How it all began... A while back a friend asked me how I got into 4x4s, and curiously, despite my age, it wasn’t all that difficult to remember. It all started when I watched Lee Majors in the Fall Guy driving, mostly flying, his modified GMC pick up. Did you know that they moved the engine and gearbox back three feet, and did away with the front prop shaft to eliminate damage whilst performing the jumps? Ha, the useless information you pick up over the years. Anyway, as far as I can remember, that’s when my (un)healthy interest in 4x4s first began. After leaving school in ’83, my first job entailed catching a couple buses, and next to one of the bus stops was a wonderful newsagent that sold a lot of weird and wonderful magazines, and that’s when I bought my first American 4x4 magazine ‘Four Wheeler’.
The following year, in 1984, whilst wandering around W. H. Smiths during my lunch break, I came across the first issue of ‘Off Road & 4 Wheel Driver’ magazine edited by David Bowyer, Brian Hartley and Mike Hallett. Recognise those names? It had previously been known as ‘Over-Lander’ but had become so popular that Link House took it over, and from a bimonthly magazine it became a monthly. As a lanky 17 year old, it was in ‘Off Road & 4 Wheel Driver’ magazine that I noticed Land Rovers, in particular the military Lightweight. I was smitten, and despite being well out of my budget, they became my object of desire - along with Linda Lusardi!
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