Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Land Rover Monthly

The hugely popular Classic Land Rover Show is returning to the British Motor Museum once again for 2017. Make a note in your diary now for the weekend of 6-7 May, as plans are afoot to bring the very finest vehicles, owners and historians together as the show takes a look back at the history of Land Rover. With all vehicle crews – whether you’re unofficially or officially displaying with a club – invited to dress according to the year of their vehicle, this will be a year to remember. There will be prizes for the best turned out and judges will be looking for authenticity and attention to detail... both of owners and vehicles. Along with fabulous displays, live music, guest speakers and commentary provided by renowned compère Diana…

MY PLATE’S THE ULTIMATE I love your magazine and always read it from cover to cover. I’ve just finished reading the article on the best Land Rover models of all time in the January 2017 issue with great interest as I am lucky enough to own one of the vehicles on the list... and have just ordered a second. In the article Gary Pusey describes the Autobiography Defender 90 as having the ultimate registration. I think I might be able to beat that if the reaction that I get from the Land Rover dealers, people at the Billing Land Rover show and the average Land Rover enthusiast is anything to go by. I was one of the very lucky 400 people to secure and purchase a Heritage Limited Edition Defender.…

“The increasing availability of cheap old Nineties pretty much killed off the hybrid” I have always been fascinated by very early and very late examples of the various Land Rover models. Early production vehicles often had design features that turned out to be inadequate and were hastily redesigned, while the last few off the production line used up whatever bits were left over. I have seen a very late (“B” registration) Series III 88 inch factory-painted in Stratos Blue (a Ninety/One Ten colour) and fitted with Ninety/One Ten seats which also appeared to have been the originals (and which are subtly different from the Series III County seats). As for very early vehicles, they tend to illustrate that Solihull did not always get it right first time. Last month I…

“You could build a Jeep from scratch, though the DVLA wouldn’t like it” EVERYONE has heard the story about how Maurice Wilks, chief engineer at Rover just after WW2, used an army-surplus Jeep on his farm in North Wales, and how it was the inspiration for him and his brother Spencer to develop the Land Rover. Bits from another Jeep were used to construct the so-called Centre Steer, the forerunner of what would become the Land Rover. So it’s not surprising that magazines occasionally like to compare a WW2 Jeep with a Series I. Not just magazines, either: you may remember how the Chris Evans-fronted relaunch of BBC TV’s Top Gear had a sequence filmed in Blackpool where they pitched a Jeep against a Series I. Dunsfold was asked to…

It's not very often I stumble across a place that offers both top camping locations and scenic greenlaning, but located in the west of Ireland is one of the best-kept secrets and a place that we will definitely be returning to in the very near future. Over the last few years I have been exploring Ireland’s remote places in my Land Rover Defender and it never ceases to amaze me what this small island has to offer us greenlaners, campers and outdoor enthusiasts. A recent trip to Beara, Ireland's largest Peninsula, most certainly continued this trend. The rugged and wild Beara Peninsula is Ireland and Europe's most westerly point, with the nearest neighbours being New Yorkers. Our weekend adventure was simple – find some greenlanes, camp wild and meet up…

Kev Baldwin may be a name that’s familiar to you. He’s co-owner of MUD-UK, together with his father Stuart, a regular contributor to most of the UK’s 4x4 magazines, and has been competitively rallying and trialling Land Rovers for years. In fact, it was Kev’s Defender seat rails to accommodate his own 6 ft 5 in frame offering up to four inches of extra rearward travel that started the ball rolling for the off-road outfitter. Just 13 years later they have one of the best names in the industry for designing and manufacturing an exclusive range of innovative products for the Defender. And now, Kev has become the first UK driver to successfully complete the Trans-America Trail (TAT), not only that but he’s a pioneer in the mode of transport…

“This is its first experience at high altitudes but the Defender doesn't suffer from vertigo" Guidebooks, internet searches and other traveller reports are not completely truthful about Kyrgyzstan. It may be because Kyrgyzstan’s natural beauty can’t really be justly described in words or even truly represented in photographs. Everywhere you look is stunningly beautiful. After our smoothest border crossing yet from Kazakhstan, mountains that surround the bluest lake we have ever seen greeted us. The road winds its way through stunning valleys and over mountain passes and after a couple of hours we reached the highest point, at 3326 metres. As the altitude increased, the rain turned into sleet then to hailstones, and the outside temperature dropped from 28 degrees to 5 degrees within just a few hours – time…

This was the first CCV of the year for the Staffs & Shrops Land Rover Club and run very much as a fact-finding mission. Held at a venue new to them but well known to the members of the Wormhough 4x4 Club, who partnered with them for this event, the trial would be different for each club. S&S, a long established Land Rover club run traditional trials with 12 gates, while Wormhough 4x4 Club, a relatively new club, open to all 4x4s, run their trails events with only five gates. Bob Whetton and myself set the sections out. It was a mixture of the normal ALRC 12-gate systems of trial sections and the five-gate system used by the Wormhough 4x4 Club. The aim was to drive six sections of 12…

What to expect as the original Billing Land Rover Show moves to its new home at Kelmarsh Hall Live Promotions Events Ltd, the biggest organisers of Land Rover shows in the UK, has announced a new home for the Original Billing Land Rover Show, namely Kelmarsh Hall. Located just a few miles away from the Billing Aquadrome with fabulous access off the A14, the new venue offers a fantastic opportunity for growth. With the big show set for the long weekend of July 21, 22 and 23 July, increased space at Kelmarsh will allow for more dramatic arena displays and attractions, with additional room available for club displays, camping and trade stands. The move to Kelmarsh came after Billing’s owners decided they needed more static caravans, but it has been…

1. One of the first things that Craig Foster did in his new Defender 90 was to rescue a truck in distress. 2. Chris Large and his daughter Sophie enjoying an autumn morning at the edge of Eyebrook Reservoir, the practice site for the audacious Dambuster raids. 3. Trevor Jones loves his Wolf Defender so much that he takes it on all his metal detecting digs. 4. Dutchman Ko Wijnstok has spent the last three years rebuilding his Series III. We wonder if it will be ready by the summer. 5. Morni Nachos enjoying an outing on the muddy island of Borneo. 6. Sue Harper is normally relegated to gate opening and photography duty when laning with the lads. Maybe she should buy her own Land Rover and show them…

“Can I afford a second-hand one in ten years time? And how does it perform off road?" The Discovery has been a part of Land Rover’s family for over a quarter of a century and in that time they have sold an incredible 1.2 million of the much-loved, family-friendly vehicles. In March 2017 the Land Rover Discovery landscape will dramatically change with the UK launch of the fifth generation Discovery. I use the word ‘dramatically’ because if you put a Discovery 1 next to the all-new Discovery you will need a paternity test to prove that they are from the same Land Rover model lineage. The writing was already on the wall in 2014 when we first got a glimpse of what the future held for the popular Discovery…

While old Land Rovers are no stranger to the Scottish Highlands, and the majority started life being used on the land, a few were adapted for other purposes. One such example is Andy Bird's Series 1: a converted 107 that spent most of the 1960s and 1970s slogging around the backwaters of Europe. “I first got interested in Land Rovers back in the 1980s when I was still living in Staffordshire,” Andy recalled. “One year we had a particularly bad winter, and my Ford Escort got stuck in a snow drift on the M6 motorway. The rest of the traffic had also ground to a halt, and the only vehicles that seemed capable of moving anywhere were Land Rovers. I promised myself there and then, that I would buy one…

Iraq’s drive to oust the Islamic State (ISIS) from the city of Mosul - one of its last strongholds in the country - is looking to be long and tough as I write. In a battle being led mainly by armoured Humvees, tanks and a curious assortment of sand-coloured military vehicles, a matt-black armoured Defender cruises along the front-lines behind sand berms, just a few kilometres away from ISIS militants. The Defender flies the green and white flag of the Badr Brigade, one of the military units that form the country’s Hashid Sahaabi (Popular Mobilisation) forces, the dirt-spattered logo of which is stretched across the bonnet. This Iranian-backed force boasts some 140,000 fighters, mainly Shia Muslims, but with several units made up of Iraq’s minority faiths including Christians and Yazidis.…

TIM HAMMOND CONTRIBUTOR RR CLASSIC YEAR: 1997 MILEAGE: 220,000 MPG: 20 POWER: 185 bhp TORQUE 277 lb-ft I ventured out to the Malvern Autumn Show back in September, but left two days early so I could go to the Severn Valley Railway to see two of the most famous steam locomotives – the Flying Scotsman and Tornado – running together. Many of the landowners that bordered the railway lines had opened up their fields for parking, which usefully deterred people from blocking up the small country lanes, and I used a full tank of petrol chasing the locomotives in my 1992 Range Rover Classic… the joys of a V8! The following day, my mate, who I was staying with at the Three Counties Showground event, also wanted to see the…

HOT-WHEEL FREELANDER Q When I step out of my 1.8 Freelander 1, I can smell burning and it seems to be coming from a front wheel which, I noticed, was hot to the touch. Otherwise, the car seems to be running well. Is it the wheel bearings and, if so, should I replace both front wheel bearings at the same time? M Robertson A If the wheel bearing was defective there would be no need to replace the opposite side wheel bearing at the same time, though it would certainly be worth having the other side checked. However, your problem is with the brake on that particular wheel. After applying the brakes, the pads should release and back slightly from the disc. In your case, the pads on that…

One of only 25 Overfinch 630R Range Rovers has come up for sale. The custom-made P38, built in 2000, is fitted with a 6.3-litre, V8 GM Corvette engine and produced more than 400bhp, which was tamed with a bespoke air suspension set-up, tuned by Overfinch in Leeds. The car features tubular ceramic manifolds and four-pot brakes, and has a special cooling pack. As you’d expect, it is loaded with every conceivable extra, including oval fog lamps and dual stainless steel exhaust. The interior is in two-tone leather with embroidered F1 logos, with a customised burr walnut dashboard and tuned Harmon Kardon media kit with sub-woofer, including six-CD autochanger. The car belongs to Goochie Babbar – owner of a Cockfosters-based flooring company – who has owned it about two years and…

PRICE: £650 SPECTRE WHEEL ARCHES Inspired by the Bond-movie Spectre and JLR’s Special Vehicle Operations, these wheel arches will turn an ordinary Defender into a Bond Defender. Does not include the girl of course. They are identical in both size and shape to those used on the Defenders in the movie.www.britpart.com PRICE: £39.99 INSULATED BOTTLE The CamelBak Chute Insulated bottle will make sure you’ve always got a cold or hot drink at the ready. The vacuum-insulated steel Chute keeps things hot for up to 6 hours and cold for up to 24—even longer if you add ice. www.cotswoldoutdoor.com PRICE: £22 HAYNES MILITARY LAND ROVER MANUAL This 160-page paperback manual authored by Pat Ware is a must for all enthusiasts of British Military Land Rovers. The British military has been using…

“There isn’t really an easy answer, if you are looking at moving from diesel to petrol” I had an interesting conversation the other day with a customer looking for a good petrol engine to replace the diesel in his Series III, and it set me thinking. For the last 30 years or more, the story of Land Rover engine conversions has been about pulling out old petrol engines and fitting diesels for better fuel economy. Now diesels are in the newspapers almost every day, and for all the wrong reasons. Older diesel-engined commercial vehicles (including most pre-2001 Land Rovers) are already in effect banned from anywhere inside the M25 for emissions reasons, and several other cities are looking at introducing their own low emissions zones. Could we soon see people…

“... after a good fettle, it was moving under its own steam again" There's a vogue of late in turning up 'Survivor' cars. The term loosely means vehicles that have survived each decade's fads of modification and tinkering, instead remaining totally standard, original, but perhaps with a little worn patina here and there. Mostly it equates to Series Ones or Twos, and there's a strong following for turning those cars up. However, when LRM got the tip-off about an altogether different 'Survivor', it was such an oddball, we just couldn't refuse. Regular readers may remember the Saul family from 2013, when we featured their early Range Rover with a rare capstan winch. Ian, Margaret, and their son James are petrol heads, but it is fair to say they also have…

"Terrorist activity was a big part of life – it was the way things were" The Northern Ireland conflict, commonly known as The Troubles, killed over 3500 people and injured another 50,000 from 1968 when civil rights agitation brought a brutal response from the state and loyalists, through to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, but it didn’t end the violence and the country’s future remains ambiguous. By far the worst year was 1972, which kicked off when 14 marchers against internment were shot dead by the British Army on 30 January – a day which became infamous as Bloody Sunday. This massacre gave a huge incentive to militant republicans, and the paramilitaries upped their campaign to its greatest intensity; 480 people lost their lives that year. The death toll…

 1954 was a big year for the Series I, when it was decided to introduce the 86in model and a 107in (2718 mm) pick-up. Solihull could see the advantages of offering a vehicle with additional load space and the extra wheelbase was added behind the cab to fulfil this function. "Although Andy is fond of all his Land Rovers, he admits that 992 FVW is a bit special" Two years later the first five-door model was launched, using the 107 chassis. Dubbed the station wagon, this vehicle offered seating for up to ten people. The new version lacked the wooden structure of the earlier Tickford model, and was constructed with bolt-together metal panels. They were aimed at the commercial market, and were intended to transport personnel to less accessible locations.…

JANUARY 7 Land Rover Series 2 Club New Forest & Solent Area Greenlane Run Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire www.series2club.co.uk JANUARY 7 Yorkshire 4x4 Treks Yorkshire Dales Trek North Yorkshire www.yorkshire4x4treks.co.uk JANUARY 8 Pennine Land Rover Club Trial, Catlow, Lancashire www.penninelandrover.co.uk JANUARY 8 Red Rose Land Rover Club Annual Green Lane Run www.landroverclub.co.uk JANUARY 8 Somerset & Wiltshire LRC CCV/RTV Trial Binegar Quarry, Bath www.somersetandwiltshirelrc.co.uk JANUARY 8 Malvern 4x4 Spares & Land Rover Autojumble Three Countries Showground, Malvern www.4x4sparesday.co.uk JANUARY 8 Yorkshire 4x4 Treks Yorkshire Moors Trek North Yorkshire www.yorkshire4x4treks.co.uk JANUARY 11 – 15 Yorkshire 4x4 Treks Coast to Coast Trek Whitby to Cumbria www.yorkshire4x4treks.co.uk JANUARY 12 – 15 Autosport International Racing Car Show NEC, Birmingham www.autosportinternational.com JANUARY 14 - 15 North East Rover Owners Club CCV Trial West Wooburn, Northumberland www.nero.org.uk…

Given the weight of most Land Rovers, the SWL (Safe Working Load) is an important factor when buying axle stands. The 3-tonne stands tested here will be suitable for most Land Rovers and, if your vehicle is loaded with kit when it’s supported, the additional SWL will be welcome. Traditional tripod designs with a locking pin are still popular and, if their base print is broad for stability, they work well. Four-legged designs, typically with ratchet posts, are taking over though, offering a one handed affair for setting the height and for lowering the post afterwards. Consider also that some axle stand feet might sink into a Tarmac surface in warm weather. If you use axle stands solely on a Land Rover vehicle, it’s worth sourcing those with a height…

Tell us a little about your project It was previously owned by the widow of a work friend. It stood in her back garden in Ashome, Warwickshire, for over 10 years. I then purchased it from her on January 29, 2016, which as you know is a very important day in Land Rover history... this was the official last day of Defender production. What did it cost you? I paid £500 for it. Who said that you cannot find a decent Series Land Rover for under a grand these days? How is its petrol engine running? It is currently not running at all. Are you planning on replacing it? No, that would be the easy option. The plan is to fully rebuild the engine. I am looking forward to that…