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RICE, RICE BABY
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Photographers
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T
he notion of sitting in a car while it drives itself is a strange one. In some ways it’s quite attractive, for example if you could watch a film, do some work or have a kip during the motorway hours then take the wheel for the fun part of the journey, that would be the dream. But every dream is one false move away from becoming a nightmare. We’ve got a test this month of the current Ford Mustang Mach-E. It’s electric, which will put a lot of you off from the word go, but more than that it’s the first vehicle in the UK to be approved for Level 2 autonomous driving on the motorway. What this means is that on most of the network, you can take your hands off the wheel and keep them off. It will do the steering and braking for you, while maintaining a set cruising speed
wherever it can. In effect, you don’t need to be there. Except you do. You don’t need to be touching the controls but the controls are watching you. You have to have your eyes on the road, and the car will shout at you if you look away. So you’re sitting there watching the road but doing nothing. Basically, it’s just like being a passenger, only you can’t relax the same way because if it all goes wrong, it’s down to you to take over (or face the consequences). Personally, although it wasn’t for very long and it was in busy traffic, I found the experience pretty unpleasant. I can see how one day, letting your vehicle do the work may become the dream – but for now, I’m very happy to carry on doing the driving for myself, thank you. Alan Kidd, Editor
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Contents May FOR IAN TO SORT_converted.indd 2
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LATEST: JEEP’S CLASS OF ’24 UNVEILED |DRIVEN: FORD MUSTANG MACH-E & KIA EV6 |CAMPING: ULTIMATE BOUTIQUE LANDY
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75% OFF
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RAV MORE Ironman preps a RAV4 for action
GETTING IN A PADDY
Exploring Cambodia in a
NO QUARTER GIVEN
Ineos unveils Quartermaster
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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 MAY 2024 4x4 Scene 4
News
Ineos creates a Quartermaster Chassis-Cab for the conversion market, while a Grenadier wins its class over 5000 miles of Alaskan winter and a classic Land Rover is reborn as an all-electric lifestyle machine for a much sunnier part of America
12 Rights of Way
Time to celebrate as the High Court tells a local authority to do its job and look after its lanes
14 Products
A new way to lift your vehicle – yes, even a 4x4 – and a box of tricks for people wanting to bring old Land Rovers up to date
Every Month 31 Subscribe
Get Overlander 4x4 delivered for a fraction of the cover price
60 Our 4x4s
Our D-Max’s General Grabbers are wearing well and gripping as tenaciously as ever
64 Next Month
We’re getting ready for our first drive of the new Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee
Driven 18 Ford Mustang Mach-E Premium AWD
All-electric crossover that’s the first vehicle in the UK to fully drive itself on the motorway
20 Kia EV6
We’re huge fans of the huge EV9. The EV6 is not so huge but we’re still pretty big fans of that, too
Vehicles 34 RAV4 Built for Adventure
22 36
Ironman lifts Toyota’s family SUV and preps it for a life in the wilds
36 Jeep’s Class of ‘24
A quartet of reimagined vehicles make their debuts at Jeep’s annual Easter Safari
44 Boutique 130
Another lavish off-road camper from the workshop, and the imagination, of RIG Automotive
Travel 22 Cambodia
A convoy of Land Rovers explores a nation moving on from a history scarred by genocide
50 Oman
Renting a 4x4 and camping gear turns out to be the perfect way to explore a land full of surprises
May 2024 I Overlander 4x4
Contents May FOR IAN TO SORT_converted.indd 3
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NEWS
LESS QUARTERMASTER, MORE POTENTIAL THAN EVER
T
he latest addition to the Ineos line-up seems to be showing the more utilitarian aspect of the brand, rather than its slightly G-Wagen appearance as the launch SUV. Of course, utilitarian doesn’t mean cheap. What manufacturers are now calling ‘workhorses’ are coming fully equipped, including a hefty price tag. As much stallion as workhorse. But the Grenadier Quartermaster Chassis Cab at least tells you what it is – it’s a chassis with a cab on it. It’s clearly based on the same extended chassis as the Quartermaster Pick-Up but instead of that pick-up bed there’s – nothing. Just a big space above the chassis rails. Ineos says it’s targeted at specialist conversion companies and body builders (as opposed to bodybuilders we assume). So the idea is that you buy the basic vehicle and then you can add whatever specific requirements you have for your job or industry. This way you don’t have to take stuff off to put stuff on – there’s nothing to take off.
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What you do get is the same extended chassis of the pick-up, giving you a wheelbase that’s 12” (make that 305mm) longer than the Station Wagon. So there should be plenty of room to convert the rear into a flatbed, or a box van or a specialist outfitting for emergency services. With a 3500kg towing ability,
this new addition to the range shows its flexibility and competence. Ineos notes that buyers split fairly evenly when it comes to configuring Grenadiers between commercial and leisure users. This is very much one for the commercial side – though you can certainly picture it being convered into
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. a planet-conquering motorhome, too. It’s also noticeable that Ineos is keeping with the military theme – Grenadier, Fusilier, Quartermaster. Whether this is a coquettish move towards gaining some military or other specialist contracts remains to be seen, particularly as the military would need a significant rear space for kit / people / all those miniature bottles of Tabasco. However, let’s not too obsessed with the rear, let’s lift our eyes up and see what’s out front. There, things are more familiar. There we find the fairly luxurious five-seat cabin used throughout most of the range. And under that bonnet we find the familiar BMW in-line six, in either petrol or diesel configuration. They’re known, they’re reliable and they’re powerful, and both feed through the eight-speed auto box with three locking diffs between the box and the wheels. There’s real ability in terms of traversing rough tracks or country compared to some other vehicles that come under the heading of working vehicles. In other words, this is a pretty tough rig that will be more attractive to some simply because there is less of it. Unusually less doesn’t cost more. This is the cheapest Grenadier at ‘just’ £63,816, but that includes the VAT which maybe could be reclaimed. So we couldn’t exactly say this is like a Munro Series-M with its truly utilitarian aspect, but in a world of high-end pick-ups like the VW Amarok or Mercedes X-Class, this Chassis Cab looks like a rugged work vehicle. It’s also a vehicle to help the Ineos brand along to being seen as a really tough 4x4 and not a lifestyle SUV. Less is more.
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 May 2024 I Overlander 4x4
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ICY INEOS
P
ersonally, if I were to choose a route for a rally it would be somewhere warm but not too hot. Palm trees, lovely locals and sundowners would certainly be on the menu. So a rally that runs in the depths of winter from Seattle on the US West Coast up through Canada into Alaska would be my idea of Hell. Or, in fact, Hel, since the Vikings’ idea of the place was indeed a nightmare of freezing dark. But an Ineos Grenadier not only took on the Alcan 5000 Rally it also came first in class. For an unmodified vehicle that’s mighty impressive and adds to the brand’s image as the real thing. It would have helped if the co-driver wasn’t called Mercedes, but you can’t have everything.
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As it was the team of Andy and Mercedes Lilienthal pushed through ten days of driving where temperatures sunk to -35C. Heading towards the Arctic, it was no surprise that they went through a small place called Coldfoot. It’s not a big place, but even so it seems amazing that 34 souls have chosen to make Coldfoot their home, straddling as it does the Arctic Circle. Imagine being the local salesman for beach wear. Unlike some rallies, the Alcan 5000 (which does indeed cover 5000 miles) is not the sort of event that encourages high speeds to be first. Instead it’s a carefully controlled event where you have to achieve as near to the set time over the distance as possible. Either too fast or too slow
and you start amassing points, and points definitely do not mean prizes here. So you need some driving and navigation skills as well as a solid amount of discipline and clock-watching to do well on the event. Showing the most of these qualities were another husband and wife duo, Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza, who won overall in their Subaru Crosstrek. This impressively backs up their victory in the last event in a Mazda CX-5. The Alcan 5000 only runs every other year (the organisers don’t like odd numbers) but even so this was the 40th anniversary of the rally. It was also the first time that an Ineos Grenadier had entered and, to paraphrase an old and rather smug Honda boast – Ineos enters, Ineos wins. The victory in the 2S class meant victory over about 15 other class entrants, with total numbers nearer 40 for the rally. It clearly is a very tough event, going up through British Columbia and Alberta before heading into the Northwest and Yukon Territories. To underline the remote severity of it all, the day after they finally arrived in Anchorage, the town hosted the famous Iditarod race featuring husky sled teams and their ‘mushers’. Lynn Calder, who is CEO of Ineos, got into the spirit of it all when she said: ‘Mercedes and Andy are true trailblazers who really pushed our Grenadier to the limit and excelled. Watching their journey across 5000 miles was great fun, even the brutal, competitive endurance tests in the ice and snow. Well done, team!’
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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Free Wheeling Hubs Robust, reliable & superior substitute for the original hubs.
DA4541 Series 1, 2, 2A & 3
10 Spline
DA4542 Series 3
24 Spline
DA4543 Defender 90, 110 & 130 - 300Tdi onwards Discovery 1 - 300Tdi onwards (Not compatible with alloy wheels that do not fit around the drive flange). DA4544 90, 110 & 130 - up to and including 200Tdi (Not compatible with alloy wheels that do not fit around the drive flange).
AVM free wheeling hubs serve as a robust, reliable, and superior substitute for the hubs originally installed on your vehicle. They’re utilized to either connect or disconnect the front drive shaft assembly on parttime 4WD vehicles, but can also be retrofitted to permanent 4WD models with stationary hubs to prevent unnecessary differential spinning and the subsequent wear it incurs. They are also a very useful in the event that you break a front drive shaft on a Series vehicle. Simply disengage the front hubs, put your transfer box back in the 2WD position and you can then drive home. Each front driveshaft’s outermost point has a splined section over which the new hubs inner drive member is fixed. Surrounding this is an outer drive member, which is linked to the wheel, with a clutch functioning as a separator. The clutch engagement is facilitated by slanted grooves cut within the free wheeling hub control knob on the exterior. By shifting the knob from ‘4x2’ to ‘4x4’, the clutch is mobilized, causing the inner and outer drive member to interlock. For regular road use or driving on firm surfaces, activating 4WD is unnecessary, and the hubs should remain in the free state. However, if 4WD becomes necessary or is anticipated, the hubs should be switched to the ‘lock’ position. Installing AVM hubs is straight forward and they come with a heat-treated steel clutch ring that guarantees flawless torque transmission. Made from materials resistant to corrosion, they ensure proper clutch ring positioning, with fully independent engage/disengage springs. AVM offers a comprehensive assortment of hubs and service kits compatible with most vehicle brands and models.
britpart.com Find your nearest stockist - britpart.com/stockist Part numbers used for identification purposes only and do not imply or indicate the identity of a manufacturer. Products available from a Britpart stockist. E&OE.
Overlander4x4_2024_05May_Britpart_FP.indd 1
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Women in the Driving Seat Oh here we go. Pray for me. A white, older male reporting on a vehicle that has won an award – by women, for women. And it doesn’t even come in pink! Oh, not the right tone apparently, let’s try again. Women are so marvellously empowered now aren’t they? A major market force that gets entire vehicles, models, trims and much more designed and built specifically for them. And now they have their own Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year. Women are so strong, so dominant – do you think if I keep on like this they’ll like me more? Please? Oh, try again. Well, what to make of this? An award for Women’s Car of the Year. How horribly, hatefully binary. This implies there are only two sexes, male and female and what about Intersex? And what about the 107 genders noted by Sexual Diversity.Org? From Abinary to Xenogender? Where’s their award? Okay, knock it off, just tell us what’s happening here. Let’s focus instead on the SWWWCY. No, that’s not one of the gender alphabetsoup things. It’s the (deep breath) Supreme Winner of the Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year. Or, to shorten that down a bit more, it’s the Kia EV9. How many women judges does it take to choose the SWWWCY? Come on, we’re past making puerile jokes here aren’t we? The answer is 75, from 52 countries including, significantly, a judge from Saudi Arabia. So, it’s a big deal, it’s representative and it is indeed global, covering as it does five continents. It’s sort of predictable isn’t it that they’d choose an electric vehicle, as just about
8
any group does these days to ensure their social credentials, but it’s not as if there wasn’t some stiff opposition. Category winners included the 5 Series BMW, the VW Amarok and Aston’s DB12. But obviously we’re pretty happy that the overall winner was an SUV and a worthy one at that. The seven-seater EV9 won the crown, sorry, tiara, according to the judges thanks to its affordability, user-friendliness and widespread appeal. It got a graceful thumbs-up for a variety of aspects, such as its ability to keep on functioning in temperatures down to -25°C from the Estonian judge, to the ability to turn itself into a living space from the Brazilian judge who also liked its potential for 384bhp.
The point is that the flexibility many judges liked is one of the vehicle’s major qualities. How better to demonstrate this than to look at some of the other awards this trophy-laden vehicle has already notched up. Just recently it won ‘Family Car’ at the Golden Steering Wheel awards and was also voted ‘German Luxury Car of the Year 2024’. Oh, and Best Luxury SUV in our own 4x4 of the Year awards, too. All this proves that the EV9 can be many things to many people. Errr, whatever their sex if not gender. And to round it off, it’s just won ‘UK Car of the Year 2024’ to boot – see the separate story on that. Expecting me to finish with a witty joke? I don’t dare.
Let’s Drink to Kia
Anyone remember Kia-Ora, that faintly weird fruit juice they used to sell during the intermissions in cinemas? I never knew that was a Maori word that means ‘be healthy’, which is ironic coming from a sweet fruit juice made from concentrate. And it’s got nothing to do with this story either. I just thought you might be interested. So, moving on, we have women rating Kia’s EV9 as supreme omnipotent ruler vehicle of the year or something – see the separate story on the rest of this page– and now it’s gone and won the UK Car of the Year as well. It’s a good thing it has robust suspension and seven seats as all those awards are going to be filling it up.
A panel of 30 UK journalists praised it to the extent that they had to come up with a new word – uberpractical. And (predictably it was from a male judge) there was praise that it could ‘cure almost every case of range anxiety’. In this febrile atmosphere of sexspecific awards, I almost hesitate to mention that the EV9 also won the category of ‘Large Crossover’.
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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250ml
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H12 AMETECH AUTOMOTIVE.indd 1 Overlander4x4_2024_04_April_Ametech Automotive Ltd_FP.indd 1
27/01/2023 14:09:12 01/03/2024 10:34
RELIEF FOR UK ELECTRIC GRID
T
he antiquated and overloaded electricity grid in the UK received a tiny piece of good news lately. Which is that we’ve got one fewer electric vehicle to keep powered up. Or, to put it another way, hurrah! The very first all-electric Series IIA Land Rover has been shipped off to the USA, showcasing as it does Britain’s determination to
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honour classic vehicles while being environmentally responsible. The two key players here are Everrati, from Oxfordshire, and ‘Craig’ who owns a corporate and equestrian law practice which allows him to collect classic cars to drive around his polo fields in Florida. Symbolically, the handover of the vehicle took place at the Grand Champions
Polo Club in Wellington, Florida. And it’s not at all symbolic that the venue is referred to as ‘The Disneyland of Polo’. Craig talked about protecting the environment and sustainability, which is presumably why he bought an old Land Rover, had it totally rebuilt with electric drivetrain and then had it shipped or indeed flown across the Atlantic Ocean. Everrati is a British company focused on electrifying classic vehicles, and already has a showcase including Porsche 911 and even a Ford GT40, with customers dotted around the world. Given the company is only about five years old, that’s quite a list of achievements. Naturally, Land Rover and Range Rover have been target vehicles before, but this is the first to head across the Atlantic. The vehicle in question is a 1971 IIA, completely restored from the ground up. The interior has some more contemporary touches, like seats that might actually be comfortable, plus a teak floor to go with the wooden steering wheel. The Bridge of Weir leather seats in the front, matched by bench seats in the rear, add just one of the touches of English class. Bridge of Weir, in
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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the sort of attention to detail one notices, was chosen not just for its quality but also for the fact that it produces the lowest carbon leather in the automotive industry. But, obviously, the major changes have taken place under the bonnet. There you will find a 60kWh battery pack sufficient for 150bhp and 150 miles from the two electric motors. This then offers two- or four-wheel drive along with the off-road capability you’d expect from a classic Land Rover. Although, in this case, the battery is in the front rather than in, say, a Tesla where the substantial weight is spread out lower down in the floorpan. However, given the climate in Florida, Craig should at least get the full range from the battery pack, aided as it is by regenerative braking, and AC and DC fastcharging capability. It would also be easy to forget that the original range of the IIA was actually about 150 miles anyway. Also, let’s not gloss over the 150bhp, the better part of a 100bhp increase. That offers a 0-60mph time of 13sec, a full ten seconds faster than the original. We’re assuming braking has received some serious attention. And, given we live in
a changing world, it’s to Everrati’s credit that the company has ensured that all the motive power is reversible, should the grid finally collapse. This particular vehicle, called The Polo Commission for obvious reasons, certainly looks the part and, with its quiet driving, definitely shouldn’t scare the horses in the polo fields. However, this isn’t the first
Land Rover IIA that Everrati has exported. Last year it sent another example across to Amsterdam, to an owner who already owned an electric yacht so that both can quietly hum along the serene waterways of Holland. If you wanted to follow suit you’d need to give Everrati a ‘straight, rust-free and clean title donor’. Oh and £160,000.
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Rights of Way
Wrexham Council ordered to repair damage done by anti-vehicle fanatics to popular Welsh right of way following High Court action by Green Lane Association
Rights of way users are celebrating after the Green Lane Association won a major victory in its legal action over White Stones, an unclassified county road in north-east Wales. The lane is beautiful, tricky in places and eminently sustainable – but has been the scene of outrageous criminal action by anti-access factions over the course of many years. It’s more than a decade since we were first accosted by a farmer while using the lane and told that he was going to ‘see about having it closed.’ There’s little point in trying to talk sensibly to a certain kind of person – however it does need to be recognised that for someone living next to a right of way like this, and trying to work the land next to it, illegal and antisocial use by 4x4s and trail bikes could become hard to tolerate over a long period of time. Either way, however, there was no excuse for what started to happen in the middle of last decade. Someone with a grudge against motor vehicle users took to burying spikes in the lane surface – in a bid to damage tyres, but recklessly endangering walkers, cyclists and horse riders in the process. This became so regular and unrelenting that members of the Green Lane Association took to walking the route with metal detectors to help them clear it. It’s not known whether the local police made any effort to track down the guilty parties. They did seem to be putting a lot of effort into patrolling rights of way in the
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area and issuing fixed penalties to quad and bike riders with the wrong sized front number plates, though, and there’s only so much you can do. It was therefore perhaps inevitable that worse was to come. A few years ago, anti-vehicle factions with access to heavy machinery embarked upon an orgy of destruction, blocking the lane in more than a dozen places with huge boulders, tree stumps and tangled masses of old fencing. Gates across the route were illegally locked up, trenches were dug out and in one place, an adjacent watercourse was diverted on to the lane. Lauren Eaton, GLASS’ Wrexham rep at the time, submitted numerous reports to Wrexham County Council, the police and Natural Resources Wales – reporting that all of them were ignored. Thus the Association served the local authority with a notice under Section 56 of the Highways Act 1980 – the first step in a process which has finally resulted in a consent order in its favour. This will compel Wrexham County Borough Council to restore the surface of the route so that it is accessible to vehicles. The order states that the council must make the surface good within 12 months, including carrying out drainage work – and that is must pay a portion of GLASS’ legal fees. Of particular note, the court also ordered that the council should ensure its network of green lanes remains open
to vehicles. This is significant enough in its own right – as well as sounding like a critical comment on the prevarications that delayed the start of repair work on the nearby Wayfarer, part of which falls within Wrexham’s jurisdiction. The ruling follows a previous legal challenge, raised by GLASS together with the Trail Riders Fellowship, against an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) imposed by Wrexham council in the wake of the damage done to White Stones. This was successful in seeing the order quashed by the High Court. Since the success of this latter action in August last year, there has been an improvement in the condition of the lane, with the worst damage repaired. However the success of GLASS’ latest court case means the lane will be restored to the condition it should have been left in all along, allowing all recreational users to enjoy it once again. Whether any of this will discourage the guilty parties from simply trashing the lane all over again is another matter. As always, however, even after a case requiring legal action, the Green Lane Association points to the overwhelming need for good behaviour on the lanes. ‘The local community has mixed feelings about the use of the route,’ it says. ‘So we are reminding members and other users that they are expected to comply strictly with the Green Lane Association or TRF codes of conduct when using any green lane.’
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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When your project needs a new dashboard – get Simtek on the case! The DashDapter3 from Simtek is available in S, C and A models (Standard, Comprehensive and Advanced), each of them bringing increasing levels of capability and functionality. It acts as an interface for vehicle converters, resto-modders, customisers, upgraders and engine transplanters. The unit promises to be ideal for a wide range of purposes: • When you want to remove your engine and replace it with a different one • When you want to put a Puma dash in a resto-mod 90
• When you want to upgrade your Puma Defender with a late Freelander dash • The Advanced model allows operation of the original AirCon functions in the 2.2 Puma ‘So far,’ says Simtek, ‘we have focused on the Land Rover Puma dash (2.2 and 2.4). Our most recent addition is the more colourful Freelander 2 dash, which offers more functionality. DD3 is available with a plug kit, generic harness or bespoke harness, and comes with a user interface. To fnid out more, call 01706 854857 or email bodylogic@simtekuk.co.uk.
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Old-style 130 steel wheels now available tubeless for Series and Defenders
Free UK Delivery on orders over £15.00 + VAT
ca £88 plus VAT | www.britpart.com
Recently added to the Britpart range, these traditional style steel wheels are a welded, tubeless version of the old-style 130 rim (part number ANR1534PM). Available only in black, they’re suitable for use on Series trucks and the originalshape Defender. 4x4 Magazine_2023_September_PS Autoparts_QP.indd 1 18/08/2023 15:28 With a 5/165 PCD, 20 offset and 115mm centre bore, the wheels are rated to 1200kg each. They’re 16 x 6.5” in Tyres cheap. Not cheap tyres!! size, making them ideal for use with 7.50x16s or, the metric equivalent, 235/85R16s. As usual for wheels and tyres, prices vary wildly. You’ll no doubt get a good deal for a full set of five, especially if you’re investing in some rubber to wrap around them at the same time.
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ca £40 plus VAT | www.britpart.com RB’s TRED quick-release mounting pins are designed for easier, more secure installation of recovery boards to a vehicle or trailer. The latest generation has an all-new ratchet handle design, promising a quicker and more user-friendly operation. The pins, which can be padlocked to secure your boards, have stainless steel hardware and recessed plate mount securing holes. Designed for various fixing options, their unique design allows them to securely mount up to four recovery boards.
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CHESHIRE
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www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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27/03/2024 11:25
On-the-go maintenance made easy with Kwik Lift
Equipment4Garages, a UK-based garage equipment trader with more than ON-THE-GO CAR MAINTENANCE 40 years’ experience, has unveiled an innovative new product. The Kwik Lift MADE EASY WITH KWIK LIFT® is a portable car lift designed to make car maintenance easier and more Available in AC220V and DC12V configurations, Kwik Lift® comes accessible than ever before. in 5 different models with a lifting capacity from 2500kg (5511lbs) Kwik Lift was created to make vehicle maintenance more convenient, to 3500kg (7716Ibs) and can lift from 460mm to 536mm (without rubber blocks). efficient and effective than ever before. No matter where you are, whether Easy to use and easily on the track or at home, Kwik Lift can be installed in a matter of minutes to transported in the back of a car or van. make emergency repairs or fine tune performance on the go. Available in AC220V and DC12V configurations, Kwik Lift comes in five Ideal for: • Mechanics models with a lifting capacity from 2500kg (5511lbs) to 3500kg (7716Ibs). • Professional Racers It can lift from 460mm to 536mm (without rubber blocks). Omni-directional ® • Motor Enthusiasts wheels allow for precise manoeuvrability and versatility to meet your needs. • Detailers Perfect for garages or units with low head room, Kwik Lift provides ample Portable Car Lift room to access the underside of a vehicle without the need for an expensive Available in workshop. When collapsed, the product measures just 88mm x 115mm and weighs 100kg in total, making it easily transportable in a car or van. Richard Wilson at Equipment4Garages, says: ‘For too long, effective AC220V or DC12V Rosewood Farm | Watchet Lane | Little Kingshill | Bucks | HP16 0DR vehicle maintenance has been something reserved for traditional garages 2500kg - 3500kg Phone: 01494 866087 | Email: info@jyclassics.co.uk and mechanics, which can be extremely inconvenient and inefficient for 01727 875695 | info@equipment4garages.com many drivers. Whether you need to change a full set of tyres, make a small repair or carry out routine maintenance, we believe you should be able to do www.KwikLifts.co.uk this wherever, whenever. ‘This is why we are so proud to bring Kwik Lift to the market, offering professionals and amateurs alike the flexibility to enjoy their vehicle to the fullest. So, ditch the trolley jack and axle stands, and grab Kwik Lift – your new best mate!’ Kwik Lift is available with a range of optional extras including wall hangers, adjustable height adapters and cross beam adapters. For heavier vehicles, it is also available in a 3500kg (7716lbs) configuration upon request. To find out more, visit www.equipment4garages.com.
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FORD MUSTANG MACH-E PREMIUM AWD
W
e test drove the Mustang Mach-E a couple of years ago and weren’t hugely impressed by it. So a second opportunity to try an example from the current model year, over the same roads as last time, was very welcome. So too was the vehicle’s cabin – which was much nicer than we remembered, especially the dash. The upper surface is still all hard plastic, but then there are fabric, carbon and leather effect elements with full-width heating and air-con outlets sandwiched between them. Then there’s an enormous tablet-style screen in the middle of it all – actually, it’s more like an upright laptop than a tablet – with a rather cool multi-function dial housed within it. You can’t help but feel that it’s a bit of an ‘anything you can do’ pop at Tesla, but whatever it is it looks the business. There’s a comparatively small digital dash along from it, visible through the steering wheel, and between these and a couple of buttons on the steering wheel that’s your lot. It’s very minimalist in this way – but then you’re surveying it from a big, comfy driver’s seat with soft, supple leather trim and plenty of leg, elbow and head room, so it’s not short on old-school luxuries either. This extends to the back seats, where space is the biggest luxury of all and even with the seat in front of you all the way back, unless you’re freakishly long-legged your knees will barely be touch it. Headroom is good too, with at least a couple of inches to spare beneath a glass roof even if you’re into six-footer territory. What it is short of is refinement. On anything other than a smooth surface, we were hearing all sorts of groans from the cabin trim – and around town you’re driving to a constant soundtrack of road noise combined with an annoying whine from the electric motors. The suspension gets in on the act too, with quite a thumpy reaction to bumps. The actual impacts are damped out well enough, but you certainly do know they’re there. Still, at least there’s a nice exhaust note at lower speeds. Oh yes there is. It’s
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symposed, of course, and not the most convincing thing in the world, but it does kind of work under acceleration – at least until you get moving more quickly, whereupon it’s drowned out by wind and transmission noise. So the Mustang Mach-E is not one of the more refined vehicles you’ll ever sit in. Like the Mustang itself, actually. But it earns the right to go by its legendary name in positive ways, too. There are three versions of the Mach-E, called Select, Premium and GT. As with the ‘real’ Mustang, the latter is the fastest one. Not that any are slow, with even the twowheel drive Select bunging out 269bhp and 317lbf.ft; Premium ups this to 294bhp, then GT gives you a huge hike to 487bhp and
634lbf.ft, sent to all four wheels. The result is a set of 0-62 times starting at 6.3 seconds for the Select and coming down to a teethbaring 3.8 seconds for the GT; overall range is between 292 miles for the Select and 372 for the Premium – which is also available in AWD form (as tested here) with a bit more power and a bit less range.
Positive stuff
And this is where the positive stuff comes in. It’s not just quick, it’s smart too. Being electric, of course, it’ll go booming away from the line when you plant the loud pedal, but on top of this there’s no end of urge through the mid-range and at overtaking speeds. It’s very drivable indeed – more so, actually, than the ‘real’ Mustang ever was.
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That’s what we found, anyway. There ain’t no substitute for cubic inches and all that, and tooling around in a 5.0-litre V8 muscle car is indeed fun, but tooling around in a powerful electric crossover turns out to be, whisper it, better. Even with a sound symposer trying to do the work of a proper exhaust and succeeding only in reminding you that it’s not one. What does absolutely stand out for us is the Mach-E’s excellent controllability in corners. It’s very, very willing to be played with. If you’re into this kind of thing, you can slide its back end round corners with ridiculous ease, balancing its position on the steering and throttle and making yourself feel like a bit of a hero in the process. And if you’re not into that kind of thing, you soon will be. It’s that kind of vehicle. Like the original Toyota MR2 and Bowler Wildcat, to quote two very different cars that come to mind, it makes you feel like a better driver than you really are. It’s entertaining as anything but it looks after you.
It looks after you on the motorway, too, albeit in a very different way. Around this time last year, Ford’s BlueCruise system became the first example of Level 2 autonomous technology to be approved by the DfT for use on British roads. It’s a next-level lane keeping set-up which can accelerate, brake and steer the vehicle without driver inputs; it operates at up to 80mph and, unlike Level 1 systems, it allows you to leave your hands off the wheel for prolonged periods of time. What it doesn’t do is let you take your eyes off the road. Try that and the beeping will start. It’s classed as a driver assist system, too, not a form of full automation, so you’re still as responsible as ever for controlling the vehicle. We only got the chance to give it a go for a few miles. Not enough to really get to terms with the experience, but to figure out a bit of what it’s like. First impressions? More than a gimmick, less than a revolution. It does work, though – it responded smartly and smoothly in three lanes of busy traffic.
Nonetheless, we’re not sure how much use autonomous driving is ever going to be until it allows you to turn your attention elsewhere while the car does it for you. We found that having to keep our eyes on the road and watch while the car does things we’re used to doing for ourselves was actually quite unnerving – like being the passenger, but the guy driving is invisible. And quite what you’re going to do with your free hands when you’ve got to keep looking ahead is another question… try asking classic muscle car owners what they think of a guy in an electric Mustang and you might well get an answer. We’d come back to the subject after a longer test drive, at any rate. But the Mustang Mach-E is a fascinating vehicle; outstanding in some ways and sketchy in others but definitely not a crowd-follower. Our only concern might be that at £65,405 OTR as tested, it’s a lot of money for a vehicle that’s less than spot-on in any way at all. Still, this is definitely a performance SUV that dares to be different.
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KIA EV6 GT-LINE S
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he Kia EV9 won the Best Luxury SUV class in our 2024 4x4 of the Year awards, which caused a bit of a stir and wasn’t well received by the kind of people to whom hating electric vehicles has replaced Christianity as the state religion. For those with an open mind, though, Kia’s big new flagship vehicle is a new high in the development of alternative fuels. And that shouldn’t have come as any surprise. Because Kia already had a smaller SUV on its books which, when you get to grips with it, is steeped in the same qualities that make the EV9 so good. One of the big things about EVs is that they allow designers to take a completely new approach to how a car is packaged. You don’t need to leave room for an engine, gearbox, propshafts and exhaust; you have motors and batteries, of course, but their shape and size offers a world of new opportunities. Thus we have a vehicle that’s quite compact from the outside but has more cabin space than many a conventionally engined 4x4. There’s only a couple of inches above your head but it feels more spacious than that, with loads of leg and elbow room allowing you to stretch out like you’re in a limo. The seats are very impressive too, with wide but grippy bases and plenty of support. The vast majority of people who ever travel in the back of an EV6 will be kids, and that’s who it’s best suited to. One sixfooter can squeeze in behind another for short journeys, but the one in the back will have their head pressed into the roof. With the front seat adjusted to suit
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our editor, who’s that kind of height, he could sit behind himself but it wasn’t very dignified. The front seat-backs are sculpted, but the sculptings are so low that his knees were pressed into the hard material above them instead. It’s fine for kids though, and it can be pressed into service for adults when necessary. And it’s above average as a cargo carrier, folding almost flat and clicking into place to leave a low floor with the capacity to swallow all the luggage you’re ever likely to need it to. Up front, the floor console between the seats has a really nice floating design to it, but it’s not all for show – there’s a huge cubby box inside, plus another massive stowage bin lower down. The glovebox is huge, too, so unless you’re an encyclopaedia salesman so you should never struggle to fit in everything you’ve got about your person. Up top, a pair of high-definition screens are mounted in the same console to create the impression of a huge full-width flight desk. This all adds to the sense of excitement, aided by a row of haptic buttons for the heated/cooled seats and so on; it all looks good and works well, and the touch points give it a tactile quality to match. This includes the steering wheel, which also provides plenty of feel and communication when you’re driving. It’s light but not over-light, effortless around town but with enough to it that you know what’s going on as you turn in to a corner. You can position it precisely on the road at any speed, too, with nice, taut handling that makes it entertaining to chuck around.
The payoff is in ride quality, which comes apart on bad out-of-town roads. We drove the EV6 at am annual motor industry event where our test route includes one particularly savage stretch, so this is with the vehicle being pushed to its limits. But it did all get pretty untidy, even by the standards of what the same road does to other SUVs, with the body being tossed and jounced all over the place. We never felt out of control, with the handling staying on point, but relaxing it was not. It does settle well on normal surfaces, however, and the suspension noise that came with the above experience shuts up too, leaving you with just a bit of wind and tyre noise on a motorway cruise. It’s not the very last word in refinement but it’s a lot calmer than the average vehicle, electric or otherwise, making it a good companion on a long trip. Much has been made of the fact that you can get a GT version of the EV6 with 577bhp and a 3.4-second 0-62 time. Our test vehicle was not that model, and it wasn’t even the 4x4 version either, but it was good and grippy and it had the briskness to go with its agility. This is aided by a choice of drive modes including a Sport setting which heightens the vehicle’s responses to throttle and steering inputs. In plain English, it makes it better fun. That’s the theory, anyway – these things can come over as a gimmick, but to be fair it works pretty well to add another level of agility to what was already a sharp vehicle. Perhaps we were trying to tell ourselves this, but it felt more willing to be steered on the throttle in hard corners, should that be the kind of thing that makes your journey more fun (and admit it, even if you drive a doughty pick-up truck, it is). As tested, our GT-Line S RWD model would stand you £52,745. Prices for vehicles with all-wheel drive start from £51,775 and if you want the mad fast one, make it £62,675. Not cheap, as is always the case with electric vehicles, but for what you get the EV6 is one of the most appealing modern crossovers. We’d struggle not to be distracted by the presence of the EV9 just a few grand above the top of the range. But if you don’t need (or want) what that vehicle offers, superb though it is, its smaller stablemate is an outstanding crossover – and a worthy reward for being one of those people with an open mind.
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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INTRODUCING THE ALL-NEW
WILDPEAK A/T TRAIL AND WILDPEAK R/T01
WILDPEAK A/T TRAIL
WILDPEAK R/T01
Wildpeak A/T Trail - Rugged Crossover Capability Built for adventure delivering rugged off-road capability without compromise on the open road. Featuring the Three-Peak mountain snowflake, the Wildpeak A/T Trail encourages adventure seeking crossover owners to discover true all-weather capability. Wildpeak R/T01 - Bold, Rugged Terrain Capability Developed for 4x4’s and SUV’s this tyre sets the standard for the new rugged terrain tyre category. Providing the tenacious off-road traction of a mud tyre while retaining the tread life and stability of an all-terrain, professional Off-Road tyre with POR marking.
For further information and to find your local stockist please visit www.falkentyre.com/en or www.4site4x4tyres.co.uk
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TRAVEL
A DELICATE SOUND OF THUNDER
Exploring Cambodia, whose people have renounced a stormy past to forge a new chapter in the chronicles of South-East Asia’s most tormented country Words and pictures: Chris Collard
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ifeless eyes stared back at me from the other side of the glass, their hollowed and blackened recesses screaming out in anguish. A web of fissures radiated from a dime-sized hole in their stained and hairless temporal lobe. A second pair of empty sockets to the left, another to the right, another above, another below. Stepping back revealed thousands of soiled skulls, each defaced in similar fashion – the remains of entire villages.
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Beneath my feet, bone fragments, teeth and clothes leached up through the muddy soil, gruesome evidence of a horrific chapter in the annals of a small country in South-East Asia. This was Choeung Ek, the most notorious killing field of the Khmer Rouge and the final resting place of 8895 innocent Cambodian souls. No story about Cambodia would be complete without mention of Pol Pot and his genocidal regime which, in the second
half of the 1970s, murdered as many as two million of its own citizens. But I had come to embrace where it is today, absorb its vibrant and animated culture and delve into what its future holds – while exploring its rich back-country aboard a fleet of Land Rover Defenders. Twenty-four hours before our visit to Choeung Ek, I had landed in the capital city of Phnom Penh and spent the day with Mr Red, my tuk-tuk driver and new friend. As a
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Some expeditions never call your winch into play even once. Cambodia’s not like that, with lots of water, mud, ruts and, in this case, monstrous axle twisters
teenager, he survived the Khmer Rouge by living in the jungle, eating insects and roots to survive and crawling into villages under the cloak of darkness to steal food. His family had been taken away; most were never seen again. That evening, I was navigating a maze of narrow, tuk-tuk-choked streets in the red light district along with Kurt Smolek, an American working in the region. We made our way to Larry’s 110, an ex-pat bar and
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We turned off the red line on the map and into a world far removed from the 21st Century
one of the only in the area that didn’t hire their waitresses out by the hour. The next member of the team, Sam Watson, arrived fresh off the plane from Cairo, followed by Jason Thatcher, an Aussie who leads dualsport motorcycle tours in the country’s hinterland. Rounding out the group was Rudi Smith, a larger-than-life medic who sauntered in like he had just stepped off the set of Gunsmoke. Pushing our cans of Angkor beer aside, Jason pulled out a map and stretched it across the long, wood-plank table. He dragged his finger south along a thin red line, then east into a green area void of roads – at least roads large enough to merit reference. ‘This will be our route,’ he said, ‘to Wat Phnom Tamove. There’s an ancient temple there that’s rarely seen
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by outsiders.’ We set plans for an early departure and slipped out past a row of beer bars and massage parlours.
Temples and Winches
We turned off the red line on the map and into a world far removed from the 21st Century. These were the lowland plains of a region which receives up to 150 inches of rain each year. The trail was elevated above lush green rice paddies; to either side were clusters of women, ankle-deep in water and attending to their crops. Periodically we passed a thatch-roofed hooch (hut or small dwelling) perched above the mud on rickety bamboo columns. Their residents, barefoot and shaded by broad straw hats, squatted on their haunches and quietly observed us, void
of expression – the result of life in a world where it was better to go unnoticed. The awkward moments were breached by a smile and a wave – which, at each encounter, were reciprocated tenfold. Around midday, we found ourselves stringing out winch lines and recovery straps to pull each other through heavy ruts. Then, shutting down the Defenders’ engines in the village of Wat Phnom Tamove, Jason pointed to an area of dense foliage and a well-worn path that dissolved into a cleft in a granite precipice. I followed it for a few hundred metres, winding my way up a series of carved steps to a small temple. Inside were several statues, a plaster water buffalo and hand-painted murals of rural Cambodian life, each veiled in dust. I wondered for how many centuries
the inhabitants of this village have walked these steps to share the lessons of their culture with a new generation.
Goodwill in action
The next morning, I found myself near the coastal town of Kep, standing under a bullet-riddled stone archway and stepping over the tattered remnants of a Khmer Rouge stronghold. Just a half mile away, white sand beaches dipped into the Gulf of Thailand and restaurants served copious quantities of seafood to vacationing tourists. From the beginning of the 20th Century, this was a thriving resort area. It represented the golden age of FrenchCambodian culture and architecture. But in 1975, when Pol Pot gained control, along
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with many other posh resorts it was put into service as a military retreat. To this day, the scars of small arms fire remain on many of its buildings. Heading inland, our company of Defenders found itself slogging along, two tyres on a levée and two in a rice paddy, through the agricultural lowlands of the Kampot Province. It was an area where Jason had led moto treks, but to accommodate Land Rovers we deviated from the known route. Finding ourselves at a dead end, we asked a farmer if we could cross his land. He was quite agreeable, pointed his finger toward an extensive grid of paddies and suggested we might be able to make it through. What ensued was a four-hour guessing game of mud madness, dodging
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cattle and water buffalo… and addressing overheating issues on Kurt’s 110. He had shipped it from Cairo when he moved to Phnom Penh, and the motor (along with pretty much everything else) was suffering pretty badly from a case of the third-world rebuild blues. We eventually found high ground and made our way to a small hooch near the village of Wat Por. It was similar to the thousands we had passed in recent days: semi-enclosed with a thatch roof, supported by stilts and with a doorless entry at the top of wooden stairs. What was different was the new, modern-looking structure next door – and that the family immediately approached us and embraced Jason. We were witnessing the results of human compassion and goodwill, one
man’s desire to help the poorest in his adopted country. After observing so many hardworking families living in squalor during his moto treks, Jason took it upon himself to change the world, one hooch at a time. His Global Village Housing foundation works with local churches to identify worthy families; they then show up unannounced and build them a new home. While visiting the family, we learned that the grandmother was having some health issues. Rudi pulled out his medical kit, examined her and deduced that her condition mandated a visit to the local clinic. We loaded her up and took her to the hospital, then Rudi gave her money for a tuk-tuk ride home. Moments like these restore my faith in the human race.
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Iron buffaloes
After an early morning spent photographing the people of Kampot’s fishing fleet as they returned from their night’s work, our convoy spent several hours following a semi-established levée track along an unnamed river. Boys did backflips from two-story boats and young children peered through the doorways of tin buildings. It was yet another frame of rural Cambodian life, this one circled around the country’s primary crop: rice. Many feet below the road, paddy fields extended as far as the eye could see. The track we were following was intended to be a loop that would take us to a paved road. But after half a day, we came to the end – only to find that a sturdy metal gate had been cemented into
the middle of our escape route. One of the crew walked to the next village to locate a key for the lock. Several hours went by. Villagers passed on bicycles, scooters, and ‘iron buffaloes’ – funky hybrid walking tractors converted to wagons, trucks and even buses. They told us that the roadblock, recently installed by someone in the village, was sized to allow for iron buffaloes, tuk-tuks and bicycles – but not vehicles. We waited as the sun slipped closer to the horizon; the guy with the key was nowhere to be found. Our goal was but a few hundred meters away, and rather than driving all the way back we found an alternate path. The next morning, during our drive back to Phnom Penh, the bonnet of Kurt’s Land
Rover was up more than it was down. Although its cooling problems persisted, we had a more pressing concern. Sam had arranged a short-term loan of the Defender we were driving through RMA Land Rover in Phnom Penh. The issue was that we had to return it, and we were to borrow Kurt’s 110 for the second leg of the trip. And it was dying. We sheepishly made our way into RMA with the vehicle squeaky clean and topped up with fuel. Sam, with all the British charm he could muster, posed the question to the general manager, Paul Varley. Could we have it for another week? He disappeared for an hour, while we convinced ourselves that hiring a tuk-tuk wouldn’t be so bad. But when he came back, the news was good: we had a car.
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A new chapter
Following a stroke of luck in the 800-yearold Khmer temple of Banteay Srei, where I was given an impromptu guided tour by a devoted security guard who sleeps there every night to protect the site from tomb raiders, we checked in to a cheap hostel in Siem Reap. We had camping gear and supplies, but in tourist town like this it’s a better option to get a room. Why? Well, here’s an idea of what they’re expecting. The power was off on the second floor, where our room was located, and I clicked on my head torch to find the door. We were greeted by a placard with three internationally recognisable symbols: a gun, a hand grenade and a hypodermic needle, each with a diagonal slash through them. Well, at least they’re banned, not advertised for sale. There was another placard over the toilet that was equally enlightening. Awkward smiles all round. The room was tidy, though, and we didn’t possess any of the listed contraband, so we figured if the door was locked it would be okay. And it was. The next morning, we were standing under the stone arch at
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the entrance to Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the planet’s most remarkable examples of pre-modern architecture. This was ground zero of the Khmer Empire. Construction began in the 12th Century under the orders of King Suryavarman II, who dedicated it to the Hindu deity Vishnu. The outer wall measures 1380 by 2650 feet and is protected by a 600-foot moat; behind it are some 200 acres of expansive gardens, the private residences of high priests and dozens of temples, each adorned with intricate bas-relief engravings. Nāgas, great deities that have taken the form of a cobra, guard the cardinal points of most structures, and tangled webs of tetrameles roots appear to be devouring much of the complex like a giant squid. Angkor Wat was transformed into a Buddhist temple complex near the beginning of the 13th Century and has remained a place of spiritual significance since the setting of its first cornerstone. Throughout the Vietnam War, and during the years for which the Khmer Rouge occupied the site, its sandstone towers
were off limits to the carpet-bombing that laid waste to so much of the region. After our experience in Siem Reap, we were quite happy to be safe, sound and back under canvas, albeit beneath an angry sky on the banks of the Tonlé Sap River, for our final night in Cambodia. The fold-down door of our Land Rover doubled as a bar and we sipped gin and tonic while sheet lightning illuminated the sky and thunder rolled across the lake, buffeting our tents and rattling our bones. I thought about the world’s opinion of this small country. Prior to arriving in Cambodia, I may have had a predisposed view of killing fields, torture and oppression. These chapters, which are disturbingly factual and quite recent, cannot be rewritten. The scars have not completely healed, but the country and its people have closed that book. The elders are passing and the next generation is penning a new volume, one of prosperity, hard work and contentment. We poured another gin and tonic as the last of the throw-net fishermen disappeared with the light. A new page had been written.
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RAV-ing it up The current Toyota RAV4 is a brilliant family vehicle – but you rarely see them off-road. With a bit of help from Ironman 4x4, this one has been reborn as an adventure wagon Words: Kaziyoshi Sasazaki Pictures: Ironman 4x4
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ronman 4x4 is well known among off-road enthusiasts in the UK, with a wide range of accessories allowing customers to enhance their vehicles and prep them for work, play, camping and expeditions. The Australian company has long been seen as one of the goto suppliers for Japanese vehicles, in particular Toyota – and its importer in the USA recently built a trio of concepts designed to demonstrate its wares, with two of them being from the world’s highest-selling 4x4 maker. We’ll look at the more obvious choice, a Tundra full-size double-cab, in a future issue. But here’s a Toyota that’s very familiar back home – albeit not in this form.
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‘More and more people are using crossovers and CUVs to take them on adventures,’ explains Ironman. ‘Because of this, Ironman 4x4 has outfitted a Toyota RAV4 with numerous parts and accessories to show the vehicle’s potential as an adventure platform. In America, the RAV4 comes with a 2.5-litre petrol engine which can be specced to drive either the front or all four wheels and, in the latter form, combined with an electric motor to create the RAV4 Hybrid. It’s fundamentally the same vehicle we know and love over here. So Ironman’s modifications are more than just a look-at-me exercise. There’s always the issue of suspension mods
made for left-hookers not working with a steering wheel on the right – however the +2” ATS suspension at the heart of the vehicle is also available back home in Australia, and they definitely know which side to drive on there. ATS is Ironman’s own brand. By hiking the RAV4 a couple of inches, it lets the vehicle achieve a ground clearance of 200mm – as well as creating room for a meatier set of tyres. Ironman quotes an upgrade to 245/65R17, allowing you to fit taller, wider all-terrains with the capacity to be aired down for off-road use. The suspension kit uses coil springs with a thickness of up to 13% greater than standard and nitrogen-charged twin-tube
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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shocks that are 20% thicker and contain up to 55% more oil. This promises improved comfort and control when off-roading and on longer trips, as well as up to 200kg greater load-carrying without any affect on ride comfort, plus better handling when heavily laden. Further ATS kit includes front and rear tubular bumper guards, which feature light bar compatibility and promise 180-degree protection – as well, at the front, as an integrated skid plate for the engine and box. Made from 2mm wall thickness, 38mm o/d tube, they’re powder coated for resistance to knocks and scrapes. Up top, the vehicle is fitted with Atlas Roof Rack Cross Bars. That’s just begging
“Ironman’s modifications are more than just a look-at-me exercise” to have a full rack and roof tent sitting proudly on top of it – or if your camping tends to be done on the ground (or in a swag), it won’t be long until the RAV4’s extra load capacity is being gobbled up by travelling kit. Finishing it all off is an impressive array of LED lights – twin 7” and 9” Scope driving lamps mounted on the aforementioned tubular bumper guard, and a pair of Cubes at the base of the A-posts.
With all this equipment being available from Ironman, the RAV4 is perhaps not so much a concept car as a demonstrator. Either way, it was a good way of getting visitors to the 2023 SEMA show thinking about what you can achieve with a family SUV – and of making the most of a vehicle whose off-road mode button means it comes with more potential built in that probably any owner alive has come close to using.
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Words: Graham Scott Pictures: Jeep
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EASTER
o you like your job? Do you go to work with a smile? Are you eager for Monday morning? Alright alright, I was just asking. Because it’s hard not to imagine that that is exactly the life of some of Jeep’s engineers and stylists. So here’s your job brief. We want you to come up with eye-catching, nay, outlandish concept vehicles. No, not just on your screen, you then get a hand in actually making real, working versions. Do they have
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to be sensible and production-ready? No, but if you could keep it halfway realistic that would be great. Oh yes, and there’s another thing too. Every Easter we want you to take them to Moab in Utah and show them in their natural surroundings to a wildly enthusiastic audience. Then you can drive them around the stunning rocks, and then stop for some food and drink in the earlyyear sunshine while you chat to the public, most of whom own Jeeps.
Now, let’s talk about when you can start. Tomorrow? Funny, everyone says that. One of the great things about the Jeep team is that while they know about whatever we’re meant to currently believe in, they also never lose sight of the brand’s heritage, nor what makes owners happy. Just look at these four concepts. There’s plug-in hybrid propulsion but also power coming from V6, V8 and turbo engines. May 2024 sees the 58th annual Easter Jeep Safari, and where better than the
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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JEEPER red rocks of Moab, where vast slabs and arches loom over the landscape, which is carved by millions of years of Nature working on the oxidisation of the iron in the sandstone. It’s a dramatic and slightly weird environment, and clearly that’s the perfect backdrop for four new concepts put together by Jeep and Jeep Performance Parts (JPP). The Low Down, Willys Dispatcher, Vacationeer and Gladiator Rubicon High Top. As you can sense from the names this
is an attempt to marry past with present and future – or at least have some more modern arrangement. It’s something Jeep’s been doing for years and the results never fail to amuse, impress or make current owners start asking about delivery dates. But is this progress or is it simply a rather self-centred, self-indulgent exercise that doesn’t actually lead to anything you’d recognise in the showrooms? The answer’s a bit of both. Sure, putting these concepts together and driving them at Moab has got
Jeep gathers together four hot new concepts for the 5th Easter Safari at Moab
to be fun, but then isn’t fun meant to be a part of off-roading? When was the last time you saw someone actually having fun in a Range Rover advertisement? The other side of the differential is that these vehicles carry what JPP calls ‘our latest custom and factory-tested and factory-backed production parts and accessories that allow us to tackle some of the toughest trails in the world’. So, fun and practicality. Now let’s dive into each one for a bit more of each.
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WILLYS DISPATCHER Reading a description of this concept leads into some seriously random territory. Words abound like ‘bikini’, ‘houndstooth’, ‘distressed’ and ‘old-school’. That’s like the series of words you’d have to use in a school English exercise to tell a short story. One I’d quite like to read. But in this case they tell an equally whacky tale. Obviously the Willys bit harks back to the WWII Jeep but that also ran on into the post-war years, and that’s the inspiration for this concept that Jeep says out loud is a mix of where the company has been and where it’s going. The ‘going’ part is supplied by the 2.0-litre 4xe plug-in hybrid with its clever ability to put the 375bhp and 470lb ft of torque through the eight-speed auto box. The ‘where it’s been’ part is the Willys emblem stamped like it used to be into the bodywork, in this case the ‘hood’, and the generally retro lines. It’s not just for looks though and you get a proper front bumper holding a Warn Epic Series winch for when someone else needs pulling out. It looks a treat inside, with distressed saddle leather seating with houndstooth cloth inserts. That’s a combination that wouldn’t look out of place in a discreet gentlemen’s club in London and it sets a great atmosphere in the cabin. It’s practical too, with JPP vinyl floor covering and a bikini top to keep the sun off that already distressed leather. Past and future – the present never looked better.
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LOW DOWN The name might suggest a slammed vehicle, the sort that hugs the ground, has lights under it and a sound system from a large stadium playing music that focuses on violence against women, men and possibly dogs. Fortunately such a vehicle wouldn’t even get out of the car parks round Moab so instead we have what is a nod to a wildly successful previous concept, the Wrangler Lower 40. Shown 15 years ago, it still draws the crowds, but now they have a new iteration to look at. The Low Down has stock suspension but you can’t help but notice the monster 42in BFG Krawler mud-terrain tyres
on 20in beadlocked rims. (Just as an aside, why oh why do the Americans have to keep doing that? Krawler. Krispy Kreme. What’s the matter with them?) Super chunky Dana 60 axles help deliver the power from the juicy 6.4-litre 392 V8, all 475bhp of it, to those monster wheels. Amazingly the centre of gravity stays reasonably low, but ground clearance, ramp breakover, and approach and departure angles all massively increase. With a red-glow interior, see-through bonnet dome so you can admire the engine, and lots of black leather this is a devilishly fine-looking concept.
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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GLADIATOR RUBICON HIGH TOP The title may be a bit of a mouthful but this is the one we’d choose to actually go serious off-roading at Moab. It’s also the one that has received most of the attention from the Jeep Performance Parts team. The aim has been to load it up with kit that aids performance, whether that is torque from the engine or extra ground clearance or even protection from that ground – Moab is all rock. The huge 40” BFG All-Terrains sit on 18” KMC Grenade Crawl rims for extra clearance. (So kudos for being able to spell ‘Crawl’ but is naming your tyre a grenade really the best marketing tactic? That’s just the sort of thing that’s going to blow up on social media.) You can’t help but notice the JPP flat fender flares for those wheels to move around, while underneath the Rock Slide Engineering rails keep the bodywork away from the red rocks. Up front the Warn winch gets its own protective hoop, sitting above the modified front bumper. Clearly, this is a rig designed for crossing hard rock, not deep mud, and that 3.6-litre V6 is going to add the torque you want for exactly that. This concept is perfect for Moab and we are very taken with the two-tone Ginger Snap metallic paintwork with retro graphics. Practicality and snappy looks – all in.
VACATIONEER In the UK we get about 28 statutory paid days off a year. Did you know that workers in the USA are not legally entitled to a single day’s paid holiday? In reality most get about 10. So naming this the vehicle for your vacation is perhaps a bit ironic. But that means that holiday time is even more precious and at least in this Jeep you’re not wasting days queueing to get through airport security for your delayed or cancelled flight while the children noisily explode. Instead the holiday starts as soon as you leave home, with the Hurricane Twin Turbo 3.0-litre engine delivering up to
510bhp in a relaxed manner and also in a relatively abstemious manner. You can go where you want, whether that’s on the highway or on the byway, with the 35in BFG tyres and 18in wheels giving a small lift for off-road progress. And when you get where you want to be there’s no hustling for the last hotel room or the lost room reservation, there’s a Skyloft that quickly goes up for sleeping for two people. Obviously the kids can sleep outside where they can learn about the nocturnal habits of wildcats, bears and rattlesnakes – an educational trip.
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B
ack in the depths of last winter, we featured a Land Rover Defender 130 that had been turned into a boutique-style leisure vehicle by RIG Automotive. Now, with summer on the way, we thought we’d allow ourselves a look at one of the company’s other vehicles – not least because it highlights a peculiar fact in the Defender market. Values for everyday Land Rovers have dropped dramatically since 99% of us became so much poorer – but the top end, where rich people are even richer, is still as strong as ever. These are vehicles admired by everyone who sees them but bought by no more than a tiny fraction. Not just because of what it costs to build one, and therefore to buy it, but because they’re created for
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people with individual minds. It’s a bit like owning a world-class hot rod – anyone with the money can go and spend it on an Aston or Ferrari, but it takes imagination, knowledge and taste to commission a show-stopping custom. In its own way, that’s what this 130 is. The RIG in RIG Automotive is Richard Gill, who’s based in Newark and is one of those people who does all sorts or cars but always well. He knows his way around a classic Porsche 911 as well as anyone and has also previously done a restified ’87 Fiat Panda 4x4 and an absolutely show-stopping Mini Cooper S. It’s not so much a hard-nosed business (he’s already been successful in other, unrelated fields) as a passion that pays – and that passion,
as well as an almost limitless imagination, is there to be seen in everything the company creates. And ‘creates’ is the word. Not ‘builds,’ not ‘restores’ – obviously these acts are going on, but what makes these Land Rovers stand out is the extent to which they differ from other high-end examples of the breed. From the outside, at first glance what you’re looking at here is an ambulancebodied 130 with nice paint. But the deeper you delve, the more you discover. First off, it’s on 270x70R18 Cooper Discoverer STT Pros and these ride on gloss black alloys. That’s definitely not standard, and neither are the DRL bumper, Adventure grille, satin black steering guard and gloss black bonnet, arches and light surround.
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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The last Land Rover we featured from RIG Automotive was, among other things, a self-propelled garage for an electric motorbike. This one is a little more traditional in that it’s built to hold a pair of MTBs – though in every way it’s a boutique build of the highest order Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Vic Peel
Air-conditioned cabin is appointed with XS leather seats, Exmoor carpets, a Momo steering wheel, aluminium door handles and a gloss black centre console housing a Pioneer DAB radio system running Bluetooth, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay though a 6.2” touch screen
TIP-TOP POP-TOP Beautifully applied
All these things help add to the air of sophistication, as does a beautifully applied coat of Land Rover’s own Havana Brown. But you’re unlikely to notice any of them, at least to start with, if the pop-top roof has been deployed and the vehicle is in full camping mode. As campers go, the Land Rover is both practical and very, very classy. It’ll sleep four of you if required, with a fold-down double bed and wood-lined roof bed structure, then a slide-out kitchen area gives you not one but two gas hobs, an electric fridge and a full hot water system. The latter also supplies a high-pressure shower, with a separate leisure battery and full monitoring for the water and electrical systems alike.
All very good and exactly as you’d expect in a top-end camper, but that really is just the beginning. There’s a wall mount for an iPad, which might give you an idea of how contemporary this conversion is, and a Nebula Projector and screen for when you want to turn your Land Rover into a self-contained cinema. This is backed up by an Audio Pro Bluetooth speaker, and there’s a pair of Bowers and Wilkins wireless headphones hanging on one of the walls – alongside one of the various pot plants which add a distinctly homely edge to proceedings. Something else you’re apt to have spotted is a slide-out bike rack. This is big enough to house two adult bikes, though here it’s carrying just the one.
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The console to the left of the camper area is incredibly clever and flexible in its design. It’s a double bed in this configuration…
Right: …while here, it’s folded up into a sofa. The bike slide runs underneath it, with storage space below that – this really is a masterful work of packaging Not just any old one, though, but a Whyte 146 – the product of a company founded 20-something years ago on the back of the now legendary PRST-1. Designed by MTB guru Jon Whyte, this was a bike that rewrote the rules and gained a cult following among riders who dared to be different. Does that sound familiar? Up top, a solar panel is linked in to the electrical system by an MPPT controller, allowing the most efficient possible interface between it and the leisure battery. There’s an external hook up too, of course, as well as staple camping necessities like fold-down tables, window blinds and a hybrid washing line and shower rail. Neither has RIG ignored the behind-thescenes basics while speccing the 130. Poke around long enough and you’ll find an onboard compressor, tool chest and safe, and there’s a diesel-burning space heater to keep the cabin warm. Up front, it’s a bit like the premium street Landies so many companies have been building over the last decade. You get XS leather seats, Exmoor carpets, a Momo steering wheel, aluminium door handles and a gloss black centre console housing a Pioneer DAB radio system running Bluetooth, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay though a 6.2” touch screen. Further leather is appended to the dashboard and cubby box, with contrast stitching adding to the feeling of class. Naturally, the cabin is air-
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www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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“It’s not so much a hardnosed business as a passion that pays – and that passion, as well as an almost limitless imagination, is there to be seen in everything the company creates” conditioned… well, maybe it’s not natural, with this being a Defender, but it is.
Not quite standard
Talking of this being a Defender, it’s a 2010 model with the 2.4 TDCi Puma engine bolted to the back of the standard six-speed Getrag manual gearbox. The engine itself isn’t standard, though, at least not entirely, because it’s been treated to a Stage 1 tuning upgrade to help it shift all that weight. An Air Lift helper air bag kit assists the rear springs when it comes to keeping said weight supported, too. With so much tech already on board, not to mention the small matter of a back body large enough for four people to live in, it won’t surprise you that Richard specced a reversing camera. He replaced all the standard lights with LEDs, too, both inside and out, and added four LED floods to the exterior. Safe to say you’re unlikely to be missed in this thing. Some people will look at a Defender like this and say it’s over the top. Others will instinctively get what it’s all about. The point is, of course, that you might not need a slide-out bike rack or a couple of pot plants in your overland vehicle, and a TV projector and screen may represent everything you want to get away from when you climb aboard for a weekend’s off-grid camping – but the level of quality in the spec and fittings is there to show you that whatever
you do want, this is a company that’ll do it as well as a thing can be done. Richard tells us that he’s had plenty of interest at the shows he’s done so far, and that the overwhelming response has been of admiration. The signature quirks like that mountain bike have gone down well, too. Naturally, you needn’t these trucks to be cheap. But they’re based on good,
low-mileage 130s from a source that looked after its fleet, and the workmanship, materials and equipment in the conversions is top-class. Whether you see it as a camper with a difference or a self-propelled exec pad, this Land Rover is an eye-catcher like few others – and a promising sign of things to come from one of the most imaginative builders around
These are typical of the sights you’ll see when you open the rear doors of a 130 ambulance and climb aboard. At least, they are if the 130 ambulance in question is this actual one May 2024 I Overlander 4x4
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TRAVEL
JEWEL OF THE EAST On the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Oman is a nation you can’t currently drive to in your own 4x4. But by hiring one locally, you can travel there all set for a mini expedition full of dramatic landscapes and endless surprises Words: Jurij Modic Pictures: Jurij and Mateja Modic
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Cairns at the edge on the Rim Walk around the canyon. The path is not too tough, but it’s a long way down if you go for an unscheduled tour
This sign may appear to be warning you of chocolate croissants on a stick. In fact, that’s a sand dune encroaching on to the highway – and in a country with lots of sand dunes and no small amount of strong winds, this is a much bigger risk than you might think. You also might think that a tongue of soft sand would be a bit of a laugh to plough into at speed, but the editor assures us that it’s more like hitting concrete (and insists that no-one asks him how he knows…)
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Tentur as por alitate vellumqui consed quo earchicia corem reperi natiatio etur aut et et
“The Rim Walk is not too strenuous and offers breathtaking views – but you definitely don’t need to suffer from vertigo!”
F
or ten years, we had been spending all our vacations in Africa. After discovering the joys of hiring a car and going travelling, we kept doing just that – moving from everyday cars to well equipped 4x4s so we could do it right. But after a whole decade of this, we decided on a change. No, not a posh hotel with full-board catering and a pool. We were still going to travel independently, but we were going to go beyond Africa. Oman is not in Africa. It was until about 25 million years ago, when the Red Sea Rift was pulled open by unseen forces beneath the Earth’s crust, but now it’s tucked into the eastern corner of the Arabian peninsula. An exotic but relatively safe destination in what is a very troubled part of our world, in the years before covid it was growing quickly in popularity among both high-end tourists and budgetconscious travellers like us. Oman is not a small country, so we decided to concentrate our two weeks of travels into three main geographical areas. These were the central coast, between the town of Barka on the Sea of Oman and Masirah Island in the Arabian Gulf; the
52
Al Hajar Mountains, a wild range of high altitude plateaus and peaks interspersed with many important and picturesque towns and forts from Oman’s turbulent history. And in the rain shadow south-west of this mountain range, there lies a vast area of another kind of sea – a sand one. And the third epicentre of our interest in Oman was the capital of the country, the city of Muscat. From a few small scattered ports and settlements along the coast of Gulf of Oman in the past, it has grown in the recent centuries into a bustling, picturesque metropolis, stretching along about 40 kilometres of shoreline. Oman is a very camping-friendly country. Probably due to their nomadic way of life in the past, camping is a totally understandable way of traveling for Omanis, even by tourists. You can pitch your tent anywhere you want – on the beach, on some remote mountain pass, in the middle of the desert, even in a park in the city – and no-one will blink. So all we needed was a tent. Well, and a vehicle. A couple of companies in Muscat specialise in renting 4x4s and a complete
range of camping equipment, one of them being Nomad Tours. When we contacted them, all their fully equipped 4x4s were already booked, but we were at least able to hire a complete camping set from them. Nomad Tours offer both roof tents and normal ground tents. We opted for the latter, for two reasons – one, the winds in Arabia are often very strong and two, there’s not much in the way of dangerous wildlife. The company also helped us find an independent car rental company which offered us a decent 4x4 for a very competitive price. It was a Nissan Xterra with automatic transmission. Not a vehicle I would ever be likely to choose, however it turned out to be excellent for this trip. It was a bit heavy on fuel (16-17mpg on average) but otherwise very strong, comfortable and reliable. Our plan was to explore Oman’s coast then turn inland to the deserts and mountains of the interior. We started touristy, visiting the Bimmah Sinkhole (a collapsed cave containing a natural swimming pool of crystal clear turquoise water) and Wadi Shab, a deep, narrow gorge cut into a steep mountainside by
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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Velles volupta del ma volut eum quia dolupta pos et, tectas aut acimus remperi. Sed ut rest, voluptatem que min busant assenti orest
Oman’s highest peak, Jabal Shams towers some 3000 metres above sea level. You can drive about two-thirds of the way up, to a plateau from which breathtaking views open up into what’s known as the Grand Canyon of Oman
May 2024 I Overlander 4x4
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“You can’t avoid the feeling that you’re completely alone in an environment that’s beautiful yet ferociously hostile. It’s proper Lawrence of Arabia stuff”
Wahibah is like something out of Lawrence of Arabia… albeit with added 4x4s. As is the case in so much of Arabia, where the road stops is where the fun starts
At Ras Al Jinz, on the eastern tip of the Arabian peninsula, there’s a nature reserve for green turtles. Wild camping is part of Omani culture, so no-one batted an eyelid at the sight of three vehicles pitched up on an idyllic sandy bay nearby – not even the turtles which crawled ashore while the authors were there and laid their eggs deep in the sand repeated flash floods with lush oases of vegetation around many permanent pools where the water never evaporates. Following our first taste of Omani cuisine in the nearby village of Tiwi, we drove on to a nearby beach and pitched our tent – simple as that. We were dead tired and the ocean waves soon lulled us to sleep.
You can be sure of shell
The big attraction on the easternmost tip of the Arabian peninsula is sea turtles, which come ashore in great numbers to lay eggs. At Ras Al Jinz there is an official
54
nature resort, where these captivating creatures can be observed in a nonobtrusive manner. Green turtles come ashore in their thousands during the mid-summer high season. We were visiting in winter, which certainly was not optimal, but we were hoping for the best. We found a camping spot in a beautiful sandy bay not far from the reserve. Trails in the sand showed that turtles had been coming in recently, so we were hopeful – and sure enough, early in the night we spotted two of them, slowly crawling across the sandy beach and digging deep
holes for their eggs. It was very exciting – similar to finding the most elusive creatures on an African safari! After a couple of days on Masirah, a large island with beautiful beaches which somehow manages to avoid becoming hopelessly overcrowded with tourists, we headed inland for the desert. Our first stop was Wadi Bani Khalid, a lush and spectacular oasis which definitely does get overcrowded with tourists, then from there it was on to Wahibah – a vast sea of fine sand, of all shades of golden colours, which stretches for hundreds of miles in all directions.
www.overlander4x4.co.uk
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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
2
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
2
1
7
3
5
Kingswood Caravans
6 4
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EXETER 16 Trusham Rd. EX2 8QG 01392 256 744 GATESHEAD 50 Lobley Hill Rd. NE8 4YJ 0191 493 2520 GLASGOW 280 Gt Western Rd. G4 9EJ 0141 332 9231 GLOUCESTER 221A Barton St. GL1 4HY 01452 417 948 GRIMSBY ELLIS WAY, DN32 9BD 01472 354435 HULL 8-10 Holderness Rd. HU9 1EG 01482 223161 ILFORD 746-748 Eastern Ave. IG2 7HU 0208 518 4286 IPSWICH Unit 1 Ipswich Trade Centre, Commercial Road 01473 221253 LEEDS 227-229 Kirkstall Rd. LS4 2AS 0113 231 0400 LEICESTER 69 Melton Rd. LE4 6PN 0116 261 0688 LINCOLN Unit 5. The Pelham Centre. LN5 8HG 01522 543 036 LIVERPOOL 80-88 London Rd. L3 5NF 0151 709 4484 LONDON CATFORD 289/291 Southend Lane SE6 3RS 0208 695 5684 LONDON 6 Kendal Parade, Edmonton N18 020 8803 0861 LONDON 503-507 Lea Bridge Rd. Leyton, E10 020 8558 8284 LUTON Unit 1, 326 Dunstable Rd, Luton LU4 8JS 01582 728 063 MAIDSTONE 57 Upper Stone St. ME15 6HE 01622 769 572 MANCHESTER ALTRINCHAM 71 Manchester Rd. Altrincham 0161 9412 666 MANCHESTER CENTRAL 209 Bury New Road M8 8DU 0161 241 1851 MANCHESTER OPENSHAW Unit 5, Tower Mill, Ashton Old Rd 0161 223 8376 MANSFIELD 169 Chesterfield Rd. South 01623 622160 MIDDLESBROUGH Mandale Triangle, Thornaby 01642 677881
NORWICH 282a Heigham St. NR2 4LZ 01603 766402 NORTHAMPTON Beckett Retail Park, St James’ Mill Rd 01604 267840 NOTTINGHAM 211 Lower Parliament St. 0115 956 1811 PETERBOROUGH 417 Lincoln Rd. Millfield 01733 311770 PLYMOUTH 58-64 Embankment Rd. PL4 9HY 01752 254050 POOLE 137-139 Bournemouth Rd. Parkstone 01202 717913 PORTSMOUTH 277-283 Copnor Rd. Copnor 023 9265 4777 PRESTON 53 Blackpool Rd. PR2 6BU 01772 703263 SHEFFIELD 453 London Rd. Heeley. S2 4HJ 0114 258 0831 SIDCUP 13 Blackfen Parade, Blackfen Rd 0208 3042069 SOUTHAMPTON 516-518 Portswood Rd. 023 8055 7788 SOUTHEND 1139-1141 London Rd. Leigh on Sea 01702 483 742 STOKE-ON-TRENT 382-396 Waterloo Rd. Hanley 01782 287321 SUNDERLAND 13-15 Ryhope Rd. Grangetown 0191 510 8773 SWANSEA 7 Samlet Rd. Llansamlet. SA7 9AG 01792 792969 SWINDON 21 Victoria Rd. SN1 3AW 01793 491717 TWICKENHAM 83-85 Heath Rd.TW1 4AW 020 8892 9117 WARRINGTON Unit 3, Hawley’s Trade Pk. 01925 630 937 WIGAN 2 Harrison Street, WN5 9AU 01942 323 785 WOLVERHAMPTON Parkfield Rd. Bilston 01902 494186 WORCESTER 48a Upper Tything. WR1 1JZ 01905 723451
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“If you like military relics, you’ll love Oman” Bedouin camps and settlements are scattered between the dunes but in general, you can’t avoid the feeling that you’re completely alone in an environment that’s beautiful yet ferociously hostile. It’s proper Lawrence of Arabia stuff. We camped under a lonely tree at the bottom of one of the dunes, with only the occasional visit from a goat or camel to remind us that we were not totally alone. The day temperature were quite pleasant and the wind not too strong, but when the sun went down it gradually became chillier, so we made a small, romantic fire which
kept us warm and added to the feeling of being truly in the wild. From here we headed into Al Jabal Al Akhdar, part of the Western Hajar mountains north-east of Nizwa. The name translates to ‘green mountain’, which is a bit misleading as the only greenery on its rocky slopes is on cultivated terraces near the few villages standing at around 2000 metres on the Sayq Plateau. It can be bitterly cold up here, but luckily for us the winter winds were in a forgiving mood. Even higher than the Sayq Plateau is Jabal Shams (‘the mountain of sun’),
Nizwa is one of Oman’s biggest and oldest cities. Stories of bustling souks are such a cliche in travellers’ tales from this part of the world, but the market here really is something out of the ordinary
whose highest peak reaches slightly over 3000 metres – making it the highest in Oman. This too has a plateau at about 2000 metres, which is where the normal road ends – and from where breathtaking vistas into a deep gorge, popularly known as the Grand Canyon of Oman, open up. This point is easily accessible by 4x4 – you could even do it in an everyday car, but you’d need to be either brave or careless… Not far from this beautiful outlook, in the tiny village of Al Khitaym, is the start of a famous Balcony Walk, sometimes also called the ‘Rim Walk. This is a narrow track
At the base of Jabal Shams, Al Hoota cave is the biggest of its kind in the country. You can get far enough in to see some amazing sights, but you’ll still only have explored a fraction of its depths May 2024 I Overlander 4x4
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that winds high above the Grand Canyon, using old donkey trails along steep rocky faces that plummet deep into the gorge below. It is not too strenuous and offers breathtaking views – but you definitely don’t need to suffer from vertigo! After the hike, we decided to skip a cold, windy night up there high on the rim and instead find ourselves a nice camping spot down in the valley, in a dry riverbed. We had another romantic evening by the fire and the next morning we awakened into a beautiful morning with glowing mountains high above us. After that, we visited the Al Hoota cave – a classic limestone cavern at the foot of Jabal Shams that’s some three and a half miles long. Only the first 500 metres are accessible to tourists, but given the chance you could keep going forever.
Idyllic perfection
Our next mission was to cross the Western Hajar range, via Wadi Bani Awf, on our way back to the coast. And this is where the Nissan really earned its keep, because the route from Al Hamra to the northern side of the main mountain ridge is one of the most demanding, scenic and rewarding 4x4 routes in the whole of Oman. With extremely narrow tracks, often cut right into vertical mountain walls, taking you through never-ending steep climbs, sharp turns and precipitous descents, it’s not for the faint-hearted. A sturdy 4x4 with reliable brakes is essential – as is an unflappable driver who knows what they’re doing. Somewhere in the middle of it all, you find yourself arriving in Bald Sayt. Considered by many to be the most picturesque mountain village in Oman, it’s perfectly idyllic; few places on Earth can have a more superb location. Shortly after Bald Sayt, we came to another must-do attraction on the (adventurous) tourist trail. Snake Canyon (or Wadi Bimah, to use its traditional name) is a very steep, narrow gorge that requires real canyoning skills to conquer. Well, that and a lot of courage. Even if it’s not for you, the exit point by the main road is a scenic viewpoint in itself. The track beyond here gets wider and the hills gentler. It still crosses a few streams, but the mountains gradually give way to a valley landscape as you continue towards the town of Ar Rustaq. You’re most likely to hear of this place in the context of the Ar Rustaq loop – a route
tying together a series of castles from throughout Oman’s turbulent past. If you like military relics, you’ll love Oman. Its people built no end of fortified towns and castles at strategic points along their caravan routes, from the interior to Muscat and other ports. Many of these are among the finest surviving examples of Arabic architecture. Jabrin is an elegant fortified palace from the 17th Century, surrounded by a grove of evergreen date palms; Bahla, surrounded by fortified city walls, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site thanks to its immense 12th Century fort; and the aforementioned Ar Rustaq, a former capital of Oman, is dominated by a splendid 7th Century fort whose walls are never thinner than three metres. A special mention must be made of Nizwa, too. Located strategically in the foot of Western Hajar Mountains, in the crossroads of many trade routes from inland to the coast, it served as a spiritual, economic and administrative capital of Oman for many centuries. Its main attraction – indeed, Oman’s most visited national monument – is a magnificent fort from the 17th Century. As well as being one of Oman’s oldest cities, Nizwa is also one of its biggest. And another landmark not to be missed here is its splendid souk – where you can buy just about anything, all the while enjoying the buzzing atmosphere and exotic aromas of a typical Arabic marketplace. We finished our fortnight in Oman by returning the Xterra and spending a couple of days being tourists in the modern capital, Muscat. When I say modern, I really mean it – in sixty years, its population has climbed from around 5000 to almost a million. It’s a thriving global city, a splendid mixture of rich history and contemporary achievements which make it a tourist destination with a great deal to offer. And the same goes. for Oman as a whole. It might not be the first place that comes to mind for a 4x4 adventure – but ask anyone who’d been there and they’ll tell you otherwise. It’s a land with a magnificent history and a stunning landscape – and it’s perfect not just for exploring in a 4x4 but for seeing through the flap of a tent. Whether your route round the world takes you this way or you fancy doing it the same as us and renting, Oman is very, very well worth visiting.
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Our 4x4s INFO
VEHICLE: Isuzu D-Max GO2 YEAR: 2018 RUN BY: Alan Kidd LAST UPDATE: April 2024 FLEET DEBUT: January 2020
THREE YEARS LATER T hree years have passed since the stage in our Isuzu D-Max GO2 build series when we discussed our choice of tyres. Time then for a recap – not just on the tyres themselves but on the size we went for, which dictated so much else about the build. We fitted 285/75R16 General Grabber X3s on Mamba rims. That’s 32.8” tall and 11.2” wide, with an 8.4” sidewall, as opposed to the 30” tall, 10” wide and 6” up the wall for the original-fit 255/60R18s. Bigger in every direction, then, and heavier thanks to all that extra compressed air. We’ll not go through the whole story again, but getting the tyres to fit took quite a bit of work. There’s a 2-3” Pedders suspension kit under there, without which the job would be a non-starter, but we also needed to flare the wheelarches using an arch roller and trim back the inner arches and liner mounts to prevent them from fouling. We also had to trim off a redundant body mount, used only for panels fitted in other territories, to keep it from interfering with the front wheels. A lot of driving has gone under the bridge since then. We’ve used the D-Max
for loads of off-road and on-road work, we’ve ploughed it regularly through the local ford on the way to school and we’ve been impressed by how little has gone wrong. Interestingly, both anti-roll bars have worked loose – the rear almost immediately, leading to lots of clunking, and the front after several months but leading to one of its leading ends mashing itself into the driveshaft, which took more than just a couple of lock nuts to make right. Little else has gone wrong in this department. An upper wishbone bush started to break up and changing it involved a certain amount of swearing, but that apart it’s been like a Swiss watch. Quite a loud Swiss watch, but unlike so many other modified vehicles we’ve had it has remained very reliable. Those tyres have proved their worth, too. We said three years ago that having a set of X3s on our D-Max would allow us to see what they’re like as a day-to-day all-rounder – and in terms of grip on the road, we might as well be running factory rubber. Even in torrential rain, when we’re driving on about half an inch of surface water, we’ve never seen a flutter from them.
This included with three tonnes of trailer on the back. We’ve even tried provoking the rear end (again while being loudly encouraged to misbehave on the school run) by switching off the ESP and booting it round a roundabout, and while it did slide a little it was a long way short of the lairy madness we remember from the good ole’ days when pick-up trucks gripped like a new born foal on ice. The Grabbers are extremely competent on mud, wet grass, ruts, rocks and, no small thing, gravel. The latter accounts for a higher proportion of the ‘off-road’ work any of us do than we’d care to imagine, and the D-Max is extremely stable even when travelling quickly on loose, uneven gravel surfaces. The Grabber X3 is a mud-terrain, to use the generic term, but it’s also a superb all-rounder. And, as we’ve already mentioned, it’s remarkably sure-footed on the road. It’s not as quiet as a standard tyre, but it’s much larger and much hairier so go figure. And, more to the point, it’s wearing well. We’ve done something like 15,000 miles in the nearly four years since the GO2 came to live here, and while the edges have
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Appearing in these pictures, our Isuzu D-Max GO2 is insured by Adrian Flux Insurance Services, which specialises in modified 4x4s. We’ve used the company many times over the years for our project trucks and they have always provided an ideal balance between quality cover (which includes off-road and green lane options) and affordable prices. You can get a quote by visiting www.adrianflux.co.uk.
been well and truly knocked off now they’re still very much at their peak, not yet getting on a bit. They’re wearing slowly and evenly and, aside from the screw through the tread that turned out to be behind the slow puncture we mentioned last time out, their robust construction continues to do a fine job of keeping them intact. In other words, they’re as good as ever. Really, the D-Max isn’t like the other modded trucks we’ve had on the fleet. That’s what comes of starting with a brand new one, of course, rather than one that’s already had a life, far less one that’s already had a life, and a crash, and was a Discovery 2 in the first place. What a fond memory that is. Just yesterday, the editor was on his way home from a day out with his kids and he happened past one end of a green lane he happens to know. So rather than passing it, he spun the wheel hard to port and boom, instant family adventure. Cue muddy puddles, scratchy undergrowth, a grumpy farmer who didn’t wave back and one editor absolutely in his element. His kids didn’t look up from their iPods, but you can lead a horse to water…
The redundant edge sticking out of the body mount outrigger on the chassis was interfering with the front tyre when it was cycled. Thankfully, the waste metal could be trimmed away to clear, after which it was sealed nicely back up so as not to leave the mother of all mud traps
Part of the arch liner needed to be trimmed to allow clearance too. The arches themselves were flared using some heat followed by an arch roller. The General Grabbers are mudterrains, but it’s crucially important for any real-world tyre to be just as at home on faster, looser terrain
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NEXT MONTH
JUNGLE JEEPING
A savage off-road trail through the depths of the jungle in Brazil Pic: Offroad, by Rafael Vianna Croffi @ flickr.com, CC By-2.0 DEED
PLUS 2024 Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee driven
Inside the new Mercedes G-Wagen
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GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT!
THE NEW-LOOK ISUZU D-MAX Take your pick from our multi-award-winning Isuzu D-Max range, in stock and ready to buy. Don’t put it off—pick one up today! Because when they’re gone, they’re gone.
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DRIVEN TO DO
All fuel consumption and emission values are based on the new WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) test cycle which uses real-world driving data. Official fuel economy for the standard Isuzu D-Max range in MPG (l/100km): Low 25.1–27.6 (10.2–11.2). Mid 31.4–36.4 (7.8–9.0). High 36.0–39.4 (7.2–7.8). Extra-High 29.0–30.8 (9.2–9.7). Combined 30.7–33.6 (8.4–9.2). CO2 emissions 220–241 g/km. Visit Isuzu.co.uk or contact your local Isuzu dealership for more information
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