Memories are made of this An idle scroll through the family WhatsApp car chat reminds Tim Gibson of the role of history in appreciating your Landy

ABOUT 23 YEARS AGO, I WENT UP TO GAYDON FOR AN INTERVIEW

’ T going for the whole journey home. So we all know who the real winner was, don’t we?

PROGRAMME.

It was a gruelling two-day experience, during which we did everything from personality tests to role-play dealer conversations, with a bit of complex problem-solving thrown in for good measure.

Full disclosure. I didn’t get the gig. Never really thought I would, to be honest. But I knew we’d get a factory tour and maybe even see some mules. So it felt worth a couple of days of eating buffets and trying to maintain polite conversation. Plus, I filled my pockets with gummy sweets on my way out of the conference centre, which kept me

One of the not-so-polite conversations I had was over dinner on the first night, when everyone was trying their best to impress. I’d already blotted by copybook by recounting a story of my dog defecating in the boot of my car, so guess I didn’t have much to lose.

Which is why, when an exec from the marketing department started slagging off the slew of Land Rover enthusiast mags that were at that time available on the market, I leapt to their defence.

To be fair, I was freelancing for a good number of them by then, so wasn’t exactly unbiased. But even so, to hear a senior bod at Land Rover taking the mickey out of the very commu- nity that had helped build the brand felt rather galling. ‘Lose the Landy mags,’ I intoned over the cr me br l e and shortbread dessert (with a chocolate tuille, natch), ‘and you lose your brand.’ Fast forward even a decade from that conversation and it’s clear how wrong I was. Land Rover’s brand had already evolved, and they were leaving us enthusiasts behind. While we wallowed in muddy ruts, Land Rover became the UK’s most prominent prestige car maker: the go-to for filmmakers who wanted to convey a character’s wealth and sophistication.

Meanwhile, off-roaders were associated with those figures of fun from The Fast Show, Simon and Lindsey, who spent their days in army surplus gear and spoke in faux macho tones about their knobbly tyres and winch manoeuvres.

The truth is of course somewhere between these two stereotypes. We all know plenty of Land Rover enthusiasts with a love of camo jackets and hairy-arsed playdays. And I know many diehard fans who spend big money on Range Rovers and Disco 5s they never intend to use in the rough stuff.

It’s a broad church is what I’m saying. Everyone’s welcome.

But we are at a crunch point. As I write, the last ever issue of Land o e ne n e na iona is hitting the market. Odd to reference a competitor in these pages, but this is a significant moment for our whole community. LRO was for many years the benchmark of Landy mags, the one we all wanted to write for. The one most people chose to read. The fact its publisher has pulled the plug is an insight into the present and future state of Land Rover enthusiasm in the UK.

So it’s time to rally. Let’s support those independent Land Rover businesses that help us modify, maintain and source our vehicles. Let’s sign up to subscriptions to the two remaining Land Rover magazines (this is one of them, by the way). Let’s turn out at the shows and organise the playdays or laning events that bring new people into our pastime.

If we don’t, we may end up finding that we don’t have an enthusiast community left to speak of. And even worse than knowing the suits at Land Rover were right all along will be the knowledge we could have saved it. The future is in our hands.

Be kind to other people’s taste in cars

Those of us who are into cars, or trucks, or anything with an engine, are well used to being totally misunderstood by people who aren’t. Misunderstood and, all too often, judged and condemned.

You know how it goes. When I parked my nearly-new 90 outside my parents’ house one day about 25 years ago, one of their neighbours came to her door and literally harangued me for bringing down the neighbourhood with such an ugly vehicle. Maybe that’s an extreme case, but it’s a perfect example of the way people think they have the right to judge you for what you drive.

Obviously, we’re all used to being condemned as planet-killers by people who think they’re some sort of eco Jesus because they drive a little car that was built to fall apart after seven years. And if you happen to own a reasonably recent Range Rover, you’ll know all the jokes off by heart.

It’s the same whatever kind of cars you’re into. People like judging others for all sorts of reasons, but what you drive seems to provoke it more than anything else.

So, when we’re the victims, why on earth do some of us still feel like we’ve got the right to judge other people for the cars they drive? I’m thinking in particular of what has become the modern-day old chestnut about converting classic cars into EVs.

Some of you will be bristling at the very mention of such a thing. But that didn’t ever help make a new technology real – even if it’s one you don’t much like the sound of.

The people who are moving the EV game on, and those who are buying their products, are pioneers. It might be in a field you wish didn’t exist, and they might be doing things you don’t like to vehicles you love. But ultimately, they’re the ones with a vision.

The Wilks brothers had a vision too, back in the 1940s. I suspect some Rover purists hated that one, too. So, even if EVs, or drift cars, or hot rods or whatever aren’t to your personal taste, don’t ever forget that while you’re judging them, someone’s judging you.

Alan Kidd, Group Editor alan.kidd@assignment-media.co.uk

Cynghordy Llandovery

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

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