Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Land Rover Monthly

LAND ROVER has teamed up with luxury travel partner Abercrombie & Kent to offer the most luxurious road trip on Earth. With prices starting at £100,000 per head, Land Rover will take well-heeled customers across the globe via the range-topping Range Rover SV Autobiography. Visiting five continents, eight countries and sampling the world’s best hotels, Land Rover has planned the ultimate road trip, which despite its five-star nature, promises to visit locations made accessible thanks to Land Rover. Complete with additional styling quirks, interior modifications, and the most powerful engine ever offered in a Range Rover, the SVAutobiography is exclusively crafted at Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations in Coventry. Mark Cameron, Land Rover Experiential Marketing Director, said: “We set out to design a trip worthy of the ultimate luxury…

TAKING THE CENTRE STAGE I ALWAYS enjoy Philip Bashall’s monthly Dunsfold Diary, especially this month (March), which was about the centre-steer prototype. The Wilks family took the decision to “write out” the history of this vehicle and its associated prototypes. The story of the drawing in the sand first surfaced in the early 1960s and I think this explanation of the Land Rover creation came from Barbara Wilks. Obviously Nick and Stephen Wilks are both still around and we would have to get their agreement to [tell the true story] of the very early moments of the centre-steer vehicle. I think the earliest history is far more interesting and it doesn’t [detract from] the Wilks family involvement in the project. I find it difficult to believe that Roger Crathorne does…

It is always annoying to think you have fixed a problem only to have it come back with what seems to be the same issue again. A few months ago I had a really lovely, mostly original, 1965 Series IIA 88-inch hard top come in with a clutch that was refusing to disengage fully. The clutch operating system on these vehicles is (in my opinion anyway) a bit of a lash-up by Solihull, intended to allow the Series I gearbox to be carried over unchanged for the launch of the Series II in 1958. The SI had a purely mechanical clutch, with a cross shaft running from the bellhousing through a bearing in the main chassis rail, and a pedal attached to the outer end. Simple but effective. For the…

IT WAS a sight I never imagined I would see: the Defender production line standing empty, without a single vehicle on it. For me, this was the most poignant moment of the day that the last 90 came off the line, January 29, 2016. My first visit to the assembly shop was in 1968, on a factory tour with my father. We were shown around by Tom Barton and I saw military Land Rovers being built up. Oddly enough, I rarely visited the shop over the years; it always seemed a rather secretive and taboo place, although Dunsfold became more involved when the 90 and 110 were launched in 1983-84. Nevertheless, not to see the Land Rover as we know it being built at Solihull will feel very odd. I…

“Ben is writing a new book dedicated to the Defender" Ben Fogle is a man that needs little introduction. Whether you know him best for his writing or broadcasting, he is one of our nation's most loved modern adventurers. And if you were to pick a person that perfectly encapsulates the philosophy of Defender it would probably be him. Land Rover’s most infamous model is a British icon; it’s rugged, it has a tough, go-anywhere attitude and yet despite enjoying success over the years has remained largely unchanged. Can you see the likeness? It’s rather apt then, that Ben is writing a new book dedicated to the Defender, which will be published in the UK on October 6 by William Collins. And it’s for this reason I find myself on…

In November 1974, four 101 One-Tonne Forward Control Land Rovers rolled off the Solihull production line. They were the only 101s built that year and were the first to be assembled on this dedicated new production line, albeit a year before production began in earnest. They are therefore generally considered to be pre-production vehicles. All four were destined to star in a unique and groundbreaking adventure the following year – the Joint Services West East Sahara Expedition – which was the first to cross the Sahara from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea through the Mauretania-Mali Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter presented a very real challenge: a trackless journey of some 1600 km (994 miles) without any means of re-supply. The four built in 1974 were chassis numbers 21…

Living in the high mountain desert of Central Mexico, we yearn for water. That’s when we take La Poderosa, our rugged 1995 NAS Defender 90 out adventuring in parts unknown. We need a break from the dry, dusty plains plus it’s always nice to get our feet wet. La Poderosa does a great job of getting us into remote areas. Today she's taking us somewhere we’ve never been – into the hot, wet heart of the Mexican jungles of the Huasteca Region. A low lying sub-tropical rainforest, the Huasteca region spans several Mexican states including Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, and Guanajuato. The Rover V8 and our mud terrain tyres hum on the road as we drop from 3000 metres in altitude to 1500. Our ears pop…

EDITOR DAVE PHILLIPS DISCOVERY 1 YEAR: 1996 MILEAGE: 150,000 ENGINE: 300Tdi POWER: 111 bhp TORQUE 195 lb-ft MPG: 25 NINETY YEAR: 1984 MILEAGE: 163,000 ENGINE: 2.5 diesel POWER: 68 bhp TORQUE 113 lb-ft MPG: 30 It happened very suddenly, on what is probably Britain’s bumpiest road – the B1040 between Pondersbridge and Whittlesey in the Cambridgeshire Fens. It seems bizarre that a road across the flattest, billiard-table-level part of the kingdom could be so bumpy, but that’s due to the underlying terrain. The soil in these parts is a mixture of peat and clay: peat shrinks as it dries out, but clay doesn’t. This results in a very unstable surface upon which to build a road. But I digress. Geology wasn’t foremost in my mind that fateful afternoon. One moment…

SAEN US SHOTS! feature your project in LRM? Email patrick@lrm.co.uk When did you purchase your 50th Anniversary Special Edition? I bought it in August 2015. This car was a leap-of-faith purchase – bought online from its owner who’d taken it to live in Spain. I responded to an advert on the www.carandclassic.co.uk website. What condition was it in? It was pretty tatty and had been neglected. The most important thing was that it was rust-free. It had only done 120,000 miles. How was the V8 engine running? It was a bit asthmatic. It overheated when coming over the Pyrenees; this was mainly because it hadn’t been on a long motorway run for many a year. The high temperatures didn’t help us either. This said, it completed the 1000-mile journey home…

JAGUAR LAND Rover has reported record January sales, however the marque suffered a fall in both profits and revenues. Global retail sales for the month of January were up year-on-year, with Europe enjoying a 65 per cent increase in sale figures. The Evoque and the new Discovery Sport were the biggest hits, with 9486 Sports and 9729 Evoques sold in January. The figures come on the back of the West Midlands-based firm’s best-ever year in 2015, with 487,065 new cars sold worldwide. Profits, however, are down, with JLR reporting a 2 per cent fall in revenue to £5.8 bn, while pre-tax profit slipped by 27 per cent to £499 m during the third quarter of the financial year. JLR have blamed the fall in profits on a change in business…

SEND US YOUR SHOTS Let us know what you’ve been up to – email patrick@lrm.co.uk…

“Old engines are huge lumps of iron with holes through the block (you can call them cylinders if you like)” You know how the phrase “tempting fate” could have been invented for us Land Rover owners? We just have to say “she’s running fine” and the rear axle falls off. Well the same, only worse, applies to Land Rover writers. Last month I mentioned that I can’t be bothered lying under Land Rovers these days, preferring to pay someone else to do the work for me. So, guess where I spent much of the month in between? Ha! Gotcha there. Not under a Land Rover. But, er... everywhere else, nearly. My mate Pat Webster has had a lot of problems with his Series I, some of which I have written…

“Money talks and that's the reason Defender production ended" People always remember where they were and what they were doing when truly shocking events unfold. For some it will be when they first heard about President Kennedy's assassination; for others Princess Diana’s tragic death in Paris, or when two planes slammed into New York’s iconic Twin Towers. For weeks afterwards, these events dominated the headlines. Most people found it hard to believe what they were seeing or hearing. 09.30 am on January 29, 2016, was another of those where-were-you-when… moments. This is the exact time when the last of the current Defenders – a 90 Heritage soft top – tries to roll off the production floor of the Solihull factory. Only some 700 or so current and former employees are…

This month marks my one year anniversary at Land Rover Monthly. Having been fortunate to work on a wide range of car magazines over the past 15 years or so I can honestly say that this title has been the most rewarding. Okay, so the Defender is not as glamorous as a Porsche 911, but as a brand Land Rover is classless – a rarity in itself – and more importantly it’s the owners which have made it all the more pleasurable. Never have I met so many inspirational people in such a short time. In fact, it’s almost a negative, so often is the feeling I get that I have achieved so little in life after interviewing someone. From Rewfus Brode, who at the age of just 32 has…

There are not many outdoor adventure companies who can boast that they operate out of one of the most spectacular estates in Ireland. Xtreme.ie are based on the grounds of Carton House – a large picturesque natural playground that covers 1100 acres, with a generous proportion of this land dedicated to some spectacular off-road tracks. I was meeting Oran Masterson, one of the company’s directors, before hitting the tracks. As I approached this historic building I immediately recognised the fleet of Xtreme.ie orange Defenders and Discoverys parked outside. Inside, Oran gave me an insight into Xtreme.ie: “We provide numerous indoor and outdoor activities that include team-building through themed games and challenges, by using zip lines, a myriad of state-of-the-art obstacle courses and, of course, the off-roading in the Defenders.” And…

MARCH 4 – 6 The Mac 4x4 Challenge www.mac4x4.co.uk MARCH 4 – 6 The Welsh Xtrem Challenge Events Red Valley Motorsport, Carmarthen www.thewelshxtrem.co.uk MARCH 5 4x4 in the Forest Forest drive, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire www.forestry.gov.uk MARCH 5 Rufforth Autojumble Rufforth, York www.rufforthautojumble.com MARCH 5 – 6 Buxton & District LRC Tyro Trail, Hartington Quarry, Ashbourne www.badlrc.co.uk MARCH 5 – 6 Onelife Adventure Yorkshire Explorer Greenlane Adventure, North Yorkshire www.onelifeadventure.co.uk MARCH 5 – 6 Restoration & Classic Car Show NEC Birmingham www.necrestorationshow.com MARCH 5 – 6 Luxembourg – Autojumble (Antique Cars Exhibition) Luxexpo, Kirchberg www.lof.lu MARCH 5 – 12 Morocco – Tuareg Rallye Rally Raid, Ouarzazte www.tuareg-rallye.com MARCH 6 Cornwall & Devon LRC CCV Trial www.cdlrc.com MARCH 6 Four Wheel Drive Club of Northern Ireland Trial, Magheramourne, Larne www.4wdni.co.uk MARCH 6…

FREELANDER WINDOW ON A TILT Q My 1999 Freelander 1.8 has developed a problem with the front passenger side window. Although it is fully wound up, it doesn’t fully and there is a gap at the rear edge at the top of the glass. It seems to have wound up fully at the front edge, but not at the rear. It now leaves a gap between the top of the glass and the top of the door frame. The lift motor still seems to work when I try to lower the window, but the only way I can get the window fully up is by pulling it up by hand while someone else works the window lift switch. I understand there are wires inside that pull the window up and…

TOUGH CHAIR PRICE: £42.50 ARB is famous for their air lockers so when they made a camping chair they decided to call it the Air Locker Camping Chair. This tough nylon chair can take weights of up to 120 kg. The chair has a drinks holder and also a side pocket for valuables. Then you can put your copy of LRM into the mesh magazine pocket. www.britpart.com LIMITED EDITION PRINT PRICE: £9.99 Own a limited edition print of the sketch on the cover of this issue of LRM. Each print is individually numbered. Includes postage. www.lrm.co.uk CANVAS DOOR CARDS PRICE: £88.80 There is not much storage space in Series Land Rovers, which is why you need this front canvas door card. The card has a large centre satchel pocket and…

“Reality check: Arthur Daley sells old cars. Land Rover builds and sells new ones” Is there life after Defender? You could be forgiven for thinking not, judging by some of the media coverage as the last one rolled off the production line at Solihull. It was the end of an era, we were told. The end of an icon. The end of a legend. I smiled mirthlessly when the BBC dutifully reported from an off-road session on a muddy hillside, where a collection of club stalwarts moaned about Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to pull the plug. As if they had any choice. Safety and emissions regulations imposed by politicians killed the Defender. It couldn’t continue in its present form and stay within the law. And the irony of that particular…

“The Italian Army has its Defenders stationed at almost every entrance point to the Vatican” Reaching the gates of the Vatican city, the centre of Western Catholicism for nearly 2000 years, I spot a pair of soft top military Defenders – one in khaki, the second in camouflage – and both flanked conspicuously by heavily-armed Italian soldiers. The Swiss Guard has long secured the technically-independent Vatican State – historic mercenaries who still wear yellow and blue stripy outfits dating back to the 15th century. But, since these jolly-looking fellows now appear to have the back-up of the Italian Army, perhaps they alone were deemed to be insufficient to protect the Pope from a looming threat from the Islamic State (IS). After the latest shocking IS attacks in Paris back in…

“If there's any job that needs doing, I use her, she is a working part of the family" Morning, are you here for the LAMMA Show?” said a voice from behind me in the dining room of the B&B where I'd just spent the night. I turned around, still half asleep – it was 5.45 am after all – and replied: “That’s the big agricultural show isn’t it? No, I’m not here for that, I work for Land Rover Monthly.” From the way his eyes lit up, I knew he was a Land Rover fan. “Oh, really? I used to know Richard, the original publisher of the magazine. I’m Will Gaze by the way,” he announces. “Tell her about the old lady,” chips in one of his colleagues. “Oh, yes,…

It is exactly two years since my first greenlaning trip to Shropshire. Back then the lanes impressed me, especially the technical ones. The time has come for me to go back for more. Once again I am using the guiding services of Stewart Pickering, the likeable Shropshire Tread Lightly representative. Despite the fact that he drives a Jeep, he is the kind of guy you want to have along on a laning trip. Stewart’s sense of humour and navigation skills ensure that you are always laughing while going in the right direction. His excited nine-year-old son Josh is joining us for the outing. Our day begins in the sleepy market town of Church Stretton, the only town in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Beauty, which lies at the foot…

Rathdrum is a small town in County Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland. It’s a beautiful part of the country and often referred to as the Garden of Ireland. The name Wicklow is derived from an old Viking name that means Vikings’ Meadow. This breathtaking environment attracts both young and old as they come to take part in a variety of outdoor activities – including off-roading, of course. Club Land Rover Ireland happens to be located in an area with the largest continuous upland in Ireland. This beautiful area is home to numerous forests that provide the perfect playground for testing you and your Land Rover’s capabilities. The club had kindly agreed to take me along with them to explore one of the many forests in the area. We…

The Tricked-up defender you see on this page was inspired by the 1990s video game character, Lara croft – an archaeologist-adventurer who travelled the world seeking lost treasure from secret and dangerous tombs and ruins. The franchise was so successful that in 2001 Lara made the switch to the big screen. Lara croft:Tomb raider starred Angelina Jolie in the title role, but for Land rover fans it was her choice of wheels that was the star of the show – a defender bristling with off-road ability. The film, and that vehicle, quickly became cult icons. Land rover wasn't slow to cotton on and cash in. The Special Vehicles department at Solihull took a standard defender double cab off the production line and gave it the Lara croft treatment, including a…