Overlander 4x4 April 2024

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RUBICON TRAIL

The surprising history of the legendary Californian mountain road

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RESTIFIED RARITY Reborn 50th anniversary Defender 90

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Tel: 01283 742969 Email: enquiries@assignment-media.co.uk Web: www.totaloffroad.co.uk www.4x4i.com Online Shop: www.toronline.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/totaloffroad www.facebook.com/4x4Mag

Editor

Alan Kidd

Design

Ian Denby-Jones

Contributors

Gary Martin, Olly Sack, Gary Noskill, Todd Paul, Dan Fenn, Paul Looe, Tom Alderney

Photographers

Oscar Kidd, Steve Taylor, Richard Hair, Harry Hamm, Vic Peel

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hen I was a wee laddie growing up in Scotland, one day the local paper carried a story about some absolute walloper (Google it) who rolled out of a pub somewhere in Glasgow and decided to steal a TV from a shop. So he smashed a window, grabbed one, took it home and started trying to get a picture on what turned out to be a microwave oven.

Displeased that his new TV didn’t work, he took it back to the shop to steal another… where he was promptly lifted by the polis.

It was a long time ago and for all I know, I’ve just told you a joke you’ve heard many times over. But as far as I’m concerned, it was real.

What’s definitely real is the government. And the double-cabs thing. You know what I’m on about. Ha

ha, GOTCHA! We won our court case and now we’re going to tax you to death. Oh, wait, all the farmers are up in arms and they’re the only people left who might vote for us, ho ho, didn’t mean it really, as you were.

For the first bit, they were very much the comedy drunk smashing a window and grabbing the first thing they could get their thieving hands on. Foul, yes. Execrable, yes.

Worthy of punishment, yes. Like countless governments before them, of every colour.

The second bit? Laughable, yes.

Clueless, yes. Drunk? No. At least Wee Jock fae Govan had an excuse.

This mob planned it. Still, unlike Wee Jock, at least the nation’s double-cab buyers aren’t the ones who’re going to wake up with a hangover.

Alan Kidd, Editor

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LATEST: COMEDY IDIOCY FROM WHITEHALL | DRIVEN: SUZUKI VITARA HEV & ISUZU D-MAX DL20 | UK TRAVEL LAKE DISTRICT

RUBICON TRAIL

The surprising history of the legendary Californian mountain road

April 2024 £5.99

RESTIFIED RARITY Reborn 50th anniversary Defender 90

MEGA 110

Building a Cumminsengined monster

BIG FINNISH

Nissan’s e-4ORCE tech in proper action

75% OFF

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

CONTENTS APRIL 2024 4x4 Scene 4

News

Ineos lifts the wraps on the new Fusilier EV, the government lifts the wraps on death by tax for double-cabs then puts them back on again and KGM unveils the sharp-looking Torres SUV

10 Rights of Way

A stalwart of the Green Lane Association rebuts the latest hate speech from the campaig to deprive ordinary people of their freedom

12 Products

ARB widens its range of rack-mounted awnings, and Milltek adds the new Ford Ranger to its list of applications for cool exhausts

Every Month 38 Subscribe

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

56 Our 4x4s

Project Isuzu D-Max GO2 shrugs off all that laning to fly through the MOT

64 Next Month

What’s on the way from Jeep at the 2024 Easter Safari in Moab?

Driven 16 Suzuki Vitara 1.5 HEV

A modern engine goes into a vehicle with one of the greatest names in the 4x4 world

18 Isuzu D-Max DL20

More kit and a fresher face make the lower-spec version of our two-time Double-Cab of the Year more appealing than even

Vehicles 40 Cummins Defender

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An aged Land Rover reborn with a huge diesel engine and a whole lot more besides

58 Three of the Best

Accessories manufacturer Masai puts a trio of its old demonstrators up for sale – including a seriously collectible 90 and a tiny-mileage 110

Travel 20 Ice Ice Baby

Nissan whisks us off to Finland to test its e-4ORCE electric four-wheel drive technology in the sort of conditions that sort of the men from the boys

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28 History of a Legend

We’ve all heard of the Rubicon Trail. But how did the world’s most iconic off-tarmac highway come to be?

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NEWS

INEOS JOINS EV CLUB WITH ALL-NEW FUSILIER

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he Ineos Grenadier and Quartermaster are to get a new baby brother – and it’s going to be electric. Developed by Magna, the Fusilier will sit on a bespoke skateboard platform and offer a choice of battery-electric and range-extender powertrains – the latter seen as essential for the vehicle’s credibility among the longrange off-roading set.

With a steel body and aluminium doors, the Fusilier shows a clear resemblance to the Grenadier in its styling. However Ineos says it will be slightly shorter and not as tall as its halo vehicle, and its appearance in early pictures show that it will have subtly softer edges, recessed door hinges and a smoother front bumper to give it a cleaner aerodynamic performance. In addition, the grille will be made up of active shutters to help the EV achieve a range of around 250 miles.

Most importantly, though it looks softer the Fusilier is not a soft-roader. Ineos is adamant that the vehicle will have ‘world class performance on and off-road,’ which we hope can be interpreted as an indication that it will retain the Grenadier’s live beam axles and locking diffs. While several other manufacturers build vehicles with similarly credible off-road performance, as well as also building EVs and plug-in hybrids, so far the only other

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comparable model on the market is the Munro Series-M. This is priced from £75,995 to £89,995, an indication of how expensive it is to build an electric vehicle of any kind. Batteries in particular cost manufacturers several times as much as petrol and diesel engines – explaining why there are so few at what most buyers would see as affordable prices. Thus the Fusilier is unlikely to cost less than the Grenadier and may even be priced higher, particularly in full-EV form – the range-extender model, which will have a smaller battery and around three quarters of its sibling’s electric range, is expected to be the entry-level choice.

The source of the range-extender engine is yet to be revealed. Ineos currently uses BMW units in the Grenadier and Quartermaster, however it’s understood that the unit in the Fusilier will use much simpler technology. The company suggests that CO2 emissions from this model will be something less than onethird of what you’d expect were the vehicle to be petrol-powered alone.

‘As we developed this vehicle,’ said Ineos Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe, ‘we quickly concluded that in order to move towards decarbonisation but continue making cars that consumers want to drive, we need a mix of powertrain technologies.

BEVs are perfect for certain uses, but

industry and governments need to have realistic expectations around other technologies that can help accelerate the necessary pace of change.

‘That is the reason we are offering an additional powertrain for the Fusilier, one that dramatically reduces emissions but has the range and refuelling capabilities needed.’

At around the time of the Grenadier’s unveiling in prototype form, Ineos suggested that its strategy would be to skip battery power altogether and move straight on to hydrogen. However the intervening period has brought home the reality of the wider situation.

‘Demonstrating its wider commitment to future decarbonisation, Ineos Automotive also unveiled a Grenadier hydrogen fuel cell technology demonstrator at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2023,’ says the company. ‘This proves that the technology for a hydrogen powered 4x4 is capable and ready for production, but the refuelling infrastructure needs to be in place before it is commercially viable.’

‘The Fusilier is a great looking vehicle,’ continued Ratcliffe, ‘and the two powertrain options provide a real-world reduction in carbon emissions without compromise to its off-road capability or on-road performance. We’re excited to bring our electric 4x4 to market but we are

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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HAS YOUR

FREELANDER GOT AN ISSUE WITH THE REAR DIFFERENTIAL HALDEX POWER TRANSFER UNIT Here at FreelanderSpecialist.com, not only will we fix the problem but we will look to determine why the problem occurred and discuss with you how you can avoid it happening again in the future.

Our differential units are uprated, making them stronger than the originals.

Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe with the new Fusilier, at the vehicle’s unveiling in London beginning to understand the clear limitations of battery electric in certain situations. We believe the addition of a range extender electric model to our line-up will offer our customers a very low emission drive without the range anxiety drivers of electric vehicles experience today.’

In May 2022, when Ineos first announced it was to build an electric vehicle, it was originally proposed for launch around two years from now – however the addition of a range-extender option is likely to move its introduction towards the end of 2026.

As well as being developed by Magna, the Austrian company will build the vehicle – leaving room in Ineos’ own factory for further new models, including potentially a short-wheelbase Grenadier, plans for which are understood to be making strong progress.

DON’T JUST FIX IT....

FIX IT FOR GOOD!

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

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Toyota’s Hilux GR Sport giving it a bit of flex on our text drive last summer. The government has had to be very flexible about its relationship with double-cab buyers just recently, too… though it’s looked a lot less sure-footed in the process

DOUBLE-CABS REPRIEVED BY GOVERNMENT U-TURN OVER TAX STATUS

T

he government performed an embarrassing U-turn in February, when it announced a new tax regime for double-cab pick-up trucks – then scrapped it all of seven days later. The move followed an outcry over the new rules, which were to be introduced at short notice and would see double-cabs cease to be treated as commercial vehicles for capital allowance and benefit-in-kind purposes.

The changes were proposed after a 2020 Court of Appeal judgement paved the way for the HMRC to claw back tax breaks on the vehicles which, though they are often used as family cars, are a necessary tool of working life for many in the farming and construction industries.

Following the announcement on 12 February that all double-cabs registered from 1 July onwards would be treated as cars, the government faced a backlash from vehicle users and the motor industry alike which quickly led it to think again.

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Announcing the U-turn, the HMRC said: ‘The government has acknowledged that the 2020 court decision and resultant guidance update could have an impact on businesses and individuals in a way that is not consistent with the government’s wider aims to support businesses, including vital motoring and farming industries.’ Things will therefore go back to the way they have always been, with double-0cabs continuing to be treated as commercial vehicles so long as they are rated to carry more than 1000kg.

A number of observers commenting on social media platforms pointed out that upsetting the farming community would not be the smartest move as this is just about the only place where the government still enjoys any broad support. Easy as it is to be cynical, however, the big story from this darkly comical series of events is that doublecabs remain as attractive a prospect as ever to run.

£224,850 ticket on late Queen’s Range Rover

Fancy owning a Range Rover formerly belonging to the late Queen Elizabeth II? Is so, the good news is that a SDV8 Autobiography LWB fitting that description was recently listed for sale on PistonHeads.

The L405 was commissioned by the Royal Household in March 2016 and was used on numerous occasions to chauffeur the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to and from their public engagements. It was also chosen to transport former US President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama during their state visit to the UK later that same year.

Prior to entering service, the Range Rover was modified by Land Rover to suit Royal duty. Additions included side steps and a police siren – which has since been removed for homologation purposes, though a number of specific features including grab handles, as requested by the Queen on many of her cars, remain in place.

‘To know this was personal transport for the late Queen and Prince Phillip elevates this Range Rover to another plane of specialness entirely, says PistonHeads’ Matt Bird. ‘Knowing that this vehicle was used for the Obamas on a state visit only furthers the appeal. For those enamoured with the Royal family, it’s an unrepeatable and wonderful piece of history.’

So, how much is this bad boy going to cost you? A right royal £224,850.

Just to be absolutely clear, you don’t get Windsor Palace thrown in. It was listed on PistonHeads by Bramley Motors and at the time of writing it was, not surprisingly, still for sale.

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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04/03/2024 17:02

Goodbye Saggy Headliners

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Say Goodbye to Sagging Cloth Headliner: Our kits are manufactured to replace sagging or deteriorating cloth headliners, giving your Defender’s interior a muchneeded facelift.

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Easy to Clean Surface: The wipe-clean feature of our headlining kits makes maintaining a clean and hygienic interior effortless.

Moulded for a Perfect Fit: Each headlining kit is moulded to ensure a precise fit, adhering to the contours of your Defender for a professional and smart appearance.

Simple Installation with Existing Clips: Designed for convenience, these kits can be easily fitted using the existing clips in your vehicle, making the installation process quick and hassle-free.

Lightweight Construction: Despite their rigidity and durability, our headlining kits are surprisingly lightweight, ensuring they don’t add unnecessary weight to your vehicle.

28/02/2024 11:56

Bentley unveils trendsetting Bentayga EWB

KGM Torres now in UK showrooms KGM Motors’ first new model since its name change from SsangYong has arrived in the UK. The Torres is a medium sized SUV which will ultimately be available with a choice of petrol and electric powertrains as well as two and four-wheel drive transmissions.

Initial deliveries are of a 4x2 powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol unit with 163bhp and 207lbf.ft. This same unit will be available driving all four wheels by summer, with the all-electric Torres EVX arriving in between. Automatic gearboxes will be standard across the range A departure from the design language typical of legacy products from the SsangYong era, the Torres’ tough looking exterior will contrast with what KGM says will be a ‘delicate, comfortable and contemporary space’ dominated by twin-panoramic 12.3” digital display cluster and infotainment control screens. There will be two trim levels, called K30 and K40, with CarPlay/Android, DAB and Bluetooth standard on both.

Prices for the Torres start at £34,995, with the forthcoming K40 AWD model costing £39,995. The EVX can be expected to push this comfortably into the forties.

Bentley has unveiled the first-ever two-tone Bentayga EWB, which was specified by clients in California through Mulliner, the company’s bespoke and personalisation division. The vehicle, which features Onyx for the bonnet, roof and upper body over a main colour of Kingfisher Blue, has Bentley’s Azure wellness-focused package as well as its Blackline and Touring specifications.

Bentley says it had been planning to introduce two-tone paint finishes as a factory option on the Bentayga EWB. With the success of this one-of-one example, however, and ever-increasing take up for Mulliner commissions, the company decided to bring this forward by a year – meaning the couple who commissioned the vehicle in the picture truly are trendsetters.

Land Rover boss rebuts ‘most stolen’ claim Anger over insurance costs for new Land Rovers and Range Rovers continues to rumble on, after JLR boss Adrian Mardell hit out at the media and insurance industry about unfair treatment of the company’s vehicles.

Speaking in early February, after JLR had reported strong financial results for the previous quarter, Mardell said it was ‘a myth’ that Range Rovers are the country’s most frequently stolen vehicle. Apparently referring to reports about the Velar based on DVLA data for 2022-23, he countered that thefts of Range Rovers have fallen 27% last year – and that only 11 vehicles out of a total of 12,800 current full-fat Range Rovers have been stolen.

‘The insurance industry clearly are not using the information and the data,’ said Marfell. ’They are very slow to respond.’

JLR launched its own insurance service during 2023, in response to escalating prices for third-party policies. This provided quotes to more than 4000 clients in its first two months of operation, with an average premium of less than £200 per month.

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Many insurers also quote inflated premiums for everyday Land Rovers, however these tend to vary wildly – making it essential to shop around. In particular, the golden rule is never to accept a quote for renewal, in particular when it’s significantly higher than you paid the previous year.

It is, however, essential to recognise that original-shape Defenders in particular are extremely appealing to thieves – and incredibly easy for them to steal. A wide variety of security products are available, some generic and some specialised, however the best protection is still to keep them locked away and hidden from view.

As for JLR’s current products, the company argues that following its latest software updates these are now among the most difficult cars to steal in entire market. ‘There is no reason whatsoever why any insurance company should not gladly and readily insure those new vehicles,’ said Mardell. ‘Zero, in any part of the country.’

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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4X4 HATERS VERSUS THE TRUTH

Green laning in Britain should be about the simple pleasure of exploring the countryside.

But thanks to the pernicious activities of anti-4x4 fanatics who spread lies in support of their agenda against other people’s freedom, all too often it’s about protecting yourself against irrational hate. In a recent issue of the Green Lane Association’s monthly Bulletin, one of the association’s members penned the following rebuttal to the latest tirade to be directed our way Words: Green Lane Defender pictures: Steve Taylor

H

ow many hobbies should a person have? The answer appears infinite. Certainly in my own case, in addition to green lane activities I birdwatch, help run a charity and do a load of other, sometimes questionable things.

The most questionable of all is a love of fact checking. You know the kind of stuff – using Facebook to sensitively correct misunderstandings about stuff like immigration, electric vehicles and especially the flat earthers. And in that latter case I have a particular speciality, having spent many happy hours arguing with many Americans about the nature of our planet.

One thing I have learnt (although I don’t actually seem to have really learnt it as I’m still banging my head against the wall) is that arguing with fanatics is entirely pointless. They simply are not interested

10

in facts and truth and common sense, or even the evidence of their own eyes. They have an opinion, however mad it might be, and all they are interested in is shouting about it, regardless of how unrelated to reality it might be.

Thus I feel well qualified to be able to comment on the latest emission from the anti-access group we have lived alongside for so many years: GLEAM (the Green Lanes Environmental Action Movement).

These people are committed to removing rights enjoyed by motorised lane users. Spurred on by the occasional historic success, and further still by more recent legal defeats (another sign of the unbowed fanatic), they see themselves as a bastion of hope for our once pastoral nation now plagued by evil vehicles.

Not the 300,000 that roar past my town on the M25 every day – obviously

not that. This group’s chosen plague to exterminate are the handful of 4x4s and bikes that potter along unsurfaced roads every so often.

To them, green laners are an existential threat to the nature of this green and pleasant land and must be shouted about in a literally quixotic manner to anyone who will listen.

They widely use generalisations.

One damaged lane implies all lanes are damaged, every farmer is inconvenienced; one annoyed walker means every walker is annoyed, all 4x4 drivers are clowns. It’s the primary tactic of the playground bully and the fascist – scapegoat a group to make them all the enemy.

They develop straw-man arguments and loudly struggle to defeat something hideous that doesn’t actually exist. We can often see a similar method within

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politics. You know the type of thing – straight bananas, the European army, eight types of dustbins. Make a big noise about something you’ve made up and that you know will generate fear and anger in your target audience, and before long you’ll be able to fundraise for a pointless campaign against a non-existent issue.

Research says that part of the reason the flat earth brigade, and their like, refuse to listen is a loss of trust. They no longer believe anything anyone in authority tells them because they just don’t trust them – anyone who disagrees with the sacred cow is part of a grand conspiracy – and if they’re not, the conspiracy can soon be reshaped to engulf them. Add to that the dopamine hit that makes the denier feel great as they wave goodbye to reality and you can see how dealing with the fanatic can be a real challenge.

Knowing all this craziness, what must be our response?

Thankfully, we are already old hands at dealing with this kind of thing. ’Smile and Wave’ is a brilliant and well established Green Lane Association concept that works online as much as on lanes. Smile and wave says we take the moral high ground, we act like the adults, we engage politely and if they abuse us we smile, wave and depart. A shrug can also help but it may serve to further infuriate the other party.

Which, let’s be honest, is hugely tempting.

The worse thing we can give is a shrill response. If we raise our virtual or real voice, our cause is jeopardised.

Having said all of that, in our case there are some simple factual corrections that can be applied and offered to the genuine enquiry or person in authority who may have been assailed by the latest missive from our shiny adversaries.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

Green laning is not off-roading, because it’s on a road. We’ve told them once, we’ve told them a thousand times. But it suits them to class all laners as trespassers (see ‘unsound generalisations’ above). There is no evidence that laning regularly disrupts farming. Massive 10-foot tractor tyres versus a Suzuki Jimny, anyone?

In fact there is usually no evidence presented at all – no numbers of vehicle movements quoted (the few dozen vehicles a typical lane might see in a week doesn’t fit with the anti-4x4 narrative), no lists of problem areas, no lists of untroubled lanes.

To argue that an occasional vehicle driven on a green lane depletes nature is nonsensical in the face of the millions using the tarmac road network – which is

of course many thousands of times larger than the laning network.

Re-sharing the same tired pictures of hot-spot problem areas reflects that there aren’t many problem areas (although we do all know there are some). The lack of enforcement against criminal vehicular trespass or damage is never raised by the antis – best not upset those in power by suggesting an actual solution…

And so on.

Sadly, as motorised green lane users we do remain in an easy-to-knock, easyto-hate minority. And there are those among our number who seem to go out of their way to be easily hate-able.

You’ve only got to spend ten minutes on Facebook to see that. Sometimes those in power, desperate for it or with powerful friends can illicitly influence against our legitimate rights, using media in quick and easy ways to tell a false story with which the angry mob uncritically jump on board.

Thankfully, many of the country’s Rights of Way departments are committed to the law and to legal access for all.

And, although few would say there are no challenges in these budget-reduced times, good working relationships (as opposed to the endless moaning they get from our nemesis), has made much progress over the last few years. It’s what organisations like the Green Lane Association exist for.

Next time you come across a letter or a leaflet decrying our hobby, or laning described in a way you don’t even recognise, arm yourself with some of the facts of the matter. You’ll soon be able to take a short Green Lane Association developed online eLearning course on green laning, which will help us all dispel the myths and lies spread about us.

As we all know, the truth does not always triumph. But if we do nothing, it definitely won’t.

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The awning comes with integrated sail track rails for ARB’s own accessories, and has PVC abrasion pads to protect its corners when rolling up and in transit. It’s waterproof and UV-protected for cover from the elements, and the last surprising thing you’ll read today is that it’s compatible with ARB’s BASE Rack awning brackets.

Aluminium awning from ARB ca £520 | www.britpart.com There are many on-vehicle awnings in the world, and indeed many ARB awnings.

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More Milltek exhausts for double-cab pick-ups www.millteksport.com Following the government’s fabulously idiotic turn, U-turn, faceplant and wet pants accident over the tax status of double-cab pick-ups, Milltek Sport might not sound like the most obvious candidate to say thank you for the long overdue clarity on its position as an aftermarket supplier.

But the exhaust specialist has put a good many systems on trucks at the top end of the market – and the news from the HMRC, muddled though it may have been, eventually came to endorse this as something that can continue apace.

Milltek’s latest product for pick-ups is an axle-back exhaust for the new-shape Ford Ranger Double-Cab with the 2.0-litre engine.

This adds to the vehicle’s looks by giving it dual-exit finishers – possibly the answer to a question no-one was asking in an offroading and overlanding sense, but as we all know the Ranger is enormously popular as a lifestyle pick-up and for this purpose few things could be more perfect.

On that subject, there’s also the Ranger Raptor. Oh, isn’t there just. Equipped with

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Ford’s 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine, this is both fast and, when you play with the drive modes, impressively rorty – and with Milltek’s tailored exhaust, it’s more of both.

The company says its exhaust unlocks yet more potential from the turbocharged unit, as well as making it noisier – with the factory drive mode settings still operative to allow a switchable soundtrack.

The Ranger is not the first pick-up to get the Milltek treatment, however. Since 2017, the company has been fitting its premium cat-back systems on the VW Amarok, offering a choice of exit and tip designs.

Milltek’s Active Sound Units have also proved popular with pick-up owners. Made

for commercial vehicles which traditionally lack the excitement of fruitier models, these generate a note which can be controlled via an app, allowing the driver to choose from eleven selectable sound profiles with volume, pitch and tone adjustment.

‘It’s true that we’re a nation of pick-up truck lovers, and the continuing appetite for premium aftermarket products for commercial vehicles reflects this,’ says Milltek MD Steve Pound. ‘Just because pick-up trucks are built to get the job done doesn’t mean owners shouldn’t take pride in them, and we’re pleased that double-cab pick-ups will retain their status as working commercial vehicles.’

www.overlander4x4.co.uk

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The heater control valve used on the Puma-era Defender works perfectly well. But it’s made of plastic and the vehicles are now of an age where failures and leakages are being reported frequently enough for Design and Development Engineering to bring out a replacement in aluminium. Possibly not the sexiest accessory you’ll ever buy, but a proper fitand-forget upgrade that goes hand in hand with any other attempts you might be making to future-proof your truck.

If you do want sexy accessories, of course, Design and Development Engineering is more than a little capable of dishing these up. The upgraded axles it’s recently been prototyping for Series trucks, for example, need to be seen to be believed. At the time of writing, the Puma heater control valve is still on its way, with a due date of early 2024, so the price is still to be confirmed, but we’re fairly sure they wouldn’t mind if you want to get in touch with a pre-order.

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Safety Devices’ spare wheel mounts for the new-shape Defender are designed to work with the existing carrier, providing a cradle on which to rest the wheel while attaching it with bolts. It uses the existing door mounts, with no modifications to the vehicle required.

The 90, 110 and 130 mounts are available in basic form and combined with a mount for a high-lift jack. The latter adds the provision for a jack, holding it in a vertical position.

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25/04/2023 11:28:22

SUZUKI VITARA 1.5 HEV SZ5 ALLGRIP

Cabin is neat, well enough made and quite usable, with decent seats and an info system that works. 1.5-litre petrol engine links to an electric motor to deliver adequate performance and econmy alike

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vehicle with one of the longestrunning names in the market, the Suzuki Vitara has been coming to the UK since 1991. It’s changed a lot in that time, of course – from the Vitara to the Grand Vitara and back again, through various sizes, shapes, body configurations and chassis set-ups and, notably, in and thankfully back out of a deep trough immediately after turning its back on oldschool off-road tech. What it has become is a very sound choice at the budget end of the SUV market – and it became sounder than ever a couple of years ago with the introduction of a full hybrid engine.

This mates a 1.5-litre petrol unit to a 140-volt electric system. Not the biggest beast on the market, but the motor adds

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33bhp and 44lbf.ft to the engine’s 115bhp and 101lbf.ft – not creating a huge total, but that’s something like 25% of the vehicle’s output so it’s not to be sniffed at. Especially as part of its job is to smooth out the gearchanges in an automated manual box.

How well does it do this? Quite effectively, in fact. Normally, we hate automated manuals, but the Vitara doesn’t jolt and bump its way through the gears and whether you’re taking it easy around town or asking for more on the open road it’s smooth enough not to cause any upsets.

The engine is pretty loud, however, with an ever-present background note that rises to become quite raucous under load. It’s not short of zest, with better performance than the raw figures would give you to expect,

but it sounds as if it’s straining to move the vehicle around. You do get used to it after a while, but t would be so much better if you didn’t have to in the first place.

This isn’t the first Vitara engine we’ve said things like that about, so to some extent it may be more about the vehicle’s general sound deadening. There’s a reason why very highly refined 4x4s tend to be cost four times as much as this, after all.

Poise and Grip

Vitaras have always tended towards handling rather than ride in their suspension set-up, and this one is no different. It turns in well and settles confidently into corners, with the poise to go with its grip – which is pretty much unending, thanks to the four-

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wheel drive system on our range topping SZ5 Allgrip model. It’s quite poised, quite agile and good fun when you’re in the mood.

Just getting around town is a bit lumpy, though, unless you live in a town that’s not a minefield of scars and holes and therefore aren’t reading this because you’ve never been to Britain. It’s not crashy, at least, with enough rubber in its 215/55R17 tyres to help the suspension draw the sting of the most ridiculous surfaces, but you do feel some shudders and the body is moved about by speed pillows. It picks up on cats’ eyes, too – and on faster roads, corrugations expose an irritating brittleness. The only time the ride really settles is on the motorway – where it cruises comfortably, albeit with a constant soundtrack of wind and road

noise that corners you into keep the volume cranked up on the stereo.

Unfussy

This in turn comes through an infotainment system which does its job unfissily, linking to your phone without a fight and letting you navigate your way around without needing to use the stars. The screen it’s on is not huge, but it looks okay and it works, and we’d take that any day of the week.

The rest of the Vitara’s interior is similarly effective without being eye-opening. The buttons on the steering wheel make sense, the stowage options are useful, the seats are comfortable enough if somewhat short on adjustability and even with the panoramic sunroof that’s standard on this

model you can sit in the driver’s seat without it interfering with the top of your head.

The same is not the case in the back, which is definitely better for children.

Legroom is adequate, but headroom is terrible and you’re sat very upright, so for a long journey it would be a nightmare.

The seats fold near-flat for cargo carrying, however, and with useful stowage bins to either side of the load floor it’s actually a bit of a practicality hero.

We’ve always been rooting for the Vitara, and while the hybrid engine is not the most refined thing it’s still an easy vehicle to love.

It lists at £27,399 as tested, and for that money you’re getting a well made 4x4 that’s nice enough inside, good looking and plenty of fun to drive

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ISUZU D-MAX DL20 AUTOMATIC

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suzu is on a mission to enhance the D-Max’s image as a lifestyle vehicle in this country. And, as usual, it’s doing a good job of it, with the range-topping V-Cross building an ever-stronger presence in the sales charts.

A pick-up range needs to be built on a solid foundation, though, and that’s where the likes of the DL20 come in. A couple of years ago, Isuzu widened the options in its line-up allowing this model to be ordered with an automatic gearbox – and that’s what we have here.

The D-Max has also had a mild facelift in the relatively recent past. This amounts to a more aggressive looking grille, as well as a revised design of alloy wheels and, in the case of the DL20, new premium woven fabric upholstery. Oh, and some of the paint options have been updated.

Not exactly big stuff, then. But it makes a surprising difference, especially the grille.

The vehicle is mechanically identical to the model from before the facelift, but the new look really does stand out.

Climbing in, the new seat fabric feels stout and robust. It’s dark grey, with contrasting light grey stitching, but more to the point you’d expect that it’s going to last a good long time. The seats themselves as well shaped to hold you, too – we did a couple of lengthy trips in our DL20 and never got fatigued. Heartily unimpressed by the state of the traffic (they were lengthy trips in more than just distance), but not fatigued.

This was in spite of our complete failure to get anywhere with connecting to the media system. Plugging in the editorial

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iPhone, it started to charge but the truck refused to recognise it; oddly, the menu gave us the option of using Android Auto, but Apple CarPlay remained steadfastly greyed out. Needless to say we were probably making a stupid mistake, but expecting it to be as easy as it is in almost every other vehicle we test is not stupid. Anyway, we braved the radio for our lengthy trips instead.

Completely relevant

Behind the wheel, as we’ve mentioned it’s mechanically identical to before. However what we’ll say is that the auto box doesn’t feel out of place in the lowish-spec DL20.

Many people prefer them for off-roading (two common points being that they let you always keep both hands on the wheel, and that they prevent a failed hillclimb from turning into an together more panic-worthy stalled hillclimb) and so they’re completely relevant even in the lowest-spec models.

The D-Max Utility is available with the auto box too now, but for private owners and small business users the DL20 is probably the entry-level model. And it’s fine in this form. The self-shifter doesn’t prevent you from getting about; it does remove a layer of engagement but it doesn’t ruin the driving experience. It has its wits about it most of the time and shifts without either hesitating, jumping the gun or taking forever to make its mind up.

You can always take charge by knocking it into manual mode, too – though we tried this but gave up quite quickly. This function’s greatest value is probably off-road, but on tarmac we found it best just to let it do its

thing. We’d still choose the manual, but there’s nothing about the auto that should put you off.

When the time came for us to give our D-Max back, the fuel economy gauge on the screen said it had averaged 33.7mpg over the previous 634 miles. That’s a tribute to Isuzu’s 1.9-litre turbo-diesel engine, which is never short of grunt but doesn’t have a thirst to go with its willingness. When you consider that the Nissan Qashqai also tested in this issue (whose petrol engine is just a generator to keep its batteries charged) returned an average of only 1mpg better, that really is a hell of a result.

The D-Max rides well, too, whether loping along on the motorway or taking the thumps and shudders of everyday urban driving. And it’a as sure-footed as ever off-road, following the ground well and rarely looking like it’s going to be short of grip. The engine’s torque makes it an accomplished hillclimber and it grips effortlessly on loose, slick or extremely uneven ground. There’s a factory-fitted difflock in the back axle should you ever need it, but the natural traction built into its chassis and suspension design will get you there 99% of the time.

As we mentioned at the top, Isuzu has seen a surge in sales of the range-topping V-Cross model over the last year. And the higher the spec, the bigger the margin, so they’ll be happy with that. But down-to-earth trucks like the DL20 play a crucial role in underpinning the credibility of those above them – and while this newly revised model is only a little changed, it’s better, and more credible, than ever.

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TRAVEL

It’ll be all white on the night ICE might stand for Internal Combustion Engine – but when Nissan took us to Finland to experience its e-4ORCE electric 4x4 system in action on the sort of surface that brings entire nations to a grinding halt, a convoy of X-Trails and Ariyas demonstrated that maintaining traction was snow problem Words: Alan Kidd Pictures: Nissan

Winter tyres are mandatory in Finland at this time of year, and studs are recommended. Electric all-wheel drive is the cherry on top for X-Trail and Ariya drivers

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here’s not a lot to put the wind up you like the words ‘frozen lake.’

If you’re from Scandinavia, or Alaska, or no doubt large parts of Russia, driving on seasonal ice is about as remarkable as going to the toilet. But to us flimsy Brits, who see half an inch of snow and lose the capacity to think, a sniff of the idea is enough to send us into a swiveleyed funk.

Have the Health and Safety poeple been informed? Has someone done a risk assessemnt? Who checked the depth of the ice? What if it breaks? How can they be so blasé about it? Is it frozen all the way to the bottom? Is this all a sick joke and we’re about to be plunged to a shivery end?

Oh yes, and look at all this snow!

Everything must grind to a halt and everyone must unleash their inner crap driver upon each other. It’s the law!

Forgive me. We’re British and it’s what we do.

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So here’s the first thing I learned aboard a convoy of Nissan Ariyas and X-Trails amid the extremely white landscape of late February in Finland. You can drive a car on just 15cm of lake ice. A bit more is better, but that’s enough. A cheerful former rally driver told me this, with the patient demeanour of someone who’s used to talking to idiots.

Right now, he explains, we’ve got more like 60cm below us. Someone’s been out there in a nine-tonne tractor and they didn’t cause even a crack, so stop being so lame about it. He didn’t say the last bit, I said it to myself.

It’s a bit like showing up in Australia and wetting your pants about spiders.

The people there know what the risks are, they know how to live with it and bad stuff almost never happens. In Finland, people get loads of snow and ice and it doesn’t make them cry (pretty much exactly the opposite to us and pot holes, then).

Anyway. The Ariyas and X-Trails are equipped with Nissan’s e-4ORCE electric all-wheel drive system, and it looks a lot like they’re going to have their work cut out. Though they’re also equipped with winter tyres, which in turn are wearing studs, and there’s no shortage of everyday cars tooling around on the packed surface aided by that combo alone. It’s a well worn truism, but people who live in places like this don’t drive SUVs; they drive the same cars as everyone else, it’s just that they know how to do it.

We’ve clearly got an advantage, though.

The e-4ORCE transmission set-up sends torque to whichever corner it needs to go to in order to maximise traction. Nothing new there, but it’s designed specifically to operate with electric drive – which means it can react far faster than a similar system operating with mechanical inputs.

That’s the basic long and short of it.

The system will shuffle drive from end to

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end and side to side in real time to keep the vehicle on line, preventing it from wandering under lateral loads on slippery surfaces and intervening to help you avoid a splashy great wipeout if you overcook it like a ham-handed oaf.

Embarrassing

Somewhat embarrassingly, I had already discovered this on the way to the test track when I came in way too hot and, for a moment, an approaching square right looked like it was going to end up with me wearing a snow bank on my face. We were leaving a tarmac surface and turning on to snow, and every instinct told me it was all about to get messy – but with no bells and whistles, no chattering of ARS, the X-Trail we were driving simply gripped, turned in and set off. It was so unremarkable, I even thought I had got away with it without my passenger noticing my rank ineptitude (no such luck, he later confirmed).

So, that was all about the car and nothing about me. A theme that was to continue throughout.

As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, the Ariya is a full plug-in EV. The X-Trail, at least in e-4ORCE form, has a petrol engine but all this does is keep the batteries charged; these power electric motors and that’s what turns the wheels. So they’re two different ways of doing the same thing, but in each case it’s electric drive and that’s how the new system works. Nissan says it hopes that as its electric journey gathers pace, e-4FORCE will become a ‘brand’ in its own right, the way Quattro has for Audi.

Which begs a question. Obviously, everything is going to be electric before long. If not the next generation, then the one after that. Nissan is not alone in having global products which used to be much loved in Britain but had to leave the UK market because of emissions – however at some point in the future,

electrification will mean they should be able to come back. So with this move towards e-4ORCE being a plank of the company’s future, will second and thirdgenerations of the technology appear on future versions of vehicles like the Patrol and Navara that we’d all like to be able to welcome back to Blighty?

Not surprisingly, it’s a question we didn’t get a straight answer to. But Nissan’s engineers didn’t tell me to shut up and stop being stupid, which I took to be a good sign. If nothing else, it seems logical that when emissions cease to be an obstacle to this or that model, if the demand exists its manufacturer will be able to bring it here.

Or bring it back here. And e-4ORCE is very clearly going to be a major part of Nissan’s product plans for the future, so the same logic says the Ariya and X-Trail aren’t going to be the only things capable of making a dopey Brit like me look like I vaguely know what I’m doing on show.

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A slalom course at speed on a frozen lake? You’re going to need some proper traction, and withe-4ORCE driving a set of studded tyres the Ariya delivered exactly that

There was perhaps a second of scrabbly wheelspin before the system worked it out and we pulled away smooth as can be Our experience aboard the vehicles was split roughly into two parts. First, a set of technical demos on an undulating snow circuit and the aforementioned frozen lake; then second, a long-range convoy drive on public roads with a packed snow surface.

And another frozen lake.

On the thick snow of the circuit, we had the opportunity to chuck both vehicles around a set of tight corners, some of them off-camber. In most cases, there was no obvious evidence of any sort of traction management going on; I guess this was either because the tyres and studs were enough to maintain physical grip, or that the system intervened so smoothly that it wasn’t noticeable. Every now and again, though, I did such a clumsy job of it that it had no choice but to intervene. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t do so in a bid to retain your fictional self-

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image as some sort of driving god, but to stop you from having the expensive stack you’ve obviously courted with your arrant uselessness, so the whole plot comes to a halt under as much control as possible and then you can start again.

Full beans

There are various drive modes, including Snow. This softens the response to help you drive with feather feet, but I also gave it a bash in Sport and it was definitely more fun without being noticeably less willing to prevent me from making a donkey of myself. Talking of which, part of the circuit was a steep climb with sheet ice under the left of the vehicle and gritted snow under the right. The idea was to take off gently and admire the way it happened with no drama at all, which I did – but then I went back to mimic the sort of driver

who ends up in a viral YouTube short and gave it the full beans. This time, there was perhaps a second of scrabbly wheelspin from the icy side before the system worked it out and once again we pulled away smooth as can be.

One thing we weren’t allowed to do was switch off the ESP and let the vehicles show us what they were like without e-4ORCE keeping it sensible. That, however, was how it was going to roll on the frozen lake.

I was beginning to find myself warming to the frozen lake.

The first test here was a slalom, followed by a high-speed emergency stop.

Both with the ESP on, as were the first few turns around a circuit whose twists and turns made the snow route look tame.

It certainly wasn’t sticking like glue, but the control was phenomenal; I barely

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felt the vehicles sliding at all through the cones, then on the circuit they were just ridiculously easy to handle. The emergency stop certainly took a lot more distance than it would have on tarmac – but I’d guess we’re talking about maybe 20 or 30 car lengths from flat out, and if you’ve ever tried to stop a vehicle on sheet ice that wasn’t packing proper tyres or any sort of clever help, at this sort of speed you’d still be tobogganing half a mile down the road.

Was there a difference between the Ariya and the X-Trail? Yes, and it was clear – though not as clear as the similarities between them. The Ariya feels heavier, thanks to all those batteries, and as a result it wants to understeer a little more: the X-Trail is more obviously nimble, and while both are overwhelmingly four-wheel drive in their nature it’s the one whose back end is more likely to come round. It takes a

lot to provoke either, though, and still more to actually lose control.

The incredible thing was that even with the ESP off, the vehicles’ natural controllability was remarkable. I once drove another manufacturer’s flagship off-road vehicle on a skid pan as a demonstration of how powerful its ESP was. Drifting it sideways in a perfect circle, the instructor leaned over and switched off the system, and we instantly started spinning on the spot.

Here, even without ESP I was able to keep both the Ariya and X-Trail drifting controllably at speeds you wouldn’t believe (I certainly didn’t). Going in too keen still means overcooking it, of course, and I managed to get it tremendously ragged time after time. But there’s a certain kind of car that’s very good at making you feel like a driving hero when you get it right (or

just manage to avoid getting it too wrong), and in these situations the X-Trail and Ariya certainly ticked that box.

Following on from these technical demos, the afternoon session involved a lengthy cross-country blast on a wide variety of roads. Several of them are part of a stage on Rally Finland, someone said, and since literally everyone there knew more about rallying than me I wasn’t about to demur.

The event was based just south of Mänttä-Vilppula, a town of around 10,000 people in the Pirkanmaa region. This has around half a million people living in it, though we didn’t see many of them. Most (like 80% plus) live in the region’s main city, Tampere, and happily for us the number of cars we met coming the other way remained countable on the fingers of one hand.

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Grinning idiots

It was probably quite happy for them, too. The Ariya and X-Trail are hardly intimidating to see coming towards you, but a convoy of around half a dozen vehicles or more steaming down the road at 50-60mph on packed snow, all driven by grinning idiots whose only qualification for the job is that they can think of halfway clever things to say about them, is only ever going to concentrate the mind.

We were being led by a local pro driver who knows exactly what he’s doing on roads like this. Normally, car hacks loathe having the pace set for us, but in such an unfamiliar environment it actually helped a lot. I’m pretty sure we weren’t the only ones who would have been going a lot more slowly if we hadn’t had someone showing us how it’s done.

Again here, the Ariya feels heavier than the X-Trail but more than that, both feel just unbelievably at home. The subtle differences in their handling become less relevant when a closed ice circuit gives way to the public road – the point is, both are astonishingly grippy, agile and surefooted. Yes, even on another frozen lake; crossing directly over it was quite simply the quickest way from A to B. Obviously, you don’t just go steaming off on to the ice wherever you fancy. But in this part of the world, seasonal ‘roads’ are dressed across the lakes to cut down on journey times and distances. Our crossing even linked up with a permanent gravel trail through the forest on the far side, which by summer ends at the water’s edge.

It’s just as well that they can do this, too. Because this part of Finland is

absolutely riddled with lakes, many of them large enough to turn a journey to the far shore into a full day behind the wheel. If you think the Elan Valley is bad…

So if you fancy visiting Finland on an overland excursion of your own, I’d recommend doing it in the winter. Not just because it’s easier to get about, but because there’s a uniqueness to it that goes beyond landscape and enters the realms of the other-worldly. It’s a wonderful, wonderful place.

And would I recommend doing it in an X-Trail or Ariya? Yes, for sure. Events like this are designed to make the cars look good, but they don’t always succeed.

Nissan’s e-4ORCE system really is at home in environments like this, though – and it takes a brace of good SUVs and makes them great.

Both vehicles are astonishingly grippy, agile and sure-footed

24

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Homecoming hero

As I write this, it’s about six o’clock on a dank Wednesday evening near Heathrow. The traffic is hellish but I don’t care, because my car is parked outside a hotel charging and I’m sitting in the bar drinking fancy coffee and tapping away on my laptop.

Nissan lent me an Ariya for the journey to and from the airport so I could add something ‘real’ to my experience in Finland. Real in the sense of British pot holes, British traffic and British EV charging. If you drive a diesel or petrolengined 4x4, the latter will mean little to you, but for those who have embraced the electric world it’s kind of a big deal.

Basically, Britain has been pretty quick to instal a good, big network. Hurrah! But most of our chargers are low-voltage and therefore fundamentally useless. Bah. Obviously if you own an EV, you’ll have a wall box and every morning it will be freshly charged and ready, but on long journeys you need to use public points and this is where charger anxiety comes in. It’s the hot new replacement for range anxiety, don’t you know.

So I left home three days ago with a full charge, I made it to Heathrow and all has been well. I tried to stop and brim it on the way, but the service station at Oxford had nothing but Tesla chargers and the one just after High Wycombe was rammed, so with a 4am start ahead of me I decided to say sod it. I don’t have enough to get me home so I know I’m going to have to stop soon and I won’t lie, I’m nervous about it.

I needn’t have been. There’s an app for everything, of course, and even though the vast number of different charging networks could be straight out of a dystopian novel about how we blew our last chance to save the planet because we were too busy making sure someone had to be able to get rich from it instead, I’m soon being directed to a BP Pulse station which turns out to be in the car park of this here hotel. I’m a bit worried that I’m going to get the boot for not being a resident, but the guy at the desk is chilled and so here I am enjoying an hour or so’s hot-desking and getting my article written while the traffic calms down.

I’ve driven enough EVs for them not to be a novelty any more, and honestly they’re nothing to be afraid of. Not even the high prices at public chargers (which are still cheaper than petrol, albeit not by as much as they would be if the government really cared about the environment). Back on the M40, the Ariya cruises beautifully, disguising its hefty weight as well as it does around town. Heated seat and steering wheel cranked up to max, warm air flowing gently from the heat pump, phone linked effortlessly to the media system and Stereopony thumping out through the speakers… it’s a pretty lovely way to travel.

Which is as ‘real’ an experience as you’re going to get.

The grottiest, stickiest, nastiest driving, the sort of journey we all dread, transformed into a gentle, civilised breeze. The Ariya has it covered. Not that I’d say no to being taken back to Finland and let loose on the snow all over again…

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04/03/2024 15:30

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27/01/2023 14:09:12 01/03/2024 10:34

TRAVEL

CLASSIC ROCK

Classic, iconic, legendary… the Rubicon Trail is all of it and more. The old coaching track in California is probably the world’s most famous off-road challenge – yet it was being driven decades before the first Jeep ever turned a wheel Words: Todd Paul Pictures: As credited

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O

n 3 August 1887, lawmakers in the El Dorado County, California passed a decree which classified the mountain trail between Georgetown and Lake Tahoe as a public road. Little did they know it at the time, but the right of way they had created was to become possibly the world’s most famous 4x4 trails.

The ‘road,’ which at the time was used only by stagecoaches, passed through Rubicon Springs – where, twenty years previously, John and George Hunsucker had built a riverside log cabin at the foot of a towering granite cliff. They went on to develop the site into a productive livestock and hunting ranch, before setting up a thriving business bottling the spring water.

Just under two decades had passed when Vade Phillips Clark, the daughter of landowner Joseph Phillips, approached the Hunsucker brothers and made them a successful offer for their holding in Rubicon Springs. She also bought a second parcel of land at Potter’s Springs, around a mile away on the trail – which, less than half a century after the first white

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The first ever motor car to reach Rubicon Springs achieved that distinction in 1908

Mile posts along the way are part of a wide-ranging initiative to help the Rubicon’s users follow the trail accurately while treading as lightly as possible Pic: Old Sluice, Mile RT-4.2, by Debbie Ballentine @ flickr.com, CC BY-2.0 DEED

30

man ever laid eyes on Lake Tahoe, was now home to a fully fledged tourist resort.

This was in 1886, and Clark wasted no time in developing her newly acquired land. With the trail established as a public road the following year, she was able to transport building materials and labour to the site – and in 1889, she opened a two-storey hotel with 16 rooms and a restaurant serving three meals a day. Visitors were served on white linen tablecloths and used polished silver cutlery, and in between times they relaxed in a fully furnished parlour complete with a foot-pedal organ – though on busy weekends, some of them had to sleep in tents or under the stairs. They were brought to Rubicon Springs aboard a fourhorse coach, which covered the nine miles to McKinney Bay, on the shore of Lake Tahoe, at a speed of just under four miles per hour.

Today, 4x4s do it rather more slowly.

Not because the horses were faster, but because the Rubicon Trail is a very different beast to what it was back then.

What was once a loose but comparatively smooth stone track was left to deteriorate

over the course of many decades – to the point where it’s a challenge for even the best prepared of 4x4s.

Yet even in the early days of motorised transport, the Rubicon was still eminently drivable. The first ever motor car to reach Rubicon Springs achieved that distinction in 1908, when a woman from Tahoe drove there in a Mitchell Model F Touring. The trickle failed to become a flood, however – to the extent that in 1926, a convoy of Studebakers took to the trail in a promotional stunt designed to show how easy it would be to drive to the hotel.

By now, however Rubicon Springs’ star was on the wane. It had been badly damaged by flash floods in October 1908 and other similar resorts were offering better facilities; having passed through several hands, it was finally sold to the Sierra Power Company in 1930.

Dawn of the Jeep

Fast forward another couple of decades and, with World War II a mercifully fading memory, Americans had a new toy: Jeeps.

In 1952, a group of Georgetown residents came up with the idea of boosting the

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In 1926, with the Rubicon Springs Hotel reaching the end of its golden era, Auburn Chamber of Commerce organised a publicity event in which a convoy of Studebakers set out to drive over the Rubicon as a means of demonstrating how easy it was to get there by car. But even back then, it was already almost two decades since the trail was first conquered when a woman from Tahoe, whose name sadly appears to have been lost to the mists of time, drove it aboard a Mitchell Model F Pics: Donner Summit Historical Society

The campsite at Rubicon Springs is private, but few places in the world could be better suited to wild camping. The rules are obvious: respect nature, leave nothing behind and don’t get your head kicked in by a bear Pic: Our campsite at Buck Island Lake, by Debbie Ballentine @ flickr.com, CC BY-2.0 DEED April 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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04/03/2024 17:51

Alternative routes allow drivers to choose whether to test themselves on Old Sluice or take it easy on Indian Trail. By ‘easy’ we mean huge off-camber rock faces, the likes of which would be a highlight of any green lane trip in the UK. Talking of the UK, over here the signs would obviously say ‘private land’ and ‘no through road’ or something like that, if the whole thing hadn’t just already been TRO’d to death instead Pic: Taking Indian Trail, by Debbie Ballentine @ flickr.com, CC BY-2.0 DEED

local economy by organising an outing to Lake Tahoe via the Rubicon Trail. With the backing of the local Rotary Club the event was soon given the go-ahead – and on 29 August the following year, no less than 55 of the vehicles with 155 excited punters on board set out on a two-day adventure which has gone down in history as the first ever Jeepers Jamboree.

Since then, many similar events have grown up around the world. But there’s

something about the Rubicon that makes it very special – and the perfect venue for a large-scale trail ride.

In truth, it’s a combination of factors.

It’s not the toughest trail in the USA, but the driving is still very technical and at times extremely challenging for man and machine alike. Then there’s the scenery, a combination of lush forest and rugged, naked rock on a scale that takes your breath away.

As part of a major operation to improve environmental conditions on the trail, in 2012 the Rubicon gained its first portable toilet. Nine more were to follow the next year; they’re pumped out by a Unimog specially fitted for the purpose; being the guy who gets to drive that back and forth along the world’s best known unsurfaced road must be a job with its ups and downs…

Pic: There are port-a-potties at key stopping points along the way! by Debbie Ballentine @ flickr.com, CC BY-2.0 DEED 32

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Storm Jeeps have a number of modified Jeep Wrangler JL Rubicon's for sale, including the new 2024 facelift.

More details on stock available via our website.

Tel: 01482 666491

Overlander4x4_2024_04_April_Jeepey Ltd_HP.indd 1

04/03/2024 11:13

From roof tents and awnings to cookware and barbecues, LVB supplies all your overland and camping requirements.

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April 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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04/03/2024 15:30

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In the middle of it all, Rubicon Springs itself is the perfect venue for entertaining.

Vade Clark’s hotel is long gone, but the beautiful mountain meadow in which it stood is ideal for camping – and big enough to accommodate all the visitors even a world-famous wheeling event can attract. There’s even a helipad on site to keep the supplies coming.

These days, Jamboree guests are catered for in fine style, with a full-board meal plan, entertainment at the camp site and a pop-up workshop crewed by professional mechanics. Interestingly, the organisers also offer ‘exclusive use of the Rubicon Trail’ as part of the package – we’re not sure how this works when it’s a public road but what certainly is true is that the camping area is on private ground, so everyday four-wheelers don’t get to use it when no-one’s looking.

Not that this is a problem, because there can be few places in the world more conducive to finding the perfect spot in which to pitch a wild camp. Which is what no end of four-wheelers do every year – though since 2009, dirt roads and trails in El Dorado County have been subject to closures from 1 January to 31 March.

So, less than half the length of the seasonal closures that are widespread in the UK, then. And this is in a place where eight feet of snow have been known to fall in twelve hours. Go figure…

Something else that has changed on the Rubicon in recent times is that portable toilets have been installed at intervals alongside the trail. The first was put into operation in 2012, with nine more arriving the following year thanks to the efforts of the Rubicon Trail Foundation – which also operates a Unimog equipped with pumpout equipment to keep them in service.

This image clearly shows the dust that gathers among the rocks on technical parts of the trail.

It’s this that led to silting issues in the area’s watershed, which threatened the trail’s existence – until concerted efforts by user groups and local authorities keen to keep it open yielded a set of management strategies that successfully addressed the problem. You’ll seldom see a better example of stakeholders working together to maintain a precious public resource County and the Eldorado National Forest to prevent erosion, manage petrol spills and prevent sanitation issues on the Rubicon through a combination of improvements to the trail itself, enforcement against delinquent users and a programme of education to improve the overall standard of behaviour among four-wheelers in the area. The provision of portable toilets was a primary step towards this – and

in October 2014, after five years of hard work by the County, the Forest, the State Historic Preservation Office, Friends Of The Rubicon, the Rubicon Trail Foundation and countless users, the Order was unanimously rescinded. A perfect example of the difference 4x4 drivers can make, even in the most fragile of environments.

And the Rubicon is fragile, even though the terrain beneath you is made largely of

Bag it and bin it

Dealing with waste (and not just that kind) is of course a big deal for every kind of overlander – whether a weekend laner in the UK or someone on a round-the-world expedition. And it’s a subject which those charged with managing the use of the trail take very seriously, in line with the Tread Lightly! motto to which every responsible four-wheeler in America adheres.

A good example of this stems from a Cleanup and Abatement Order issued in 2009 by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Board, which required El Dorado

Jeep’s connection with the Rubicon is so deep, it was only natural that when the company introduced an evolved version of the Wrangler with additional off-road features it should be named after the great trail. This is no place for factory-standard vehicles – yet this is exactly what you’re looking at here April 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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When you come over the crest from the Loon Lake end of the trail and see Granite Bowl stretching out ahead of you, it looks almost endless. The line of the trail is just about clear enough to follow if you don’t have a convoy leader up ahead, but when you first set eyes on it it looks like a wilderness all of its own rock. The aforementioned Friends of the Rubicon was formed in 2001 in response to another water board proclamation, this one threatening to close the east end of the trail due to issues with erosion and subsequent silting of the Tahoe Basin watershed. While 4x4s’ tyres don’t dig ruts in solid rock, they can grind the very top surface into a rough powder which gathers on the trail and is clearly visible among the rocks in many areas. Friends of the Rubicon installed in excess of thirty erosion control devices on the trail, a strategy that worked both to alleviate the problem and satisfy the water board that closure would not be necessary.

These efforts have continued ever since, with the Rubicon Trail Foundation, Friends of the Rubicon, El Dorado County and Eldorado National Forest authority

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all playing a crucial role in maintaining the trail’s stability and keeping it open.

The result is that users continue to enjoy it today – both independently and on commercial events like Jeepers Jamboree.

While it can be driven with just one overnight stop, the secret to getting the best from the Rubicon is to take it slowly and enjoy every moment. Every set-piece obstacle is a challenge to be approached with deliberation, to be walked and studied before you set a wheel upon it and to be negotiated with your eyes fixed firmly upon your spotter. Driving it without a spotter?

Like doing a trackday with no brakes.

Classic rock

In between the classic rock sections like The Gatekeeper, Sluice Box and Cadillac Hill, everyday sections of the trail offer

the sort of terrain that would be the highlight of a hardcore lane run in the UK. If you remember what Tilberthwaite Lane, Stanage Edge and the northern end of Rudland Rigg used to be like, rocks of that nature wouldn’t even register as you drive along the Rubicon. They would, very much, be the easy bits.

Another reason to keep it slow is that you very definitely do not want to get lost. Quite apart from the fact that you’re in a place called Desolation Wilderness (which, if the name alone doesn’t scare you, is home to a healthy population of bears), as is the case in the UK the road only has a certain set width. This is 50 feet in total – so, 25 to either side of a notional centre line. Stray outside that and you’re trespassing. While the width of the actual physical trail is only around ten feet,

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leaving lots of room for parking up, the issue comes in areas where it’s less clear.

Granite Bowl is a classic example of this – early on in the journey, when traveling from the Loon Lake end towards Lake Tahoe, you emerge over a crest to see a vast sheet of naked rock spread out ahead of you. Some rudimentary signposting is kept up, but by no means is it obvious where you’re meant to point your vehicle.

To us, Granite Bowl is perhaps the most splendidly natural part of the entire trail. As you cross it, seemingly with the entire world laid out ahead of you, it’s like driving on virgin ground – even if you’re in convoy. Yet even with signs of tyres’ tread in the dust gathering between the rocks elsewhere on the trail, it never feels man-made until you get to the last few miles approaching Lake Tahoe. Here, the rocks end and you find yourself cruising on a smoothly graded stone track – until finally, you emerge on to tarmac and the adventure is over.

The smooth stuff counts for almost half the length of the Rubicon, with the trail proper only measuring about 12 miles. But it must be one of the most concentrated 12 miles in the world. Even today, with a well equipped 4x4 and a small army of guides, spotters and caterers at your service, Jeepers Jamboree clients emerge feeling

like they’ve been on a serious mission through the back of beyond. What it must have been like for that unnamed woman in her Mitchell Model F is anybody’s guess – but little can she have known that the mountain road she conquered would one day become a global icon in a sport yet to be invented.

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M

ost of us have lusted after a Toyota Land Cruiser at some point in our lives. In most cases, we’re dreaming about lording it in one of the big luxury wagons that most frequently carry the name in the UK – but if you like your 4x4s to be as down to earth as possible, you may well agree that the definitive utility truck is one which has never been officially imported to this country.

You can quote codenames all day long, but when it comes down to brass tacks the word ’Troopie’ can be relied upon to make the world’s off-roader cognoscenti come over all misty-eyed. The made-forthe-military version of the awe-inspiring 70-Series is little short of a legend among overlanders and Outback dwellers alike, however they have only ever come here via the parallel import route. As is so often the case, everyone else gets more interesting vehicles than us.

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Which of course just makes us want them all the more. So demand is high, supply is low and we all know what that’s going to mean for price. Pretty much think of a number then double it.

This is why John Pinder is not the owner of a Land Cruiser. He wanted an HDJ79 – a proper Aussie-style ute which is basically a pick-up version of the Troopie. These have only ever come to Britain through the side door and it takes a mountain of paperwork, plus an IVA test, before you can use them on the road. All of which adds up to another mountain of paperwork, this time the kind that comes out of cashpoints.

So John was put off completely by the price of owning a 70-Series. Instead, he turned his attention to building something comparable out of what was available in the UK at non-stupid money. This meant a Land Rover Defender, which may raise an eyebrow because there was a long spell when they cost the stupidest money on the entire car

market, but look at the alternatives and you’ll see that there weren’t any.

The Defender in question was a 1993 Defender 110 HCPU. Not the use of the word ‘was.’ It’s rather more than that now.

John cooked up his Plan B in collaboration with his close friend Leigh Platts, which was a good move because if you want a truck building, he’ll do it right.

There are many words you could use to describe Leigh and none of them would do him justice. Master, genius, artist, things like that – they all sound hackneyed and kind of trite when you look at John’s truck. So let’s do that instead and let it do the talking.

One glance should be more than enough to impress you. But when you learn about it, that moves things on to a whole new level. It goes from impressive to staggering.

Let’s start with the merely impressive bit.

It’s riding on 37x14.50R15 Maxxis Creepy Crawlers wrapped around steel modulars, courtesy of a custom air suspension system

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John Pinder wanted a proper Toyota Land Cruiser. But having discovered how much they cost, he thought again… and ended up with a proper Land Rover Defender instead Words: Paul Looe Pictures: Harry Hamm

using P38 air springs, and the Hi-Cap back body has been fetched off for a flat tray.

Behind the cab, it breathes out through a pair of vertical exhaust stacks measuring a cheerfully monstrous five inches in diameter. And just in case it didn’t look mean enough already, a coat of metallic black paint makes it more sinister than ever.

Not that you needed to know all that, because you can see the pictures and you get what we’re on about. Even when placed among a whole show field full of modified Land Rovers to make you salivate, this one stands out. We know this because when the 110 was fresh out of the workshop, John brought it to the Great British Land Rover

Show at Newark and there was a crowd around it all day long.

Doing it right

So it looks as hard as an Aussie ute. But looks alone weren’t going to be enough for John, nor indeed for Leigh. These guys were only even going to be doing it right.

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In this case, ‘right’ doesn’t mean just giving the original 200Tdi a wash and brush up and doing something optimistic involving a bigger intercooler. Under the 110’s bonnet is a 5.9-litre Cummins six-pot which used to spend its days shifting 18 tons of loaded dustbin lorry about the place.

This won’t be the first Cummins you’ve seen in a Land Rover, but it might be the first of its kind. Leigh already had a 12-valve version of the engine in his own vehicle, but this one’s the more powerful 24-valve, common-rail job.

More powerful and, of course, more complicated. There’s an ECU involved and it held on to its original home like one of those babies you hear about who don’t want to get born. After a lot of head scratching, Leigh had to send the box of tricks away to be modified; when you consider that his day job involves mechatronic systems for top-end supercar makers, that’s an illustration of a) how good he is at this stuff, and b) what an absolute sod of a job we’re talking about.

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So, with the ECU finally back and ready to talk, Leigh was able to set it up. Which he did, mapping it for as much power and torque as possible. No, they haven’t had it on the rollers, but it shifts the 110 the way a driver shifts a golf ball off a tee.

Acceleration from more or less any speed is irresistible – as is the noise from those two big-bore stacks, which bellow like a lion that’s just caught its missus in bed with his best mate. We’ll leave you to insert a joke here about having your pride dented.

Talking of having your pride dented, noone wants to be the bloke sitting at the side of the road because his fancy new Carlos Fandango engine has trashed his gearbox.

That’s never a good look. To spare John the potential (read ‘inevitability’) of suffering this ignominy, Leigh suggested going like-forlike and mating what is a lorry engine to a lorry box. A five-speed manual ZF box, to be precise, which was a deceptively brave thing to do because the big Cummins was designed to have an auto bolted to its back

end. Cue a new flywheel and housing. The standard Land Rover clutch was fine to go again, though.

Just checking you were paying attention there. Leigh went to Clutchfix and came back with the sort of heavy-duty unit it takes to live with 37” tyres, enough torque to pull down a building and a vehicle whose engine alone weighs in at more than half a tonne.

We’re in Big Stuff territory here, for sure.

Cowering in the corner

So the engine was right, the gearbox was right, the drivetrain already weighed more than HMS Ark Royal and now the transfer case was cowering in the corner. Leigh stripped it down and rebuilt it with new bearings and a four-pin Ashcroft diff, at the same time changing the gear ratios to suit what was coming down the line. It still has high and low range, but if John ever actually moves the lever forward it’s because he’s found a way of driving up a vertical wall.

You could put it in first, get out and walk

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Leigh designed and built the 110’s suspension, which combines radius arm and panhard rod location up front with a rear A-frame and all-round air springs from a P38 Range Rover. Steering is by Terrafirma, with an RTC damper, and the whole system allows articulation of up to 52”. Also notable here is the original chassis, which was galvanised after gaining a couple of new outriggers; the axles, meanwhile, are both Salisburys with Ashcroft internals making them stronger than ever

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The 110 came to John with a power bulge in its bonnet. Quite why its previous owner needed one is a matter for speculation, but the air intake wasn’t doing anything which was all the excuse Leigh needed to block it off with an LED bar

The rear tray, along with its various fittings and the lockers beneath it, is just fabulously industrial – robust and totally fit for purpose, just like a Land Rover should be

In the cabin, you wouldn’t think there’s much about the 110 that’s non-standard – until you start looking at all the extra gauges in that Raptor dash beside it and given the traction, it would scale Everest.

That’s if it doesn’t twist its axles into bits of knotted scrap, of course. The 110 came to John with Salisburys at both ends, rather than just the back, which is good because these are strong old things, but even so they were specced from the factory with Land Rover’s own engines in mind. An initial test drive ended with the front diff getting torn to shreds; both axles are now home to heavy-duty diffs and halfshafts, again from Ashcroft, which have so far proved up to the task.

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So we’re looking at the sort of engine that makes little girls cry, and the sort of drivetrain that can live with the sort of engine that makes little girls cry, and that’s all very good but not much use if you put them on the sort of chassis that makes grown men cry.

Actually, considering this was the kind of 110 you pick up on the cheap, it could have been a whole lot worse. Leigh stripped it down and found that in the main, all it needed was outriggers. There was a tray there for a rear winch, which he was able to leave in place as John already knew by

then that he wanted a flat bed at the back, and this in turn meant there was no need for a conventional rear crossmember. So with that done, he sent the chassis off for shotblasting then had the whole thing galvanised so that John won’t face the same trouble in a couple of decades’ (read five years’) time.

Where there’s a chassis, there’s also a bulkhead. Well, to a great extent there WAS a bulkhead but when the truck came down it was immediately apparent that instead there was now the rotten mess you’d expect. Leigh had to cut away the footwells, vent panel, door pillars and plenty more

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This is what they’ve all come to see. The 5.9-litre Cummins six-pot is the 24-valve version of the company’s 400-Series diesel; it’s been mapped for as much power and torque as possible, which is enough to make the 110 look as light as a ballerina besides, before welding in enough new metal to make you wonder why they didn’t just get a new one instead.

But here’s why they didn’t just get a new one instead. The Cummins takes up a teeny bit more space than a Tdi, and cutting up a brand new bulkhead would be another very good way of making grown men cry. Leigh fitted the engine so he could measure up the mods that were going to be required, then having fetched it back off again he bolted up the bulkhead and shaped it in situ.

Wit that, the 110 had itself a solid frame and a drivetrain to make it shift. Job very

nearly done, right? Well, yes and no, as anyone who’s ever retored or modified a Land Rover will tell you. Mainly at this point, let’s revisit the suspension, which we earlier mentioned uses the air springs from a P38 Range Rover.

These are fed from a 600cc twin compressor, with a set of in-cab controls allowing John to adjust each corner individually. By no means is it just a reused Range Rover set-up – Leigh fabricated a whole set of brackets to fit the springs, and the flexibility in the system gives it a massive 52” of travel at the front. And this is

a Land Rover that wasn’t even built to be an extreme off-roader.

Instead, it’s basically an extreme everything. It’s a load-hauler of the very highest order, a supreme toy, the sort of daily you grew up having wet dreams about and best of all, a show truck that’s not a show truck but puts actual show trucks to shame. Fundamentally, it’s a lorry in a Land Rover’s body… and what a body. Those Toyota Land Cruisers are brilliant, brilliant things – but since deciding he couldn’t justify that kind of money, John Pinder has never looked back.

It’s a show truck that’s not a show truck but puts actual show trucks to shame

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MAX ADVENTURE A

t this distance, the hillside ahead of us looks almost vertical.

Clearly visible in the cloudy gloom, a narrow ribbon of stone and rock winds up it, climbing relentlessly into the sky before disappearing from view… into the clouds, or over the horizon, it’s hard to tell, but one thing we do know is that this is where we’re heading.

I’ve only driven Breasthigh Road a couple of times before, some two decades ago and in a highly modified 4x4. The lane has been repaired more than once since then, but today we’re not in a modified vehicle. We’re in a brace of Isuzu D-Maxes, both of them on standard suspension, standard tyres, standard everything.

The D-Max is built to take it, though.

Standard means a ladder chassis, live back axle, two-speed transfer case and, in our case, locking rear diff.

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That’s because we’re in a V-Cross, the highest-spec model in the D-Max range. It’s equipped with everything a truck should have and more; cruise, climate, heated leather seats, a big media screen with effective phone pairing and so on. There’s a huge range of safety kit on board, too – as there should be, but it reads more like a list of the stuff you’d expect to find on a premium SUV. So we’ve been well looked after on the journey up the M6, and now we’re looking forward to letting Isuzu’s award-winning double-cab show us what it can do on one of Britain’s most celebrated green lanes.

But there’s a problem. It poured with rain all last night. There’s a ford at the western end of Breasthigh and it’s looking kind of keen. We can cope with deep water, we can cope with fast-flowing water, but too much of either plus enough of the other becomes

a recipe for trouble. A month or so back, a couple of counties away on the North York Moors, three people had to be rescued from a stricken vehicle after taking their chances with a smaller ford than this. I know what it feels like to be swept downstream and it’s right up there with getting run over as things I’m not keen to experience again.

So we do what you’re meant to do and we get out, walk down to the ford and think carefully about our next move. Since our next move could kill us, this is wise.

And it could. It really could. Immediately downstream of the ford is a line of stepping stones (boulders more like) and the water is raging over the top of them. If we get swept sideways, our wheels will hook up on them and over we’ll go. It’s an if not a when, but the consequences don’t bear thinking about.

Looking at the crossing, if we were out in the wilds and we simply had to get

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People travel from all around the country to enjoy the green lanes in Cumbria. People including us, courtesy of two Isuzu D-Maxes and some well timed help from the local experts at the Green Lane Association Words: Alan Kidd Pictures: Regijus Simkevicius

across, I’d scope it out to find an exit further upstream so I could drive into the current, not across it. Though I’d also be getting in to wade it first… and the water’s moving way too fast for that. So actually, I’d be pitching up, getting a brew on, lifting the roof tent if necessary and waiting for the level to drop.

Lingering temptation

Even so, there’s that lingering temptation.

Those previous times when I drove Breasthigh, the ford was just a couple of inches deep. Can it really be that bad?

Yes, is the answer. The other D-Max is being driven by Andy Barrett, former General Manager of the Green Lane Association, and in the passenger’s seat he’s got Peter Apps, one of the Association’s reps team in the Lake District. There’s a lot of wisdom right there, and Peter’s knowledge of the local lanes of expert-level by anyone’s standards.

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Going off-piste is never okay on green lanes, but sometimes you need to do a three-pointer.

Like when the ford on Breasthigh Road is too deep and fast-flowing to be be worth the risk, for example. This was when the guy from Isuzu discovered, as many have before them, that the ground right next to the road is not like your average lay-by…

It gets deep before the halfway mark, he says. Really deep. Deep enough to give him very serious doubts. He doesn’t want to risk it.

And however much we want to drive up Breasthigh, he wants it more. He’s got good reason to want to show it off to us, because GLASS has been central to its rebirth as a showpiece example of lane maintenance at its best. It’s easy to assume that protecting rights of way is all about fighting against local authorities, angry natives and pernicious anti-access factions: the latter, you can’t do much about, but making friends and being understood are absolutely the best ways to engage with the decent portion of society. GLASS encourages its members to be good neighbours to those with whom they share the rights of way – and it takes the same approach to dealing with local authorities, the vast majority of which are open to having a good relationship with all rights of way users.

Thus the last few years have seen Peter and his fellow GLASS reps working closely with the Lake District National Park Authority on a programme of repairs and management that have seen Breasthigh restored to health after a long period in the doldrums. The road was closed for the majority of 2022 while a major programme of improvements was carried out by contractors and GLASS volunteers, who between them repaired surface erosion, replaced culverts, reinstated drainage ditches and installed two new bridges, as

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well as planting trees and building new drystone walls.

The work was paid for by a package of funding from the National Grid’s Landscape Enhancement Initiative, which provided around £325,000 for repairs to the byway itself and the creation of new tree plantations which, when mature, will help screen power lines crossing the Borrowdale valley.

So Peter is understandably keen for us to see the results of what has been a perfect example of best practice in green lane management. There are parts of the country, most notably in recent times the Peak District, where the local authority’s attitude has been set against compromise to a fanatical degree, but the Lake District has demonstrated what’s possible when stakeholders work together and Breasthigh is a shining example for all to see.

Except we can’t, cos we might drown.

There’s talk of driving round to the other end of the lane and driving it east to west, in the hope that the water level will have dropped by the time we get there. I’m not keen on that, because it would leave us within sight of the road – but with the ford in the way. And if it’s tempting now…

Towing strap

Either way, as it should always be discretion is the better part of valour. Time to turn around. Peter and I walk back to the trucks to deliver the news… only to find that my co-driver, Isuzu PR man Filip, is a step ahead of us and already gone for a three-pointer.

Has he got the D-Max stuck in the soft ground verging the track, we idly wonder to ourselves… or is he just setting up a photoop for a recovery shot? Either way, there’s a towing strap coming out…

Minutes later, we’re on the M6 heading north. Not a sentence you expect to hear in a story about green laning, but needs must.

We’ve decided against risking Breasthigh in either direction and instead we’re heading up to another classic Lakeland trail, the Old Coach Road.

On many a green lane run, this would be a bit of a trial. Old trucks, big tyres, lots of noise, lots of vibration… it’s definitely not like that in the D-Max. Cruise control on, heated seats, Spotify playing a nice bit of Sam Dribbly or Picture Parlour on the stereo and all is most definitely right with the world. The 1.9-litre diesel engine, which some people still think sounds small for a pick-up, gets you up to speed completely effortlessly and holds a steady cruise as quietly as it ticks over. I’d guess we did close to a thousand miles in our V-Cross over the course of three weeks and never once did we emerge from it feeling fatigued.

So, having dispatched a short cruise up the motorway we’re at the eastern end of the Old Coach Road. It doesn’t have the most evocative of names, to be honest, but what is lacks in imagination it makes up for in description. You could call the M25 the Crap Boring Slow Road, or the whole of Burton on Trent the Network of Potholes With Penises Drawn Around Them (Google it), but London

Orbital and the UK’s Brewing Capital seem to be preferred, even if they don’t warn you of what’s to come. And the Old Coach Road is indeed both old and a road.

It almost certainly has been used by coaches in its past, too. However its history goes back far further, at least to the Iron Age – from which relict settlements have been excavated near the route, including a substantial village at Threlkeld Knotts.

This is just to the south of the trail near its western end, where several ancient quarries remain which yielded stone for local buildings, paths and foundations for major lines of communication – including the main A66 and a railway, long since gobbled up by Beeching, which run from Penrith to Keswick in the valley just to the north.

Also to the north is Blencathra, the mountain also known as Saddleback, whose strangely symmetrical proportions have gained is something of an iconic status among the Lakes’ peaks. Its giant southern flank looms over you for much of the length of the Old Coach Road; with the trail running from west to east, you’re rarely looking in its direction, but somehow you’re always aware of it. The landowner put it up for sale a few years ago, for £1.75 million – which seems like a lot of mountain for your money, though it remained unsold and was eventually taken back off the market.

Sharp sections

Driving the Old Coach Road is a relaxed affair. There are a few sharp sections which

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would threaten to catch the D-Maxes’ lower front bumpers or tow bars, and some erosion near the quarries where the trail crosses a more recently established farm track can lift a rear wheel depending on your line through it, but both vehicles took it at a stroll.

Traction is never an issue here for a vehicle of this nature, even after so much rain, and nor is ground clearance under the chassis. There’s a long and at times steepish descent as you drop off the moorland when travelling west, as we were, but with the transfer case in low range we barely even noticed it. The D-Max is equipped with hill descent control, too – which we always contend shouldn’t be required in a truck with low range but does add

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a second layer of reassurance when you need it.

From a green laning point of view, the Old Coach Road is quite isolated from other rights of way, so there’s bound to be a bit of road work either before or after it. That’s no big problem when the road is the A591 along the side of Thirlmere, shadowed to the east by Helvellyn; the scenery is lush and the corners gentle and sweeping, so you can simply relax into it. Summer brings a predictable swarm of tourists, but even then you have a trump card; they’re all going to the same crowded hot spots, but you’re heading off to explore rights of way which, on a typical day, might carry less than a dozen vehicles.

The majority of the Lakes’ lanes are in a loose cluster to the south of Coniston. It’s here that you can explore all day without any

major sessions on the tarmac – and indeed where most of the roads are so narrow, they feel more like green lanes that didn’t manage to escape being surfaced. A fine example is the unsurfaced road across the northern part of Grizedale Forest – where you’re sharing your world with mountain bikers, GoApers and, would you believe, art lovers. The latter are attracted by a walking trail taking you around a set of outdoor sculptures, a couple of which are visible as you drive.

By the time you see one, you’ve scaled some challenging rocks. This is the case whether you approach from the east or the west (the lane has a voluntary one-way system asking 4x4 users to do the latter, though there’s some debate as to whether the opposite is actually better as it avoids travelling into the face of mountain bikes

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This is not what your average lane run looks like but having decided against the ford on Breasthigh the quickest way to our next lane, the Old Coach Road, was to razz it up the M6. There are plenty of vehicles we’ve been in that would have make this into an absolute trial, but the D-Max takes motorway miles in its stride every bit as comfortably as it does off-tarmac work coming towards you down a steep hill); we did it the ‘right’ way, starting from Grizedale Visitor Centre (home of what are among the best sandwiches known to man, which is reason enough to do any green lane) and climbing the long, rocky ascent towards a ridge where the right of way eventually gives on to a smoothly gravelled forestry track.

By now, the D-Max’s suspension has definitely put in a shift, keeping its wheels planted as its tyre fight for traction over the jagged rocks. It’s a definite low-range climb, even with an auto box to blur the lines; we didn’t quite need to bang in the rear locker, but there were points where our fingers were poised over the button.

Up top, a carved sandstone fox provides a landmark next to the route.

The work of Gordon Young, it’s part of the aforementioned Grizedale Sculpture

Green laning is all about exploring, but you need to keep it legal and you need to keep it safe. In each case, intimate local knowledge can’t be beaten, so we were privileged to be joined by Peter Apps from the Green Lane Association’s Cumbria reps team. He’s driven these rights of way many times, discussed them with the local authority and got his hands dirty maintaining them along with other volunteers. One of the many unsung heroes and heroines within GLASS whose efforts help keep the lanes not just alive but thriving

Forest project which saw a wide variety of public artworks commissioned and placed around the forest. A couple are visible from the right of way, which many people know colloquially as The Fox, but if you’ve got time it’s very well worth parking up and doing the trail properly to see what the combined efforts of so many notable artists has to offer.

The route down the far side takes you back off the smooth stuff and over more rutted, rocky going. It’s easier now, not least because gravity is on your side, but the terrain still needs every scrap of the D-Max’s ground clearance. Finally, though, we’re down, back in two-wheel drive and back on the road.

Where next? There are loads more lanes nearly, including legends such as Oxen Fell, Parkamoor and Tilberthwaite, but all that

messing about at the foot of Breasthigh means we’re starting to lose the light.

Laning is a great bad-weather game, so long as you’re on suitable lanes, but there are strong advantages to doing it in the height of summer too. Better views, for one, and long hours of daylight so you can fill your boots. Not everyone wants to just drive and drive and drive, but taking in the best lanes in the Lakes makes for a day behind the wheel few other experiences can match.

So we make a mental note to come back in the summer, and start looking forward to sneering at all those tourists who don’t know what it is that makes this corner of England so very special. The D-Max has coped effortlessly with the lanes at their wintry worst; next time, it’ll be about staying power – and we know exactly which vehicle we want to be driving.

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Our 4x4s INFO

VEHICLE: Isuzu D-Max GO2 YEAR: 2018 RUN BY: Alan Kidd LAST UPDATE: August 2023 FLEET DEBUT: January 2020

IT ALL ADDS UP

A coming-together with a concrete pillar should have been no drama, given that it happened at about 1mph. About an inch to the left or the right and it would have been fine, too – but our editor, to whose talents there is no end, positioned it perfectly for the outer lens on the tail light to take the impact. Being a resourceful sort, he picked up the pieces and tried to glue them back together again, only for it to turn out that there is an end to his talents after all

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ur D-Max has been doing its thing quietly in the background for a while without us bringing you any updates on it. Which, with no news normally being good news, suggests it’s been behaving itself.

And it has. Mainly. But it’s five years old now and has done a good bit of laning, aside from having had a whole stack of mods done to it. And you know how it goes.

In this case, it’s gone soft. Just a little, mind, and gently, but one of the 285x75R16 General Grabber X3s we like so much has the slowest puncture of all time. It’s the sort of thing you never get round to sorting, because it’s so slight you can go for ages between pump-ups, but every couple of

Chucking some air in the rear right tyre has become a weekly job. It takes forever to lose enough to make a difference, which is our excuse for never getting round to sorting it properly

The fuel filter light has taken to coming on recently. We had it changed last time this happened, only about a year or so ago, and the D-Max has done precious little in the way of mileage since then, so it came as a bit of a surprise. It’s still intermittent, but we’re not exactly confident that it’s going to fix itself

weeks we fetch out our Ring inflator (which we still think sounds like a surgical tool, or a sex toy) and chuck in a few pounds to keep it right.

By an accident of history, Santa has taken to bringing us an appointment with the MOT man each Christmas. Last year the D-Max got its first ever advisory, for an upper wishbone bush that was starting to break up, but it was back to perfect this time round. We took it to Woodland Auto Centre in Swadlincote, for the simple reason that the guy who owns the place is an extremely experienced off-roader who knows what he’s looking at – always a good idea, as anyone with a modified 4x4 will tell you.

Shortly afterwards, while backing the D-Max into a parking space in a multistorey, a loud crunch announced that we were not so much parking as parked. This was every bit as embarrassing as it sounds, but our job is to analyse things rather than just letting them wash over us and while it’ll sound like an excuse, it was actually quite intriguing to see what the odds were against it happening.

The concrete pillar we smacked it into was far enough off to one side to be out of sight of the truck’s rear-view camera. And clearly door mirrors are for other people.

Still, we have an ARB rear bumper which would shrug off a direct hit from an Exocet, and it curves round at both ends to protect

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Pictured is our Isuzu D-Max GO2.

The vehicle is insured by Adrian Flux Insurance Services, which specialises in cover for modified 4x4s. Many of our project trucks have been given their five-star service over the years as they are one of very few insurance companies that can cover our 4x4s when we’re off-roading and green laning – and at an affordable price too. Get a quote by calling them on 0800 085 5000.

the corners of the vehicle. If that hits you, you stay hit. But, in fine margins news, the curve on it had left just enough room – we’re talking millimetres – for the tail light cover to be the first thing that met the pillar in the corner of our parking space.

We’re talking one or two miles per hour, so the cover was the only thing to suffer.

Being the kind of person to try and do this, the editor gathered up all the shattered bits of plastic and tried to glue them back together. Not without some success, it has to be admitted, but also definitely without any skill at all, so what we were left with was something that looked a bit like crazy paving and was quite obviously never going to last more than five minutes back on

the truck. To be fair on him, he grew up in Edinburgh during the 1980s, when glue was normally used for other things.

Thankfully, a replacement only costs £40 or so. Still something we could have done without, all the same – as is a second dose of the fuel filter light coming on. This started happening around a year ago; we had it done at our local Isuzu main agent, and that was that, but now just a tiny number of miles later it’s back. So that’ll be another visit, and another few quid we weren’t counting on having to let go.

This kind of update almost always sounds like a tale of woe, but really there’s very little about the D-Max for us to criticise. If you take a look at the Facebook

pages for D-Max owners, and can somehow find your way among the sea of scams and fake adverts, you’ll see precious little in the way of people moaning about them. The infotainment system comes in for a bit of flak at times, and you do get quite a lot of people asking about remaps for the engine, but compared to some other makes and models it’s all remarkably calm on there.

We’re not about to change that. The GO2 is so named because it can GO2 places other trucks can’t, and all, that. But it doesn’t show any signs that it’s about to GO2 pieces. No news is good news – and, as it turns out, actual news is mainly good news too.

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THREE OF THE B S

taffordshire-based Land Rover accessories specialist Masai4x4 is well known for building eyecatching vehicles to demonstrate its unique products. A number of these have appeared in these pages in the past – and now the company is offering three of them for sale.

These include a Td5 Double-Cab, a repowered early Tdi and, surely the jewel in the crown, a genuine 50th Anniversary 90.

The latter has been refurbished in Masai’s own workshop, where it gained a few sympathetic enhancements to improve the driving experience without detracting from its original character.

Registered in 1999, the 4.0-litre V8 auto is one of the 385 made for the UK market.

Masai has fitted it with a new chassis and treated its panels to a full strip down and respray in the correct Atlantis Blue.

Inside, the 90 has been fitted with a full sound deadening kit as well as new carpets and seats. The speakers have been upgraded, with Alpine tweeters added to the system to enhance their sound. And talking of sound, the V8 provides the sort of soundtrack you really want, with a tune-up and new valves and injectors helping it run sweetly.

Having done just 79,357 miles, Masai promises that the 90 is ‘a beautiful example of a rare car and a future collectible likely to only increase in value’ and ‘a unique opportunity to own a piece of Land Rover motoring history.’ A £55,000 price tag does reflect this, but when it comes to 50th Anniversary 90s plenty of people have paid more to get less.

If less is more, though, check out the mileage on Masai’s 300Tdi 110 Hard-Top. Supported by a long list of MOT tickets, it’s showing just 22,125 – barely run in for one of these engines.

It’s not the original lump, though, as the truck dates from 1989. It’s actually a very early Defender-badged Defender, having started life as a 200Tdi before being stripped down and reconditioned, complete with the later engine, in the Masai workshop.

A Hard-Top with three seats (two plus the occasional centre seat up front), the

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Any 50th Anniversary 90 is a rare and special thing, and Masai’s adds a touch of uniqueness to that with a range of thankfully subtle accessories. New seats feature among these, and there’s a variety of stainless trim items as well as Alpine tweeters and a NAS rear step

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BEST

A trio of special Defenders offered for sale by Masai4x4 Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Masai 4x4

The 110 Hard-Top leads with its incredibly low mileage, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Masai’s own Flute Tan seat covers, extensive stainless trim and a modern head unit transform the interior, while on the outside the variety of accessories includes a Cargo Bear roof rack

110 looks extremely sharp in a new coat of Grasmere Green and with a personal plate it would easily pass for a much more recent one. You might well decide that it doesn’t matter. All its lights have been upgraded to LEDs, with Lynx headlamp units, and elsewhere around it you’ll see Masai’s DRL front bumper, A-bar, steering guard, light guards and Fire and Ice side steps. Further kit includes a Cargo Bear roof rack, NAS rear step, Exmoor door handles, Optimill door hinges and Masai’s own dark tinted rear glass.

Inside, the entire floor has been carpeted and the seats are trimmed in Masai’s own Flute Tan covers. There’s an upgraded head unit, too, and to help you hear it the roof, floors and bonnet have all been sounddeadened using Dynamat. A less obvious but equally effective way to quieten down the vehicle is to be found in the transfer case, too, which has been rebuilt using Discovery gears – whose lower ratios allow the engine to run more quietly on the motorway. The head unit runs a reversing camera, too, for a different kind of relaxing experience behind the wheel.

As you’d expect from a Defender with such a low mileage, even on a repowered engine, this too is a premium purchase on the used market. Masai are asking £39,999 for it – which someone already met before not being able to complete the deal, so if you fancy it and you reckon the deal’s right you might not want to sit on your hands. The guys at Masai point out that it would be the perfect basis for a camper conversion, which might get the cogs turning in your head…

Competing the trio is a 2002 Defender 110 Td5 Double-Cab – which we featured in these very pages two or three years back. Originally built to be a demonstrator for a wide range of Masai 4x4 products, it has been totally restored inside and out – resulting in what the company calls a ‘oneof-a-kind’ Land Rover.

Underneath, you’re looking at a new rear crossmember, outriggers and floor panels. With the new metal in place, the chassis was finished off with underseal to keep it honest for as long as possible. Also underneath, sort of, there’s Masai steering and fuel tank guards and, right at the very bottom, a set of BFGs wrapped around the ever-popular Boost alloys. The body was given a full respray – and while it was going back together, all the windows and seals were replaced. As were the doors, which

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is always the sign of someone who knows what they’re doing.

It’s all held up by a full new suspension set-up including springs, shocks and bushes, which won’t do any harm to the way the truck drives, and once again a full set of Dynamat blankets won’t do any harm to the way it sounds. Up top, there’s a roof rack supporting an ARB Awning and light kit, which sounds like it ought to be the start of something big.

All that is just the beginning, though.

As we mentioned, this is a former Masai demonstrator – and it was used for product development, too. That’s why it boasts a completely unique feature in the shape of a global electric window control module which allows the buttons at the front to operate the front and rear windows alike.

Masai developed this itself – the unit on the 110 is the prototype.

Elsewhere in the cabin, you’ll find Masai’s suede headlining, wool carpets and, on the seats, cream leatherette covers with black piping. Then there’s billet aluminium trim on the gearstick, transfer lever, air vents and slots, door handles, seat adjusters, fuse box screws, fan controls, headlamp switches and column stalk ends. The stereo has been upgraded using a JVC double-DIN conversion kit, yielding a more modern unit with Bluetooth, hand-free and a reversing camera – as well as surround sound speakers and a Pioneer sub-woofer to enhance the sound quality you get from it.

On the outside, all the lights have been replaced with LEDs and the headlights are Lynx units. But it’s not all about the looks and luxury, with a clutch servo upgrade to aid gearchanges in the R380 box.

This all helps turn a 156,500-mile, four-owner Td5 into what is a very plush Defender 110 with a whole host of individual features. It’s not every day that you see something like this on the market, says Masai, which has it up for sale at £37,000.

So. A 50th Anniversary 90, a low-mileage 110 Hard-Top or a Double-Cab with more extras than you can count? All refurbished, all improved and all still full of their original character. You could get all three for the price of a below-average new Range Rover, but assuming you’re just in the market for one they’re all very different – and each has its own appeal. If you’re interested in one of them, Masai asks you not to buy via its website but to call for a chat on 01543 254507.

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Masai 4x4’s Defender 110 Td5 Double-Cab was built as a full-house demonstrator and appeared in these pages two or three years ago. Like the other Land Rovers here, it was rebuilt from the chassis up and given what it needed to turn it back into a baseline truck before being given the works – which in this case included cream leatherette seats, a more modern stereo and no end of billet aluminium cabin trim

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UK Destinations To Explore 1

Llanerchindda Farm Cynghordy, Llandovery Carmarthenshire, SA20 0NB Tel: 01550 750274 info@cambrianway.com www.cambrianway.com

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Riverside Caravan Park High brentham, North Yorkshire, LA27FJ Tel: 01524 261272 info@riversidecaravanpark.co.uk www.riversidecaravanpark.co.uk

3

Kingswood Caravan Park Rowan House Gravelly Bottom Road, Kingswood, Maidstone, ME17 3NU 01622 842 096 info@kingswood-caravans.co.uk www.kingswood-caravans.co.uk

4

Smytham Holiday Park Smytham Holiday Park, Little Torrington, Devon EX38 8PU 01805 622110 info@smytham.co.uk www.smytham.co.uk

5

Blue Hills Touring Park Crosscoombe, Trevellas, St Agnes, Cornwall, TR5 0XP 01872 552999 camping@blue-hills.co.uk www.bluehillscamping.co.uk

6

The Hop Farm Family Park Maidstone Rd, Beltring, Tonbridge TN12 6QF 01622 872068 reception@thehopfarm.co.uk www.thehopfarm.co.uk

7

Woodhill Park Cromer Road, East Runton, Cromer Norfolk, NR27 9PX Tel: 01263 512 242 info@woodhill-park.com www.woodhill-park.com

Locations to stay in the UK

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Kingswood Caravans

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INSURANCE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL There aren’t many vehicles as versatile as the 4x4.

From general day use to off-roading adventures, your 4WD needs an insurance policy that protects it in every situation. That’s why we offer 4x4 insurance that’s tailored to your needs. Plus, save money with us - our customers have saved an average of 27% when taking out a 4x4 policy with us.*

Our bespoke 4x4 insurance can include:

Off-road and green laning cover Cover for modified, imported and classic 4x4s Agreed value cover Discounts for car club members

Call us today on 0844 381 4823 adrianflux.co.uk

Authorised & regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Trustpilot rating checked on 2nd February 2024. *Based on customer premium data from 2021

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April 2024 I Overlander 4x4

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04/03/2024 15:31

NEXT MONTH

JEEPS GALORE 2024 Easter Safari – what surprises does Moab have in store for us with this year?

PLUS Defenders having a paddy among the paddies

RAV4 reimagined as an off-road warhorse

Kia EV6 and Alfa Romeo Tonale on test

MAY 2024 ISSUE: ON SALE 11 APRIL 64

overlander4x4.co.uk

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04/03/2024 17:03

TRADE IN, TRADE UP.

CELEBRATE BUSINESS YEAR END BY TRADING UP TO A NEW ISUZU D-MAX.

Part-exchange your quality used pick-up for the award-winning Isuzu D-Max. Any make and model pick-up is welcome. Don’t miss out on great part exchange deals before the end of the tax year. We have good availability but new vehicles won’t be around for long. Find the right pick-up for your business right now.

VISIT ISUZU.CO.UK TO FIND YOUR NEAREST DEALER. DRIVEN TO DO. Part-ex vehicle must be a pick-up under 7 years old for a stronger part-ex value, offer available while stocks last. Excludes special edition vehicles. Retail purchasers only. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Starts 01.01.2024. Ends 10.04.2024.

Terms and conditions apply. For full details please contact your local Isuzu dealer or visit isuzu.co.uk.

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