Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Land Rover Monthly

JLR has received its second Royal Warrant in the reign of King Charles III, awarded by Her Majesty Queen Camilla, in recognition of consistent supply of goods or services to the Royal Household. It’s the latest in a long history of connections between Land Rover and the Royal Family, which began over 70 years ago when it received its first from His Majesty King George VI in 1951. During the 1990s, when there were four warrants available, Land Rover was one of only eight companies to have earned them all. The company proudly displayed them on its business cards, in owner’s manuals, on the walls of dealerships and on stands at automotive events. When one thinks of Land Rover, one also thinks of the Royal Family – they have a…

DID you see that Range Rover has launched its first ‘Lifestyle Capsule’. It’s called The London Collection and according to JLR it combines ‘the signature modernist design ethos of the Range Rover and iconic British heritage’. JLR goes on to tell us that ‘British supermodel and actress Adwoa Aboah appears as the face of the collection, in a new campaign capturing the city’s vibrant architecture in a narrative of modern grace and sophistication’. Read that paragraph again if it didn’t make sense the first time. I’ve read it several times, and I’m still not sure I know what The London Collection Lifestyle Capsule is. But help is at hand, because JLR’s press release tells us that it is Range Rover’s ‘first eight-piece luxury lifestyle capsule combining classic and versatile pieces’…

Car auctions are my happy place. Now the ‘in person’ live sales are fully back, I really think they are my favourite day out. That might sound a bit odd, but I love being able to prod and poke the vehicles without being accosted by a protective owner. I can also play the ‘Guess The Price’ game for cars I don’t have any interest in buying and make mental notes for Land Rovers which I might raise my hand for if they’re cheap enough. But as well as the cars, I love people watching. There are more characters at auctions than in a game of Fortnite, and I’ve learned a lot over the years from just listening to them chat about the stock on sale or comparing stories. The character…

POWER is nothing without control. This famous slogan was first used back in the mid 1990s in an advertising campaign for tyre manufacturer Pirelli. The advert showed American athlete Carl Lewis as a sprinter poised on the starting blocks of the running track wearing soon-to-be-legendary red stilettos. The photo was taken by renowned portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz in Texas in 1994 and became an icon of advertising creativity. It conveys a message that has stood the test of time and is as true today as it was back then. The problem that often arises is that while power is relatively easy to generate, control is a much more complicated kettle of fish. “It was pretty scary and definitely not safe,” says 47-year-old director of a construction company, Richard Higgs, as…

FOR around a year from early 1990, the Range Rover you see on these pages was part of Roger Crathorne’s Land Rover Driving Experience fleet. G418 BKV was registered on 1 February 1990 and is a relatively early example of the 3.9 V8 Vogue Efi: the 3.5-litre V8 had been replaced by the 3.9 from the 1990 Model Year, which was announced in October 1989. The Chamonix White 3.9 was given its PDI on 8 February with 22 recorded miles, and the entry in the Service Record book is stamped Land Rover Ltd, Meteor Works, Lode Lane, Solihull. It was one of 11 Range Rovers on Roger’s Driving Experience fleet at the time, and one of only three V8s with a manual gearbox. Auto transmissions were becoming increasingly popular among…

WE live in the golden age of communication. It’s possible to contact pretty much anyone, anywhere in the world – and even in space – at any time. And the internet allows us to share what we’re up to at the press of a button. But the sheer volume of information being uploaded means it’s easy to miss stuff and can leave the really interesting stories and info swamped by junk; finding it can be hard work. A social media post from Land Rover Life contributor Vicky Turner got me thinking about this. In the glamorous world she inhabits, she was replacing the sealant around her bath – and, as everyone knows, you have to weigh down the bath to get the best seal. Now before you conjure up images…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH UNTIL a few weeks ago I had no idea that the first car I ever drove – our family’s Range Rover – had played a minor role in Land Rover history. In September 1971, in a trek spearheaded by Motor Sport magazine’s William ‘Bill’ Boddy, press fleet Range Rover PXC 540J drove as far as possible up Cadair Idris (or Cader Idris), one of the higher mountains in Wales, grinding to a halt a mere 117ft shy of its 2930ft summit. It was the furthest any car had yet managed at that time, in an era when driving up Welsh mountains was a fashionable pursuit. In the story Cadair Idris was claimed to be the second highest mountain in Wales; in truth it’s 18th. This was news…

TOWARDS the end of last month, Mr Brownie (my 1982 four-door Range Rover) and I were invited to a photoshoot on Dartmoor. It was very short notice, but I was happy to go along as I didn’t have much on that day. This meant that the day before, I needed to get him out of the shed where he’d been residing, sheltering from the winter weather. After a wash to get the dust off and a good polish, he was looking much better, and after a quick look underneath to make sure everything was as it should be, we were all good to go. Or at least, so I thought… A very minor cosmetic detail I had totally forgotten about was that after I had the car painted last year,…

WE’VE devoted a few pages this month to correctly identifying both the subtle and obvious differences between Series II, IIA and III. Many owners, and a surprising number who are new to the game, are wondering how, exactly, their Series model should look and what equipment and components it should have to be an authentic example. This stems from the models’ rise over recent years to classic status, coupled with the obsession in the classic car world, rightly or wrongly, to ensure every preserved or restored vehicle retains the same specification as when it left the showroom. Thanks to alternative bodywork and unique conversions offered by coachbuilders and other approved specialists of the day, plus different wheels or tyres, transmission adaptations or expedition preparation, many vehicles leaving dealerships were quite…

WE receive plenty of questions concerning the true identity of Series II, IIA and III models. Sometimes owners are new to the game and just want a slice of the knowledge that many experienced owners have at their fingertips. Others find their vehicles appear to have a mismatch of parts, which is often due to later Series model components having been retrofitted to earlier vehicles as upgrades, or just to replace worn parts with secondhand kit. Earlier components have also found their way onto later vehicles. These swapovers were quite common years ago but, because these trucks are now classics, authenticity to the original factory build specification is increasingly important. This feature gives a basic guide to the main visual changes made through the production of the Series II, IIA…

IN early 1975, renowned desert explorer Squadron Leader Tom Sheppard MBE led a team of seven men and four early production Land Rover 101-inch One Tonne Forward Controls on the Joint Services West East Sahara Expedition. It was the first expedition 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 1600km without any means of resupply. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the successful expedition, on 19 April team members Barry Doughty, Phil Maye and Geoff Renner came to the Dunsfold Collection and made a presentation to over 40 guests, covering the background to the expedition and what it set out to achieve, as well as sharing their experiences…

FOR a few years now I have been maintaining a shabby-looking One Ten with a fascinating history: registered by Land Rover in 1990, believed used for durability testing on the then-new 200Tdi engine and with only one owner since the factory disposed of it. The vehicle was due to be dropped off for its annual service and MoT test but I had a call to say that it had lost its clutch hydraulics just prior to coming to me and would need to be recovered. It duly turned up the day before I was due to go on holiday with a completely empty clutch fluid reservoir, about a ton of rather ripe-smelling bagged manure in the back and the same in a trailer behind it. Fortunately, it still had nearly…

IT’S the morning after the first sudden snowfall of the approaching winter, and rush hour has been carnage. Main roads have been gritted to keep them clear, but the side roads are still white, polished to a gloss by skidding commuters, slipping their way to work. Thankfully, my three-hour battle through the traffic is behind me. The only road in sight now is a narrow, weaving track worn into the Mid Wales hillside. I’m watching an immaculate Discovery 2 approach me over the hill, and I marvel at just what a great vehicle the facelifted car still is. Cleaned up front lighting, reworked interior, improved brake feel; it was way more than a cosmetic flashover. As the vehicle reaches me it turns, and only then am I reminded something is…

LAND Rovers and motorsport have gone together since the early days of the Series I. Rover itself ran a club for owners in the 1950s, which included competitive events. Today, I’m on my way down the quiet country lanes north of Birmingham to an unassuming building that hides an interesting secret – it’s the home of Blackbird Industries. I was last here in 2020 when the team changed my Freelander Td4 transfer box and VCU for me; things are a little different five years later. Directors Mike Brown and James Ayre welcome me in the glorious sunshine, and I spot a yard full of vehicles, from a standard-looking Defender 130, to Ultra4-type buggies and new Defender 90 rally cars. A glance in the workshop reveals another two L663 Defenders, a…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH MOST of us will have justified purchases for our Land Rovers on the grounds that we will make them more comfortable, perform better or just improve the looks of the vehicle. And that makes us happy. But a study published by the BMJ (2024;387:e082194) caught my eye recently. It shows taxi and ambulance drivers ‘people with occupations that demand frequent spatial and navigational processing… had a lower proportion of deaths from Alzheimer’s disease than other occupations’. I’ve no understanding of how the human brain works, but it does suggest thinking outside the box regularly (the box is a GPS navigation unit in this instance) will pay dividends. What’s that got to do with Land Rovers? Well, most of us have them because we like driving. And most…

Makes a messy job easier PRO WAX INJECTION KIT £72 rust.co.uk Tested by: Neil Watterson Owned for: Four years (six treatments) Rustproofing is one of those jobs that most of us would rather not do, so we tend to put it off as long as we can. It’s dirty and you’ve got to set aside a fair chunk of time to prepare the Land Rover in the first place, whether it’s removing trim or washing away years’ worth of mud. You can make the actual job of applying the rustproofing that much easier with the right tools – and the Pro Wax Injection Kit contains all the tools you need; just connect to a compressor and get on with it. The bottle will take around one litre of your favoured…

MY name is Rosie Dahl, otherwise known by my modelling name, Mariah Rose. My husband I are British car collectors based in Georgetown, Tennessee, USA. Among our classic car collection, we have a 1987 110, 2024 Defender 110, 1995 Range Rover County LWB and a 2004 Land Rover Discovery. I recently did a really cool photoshoot with our 1987 One Ten wearing a Jurassic Park ranger uniform with professional Florida-based photographer Jax Wiggins from Dolly J. These photos have not yet been published or shared on any social media as we wanted to save them to be published in a Land Rover print magazine. So here we are… Land Rover has been a long-time love of ours. To me, the Defender represents exploration and adventure. Although we have not taken the…

NEED TO KNOW TIME: Two hours. COST: £32.19. DIFFICULTY: MODELS: Freelander 2. TOOLS NEEDED: Socket set, screwdrivers, trim tool, scrubbing pad, mole grips, Gorilla Glue. PARTS AND COSTS: Tailgate switch and wiring, LR079909, £32.19. Jgs4x4.co.uk WORK SAFELY: Wear the correct PPE at all times. Only use glue in a well-ventilated area, and wear gloves. Water and electrics – it’s no secret that they don’t mix. Add corrosive dirt and salt into the mix and you get the reason that Freelander 2 tailgate release handles fail – just like this one has. Because of the location of the switch that pops the boot, tucked under the handle, it’s constantly barraged with road dirt and spray that’s chucked up by the back wheels in winter. Even encased within a tight-fitting rubber boot,…

British EV conversion specialist, Inverted, has announced the latest addition to its growing portfolio of electric classics: the Land Rover Series I, II, and III. Customers can collaborate directly with Inverted founder, Harry Millington, to design a vehicle that suits their personal style, whether that’s staying true to the original aesthetic or creating a unique build. At the heart of the transformation is a 62kWh waterproof battery pack, split between front and rear to optimise weight distribution and improve traction. An electric motor delivers approximately 160bhp and a whopping 664lb-ft of torque, resulting in a 0-60mph time of around 8 seconds. The Series’ original transfer box is retained, offering high and low-range ratios and a locking differential for serious off-road capability. Charging is simple and flexible, with both a 6.6kW…

DOUBLE SWAG STRETCHER £137.74 Website: arb4x4.co.uk Designed for the ARB SkyDome Double Swag, but also able to be used on its own, this bed has a 2150x1400mm 600D nylon sleeping surface. The heavy-duty construction includes a sturdy black steel frame and contrasting charcoal crossbars and has a weight rating of 120kg each side – good for 240kg in total. It weighs 15.6kg, features buckles to keep it securely closed when not in use and comes with carry bag. TDCi RETRIM KITS From £563.87 Website: exmoortrim.co.uk One of the great things about the front seats fitted to classic Defenders is that they’re fairly easy to retrim – just as well, as the back cushions seem to fail after a few years and collapse on the inner edge. If you fancy making…

Yet again a vehicle comes in for a routine service and MoT which escalates massively as I find more and more faults needing urgent attention. The offending vehicle this time, a mid 1980s Ninety, built as a 2.5 petrol but now with a Defender 200Tdi under the bonnet and an interior colour scheme which suggested that it might have started life with the Coastguard. A nice solid old thing: I did a bit of engine work on it a couple of years ago after it ate a cam follower, and I wasn’t expecting major trouble this time around. The owner mentioned a squeaking noise that he thought was coming from the brakes, and a loud squealing and groaning when manoeuvring at parking speeds. The latter turned out to be a…

IN the summer of 1988, three identical Land Rover One Two Seven 3.5 V8 Double Cabs with Quadtec 1 rear bodies were taken on charge by Kent Fire Brigade, now known as Kent Fire and Rescue Service. All were registered in Maidstone on 23 August with consecutive registration numbers – F96 DKN, F97 DKN and F98 DKN – and allocated fleet numbers 116 to 118. A number of these fire appliances were built by Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division on the One Two Seven chassis incorporating the Quadtec body developed in-house by SVO. The first conversions appeared in 1987 and were known simply as Box Bodies, but the much more inspiring Quadtec name was adopted in 1988. SVO built two-door Truck Cab and four-door Crew Cab versions, the former…

EVERYONE’S favourite all-action off-road event is back with a bang! The Billing Off Road Show is mere weeks away and is an event not to be missed, so grab your tickets without delay. It’s all going down on this June 27-30 in sunny Northamptonshire – if you haven’t been before, here’s just a taster of what you can expect over the weekend. The event kicks off on Friday 27 June, with the Riverside off-road course opening its gates for visitors to enjoy thrilling technical driving through the mud, ruts, switchbacks and bombholes carved into the side of a steep wooded river bank. You’ll be carefully calculating the turning circle of your Land Rover as you thread through the trees; don’t worry if you’re new to driving off-tarmac, as friendly marshals are…

OF THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING LAND ROVER MAGAZINE! The Perfect FATHER’S DAY Gift GET 3 ISSUES FOR ONLY £3 Your journey continues after your first three issues for just £20 a quarter Enjoy greenlaning adventures, expert reviews, restorations, buying guides and unbeatable technical advice – all in one place Start your subscription today bit.ly/lrmadventure25 quoting Or call 01778 392033 LRM/ADVENTURE25 SCAN ME Offer open to UK residents for a limited time…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WITH Purdey back in the workshop, it’s time to focus on the next milestone – getting her officially roadworthy by passing her Controle Technique, the French equivalent of an MoT. But first, we had to get her running, and the wiring was not proving to be our friend. I have never read a wiring diagram in my life, but when needs must, you discover you can learn fast. I think we had made a potentially naive mistake, thinking that we had all the bits we needed and that it would sort of be ‘plug and play’. How wrong were we… Little by little we had to work through wiring, identifying problems, and inevitably finding things we didn’t have. A relay here, a connection there, that plug is…

ALand Rover tea-volution is brewing, and now is the time to join before things get completely out of hand. It all began with a man named Tim Brown, who used the usual social media platforms for his modern-day revolution known simply as Tea on the Tailgate, aimed specifically at Land Rover owners in the UK. Just as the revolutionary Che Guevara did in South America with his ‘foco’ theory on guerrilla warfare, Tim quickly shifted his attention to the Land Rover communities in the various counties and urged them to act. According to The Sun newspaper, this is what Tim told the early tea-volution adopters: “The time for sitting on a tailgate, sipping tea, and discussing your favourite subject, Land Rovers, is now! I encourage you to arrange Tea on…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Call for a free quote on 01480 484 803 May 22-27 ALRC NATIONAL RALLY Stainby, near Grantham, Lincolnshire alrc.co.uk/national-rally/2025-national-rally/ June 2-11 4x4 ADVENTURE TOURS: PYRÉNÉES Cross the Pyrénées east to west. 4x4adventuretours.co.uk/tour-category/overland-tours/ June 7 STAFFORDSHIRE TEA ON THE TAILGATE The Powis Arms, Lydbury North teaonthetailgate.co.uk/event June 8 PUNCH HUNT WITH RAIDERS 4x4 Brotherton Trials Site, A1246, Fairburn ylroc.co.uk/events June 14 AN EVENING WITH BOB IVES The Dunsfold Collection, Alfold Road, Dunsfold, Surrey dunsfoldcollection.co.uk/news/events/ June 14-15 S&S SEASIDE SOCIAL WEEKEND Hideaway, Crookes Lane, Kewstoke saslrc.co.uk/event WHITWELL STEAM AND AGRICULTURAL SHOW Mansells Farm, Codicote, Hertfordshire whitwellsteam.com/ June 19-22 50TH DLRC ANNIVERSARY Mammutpark Stadtoldendorf, Freizeitpark, Germany alrc.co.uk/calendar/events-list/ June 21 EAST YORKSHIRE ADVENTURE offthebeatentrack4x4.co.uk/event-dates June 22 DORSET TEA ON THE TAILGATE Ringstead Bay, Ringstead teaonthetailgate.co.uk/events June 29 S&S EVESHAM OPEN COMP SAFARI…

NEED TO KNOW TIME: 2 hours (engine out of vehicle). COST: £589.34. DIFFICULTY: MODELS: Defender 90, 110, 130, Discovery 1. TOOLS NEEDED: Spanners, socket wrenches, torque wrenches, mallet, feeler gauge, impact wrench and clutch alignment tool. PARTS AND COSTS All supplied by BLRC Ltd: • Defender or Discovery 1 300Tdi flywheel housing, ERR4722, £80, eBay • Defender or Discovery 1 300Tdi bell housing, HRC2641, £65, eBay • Three-part clutch kit, LR009366, Genuine Parts, £358.9, 1 BLRC Ltd • Spigot bush, LFB500050, Genuine Parts, £11.28, BLRC Ltd • Rear main oil seal, LUF100430, Genuine Parts, £53.86, BLRC Ltd • Oil seal gasket, ERR6811, Genuine Parts, £15.79, BLRC Ltd • RTV Silicone sealant, £4.50. WORK SAFELY: • Wear protective gloves and safety boots. when handling heavy objects. • Wear eye protection when…

SEAT BELTS FOR SII SOFT TOP I’d like to go on camping weekends in my Series II soft top, but my wife insists I put seat belts in before that can happen. I just don’t like the look of a bar across the top of the bulkhead. Do you think they would do any good if the unthinkable were to happen and we had an accident?  Steven Bridewell ED EVANS REPLIES: While I understand what you mean by the look of the bar across the top, I think you’d get used to the appearance, and the construction style is necessary to provide a secure mounting and to keep the seat belt appropriately high to provide safe restraint. I can’t comment on the effectiveness in an accident but the system would…

How long have you owned it? I’ve had it seven years now. What made you want to buy this particular Land Rover? I didn’t buy it, I inherited it from my Grandad. What’s the story so far? My Grandad used to drive my Mum and my aunts to school in this Landy causing huge embarrassment trying to crank it to start it every day at the school gates. We all share fond memories of him always tinkering on it in the garage and never getting very far. He passed away in 2002 and it has sat in the barn, surrounded by parts, on the farm in Luton until 2018, when I decided to give it some much-needed TLC. After freeing the seized wheels, we managed to get it onto a…