely welcoming locals and con men. In the UK, where striking up conversation on a bus or tube train is considered abnormal, it’s common to shy away from a stranger approaching you on the street. However in West Africa, people are far more sociable – which is how it should be, though this means you need to be careful who you get friendly with.

In Dakar, pickpockets travel in gangs. They often pose as street vendors – though they’re easily identifiable as they invariably only carry one item of the product they’re supposed to be selling, be it a single T-shirt or a solitary fake watch.

A common tactic is for the group to crowd around you and while one member of the gang is tugging on your trouser leg as a distraction, another will relieve you of your valuables. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I fell for this one, and while I was gawping down at my leg thinking perhaps a poisonous spider was there, my wallet was deftly removed from my pocket. Luckily, I immediately noticed its absence and we eventually managed to retrieve it, but it was still a close

call. From then on, my wallet stayed firmly zipped up in my trouser leg, containing a minimal amount of cash and with all cards removed.

There are many nature reserves and national parks east of Dakar and our drive inland was a gruelling 155-mile trek along the optimistically titled Trans-Gambian Highway, which is the most pot-holed road I’ve ever seen. The reward for our efforts was a natural bounty which, we were amazed to find, we had all to ourselves – except of course for the hippos, crocodiles, antelopes, baboons, monkeys, warthogs, leopards and lions.

After driving around ten miles from our camp into the park one day, the Land Rover suddenly cut out and refused to restart. Although Mark and I were seriously considering heading out on the three-hour walk to get help, our guide was terrified, convinced we’d by killed by leopards or snakes. With this in mind, we decided to consult the Haynes manual once again – and eventually diagnosed the fault as a loose connection to the battery. After triumphantly restarting the engine, we returned to our rooms that night feeling as though we were pretty much professional mechanics.

Gambia fulfilled our expectations of West African hospitality, especially when people realised we were

British. For travellers here, though, a worthwhile piece of advice to avoid confusion and possible offence is to use the Gambian rather than colonial names for towns.

Soon after leaving Gambia, Mark had to get on a plane to Yemen, where he was due to take up a sixmonth Arabic course at the Sana’s Institute of Arabic Studies. This left me to explore Guinea Bissau on my own, which I have to confess I approached with some initial tentativity – especially as I had already received a $4000 offer for the vehicle in Senegal (far more than we paid) and the rainy season was fast approaching.

After weighing up the pros and cons of continuing the expedition,

‘Our guide was terrified, convinced we’d by killed by leopards or snakes.

With this in mind, we decided to consult the Haynes manual’

I decided to keep going. Ultimately, the Land Rover was disposal – and I knew I would probably never get the opportunity to drive through such a fantastic part of the world again.

The scenery in the Casamanche region of southern Senegal was incredible, with swamps and huge fast flowing rivers, and the further south I headed the greener the vegetation became, presenting a huge contrast to the remote deserts I had passed through just weeks earlier.

Properly paved roads are a luxury Guinea Bissau cannot afford, but I really didn’t mind plodding along at 10mph when I was surrounded by such stunning scenery. There were monkeys and parrots everywhere and locals would frequently jump out of the bush waving nondescript pieces of meat at me, presumably in the hope of a sale.

The drive from Bissau to Conakry, the capital of Guinea, was a 460mile, 30-hour slog through dense forest, flooded roads and numerous rivers. Fortunately, I had the foresight to stock up on high-energy caffeine drinks in Europe!

The rainy season was in full swing by now, making three-foot wades the norm, though I only had to dig the Landy out once. The most hair-raising

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aspect of the journey was having to deal with numerous river crossings – not fording them, thankfully, though driving up an extremely steep approach on to a hand-cranked barge is something you’ll never get blasé about. While queuing for one, I had the reassuring experience of watching a mango-laden truck slip down the embankment and plunge into the river.

Unbelievably, Sierra Leone was even greener

7 Scafidi Africa.indd 102

than Guinea, and as added bonus everyone spoke English. I met some very interesting characters in Freetown and Kenema who were keen to share their experiences of the war the country had suffered in the recent past, their frustrations at the lack of development since then and their thanks for the British-led intervention in 2000.

Where to begin with Liberia? You know you’re heading off the beaten track when you find a country’s border guarded by armoured personnel carriers, UN peacekeepers and roadblocks. I picked up a hitch-hiker called Senesei in Koundara, who I agreed to transport to Monrovia if he helped me find a place to stay. Senesei, I learned, had fled to Liberia during the civil war in Sierra Leone and was now working as a mechanic. This was a comfort given the odd noises emanating from the Landy’s gearbox, though fortunately his skills weren’t called upon.

Liberia gets six feet of rain a year, half of which falls during the month I arrived and although I wouldn’t recommend it as a holiday destination, it is certainly safer than the Foreign Office website would have you believe.

And there, my journey was complete. And what a journey it had been. As long as you’re prepared to

brave the fuel shortages, camping in the middle of nowhere, shady customs officials, daunting terrain and even more daunting local driving, I would definitely recommend taking such a trip.

And I would recommend taking it in a vehicle like mine, too. Yes, even if you can afford to buy a brand new Land Cruiser and spec it up with all the fanciest camping gear.

Why? Because my ancient, battered old Land Rover had succeeded in taking me halfway across the world – and in doing so, it had proved a great talking point throughout the journey.

Everywhere we went, people would be amazed at what we were doing and our spluttering, overheating, filthy Series III made us many friends. Numerous people offered us food, shelter and entertainment for the night – and all they wanted in return was to hear about what life in England is like and exchange an email address.

With just one flat tyre and one breakdown in 7000 miles, most of them on rough terrain, our 88 had even proved to be reliable. But more than that, it was a passport into people’s lives – and for anyone who knows what travel is truly about, that’s the most precious thing your choice of vehicle can ever give you.

07/11/2023 12:42

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09/11/2021 18:49:56

THE DISCOVERY DOZEN One month, 12 countries, 7200 miles. It might not have been a fully fledged overland Phil Uden and Kayleigh Costin set out to explore Europe aboard their Discovery 2, they newly found passion for vehicle-dependent travel – and the certain knowledge that their been right first time Words: Gemma Pask Pictures: Kayleigh Costin and Phil Uden

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expedition, but when came home with a choice of vehicle had

W

here did you go for your holidays this summer? If you went anywhere at all, chances are it was a country, singular, or maybe if you were feeling adventurous you got in your Land Rover and went for a miniexpedition taking you across a couple more borders than that.

This is the story of a summer holiday in Austria. And Romania.

And Switzerland. And Hungary.

And Bulgaria. And Greece. And Italy.

And France. And so on. During the course of a month, Kayleigh Costin and Phil Uden covered some 7200 miles and visited a dozen different nations – all of them in Europe, so there are people who might call it overlanding-lite, but however you see it this was more of an expedition than a holiday.

You won’t be surprised to learn that none of this happened during lockdown. But you might raise an eyebrow when you hear they chose to do it in a Land Rover after watching their previous Land Rover go up in flames.

This happened on the way home from the London to Brighton Land Rover Run in 2014. It was one of those fry-ups that happed so fast you don’t get time to do anything

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more than just leg it, which the couple did before turning to watch in horror. ‘The flames ate her alive in front of our eyes,’ they recall, adding just a touch of anthropomorphic drama to the story.

Off-roaders, overlanders and Land Rover fans don’t always see eye to

eye about every subject under the sun, but one thing you rely on is that everyone in the 4x4 world will help out a fellow traveller in distress.

‘Our friends at South East 4x4 Response helped us recover the shell of what we had left,’ Phil and Kayleigh explain ‘With their support,

it wasn’t long before we were ready to find its replacement.’

Said replacement was a 2001 Discovery TD5. ‘We had always dreamt about an overlanding trip together,’ they continue. ‘Joining this with our passion for Land Rovers and the comfort and ability of the

Discovery meant this was the only ever option for us.’

Leaving it standard and just heading out on to the road with fingers crossed, on the other hand, was very much not an option. Phil’s a mechanic by trade and he got stuck in to prepping and modifying the vehicle. Additions included a cooker, a National Luna fridge-freezer, shelving and boxes, an expedition roof rack with a Maggiolina roof tent and space for extra diesel and water containers, a second battery with a split-charge system, a snorkel, General Grabber A/T tyres, a high-lift jack and more.

‘The Discovery was heavily modified for the trip,’ says Phil. Indeed.

But a modified shed is still a shed, and an old Disco is still an old Disco.

So you may or may not be surprised

Being a professional spanner man meant Phil was able to prep the Disco without spending a fortune on getting other people to do it for him. Not that this build was done on the cheap – with a National Luna fridge, Maggiolina roof tent and General Grabber tyres, it was premium kit all the way. As the experts always say, spend it once, spend it right

106 6pp Costin Uden Disco.indd 106

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2024 Land Rover Yearbook 07/11/2023 12:18

by what happened – or, more to the point, what didn’t.

‘It performed exceptionally well while we were away,’ says Phil.

‘We experienced only one minor issue of the rubber doughnut starting to break up on the rear propshaft. This caused a slight vibration at motorway speeds.

‘We carried a wide range of spare parts with us, including two of the rubber doughnuts for the propshaft. With me being a mechanic, this enabled us to cover most problems that could arise.

We learnt quickly from talking with other overlanders that you make use of what you’ve got to help you get out of any situation.’

Considering the Disco was already knocking on for 15 years old by now, you can’t help but be impressed by the way it faced the twists and turns of the Austrian Alps and the Hahntennjoch Pass, a trek up the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and miles and miles (and miles, and more miles) of soul-destroying European motorways without so much as breaking a bead of sweat. Or breaking full stop, actually.

If ever you look up the definition of ‘reliability’ in the dictionary, safe to say the Discovery 2 won’t be the first thing you see. But this one definitely bucked that trend.

Whisper it, but perhaps a good mechanic helps?

If ever you look up the definition of ‘all-rounder’ in the dictionary, on the other hand…

As well as Austria and Romania, Kayleigh and Phil planned a route through the Italian Alps via the legendary Stelvio Pass.

There’s no such thing as a list of Europe’s greatest roads that doesn’t have the Stelvio on it, normally at the very top. Only the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, the Targa Florio and the Magic

6pp Costin Uden Disco.indd 109

Roundabout in Swindon can get close to matching it.

Why? You remember the closing scene in the original Italian Job? That was filmed on the St Bernard Pass, which has about 20 hairpins. The Stelvio has 48.

Having had such a splendid adventure, when asked to consider their highlights you would imagine they would have quite a job. But no. To quote the song, everything is awesome.

‘Each country we visited had its own highlights, from the incredible twisting roads of the Alps through to the rocky tracks of Romania and everything in between,’ Kayleigh recalls. ‘But if we were to narrow it down to one highlight, it would have to be our first night of wild camping in the Austrian Alps. Nothing will ever come close to waking up to that spectacular view as we opened our tent that morning.’

Were there lowlights? Not as such, but one or two little moments. ‘We had neglected to spot the need to catch a ferry from Romania to Bulgaria,’ continues Kayleigh. ‘Having realised this, we headed straight to the port, where en route Phil decided to investigate an abandoned power station with its massive dockside cranes. After a few photos of the Discovery beside them, he reluctantly drove on towards the ferry terminal… only to find that we had missed it by two minutes!

‘In 38°C heat, we had no option but to race to the next port (which was an hour away), where the border police took great interest in our vehicle and reason for being there.’

These detours are all part of the fun when it comes to overlanding, though. ‘Don’t underestimate how important planning your trip is,’ say Kayleigh and Phil.

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Left: There’s no such thing as a list of the best roads in Europe that doesn’t have the Stelvio Pass in it. Running more or less alongside the Swiss border north-east of Bormio, it’s one of the highest roads in the continent and, with a staggering 48 hairpins, easily one of the most spectacular. People visit from far and wide to tackle it in classics, sportscars, hot hatches, superbikes and so on… and, clearly, in Discovery 2s with a tent on the roof Inset below: What do you do when you’re running late for the ferry from Romania to Bulgaria? You take a detour to explore the massive quayside cranes left rotting in the grounds of an abandoned power station, obviously. That’s what expedition travel is all about – not chasing schedules but making memories. And missing ferries

‘But also bear in the mind that the greatest moments often appear when you deviate from your plans.’

Other moments when everything turned out not to be all that awesome after all included ‘the monotonous motorway heading to Romania’ and ‘losing the use of our sat-nav once.’ There are expeditions where people have talked about being held up at gunpoint, bogging their truck in salt-pans a hundred miles from anywhere or snapping their last halfshaft in the depths of a spider-infested jungle with no hope of rescue, so we’ll take it that the couple came home with very little to complain about.

6pp Costin Uden Disco.indd 111

Hardly surprisingly, then, they also came home full of ideas for where to go next. There’s always the annoying business of having to earn a living, which has interfered with many an overlander’s grand plans, but Morocco and Iceland were firmly established at the top of the list. It would take quite an expedition to kill both those birds with one stone, but they commented that ‘we already feel more prepared than when we first left the UK.’ So that would make this a shakedown trip, then. Not bad going for a ‘holiday’ which also saw Phil and Kayleigh exploring some of Europe’s most breathtaking landscapes. In

short, they brought their dream to life – and it was all down to a little courage and a really trusty truck.

‘The entire trip was based around the abilities of our Discovery,’ both of them agree. ‘We ate, slept, cooked, washed and travelled in complete comfort for the entire duration of the trip.’

What was it that we were saying about an all-rounder?

The classic image of an overland vehicle may indeed be Defender-shaped (or Land Cruiser shaped, if you prefer, or even Jeep-shaped) – but if you’re good with the spanners, you’re not up for spending mortgage-sized

money and you want to go travelling in a truck that’ll do anything, Phil and Kayleigh know exactly what they’d recommend. ‘Our vehicle really did become our home away from home for that month. If we could turn back the clock, we would still choose the Discovery.’

07/11/2023 12:18

THE LAST LEG Stories about overland expeditions tend to focus on the sights you see, the people you of reaching your ultimate goal? For the first people ever to drive an L322 Range Rover Words and Pictures: Raymond and Nereide Greaves

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07/11/2023 12:07

meet and the sheer joy of being on the road. But what about the bittersweet pleasure the length of Africa, reaching Cape Town mean the end of a life-changing experience Sponsored by

B

ack in 2010, we spent half a year living out of our Range Rover as we travelled from London to Cape Town. It was a wonderful, life-affirming, eye-opening episode in our lives, as we became the first people ever to drive the length of Africa aboard what was at the time the current model, the third-generation L322.

Before we set off, people told us we were mad to make the journey in such a complex vehicle. But as we’ve told the story of our expedition in this magazine, through various occasional instalments over the last couple of years or so, a recurring theme has been how well it looked after us. Now, we’re into the final chapter of a story we named Lilongwe Down – and while there were still many miles to be covered as we crossed the border from Namibia, a large part of it is going to be given over to a eulogy about our vehicle.

The Range Rover had done supremely well over the course of 13,200 miles as we travelled through Europe and the Middle East before entering Africa and setting out to travel south through (deep breath) Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia. But it still had some 4500 miles ahead of it, as we planned to take a lap of South Africa before finally reaching the end of the road near Cape Town.

At this point, we’ll admit that our expedition started to feel more like

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Left: Near Johannesburg, Lion Park is not exactly the full wildlife experience – but if you tried to get friendly like this with the big cats in the Kruger, you’d come away looking distinctly second-hand Above: Chaitows restaurant is one of the many time-warp establishments in Pilgrims Rest, a gold rush town which rose overnight and, rather than becoming a ghost town when the good stuff ran out, reinvented itself as a tourist trap. Nowadays, it looks like something out of Victorian England with a touch of mid-century ‘modernity’ sprinkled on top a glorified holiday. As we set out from Namibia and crossed the border into South Africa, we knew that from here on the travelling conditions would be much more straightforward. No more borders to cross, plentiful fuel stations, excellent places to eat,

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first-world healthcare… they even have breakdown recovery! So this won’t be so much of an expedition travelogue as the tale of a road trip around South Africa – all of it by way of rounding off the story of our Range Rover’s stellar achievement.

Arriving in South Africa, we had an almost overwhelming desire to head straight south and go directly to Cape Town. We had spent four months with that as our objective,

and now it was so close we could almost touch it. But we wanted to leave it to last, so we resisted temptation and spent the following five weeks exploring the country. We were, after all, still on expedition!

What we didn’t do was visit the country’s major game parks. We felt that we couldn’t improve on what we had seen in Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana; even if this was a holiday and we were being tourists rather

than travellers, we would still take the tourist route less travelled!

Eating like a local is a crucial part of proper travel, and on our very first night in South Africa we sampled a typical Cape Malay dish called bobotie while staying in Upington, the only town of any size in the remote

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Grahamstown, where many of South Africa’s original English settlers made their home in the 1880s, still looks like a bastion of colonial Victoriana to this day. Some of the continent’s residents have been there even longer than us, however – and the landforms have been there longest of all north-west of the country. Mighty fine it was, too.

The only fly in the ointment here was the rubbish and litter all over the streets. Nothing says ‘welcome to our country’ like the bin men going on strike…

We spent several days staying with friends in Johannesburg, visiting the historic Rand Club which was founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1889 as South Africa’s grandest gentleman’s club. The grandeur is rather faded these days but it’s still functioning, right in the heart of the city. An added bonus was that despite Joburg’s fearsome reputation, we didn’t get mugged, stabbed or shot at even once.

Beyond here, the region of Mpumalanga is frequently overlooked by

European tourists. More fool them.

It has an extremely hilly landscape of sweeping mountain passes, unusual rock formations, forests, waterfalls and towns where time appears to have stood still.

Of these, Pilgrim’s Rest deserves a special mention. A small town that was built during an 1880s’ gold rush, it has fiercely resisted modernisation ever since. Although the gold ran out at the turn of the 19th Century, the town now makes a living out of selling crafts and curios to a steady stream of visitors.

The Royal Hotel is the only one in town and to this day it still serves up a thoroughly Victorian-England lodging experience, complete with free-standing cast iron baths and a restaurant that serves fish and chips

in newspaper! The BP fuel station still has pumps that look distinctly pre-war but luckily their diesel was of 2010 vintage.

As with the rest of South Africa, the roads in Mpumalanga are generally excellent. We did, however, narrowly avoid one or two vast holes in the road which could have come straight from Kenya. One or two cracks are showing in the country’s road network, none more evidently than here.

Heading south, we elected not to drive through Swaziland (now known as Eswatini) into KwaZulu Natal. Although it would have been the straightest route, we were not interested in country bagging and frankly couldn’t face an unnecessary border. Instead, we drove around

Swaziland in another part of the country that’s very infrequently travelled by tourists.

This undulating region feels remote, with few settlements, but has vast forests that are harvested by the South African paper giants Mondi and Sappi. Several times we saw signs saying ‘Dangerous road: do not stop’ – quite what the danger was, we never found out, but we didn’t need telling twice.

Following this route, we were eventually reacquainted with an old friend – the Indian Ocean. We had left the east coast almost exactly one month earlier at Dar es Salaam and now here we were again – this time in the World Heritage area of St Lucia, a wetlands national park of some beauty. Temperatures

‘Several times we saw signs saying “Dangerous road: do not stop.” Quite what the danger was, we never found out, but we didn’t need telling twice’

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were nice and warm again in this sub-tropical region and at Cape Vidal we found what was quite possibly the most beautiful and secluded beach either of us had even seen.

Continuing down the coast, we passed Durban and spent a few days being tossed around by the considerable surf at Amanzimtoti before heading inland towards the Drakensberg mountain range. This is the largest in Southern Africa, with peaks approaching 3500 metres and dramatic landscapes which were made all the more magnificent with the autumn colours.

High up in the mountains is the kingdom of Lesotho, which can be

approached via the legendary Sani Pass. Having now ascended the Pass we can report that, at least in the dry, it does not present any decent 4x4 with a particularly onerous challenge – though the sharp stones and rocks will try to cut your tyres to smithereens.

We enjoyed a very clear day and the reward for ascending the pass is spectacular views back into KwaZulu Natal. At the top we entered Lesotho, where we were lucky enough to visit a small village, spend time with one of the residents in their rondavel-style house, eat some of their freshly-baked bread (delicious!) and try sorghum beer (er… an acquired taste). We were

impressed by the hardiness of Lesotho’s people, who live a very isolated life in harsh, arid conditions.

At these altitudes (near 3000m) it gets extremely cold in winter, with lows of minus 20 degrees having been recorded.

Also at the top of Sani Pass is Africa’s highest pub. Quite a boast, that. It would have been rude not to drop in for lunch before descending back into South Africa.

Dropping out of the mountains, we motored through the region that used to be called the Transkei.

During the apartheid era, this was considered a separate country (only

by South Africa) and was the home of the Xhosa people; even now, it

was as close to ‘real Africa’ as we got in South Africa, with haphazard townscapes full of street vendors and no brand-name stores.

We followed the glorious coastline of the Eastern Cape as far as Port Alfred, one of many small port towns among the golden sandy beaches. Here we turned inland towards Grahamstown, where many of the original English immigrants settled in the 1880s and which still looks like a bastion of Victoriana to this day, and on to Graaff Reinet, the fourth oldest town in South Africa, where a facsimile of Salisbury Cathedral stands in splendid isolation amid the vast desert of the Karoo.

The Sani Pass is a bit of a legend among overlanders, and signs at each end warn you that it’s for 4x4s only – though in truth, it shouldn’t present any decent 4x4 with a serious challenge. At the top, you come to the border with Lesotho – and also find Sani Mountain Lodge, which at 9424 feet above sea level can boast of being Africa’s highest pub

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We had read that it’s possible to drive to the top of one of the hills surrounding the town, from where there would be a spectacular view of the sunset over the Valley of Desolation. We made it just in time and it was indeed impressive, but the valley’s name ended up sounding a little too close to home when we ended up getting lost.

The viewpoint was a longer walk from the car than we had anticipated, along a poorly marked path

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through thick bush, and in our haste we had simply left the Range Rover and dashed off. We had no water, no warm clothes, no phone and, critically, no torch.

Big mistake. After sunset, in the rapidly fading light, we kept on arriving at other viewpoints on the edge of the cliff. During winter in the Karoo, the nights are VERY dark and VERY cold – if we didn’t find the Rangey in the next five minutes, it would be pitch dark and we would be spending a miserable night in the open.

The Range Rover was only a few hundred metres away and packed

with everything we needed for this situation – but which, in our hurry, we had not thought to bring. But we just couldn’t find it.

In one final, desperate attempt, Raymond charged off into the thick bush… and after some perseverance, he found the path. The relief was immense.

Without the slightest exaggeration, three minutes later it was pitch black. We were extremely grateful, to say the least, to be back in the warm and secure Rangey.

The flip-side of the total darkness and lack of light pollution in the Karoo is spectacular stargazing.

Later that evening, we ventured out again and were rewarded with an astonishing view of endless stars in the Milky Way and beyond – as well as some shooting stars, which looked all the more magical for being out here.

The Western Cape is traditional tourist territory, but we spiced things up on the way by taking the road less travelled from Graaff Reinet to Knysna.

Whereas the main highway winds its way round the flanks of a mountain range, the untarred, deserted

and spectacular Prince Alfred’s Pass goes straight over them. In places, it was only as wide as the Range Rover itself – what a treat to be there in a vehicle that allowed us to have this wild experience few other people ever get the chance to enjoy.

That’s just one small part of a very big journey, of course, but it could be an epigram on our entire expedition. We finally drove into Cape Town on 15 May, a total of 17,000 miles, 18 weeks and 19 countries after leaving London. We were very lucky to have a fabulously clear day and as the majestic Table Mountain hove into view, I have to admit we both got a bit choked up.

We were also immensely proud of the Range Rover, which was amazing from start to finish. It kept us cool, calm and safe on some of the worst, most dangerous roads in the world, and wanted for nothing more than basic servicing. We have read no other account of a Cape-to-Cairo trip where the car has given so little trouble. A faithful friend indeed.

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BUYERS’ GUIDE Series I (1948-1958)

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f you want to be the owner of a vehicle that oozes heritage like no other, then surely a Series I Land Rover is the way to go.

The Land-Rover, as it was known until the Series II came along, is the most sought after Land Rover for purists and collectors alike – particularly in its original 80” guise.

Its 1940s’ engineering gives it a real charisma, but consequently, parts aren’t as readily available as they once were. Restoration

£5000-£85,000+ projects require deep pockets, but then a finished example will fetch mega bucks.

Gone are the days where you could use a Series I as an actual Land Rover, because with restored and cherished examples now retailing where they’re at, preservation is the aim of the game.

The rarer and earlier the vehicle, the higher the price tag gets. But can you really put a price on such an icon?

Pros: Heritage, charm, a true classic, the original Land Rover Cons: Availability of parts, no such thing as a cheap one

Series II/IIA (1958-1971)

£2500-£45,000

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n 1958, the second-generation Land Rover was born and along came the barrel sides which we continue to recognise on even the very last Defenders.

Today the Series II or IIA is a more affordable prospect than a Series I, yet it still carries much of that early charm that makes it a hit with enthusiasts.

The prices are on the increase, however, as these 50-year-old vehicles start to come into their

own as a collector’s item. A 2.25 petrol 88” would be our pick, as the diesel engines, certainly the 2.0-litre diesel, were underpowered and noisy.

The Series II/IIA carries a wider stance than its predecessor and adds an extra (albeit thin) layer of refinement over the Series I. While the engines have excellent longevity, however, they do need to have been maintained properly. Be thorough in your checks.

Pros: As a resto it’s a sound investment, some examples now MOT exempt, more desirable than SIII Cons: Bulkheads very prone to rotting, check suspension leaves for seizing

Series III (1971-1985)

£2500-£30,000

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ollowing on from the Series IIA, the Series III emerged in 1971 with a few cosmetic tweaks to freshen up the model.

Headlights were shifted out to the wings in-line with new legislation and the dash received a bit of padding to hide the new safety bar across the top of the bulkhead – not sure it’s a five stars on the Euro NCAP scale, though.

The Series III wasn’t too dissimilar to the Series II in mechanical

terms, keeping the same 2.25-litre engines throughout its production, although in 1980 the 2.25 motors switched to a more durable five bearing setup.

The transmission also received syncromesh on all forward gears, which helps make it that bit easier to live with.

They still carry the simplicity of earlier Land Rovers, but can be obtained for a fraction of the price... for now.

Pros: Most affordable way into Series ownership, still has the Series pedigree, parts still widely available Cons: Not as desirable as earlier Series models

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Series IIA/IIB FC (1962-1971) £2500-£15,000 BUYERS’ GUIDE

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orward Control Land Rovers are a cult within a cult. In fact, with the later 101 getting most of the attention here, the Series IIA and IIB are a cult within a cult within a cult.

They’re a genuine rarity, too – with all the cachet, pride and immense awkwardness that comes with this status.

By ‘rare’, we’re talking about less than 2500 Series IIA FCs in total.

And they tended to have a very hard life, so not many have survived to tell the tale.

Forward-Control models differed from everyday Series IIs by having heavy-duty ENV axles, but engine-wise they had the familiar 2.25 petrol and diesel lumps in addition to the later 2.6 petrol unit.

There’s an awful lot in the way of unique parts here, though.

So, don’t expect Foward Control ownership to give you an easy time in the workshop. If you’re up for it, though, the pleasure you’ll get from owning one of these classic old trucks is off the scale

Pros: A Land Rover like no other Cons: Especially brutal to drive, and to find parts

Lightweight (1968-1984)

£3500-£22,000

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ossibly the ugly duckling of the Series Land Rover family – but that doesn’t mean to say you’ll struggle to find any love for the Series Lightweights.

These military-derived vehicles can be easily distinguished from the regular Series Land Rovers, with visibly more angular wings and a frontal appearance that does divide opinion on occasion.

To mimic the Series machines from civvy street, the SIII Light-

weight – built from 1972 onwards – also had its headlights switched out to the wings.

The Lightweight used to be popular for trialling, as it’s narrower than a standard Series II or III. Today, though, they’re classics – whose military heritage adds an extra dimension to Land Rover ownership.

It means you get a Land Rover that could have a few more stories to tell – and you have something that stands out from the crowd.

Pros: Not like all the other Series Land Rovers out there, military background, 2.25 petrol is lovely and reliable Cons: Styling isn’t to everyone’s taste, can be pricey owing to their rarity compared to other Series IIs and IIIs

101 (1972-1978)

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nly ever sold to the Army, the 101 became a cult vehicle when the time came for demob.

They were flogged off at what now looks like throwaway prices and mainly turned into knockabout offroad toys – definitely not something you’d do with one today, given the rarity and classic value they’ve taken on.

Compared to the IIA/IIB FC, the 101 is more fun thanks to its

£7500-£26,000 V8 engine and more sopisticated chassis. They used to be popular as expedition trucks, too, with all sorts of DIY conversions to be found.

This is still a military tool, though – which means some still have fixtures and fittings from their Army life, something that can be a real talking point. This is definitely a vehicle for enthusiasts – with costs that are sky-high even by classic Land Rover standards.

Pros: Master of the road. Lovely V8 soundtrack. Everybody who sees one loves it Cons: Monumental running costs. Expensive to buy, too

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BUYERS’ GUIDE 90/110 (1983-1990)

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he icon of the 4x4 world. This is Land Rover at its best: a no nonsense workhorse that can also take you just about anywhere in the entire world.

Early examples of the Ninety and One Ten are worth keeping hold of, providing they’re in good condition – but you’ll be searching far and wide for examples that are.

This was the birth of the Defender, despite not being christened offi-

£3500-£35,000 cially until 1990, and as such these Land Rovers had coil-sprung suspension, new engines – although they were still terribly underwhelming – and off-road capability that has still yet to be matched today.

A very early 2.25 petrol 90 is a rare thing, and a beautiful one too.

But perhaps try for a 2.5TD version with low miles and good history.

They’re robust and as simple as they come.

Pros: Good ones are now worth saving, same ability as Tdiengined Defenders Cons: Engines underpowered, not many left in good condition

127 (1985-1990)

£6500-£27,000

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he 127 was built on a special production line in Solihull which took 110 chassis and stretched them. It was designed for military and commercial users and came in standard form as a high-capacity double-cab.

These days, it’s very rare to find a 127 that hasn’t been hammered, restored and/or converted, or all three. People looking for a work truck tend to go for a later 130, so the 127 is more of an enthusiast’s

motor. It’s popular for home-brewed overland conversions, too.

The 127 pre-dates the advert of Land Rover’s Tdi engines, meaning they were either TD or V8 powered and therefore excruciatingly slow or cripplingly expensive. As a result, almost all have had an engine conversion by now, too.

Overall, then, there’s a lot to be wary of when buying one of these.

Do so wisely, though, and it’s a whole lot of truck for your money.

Pros: Enormous size means limitless character and potential. Perfect for turning into your overlanding dream home Cons: Unwieldy. Sure to have had a colourful life

Defender 130 (1990-2016)

£12,500-£35,000

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hen Land Rover introduced the Defender name, it was actually the 130 that changed the most. That’s because unlike the old 127, it was built on a proper chassis of its own rather than a stretched 110 frame.

The advent of the Tdi engine was the making of the 130, too. At last, Land Rover could make them pull properly without returning ghastly single-figure fuel economy by using a hard-worked V8.

As a result, you’ll find many more original(ish) 130s than 127s. Some are even still in service with the utility companies they were built for.

There’s the danger that you’ll find yourself looking at a site motor that’s had dozens of drivers and they’ve all left the maintenance to each other. But by and large, 130s have been well looked after and make a very sound investment. And if you want a Defender for overlanding, look no further.

Pros: A proper truck with huge capabilities in every area, and still surprisingly agile off-road Cons: It’s a big lump if you don’t actually need that much size

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Defender 200 Tdi (1990-1994) £4000-£38,000 BUYERS’ GUIDE

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he Tdi engine, which arrived with the Defender name, can last for decades if it’s looked after. Find one that’s had all its oil changes (a tall order) and it’ll go round (and round) the clock.

The good thing about the earlier 200Tdi is that it’s simpler than the later 300. What you gain here you lose in refinement, but this is seen by many expecrts as the best Defender of them all.

The LT77 gearbox in the 200 Tdi is more truck-like than the later

R380, with a noticeably heavier clutch. They’re doughtily strong and reliable, though, making them very well suited to the Defender.

When buying a 200 Tdi, you need to be sure it’s an original engine you’re getting, not a conversion using an old Discovery unit. This is most common on pre-1990 vehicles, but Land Rover didn’t fully discontinue its earlier engines until well into the pre-Tdi era, so don’t just assume what you’re getting is what it seems to be.

Pros: Superb off-road. Very simple, especially the electrics. Arguably the last truly DIY-maintainable engine Land Rover ever made Cons: Lots of battered and/or dishonest ones around

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BUYERS’ GUIDE Defender 300 Tdi (1994-98)

£4500-£43,000

he 300 Tdi engine is very different to the 200 unit it replaced, though the two are related. It’s much more refined and smoother to drive, though there are more electronics involved so later versions in particular are less of a DIY fix.

The arrival of the 300 Tdi also brought with it the R380 gearbox.

This used to have a terrible reputation for relability, but most have been put right by now and they’ve become sought after for their light clutch and better shift action.

It was during the 300 Tdi era that Land Rover started making the Defender available with things like metallic paint and alloy wheels.

Obviously, anyone can replicate this now, and almost all 90s and 110s have been modified or rebuilt in the decades since they were new – but it does mean that if you find a one-owner example with the lifestyle kit, there’s a chance that it might never have been off-roaded.

In which case, it’s worth whatever the seller is asking and more.

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Pros: Strength and simplicity. Engine still very basic compared to what followed it. Perhaps the definitive Defender Cons: Sure to be very different to when it left the factory

Defender Td5 (1998-2007)

£4000-£40,000

F

ollowing on from the Tdi era, Land Rover issued the Defender with its new Td5 engine from 1998 to 2007.

The engine is arguably Land Rover’s most reliable unit and it’s a strong performer out of the box, although it does lend itself to being tuned. So make sure that any mods have been done properly.

Remaps, EGR valve deletes and uprated intercoolers are a few examples of what many of these Defenders have been subjected to.

Lots of power doesn’t always mean happy faces, especially when you’re the one mopping up after somebody else.

The rear of the chassis has frequently been called into question, too. So be prepared to treat the rear crossmember with kid gloves if it’s in good shape – or else face the consequences.

With minimal electrics, the Td5 Defender is still a DIY machine and you’ll be working on one of Land Rover’s most notable masterpieces.

Pros: Off-road capability, power, reliability (generally) Cons: Rear chassis, premium prices at the moment. Late ones cost a fortune in road tax

Defender TDCi (2007-2016)

£8500-£225,000

T

he last of the Defenders were fitted with Ford Transit engines – first the 2.4 TDCi, followed by the 2.2 TDCi, which were brought in to meet Euro V emission standards and keep the Defender alive for another few years.

Sadly, these engines denoted the Defender’s swansong, the twilight of its days. They were fitted with six-speed Getrag gearboxes, still had phenomenal off-road capability and even made the Defender a nice

place to be. But they were still very much Defenders.

The era of blinging had also begun by now, and you can find special editions and boutique conversions costing obscene amounts of money. You will pay a premium for any these Defenders, and prices have rocketed upwards since the end of production. But if you can grab a 2.2 TDCi and start preserving it now, you may well never see depreciation.

Pros: Better emissions (marginally), more creature comforts, same off-road prowess Cons: Price, more electrics, last of the breed

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Defender (2020-on)

£55,000-£165,000

BUYERS’ GUIDE

I

f the subject of the new Defender comes up in enthusiast circles, try to steer it away on to something safer. Like Brexit, for example.

Much as it may infuriate purists, however, the Defender is actually a very wonderful thing. It’s kind of like an old one, only with space, comfort and equipment.

It’s tough, rugged and capable, too, and the 110’s interior has a degree of practicality that puts the old model in the shade. It’s closer

in nature to the Discovery 3 in this way, which is no bad thing at all.

The 90, meanwhile, drives with the same brash verve as the old one.

The big difference is that you can’t work on it yourself. This goes for maintenance and, crucially, making modifications – a market Land Rover wants to take back and have for itself. It won’t hold its value the way an original-shaper does, either.

Be in no doubt, though – this is a superb vehicle.

Pros: Comfortable, capable and fit for purpose. Wonderful to drive.

Reminiscent of the Discovery 3 in its all-round ability Cons: Expensive, and a million miles from the DIY fixability that made the original Defender so popular

Freelander 1 (1997-2006)

£400-£5500

W

e haven’t always held the Freelander 1 in the highest regard here. But as market prices constantly change, so too can our opinion on certain vehicles.

With examples attainable from as little as £500, the Freelander 1 represents a cheap gateway into Landy ownership.

There are plenty of issues to be aware of, though. The viscous coupling is expensive to replace

and can be upset by simply having mismatched tyres on your axles.

The 1.8 petrol used to be notorious for head gasket failures, but today’s replacements are much more robust.

The V6 is thirsty and the 2.0Di is gutless, so opt for a TD4 – but check the condition of the injectors first. Buy an FL1 and you even get a Landy that’s decent off-road and doesn’t rust after five minutes.

Pros: Cheap to buy, no major rust issues, surprisingly good off-road Cons: There are better Land Rovers out there, FL2 showed the FL1 how it should have been done

Freelander 2 (2006-2015)

£2000-£17,500

Versions: 2.2 4cyl turbo-diesel, available in two- or four-wheel drive, 3.2 V6 petrol (‘07-’09)

M

ost people will turn their noses up at Freelanders because they’re not properly recognised as true Land Rovers. But while you should turn your nose up at the FL1, the Freelander 2 actually makes for a much smarter proposition than you may think.

Because of it being replaced by the Discovery Sport, the FL2 is now an affordable option that still offers

good levels of refinement, a strong 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel

engine and a level of practicality that means it can make for a great family vehicle. Plus it’s become one of the most reliable Land Rovers out there.

Prices are now falling, thanks to the Freelander name having disappearing from Land Rover’s current showroom line-up. But for £10,000, you can now get a capable all-rounder that is actually pretty adept off-road and yet still economical to run.

Pros: Better off-road than you may anticipate, reliability, refinement, economy of diesel engine Cons: Transmissions can wear quickly if used for towing

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BUYERS’ GUIDE Range Rover (1970-1996)

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he Range Rover Classic is one of those vehicles that you could theoretically still use everyday in the 21st Century.

If you’re running a V8, however, that may not be such a wise idea.

Classic Range Rovers still provide a relatively refined and great drive today, but they can be thirsty if you’re not in one of the various turbo-diesel examples.

That said, if you own one and it’s in good condition, look after it, as it

£4000-£275,000 will only appreciate. These vehicles are popular with collectors, and values are going up all the time.

Unfortunately, however, many have succumbed to corrosion or have been abused off-road to the point of no return – and parts have started becoming a problem.

Still, while an early 70s Classic may not be attainable for everyone, tidy examples of the late four-door versions can make for an equally tidy investment.

Pros: Most usable classic Land Rover, V8 power, ride quality Cons: Rust (again), availability of parts for early models, V8 thirst

Range Rover (1994-2002)

£1000-£28,000

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any people believe the P38A Range Rover to be a bit of a menace – and often it’s completely justified. Lights on the dashboard, air suspension failure, head gasket failure... the list can really continue.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom with the P38. In fact, if you find one in good working order, it’ll be sensational. While it remains that way, at least.

Service history is a must, and if you’re going to own one then some

diagnostic equipment is going to be a better companion than a spanner.

Avoid the diesel variant. The engine was adopted from a BMW saloon and isn’t anywhere near up to the task of the extra weight a Range Rover carries.

Go for a 4.6 HSE, or a special edition with the same engine. It’s actually more economical than the 4.0 V8 and you’ll get all the toys.

They might not be working, but at least you’ll get them…

Pros: Luxury, price, a Land Rover that doesn’t rust. Could even P38 prices rise soon?

Cons: Electrics. Nuff said

Range Rover (2002-12)

£2200-£27,000

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ompared to the P38, the L322 Range Rover was a saint.

Generally. Its electronic aids were far less temperamental and it delivered a new level of luxury to four-wheeled motoring.

The Td6 engine receives mixed reviews: some say it’s underpowered while others say it’s the best of the bunch.

Common sense would steer you towards a TDV8, either the 3.6 or later 4.4, but these are the L322s

holding out for strong money. The petrol V8s, on the other hand, are lingering with very appealing price tags – but don’t think running one would be cheap.

As with many 21st Century Land Rovers, they have lost their accessability for the home mechanic.

Drivetrain faults are becoming more frequent, so you need to look for that all-important FSH. As a car, however, it’s probably everything you’ll ever need.

Pros: Great off-road, luxury, image, TDV8 powerplants Cons: When things go wrong, they don’t tend to do it cheaply

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Range Rover (2012-22)

£20,000-£150,000

BUYERS’ GUIDE £27,000-£180,000

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f you want the very best in automotive luxury, then you need look no further.

The latest incarnation of Land Rover’s flagship Range Rover weighs a whopping 400kg less than its predecessor thanks to the use of an aluminium body, which helps on mpg – although owning one of these suggests that your cash flow isn’t particularly an issue.

This is the last word in elegance and majestic motoring. All the

engines supply copious amounts of power to your right foot, while the L405 hasn’t lost any of its off-road pedigree... even if taking one offroad is like asking your alcoholic friend to a wine-testing session.

They could comfortably partake, but probably shouldn’t.

Prices are still only right for Premier League footballers and people with a link to the royal family. If you fit into that category, then we envy you.

Pros: Styling, engines, capability at pretty much everything Cons: Price. A certain type of person will resent you for owning it

Range Rover Sport Mk1 (2005-2013)

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uch of the Range Rover Sport was borrowed from the Discovery 3. In fact it shared virtually identical underpinnings, whereas today’s RR Sport uses actual Range Rover foundations.

Nevertheless, Land Rover put a Range Rover in a tracksuit and attempted to make a handler out of it. To some extent they succeeded, although it’s no sports car despite what it says on the back of the vehicle.

£2500-£20,000 It can play the leisure vehicle very well, though, and will go off-road like the best of them.

If you’re going to buy one, then you need to love it for itself, because a Discovery of the same era is more practical – while a full-fat Range Rover is always going to carry an extra layer of prestige and less of a proceeds-of-crime image.

They’re still a good all-rounder, though, and have now become relatively affordable to buy.

Pros: Decent performance from both engines and chassis, a lot of car for your money Cons: Not as practical as a Discovery, not as prestigious as a proper Range Rover

RR Sport Mk2 (2013-on)

£19,500-£140,000

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he second-generation Range Rover Sport has also been on a diet to save over 400kg, just like the daddy Range Rover.

That means that even this big bruiser is relatively economical when spec’d with the SDV6 motor.

Some won’t like the vulgar and flamboyant posture, while others will adhere to the smart, yet mean styling. But no one can knock the

Sport for its performance. It feels incredibly light for such a big car, and if you’ve robbed a bank and can afford the monstrous SVR version, it’s as good round a race track as it is on a green lane.

The only stumbling block with such a fine motor is going to be how to pay for it. Removing limbs is possibly the most feasible option, or wait ten years and see if the prices

Pros: Feels light considering weight, engines, almost as luxurious as its bigger brother Cons: You’ll need deep pockets

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BUYERS’ GUIDE RR Evoque Mk1 (2011-19)

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hen the Evoque was launched, it signalled JLR’s intent on hitting the masses.

And given that the Evoque was, and still is, their fastest-selling vehicle, they clearly hit the brief, even if it wasn’t for the traditional Land Rover owner.

They don’t much like the Victoria Beckham connection, nor that it is the polar opposite to a Defender.

It’s actually still a capable thing

£7500-£41,000 off-tarmac, but it would rather not go down that route.

Nevertheless, it is economical by Land Rover standards and because there are so many out there, they have decent residuals.

The Convertible was launched in 2016, and the are three and fivedoor version. We say stick to the latter, and avoid the 2WD model.

What’s a Range Rover without fourwheel-drive?

Pros: Economy, handling, beats its rivals off-road. Still mainly bought first and foremost for its concept-car appearance Cons: Practicality and rear-seat space are remarkably poor

Range Rover Evoque Mk2 (2019-on)

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new Range Rover Evoque has hit the roads of the UK, but you’d do well to tell the difference between the new model and the outgoing Evoque.

Most Range Rovers all look the same at the front now, but the new Evoque has adopted a similiar back end to the larger Velar.

It’s not just the exterior that mimics the larger Velar, however, as the

£31,000-£60,500 Evoque has gained the latest Touch Pro Duo tech and an improvement in quality.

The main highlight of the new Evoque is the fact the majority of the range is made up of mild hybrids, available with diesel and petrol engines combining to an electric motor. Only the base frontwheel drive D150 Evoque escapes the electrification.

Pros: Feels much more like a proper Range Rover to drive and to sit in than its predecessor Cons: Petrol engine is disappointing on economy, even in hybrid form

Range Rover Velar (2017-on)

£27,500-£75,000

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nd so the Range Rover family welcomes its fourth model, confidently making it the most prominent among Land Rover’s family of sub brands.

The Velar’s styling has won several awards, and it is indeed a fine-looking vehicle. It’s based upon the same architecture as the Jaguar F-Pace, which is a good start.

All things being relative, it has greater off-road ability than the

aforementioned vehicle, which may be good for Green Oval enthusiasts.

It’s available with a wide choice of engines, too, most of which combine good economy with usable everyday performance.

The interior is enormously stylish, in a classily minimalist kind of a way. Even by modern Ranget standards, though, it doesn’t feel like being in a Land Rover – and you do pay a premium for those looks…

Pros: Very stylish, interior, choice of engines, right now one of the freshest vehicles on the road Cons: Feels less like a Land Rover than possibly any other vehicle the company has ever made

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Discovery 1 (1989-1998)

£800-£18,000 BUYERS’ GUIDE

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he earliest version of the Discovery was aimed purely at providing a middle ground between the agricultural Defender and the luxury, upper-class Range Rover.

With underpinnings that made it just like a 100” Defender, it carried much of that model’s capabilities.

But it built on those with more refinement and a driving experience more suitable to families. What it didn’t have, though, was a Range Rover price tag.

Blessed with the same wonderful Tdi engines, the Discovery saved Land Rover and hit back at offerings from other nations by being an affordable all-rounder. And that still holds true even today.

Early Discovery 1s in fine condition are now classics and will continue to appreciate. We would recommend trying to find a tidy and later 300Tdi example, but watch out for body rust – the boot floor, arches, door shuts and footwells.

Pros: Almost as good as the Defender off-road, but cheaper to buy, nicer to drive and more practical as an everyday car Cons: The body rusts like it’s been doused in sea water

Discovery 2 (1998-2004)

£1000-£11,000

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ollowing on from the firstgeneration Discovery, in 1998 Land Rover gave its family SUV some minor cosmetic tweaks and a whole new power unit in the shape of the Td5.

The engine is arguably Land Rover’s most reliable unit and it’s a strong performer out of the box, although it does lend itself to being tuned – just make sure any mods have been done properly. You can also buy a V8, but the fuel bill isn’t

going to be welcome, plus they’re more temperamental. As are the electrics on all examples.

Unlike on the D1, its the chassis that’s the problem, not the body.

We all know that Discos make for a great tow car, and consequently many of the rear chassis on D2s have dipped their rears into the sea.

Not all of them live to tell the tale...

Get a later example for more creature comforts and a locking centre diff, too.

Pros: Td5 power and reliability, great all-rounder, better comfort than D1, diff locks standard for ‘03 onwards (model dependent) Cons: Rear chassis redefines the term ‘rust prone’. Dashboard warning lights (the infamous ‘three amigos’) are but a puddle away

Discovery 3/4 (2004-2017)

£1850-£30,000

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he Discovery went through a dramatic revamp for its launch in 2004, but it came out the other side as one hell of a vehicle.

Greatly improved in terms of power and refinement, the Disco 3 received the relatively economical 2.7 TDV6 engine (although the thirsty 4.4 V8 petrol was an option) and became the first Land Rover to be given Terrain Response. If you need one vehicle in your life, this

could be the one that ticks the most boxes at once.

Be wary of maintenance costs, especially as you approach the 105,000-mile/seven-year mark that means the timing belt is due – in many cases it’s a body-off job.

The 3.0 TDV6 and SDV6 engines are even better, with monumental amounts of torque. Luxury has also increased significantly in later examples. A later SDV6 model is best.

Pros: Off-road capability, usability for every occasion, luxury on later models, torque of 3.0-litre engines Cons: Maintenance costs, air compressor on D3s, D4s not so cheap

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BUYERS’ GUIDE Discovery 5 (2017-on)

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aunched a couple of years ago, the Disco 5 has received high praise for taking the utilitarian Land Rover into new territory.

Land Rover needed to improve economy in particular with this edition of the Disco, and having chopped 480kg from the kerbweight, along with introducing new engines, they’ve taken one huge step towards doing so.

Having driven the latest Discovery, we can confirm that it has

£24,500-£95,000 lost none of its versatility and is comfortably the most capable Land Rover currently on sale.

All of the engines have great flexibility and, along with its increasingly upmarket interior, the new Disco 5 is one of the best machines to cover long distances in, whether that’s on the road or not.

It’s easy to overspend on options, but any Disco will do all you ask of it. The high-speccers really are fabulous to sit in, though.

Pros: Immense blend of comfort,class and practicality Cons: The first Disco that doesn’t feel in any way like a truck. Range Rover style luxury may discourage you from using that practicality

Discovery Sport (2015-19)

£12,500-£33,000

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rought in to replace the Freelander 2, the Discovery Sport was the vehicle that turned the Discovery brand into a family.

It has come to be so much more than a re-badged Freelander, though. For starters, the Discovery Sport has seven seats (just), drives better than a Freelander 2 and is now more refined thanks to the Ingenium Td4 engine.

Land Rover is now churning out substantial units of the baby Disco,

now even matching the Evoque for pace as one of the fastest-selling vehicles they make.

It’s a more usable vehicle than the Evoque, though, and you’re less likely to find yourself on the receiving end of mocking banter for driving a car designed by one of the Spics Girls.

Grab a cleverly-spec’d SE Tech for a car that can be as practical as a daddy Disco, but for a more attractive price.

Pros: More practical than an Evoque – and less vulgar. Seven seats, capable enough off-road Cons: Back seats only for small mammals, price of high-spec models

Discovery Sport (2019-on)

£21,000-£62,000

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he second-generation Disco Sport came along only four years after the first. That’s because once again, it’s related to the Evoque, which was ready for a full new model in 2019.

The Sport is a premium midsized SUV with seven seats and, by the standards of its class, a decent level of off-road ability. It’s a massively popular choice for the school run – and, with the arrival of

a plug-in hybrid option last year, as a company car.

The Discovery Sport is a highly refined vehicle to drive – smooth, quiet, responsive and generally streets ahead of the old one. Cabin quality has taken a step up from the first model too – it’s now a totally convincing premium vehicle, and the range offers enough choices to suit anybody with the means to buy one.

Pros: Classy and practical cabin, all-round good to drive, PHEV model is a go-to tax-buster Cons: For the price of some models, you can go 100% on-trend and get a new Defender

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