Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Land Rover Monthly

REGULAR readers might remember my Welcome in the July issue, where I introduced my friends Michael and Rachael and the 1958 Series II that they hoped would be ready to transport the bride and bridesmaids to the ceremony at their wedding, despite it being off the road for over two decades. Well, as you’ve no doubt already picked up from the photo, I’m delighted to share with you that the Series II did in fact make it to their special day, where it performed admirably. It was an honour to be asked to help revive it after more than 20 years off the road, and it was clear how much it being there meant to Rachael’s family in particular, as her late grandfather had owned it from new. Helping to…

Lights, camera, action Here’s a photo that I thought would be interesting for the magazine; I run the video team at Goodwood and we have been full swing for the Festival of Speed creating a few films for clients. See attached our camera rig from a recent shoot with JLR which we built onto one of the Defenders to chase a certain ‘development mule’ around our rally stage. The full film will be played out on the big screen and live feed at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Jonathan Scrivens MARTIN REPLIES: Many thanks for sending over the photo, really interesting. I was lucky enough to go to Festival of Speed for the first time this year (more on that in the next issue of LRM) and it’s great…

IT’S the time of the year when JLR talks about the things it is pleased with and outlines its plans and ambitions for the future. In case you missed it, Monday 16 June was the company’s annual Investor Day, this time for the business year April 2024 to March 2025. I spent a couple of enlightening hours reviewing the event’s PowerPoint slide deck to dig out the interesting bits for you. Somebody’s got to do it at the LRM editorial office, and I got the short straw… This year, two things struck me immediately. Firstly, the latest slide deck is 28 per cent shorter than last year’s, and secondly, JLR’s Chief Creative Officer Professor Gerry McGovern OBE did not have a walk-on role to talk about the importance of design…

HERE’S a controversial opinion – car dealers don’t earn enough. Sure, there are some crooks out there, but generally the level of skill and experience needed to buy and sell at a profit while keeping everyone happy is exceptional. I think they could earn millions if they used the same skills and level of research to buy and sell company stocks, commodities or currency. It’s not quite as relevant for the juniors at main dealers who just use a head office script and fill in forms on a computer, but the proper old school traders are a joy to watch as they do sums in their head to keep the stock moving. I’ve been watching a few recently as I tried to help a friend buy a Freelander 2. She…

WHEN it comes to car buying, it’s always good to broaden your horizons. This not only applies to the geographical catchment of your search area, but also to the models you’re looking to purchase. After all, there’s no point in settling for a substandard example just because it’s local, when there may be a much better alternative available if you’re prepared to travel or compromise on spec. But what if even this approach seems to draw a blank? This was the predicament in which self-confessed petrolhead Mathew Steele found himself when he began searching for a suitable Land Rover to serve as the basis for long-term ownership. “Having owned a total of 77 different vehicles over the years, including both a 2013 Evoque and a 2020 Discovery 5, I’ve had…

THERE’S a phrase that I’ve heard many times over the past few years. You’ll have heard it, too – Land Rover Lifestyle. It’s meant to refer to how the traditional Land Rover enthusiast scene has evolved, and how it continues to evolve, with social media-based communities of enthusiasts outpacing the traditional clubs, with pop-up get-togethers such as The Rover Social, Tea on the Tailgate, and Land Rovers of London, and with doing things and going places and meeting people, and having experiences in your Land Rover. I’ve been asked about it many times, but I’ve never been able to come up with a sensible answer. Perhaps that’s why everyone just refers to it as the Land Rover Lifestyle, because it is simply about how each of us chooses to live…

ONE of the phrases I often use is, ‘adventure is never far away’. It applies to so much when it comes to Land Rovering, be it struggling with stubborn fixings on older models, trying to get enhancements to fit, or just in the places the vehicle can take you. As a case in point, I’ve just returned from a week away where I saw puffins and dolphins in the wild, immersed myself in local history, travelled using transport from days long gone and, of course, drove unmade roads and crossed rivers using epic fords. Admittedly, it was all in and around Whitby in North Yorkshire, but the same applies to anywhere you can get to in your Land Rover. It may be close enough to home that you can pop…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH I’ve heard it said that some people do actually manage to finish their perfect Land Rover build. But for the rest of us, our vehicles are continually evolving. That’s certainly the case with my Land Rovers – I have ideas and often buy the stuff I need, and then it sits there until I make the time to fit it. Like attaching a winch to my Defender. Two things I like are period-correct kit and stuff that lasts. So, rather than fitting any old winch to my Defender, it would have to be something of the right era. And I’m never in a hurry when I’m winching, so the slow-running but almost indestructible Superwinch Husky was my choice. I’ve bought several over the years, enabling me to…

SUPPORTED BY AS I sit here and type this Writers’ Rovers instalment, it marks four years to the day since I collected my Td5 90 from its old home down in Ross-On-Wye. In that time, I have grown to enjoy it a lot more as I make various improvements along the way. Most recent of those changes was the addition of anti-roll bars, made possible by Land Rover fitting the required brackets to the chassis on the production line; post-Tdi Defenders benefitted from this, but hard tops and truck cabs didn’t leave the factory with anti-roll bars as standard. Fitting the bars was relatively straightforward, and you’ll find our recent fitting guide on the LRM YouTube channel. I’m genuinely blown away by the transformation these have made – the 90’s…

SUPPORTED BY I look forward to the time when we can write about electric Land Rovers in the technical section of LRM. As a mechanical engineer I still treat electrical engineering as only a slight step up the ladder of practicality from witchcraft. Having said that, I’ve just completed a full vehicle rewire which involved stripping out any circuits that seemed unnecessary and replacing any that were damaged. My confidence was such that, after every stage of the rewire, I compulsively had to recheck every other circuit to confirm the latest stage hadn’t caused an issue elsewhere. It hadn’t, but I couldn’t stop testing; and I now have the benefit of knowing every single circuit has complete integrity and, as a bonus, I’ve come know the whole wiring system inside…

SUPPORTED BY THE Suffix A Range Rovers (the A suffix being the letter at the end of the chassis numbers) were the very first batch of Range Rovers produced, and were built from 1970 to 1972. They have fast become the models to own out of the classic Range Rover family, and the most valuable. However, while the values of these cars have increased, so have the number of fake Suffix A models in circulation. You’re probably thinking: how can there be fake ones? Well, sadly, over 25 years ago when only pre-1972 cars were tax-free, many identities from early cars that had rotted away or were beyond economical repair found their way onto later two-door, and even some four-door, Range Rovers. Those later cars could then be passed off…

How long have you owned it? I have owned ‘Charlie’ since September 2024. What made you want to buy this particular Land Rover? My relationship with Charlie started seven or eight years ago when I was driving along a wooded road close to our family farm when I suddenly got a glimpse of what I thought was a Land Rover parked under some trees. The next time I passed by I slowed down so I could get a better look and, sure enough, there sat a battered old Series III, half-swallowed by the undergrowth and trees looking very sorry for itself. I’d been thinking about getting a Defender to complement my Range Rover P38 and L322, but something about this sad, mossy relic tugged at my heart. So, I did…

RANGE Rover’s SV Bespoke commissioning programme is now available for the Sport, catering to customers with vivid imaginations and very deep pockets. JLR cites the successful roll-out of the SV Bespoke service for flagship model Range Rovers in 2023 and the expansion of the programme comes amid growing demand from clients worldwide seeking one-of-a-kind vehicles. From exclusive paint colours to precious metal finishes and handcrafted interiors, the service allows buyers to tailor nearly every element of their vehicle. One of the highlights of the service is the SV Bespoke Curated Palette, which offers up to 230 exterior colour options in gloss, satin or matte finishes. A ‘Match-to-Sample’ service is also available, enabling the SV team to replicate virtually any colour, from a shade of lipstick to the hue of a…

EMAIL YOUR PICTURES TO MARTIN@LRM.CO.UK…

THE Lightweight is back! As I was away working when it returned from its mechanical sojourn, my brother Nick ran it around for a week before delivering it back to me upon my return. Although he sometimes had custody back in the years when I was more often outside the country than in it, he couldn’t have driven it for almost a decade. “I actually really enjoyed driving your Lightweight, and it doesn’t half attract a lot of attention,” he said, approvingly, as I ran him home. “Although the gears did take me a while to get used to again, and I didn’t dare try overdrive as I couldn’t remember how it worked.” I laugh and say the gears are my secret weapon against theft, as anyone hopping into the…

AS I head towards final closure of my Norfolk workshop in the autumn, I’m starting to realise that there are jobs which I will probably be doing for the last time. At the moment I have a 1986 Ninety hard top in the workshop for an engine conversion, a job booked long before I decided to wind up the vehicle repair and modification side of the business. The vehicle had gone over to France some years earlier and there was some delay in repatriating it: the owner wanted me to turn it into a useable, reliable daily driver for mainly on-road use. Although very straight and solid it had done around 160,000 miles which must be close to a record for a 19J turbodiesel, so it seemed like a good…

“YOU know what – this really reaffirms why we have Land Rovers,” beams LRM publisher Steve Miller as he jumps down from his Defender after we’ve ascended the steep and rocky greenlane up Fremington Edge. “It’s worth enduring the thousands of miles of tarmac driving to and from events around the country in the Defender for the ability to do this.” He’s not wrong. After all, what’s the point in owning a Land Rover if you’re not going to use its capabilities? There are plenty of other vehicles which eat up the road miles in a more comfortable, quicker and cheaper manner. But as the Yanks say: Life begins at pavement’s end. Editor Martin Domoney and I had been talking about heading out greenlaning for ages and although we’ve done…

“IT IS THEN HEATED TO OVER 130 DEGREES WHILST 25 TONS OF FORCE PUSHES DOWN” IT’S a glorious hot and sunny day as I park the 90 up outside Charlesworth’s factory in Curdworth, a small village to the East of Birmingham. The unit isn’t some forgettable modern industrial unit – it’s a beautiful 1950s traditional factory, set in mature grounds with lawns and well-established trees. As I open the varnished wooden door into reception, three things hit we – the herringbone parquet floor, the 1950s décor and wooden clocking-in machine on the right-hand wall – not unlike the one that was in the Land Rover Heritage display at Solihull when Defender production came to an end. Sue Cummings greets me as we walk into the main office. As I sit…

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SUPPORTED BY THEY say it’s not what you know but who you know, which certainly rang true when I finally decided to bite the bullet and get a roof rack for my trusty Freelander 2. To give some background, my current camping arrangement consists of an ageing Tent Cot, a handy bit of kit but only just big enough for me and a decent-sized rucksack – no good for weekends away with my wife and dog. A roof tent is the goal, but that needs something to sit on and a bit of extra storage wouldn’t go amiss. So I got on the phone to former editor of Land Rover Monthly, Patrick Cruywagen, who now works for Front Runner, purveyor of fine roof racks and other top-quality expedition equipment. Pat…

SUPPORTED BY MY name’s Helen, and I became the owner of this Defender 90 in April 2021. I’m not a mechanic, but I’ve always wanted to own a classic car and my dream was a V8 American muscle car like a ’68 Dodge Charger or Challenger or a ’69 Corvette Stingray. But after moving to the country and living on a single-track lane on a steep hill, I thought my dream was over. It was my brother who encouraged me to not give up on my ambition and to change it instead. What about a vehicle more suited to where I live? A military vehicle, or a Land Rover maybe… That idea sat very well with my soul, so I started my search and was put in touch with the…

SUPPORTED BY SOME jobs on a Land Rover aren’t glamorous or exciting. They don’t make it look any different or go any faster or feel any comfier. But what they can do is restore the way it drives to factory settings – and this front hub overhaul is one of those. You see, over the months and years and miles you drive, parts are spinning thousands of times a minute. Multiply those rotations over hundreds of journeys made, factor in possible damage or ingress of muck from off-road use, and perhaps even lack of maintenance, and your hub bearings and brakes may well be seriously overdue some care and attention. Unlike a lot of other models, the front hubs need to be removed from a Defender, classic Range Rover or…

SUPPORTED BY YOU’RE bumbling along content in the knowledge you’re driving one of the finest vehicles in existence, then suddenly bong, ‘HDC Fault System Not Available’, ‘System Fault Special Programs Not Available’, ’Suspension Lowering’ – cue suspension, brake and ABS warning lights. You pull over and switch off the engine, only to find the fault clears on restarting. This increasingly common intermittent fault on the Discovery 3 can leave owners baffled and out of pocket. The issue is usually caused by one of two things: the steering angle sensor (SAS) or the brake pedal switch. In this guide, we will discuss the former more common culprit and show how to resolve it. The SAS is a module located on the steering column, that measures the angle, rate and direction of…

A popular greenlane route in Mid Wales has undergone significant repairs after concerns about damage and erosion prompted joint action by a national motoring group and a local landowner. A 1.1-mile section of the Strata Florida greenlane, an historic unsealed route running through the Cambrian Mountains, has been resurfaced and upgraded with improved drainage, fencing and signage. The repair project was coordinated by the Green Lane Association (GLASS), which campaigns to protect and maintain the UK’s network of ancient byways. The work, completed over ten days despite the site’s remoteness, involved laying 1000 tonnes of material to restore the lane’s surface, which had deteriorated because of heavy rainfall and inadequate drainage. New post-and-rail fencing has been installed alongside the track, while ditches, pipes, and drainage channels have been reopened or…

BRUSHLESS TWIN COMPRESSOR £838.80 website: johncraddockltd.co.uk Using brushless technology to redefine reliability, the new ARB compressor boasts a 50 per cent increase in output compared with its current compressors. The 12-volt brushless motors mean less wear, quicker compression, longer life and more efficiency and draws 80A at full load. It’s got a no-load airflow of 918CFM, reducing to 6.2CFM at 29psi and cuts-off at 195psi. RANGE ROVER SPORT GEAR LEVER LOCK £95 website: powerfuluk.com Everything helps when we’re trying to prevent our Land Rovers from being stolen, and this security item for the Range Rover Sport L494 prevents the gear lever inhibitor switch from being depressed – so even if a thief gets into the vehicle and starts it, they’ll be unable to engage a gear to drive away. Supplied…

WITH the Ninety’s engine installed and running nicely I needed to do something about the wheels and tyres. Being a mid 1980s County Station Wagon it was on white-painted Rostyle steel wheels: these are more usually associated with old Range Rovers but had an Indian summer on the County-spec vehicles. They are a nice-looking wheel and the ones on this vehicle seemed in good order. The tyres were not so good: Yugoslavian van tyres, undersized for the vehicle and date-stamped 2005. I’m not ultra-fussy about tyre age, especially on old Land Rovers that tend to do relatively few miles at fairly low speeds. But these tyres were definitely past their best, and they looked faintly ridiculous on a Land Rover. My original plan was to fit new tyres to the…

I confess that I have a perpetual soft-spot for Land Rover fire trucks. I’ve written about a few in these pages over the years, and I know that LRM’s Art Editor, Sam, likes a big red fire engine to brighten the pages of the magazine, so no apologies for writing about another one. This is a 1963 Series IIA 109in Carmichael Redwing FT/2. The records at the BMIHT show that the base vehicle, painted red and with chassis number 25205794, was despatched to ‘Carmichael, Butler, Wolverhampton’ on 3 July 1963. This was a reference to Carmichael & Sons Ltd of Worcester, which completed its conversion work before delivering it to its new owner, referred to in the despatch notes as ‘Butler’. It was registered 753 DDA in August 1963. The…

SUNSHINE, serious off-road action, and the best crowd yet – the 2025 Billing Off Road Show raised the bar once again. With the camping field fully booked and brimming with everything from ground tents to full-blown overland rigs, the show had a buzzing festival vibe right from the get-go. Friday saw early birds heading straight to the The Riverside Lakeside course course – open exclusively on that is a thrill day for – for drivers a challenging, technical drive that and spectactors rewarded sharp alike skills and brave throttle use. Tight and twisty with steep climbs and splashy descents, the course pushed even the most seasoned drivers, especially those piloting long-wheelbase Land Rovers. As the sun dipped, the party lifted. The beer tent roared into life with live music and a…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH ALTHOUGH essential for being able to drive around corners on a hard surface, a differential’s action can be a real obstacle to progress off-road. The differential, in each axle or in the centre of a permanent four-wheel drive transmission, will always send the engine’s torque through the path of least resistance. Consider a classic Defender with its centre differential unlocked, front-left wheel on a patch of ice and the other three on dry tarmac; the vehicle will not move at all, spinning that solitary wheel. Lock the centre differential and the two rear wheels with equal grip will then move the vehicle, until, for example, both left wheels are now on ice. The vehicle will not move again, as both right wheels are stationary on dry tarmac…

Mostly a bright idea BRITPART LYNX EYE LED HEADLIGHTS £378.60 johncraddockltd.co.uk Tested by: Steve Miller Owned for: Two years Upgrading from my standard halogen Defender headlights to Britpart’s Lynx Eye LEDs felt necessary due to the rather dim output of the originals, highlighted (pardon the pun) by living in rural Lincolnshire where keeping it between the ditches is paramount. Even with a diff-lock engaged, it probably wouldn’t see me climb out of some the deepest of drainage channels around these parts – they’re rather cavernous. Swapping out the halogens for these Lynx LED units is a relatively straightforward, plug-and-play affair. And when darkness sets in these new lights improve vision to a certain extent, turning what was a yellow hazy light into a bright white beam. They also give a…

SUPPORTED BY SOME people get into a right old tizz when a flight is delayed or cancelled, but not me; I try to focus on the things I can control. So, when KLM cancelled my flight back to the UK after my family and I had spent a week exploring the incredible Kruger National Park, I viewed it as an extra day of potential adventures in Johannesburg, the most dangerous city in the world, where stabbings, shootings, and car hijackings are as common as a rainy day in Scotland. The best way to protect yourself from these dangers is not to hire a few beefy security guards and an armoured Range Rover. It’s much simpler than that; I asked my Land Rover-loving buddy Aldri van Jaarsveld if he fancied a…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH August 15-17 TEA ON THE TAILGATE AND DORSET LAND ROVER CLUB GALA AND GYMKHANA WEEKEND Holt ///allowable.headrest.widelyteaonthetailgate.co.uk/ August 16-17 YORK LAND ROVER SHOW RCM 4x4, Forest Business Park, York yorklandrovershow.co.uk August 23-24 4x4 TOURS NORFOLK offthebeatentrack4x4.co.uk/event-information August 25 S&S ANGLESEY COMP SAFARI – OPEN CSC ROUND 5 Brynteg Farm, Rhuddlan Bach Quarry, Anglesey saslrc.co.uk/event August 30 AN EVENING WITH GRAEME ALDOUS The Dunsfold Collection, Dunsfold dunsfoldcollection.co.uk/product/graeme_aldous/ September 2 TEA ON THE TAILGATE LANCASHIRE Ley Inn ///fence.excusing.clubteaonthetailgate.co.uk/events September 6 S&S FAMILY GAMES WEEKEND Boundary, Cheadle, Staffordshire saslrc.co.uk/events/ September 12-14 THE MAJORS Green Hall Farm, nr Llanfyllin, Powys mroc.co.uk/the-majors-2025 September 13 FABULOUSLY BRITISH – LAND ROVER DAY AT BROADWAY TOWER Broadway, Worcestershire broadwaytower.co.uk/tickets September 13-14 GOODWOOD REVIVAL Goodwood Circuit, Chichester, West Sussex goodwood.com/motorsport/goodwood-revival/ September 14 FOREST VINTAGE SHOW The…

SUPPORTED BY ASHCROFT Transmissions first started offering automatic transmission conversions for Series Land Rovers, and then, as demand for these dropped, the company manufactured kits for 200Tdi Defenders, followed by the 300Tdi versions. Components for these conversion kits were mainly sourced from Tdi Discovery Genuine Land Rover parts. When the Td5 Defender was introduced, the auto transmission for the Discovery Td5 became available as a Genuine part. The Td5 Defender brought additional challenges for automatic transmission conversions, but the later TDCi (Puma) Defender became the most challenging automatic conversion of a utility Land Rover ever. In this case there was no Puma Discovery model to draw information and parts from, and no automatic Ford Transit (also using a version of the engine) from which to source gearboxes. The decision was…

SUPPORTED BY FREEWHEEL HUB IDENTITY I bought a Series IIA as a project. I have given it a new galvanised chassis and a galvanised bulkhead. My question is, what are the front hubs on this car? Photos attached. As far as I can tell, they look like they might be an early freewheel hub that relies on centrifugal force to engage the front hubs. Was this offered as a factory option? The car is a 1971 station wagon, registration number ALV 747K. I would be very grateful for any answers you can give. Jason Kennaugh, Shropshire ED EVANS REPLIES: I don’t recognise these hubs, nor do the many people I’ve contacted. The fact that there is no visible way to engage or disengage the hubs suggest they are automatic. Automatic…