Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2026 i Land Rover Monthly

I’VE said it before and I’ll say it again – one of the best things about the Land Rover enthusiast universe is the sheer variety of interests within the hobby. I can’t think of another vehicle marque that offers the people who are into it quite as much choice when it comes to involving the vehicles they love in the activities they like to do. For me, I love the fettling part. Fixing, maintaining and improving Land Rovers of any age gets my brain working and gives a sense of accomplishment that never fails to give me a buzz. Sure, I’m as liable as anyone else to a grazed knuckle, spanner-throwing moment, but for the most part I absolutely love whiling an evening or weekend away up to my elbows…

Great memories The article ‘Truly God’s Own Country’ in the October LRM brought back many memories, particularly with references to places like West Burton, Leyburn, Redmire Moor, Reeth, Aysgarth, and so on. When I was a boy, we spent our family holidays either in West Burton at the Fox and Hounds or Aysgarth at what was then called the Palmer Flatts. As a teenager me and a pal often cycled from Durham to camp in West Burton in a farmer’s field. From there we would cycle to Leyburn or Ripon, or Rievaulx Abbey, as far as we could get in a day. Once, we even got to Kendal on a day-trip. Automotive memories include standing with others in the back of an Austin A40 pick-up hanging on to a rail…

CHRISTMAS STOCKING RRP from £45 inc. VAT website: stitchandrivet.co.uk Treat yourself and the Land Rover lovers in your life this Christmas with a made-to-order premium Christmas Stocking! Proudly made in the UK using our signature durable fabric and featuring a cosy sherpa cuff, each stocking features an embroidered Land Rover carrying a carefully placed festive tree. Customisable with names so there are no arguments over whose is whose. Our stockings are ideal for adding a touch of character to your mantel this year and a must-have for anyone who is looking to elevate their holiday with high-quality, British-made products. Available in our Christmas bundles online! CLARKE JSM1200 MICRO JUMP START £82.98 website: machinemart.co.uk Awarded 2024 Best Overall Jump Starter by What Car?, this compact and powerful Clarke JSM1200 Micro Jump…

I’m writing this month’s column fresh from the All British Day, an annual Brisbane event that does exactly what it says on the tin: lines up hundreds of British cars and then bakes their owners slowly under a merciless Queensland sun. This year, around 700 vehicles turned up: Aston Martins, Jaguars (remember when they used to make cars?), Rovers and, of course, Land Rovers in all their guises – Range Rovers, Series and Defenders. By my reckoning, there must have been a hundred Land Rovers. I was mildly torn as to which Land Rover to take and even flirted with the idea of trailering one. The vision of me unloading it in front of several hundred smug Jaguar owners was enough to dismiss the idea. Instead, I settled on a…

YOU will no doubt have a very personal reason for owning your Land Rover – if you’re a ‘traditional’ owner, others will probably share your basic passion, with mild variations. But the Land Rover world is changing and there are newcomers to the scene with different motivations. Here’s a story highlighting not the differences, but the shared connection between us, new and old. Let me introduce George Plester, to help explain. Growing up on a farm, George was surrounded by 4x4s. Aged 11, he stripped an old lawnmower engine, replaced numerous parts and pulled the starter. To his family’s amazement, it fired up straight away. Having proved he was mechanically-minded, his grandfather then bought him a Ferguson tractor, which George refreshed – this included a full rebuild of a forgotten diesel…

Kingsley has driven Tdis, Td5s and D300s and tested generations of Discoverys in African and transcontinental expeditions during his near-30 year relationship with Land Rover. I’m curious to know which was his favourite throughout the years, so I pop the question during our final drive back into the park. “Ironically, our personal vehicle is an old Disco 1 with the Tdi engine. It rattles along, it’s called Clunky Blue,” says Kingsley. “But there’s no doubt that for comfort and capability, there is nothing that can compare with these new Defenders.” We’re bumping over the dirt tracks of Gorongosa National Park, making our way towards that old pontoon. “Look how you’re sitting, look how she rides, purring along at 1100 revs,” enthuses Kingsley. Supporting his point is the fact that during…

I first met Don Hall in 2010 when the articulated car transporter he was driving back to Solihull from Portugal diverted off the A34 to return my 1970 press launch Velar, which JLR had borrowed for their Range Rover 40th anniversary celebrations. At that time, Don was a full-time member of the Land Rover Experience team led by Roger Crathorne, but I knew that earlier in his career he had been a Land Rover mileage test driver. Our paths crossed again a few years later, and during our conversation I became more and more fascinated by that chapter in his career, and even more so when he told me he had kept daily diaries detailing the vehicles that had been assigned to him, where he had driven them, and any…

EVER-popular brand in the scale 4x4 scene, FMS Model, took the off-road world by storm last year with its 1/24-scale Camel Trophy models. The affordable, ready-to-run and fully licensed micro Land Rovers came with everything you need to get up and running and explore the garage floor, living room or flower bed. They were an instant hit (the company was mobbed by folk young and old when demonstrating them at LRM Live in May…) thanks to great capability, detailed looks and user-friendly format. Good news – the popular micro-class 1/24-scale Camels are now joined by a similarly detailed range of bigger 1/10-scale trucks. Like their smaller stablemates, you can choose from Defender 110, classic Range Rover or Discovery 1 models in the distinctive Camel livery, and the great looks are…

SUPPORTED BY The quality parts for Land Rovers DAWN at the Goodwood estate. The sun is cutting through the leaves of the cork trees and the first workers are trickling in to set up the Festival of Speed. My eyes are not looking at the stately home or the immaculately maintained grounds. I am transfixed on the dashboard waiting for the glow plugs to heat the cylinders. The light goes out. I turn the key and a puff of dark diesel smoke billows from the exhaust and drifts across a row of concours BMWs. The rest of the team arrives carrying water, drones, ranging poles and trowels. We drive through a section of the hill climb track, dodging the telehandlers depositing the safety hay bales. We are heading to a…

SUPPORTED BY BRITPART The quality parts for Land Rovers SIX months ago a friend bought a smart Discovery 4 with low mileage and FSH, and has since spent a fortune putting it right. Buying a used car is always risky. Buy privately and you at least get to know something of the previous owner. You get a feel of whether they’re trustworthy or otherwise, their attitude to the car, and whether they’ve tried to keep it in best condition. This assessment matters because there’s no warranty and little come back on a private sale. Buying from a used car dealer appears safer because there’s a warranty, but unless buying an ‘approved’ used vehicle from a reputable dealer, a warranty may have enough get-out clauses to be of no value –…

SUPPORTED BY BRITPART The quality parts for Land Rovers NEED TO KNOW TIME: 4 hours. COSTS: See below. DIFFICULTY: MODELS: Freelander 2 models 2007-2014. TOOLS NEEDED: General workshop tools, spring compressor, hollow socket (step 6), transmission jack or similar. PARTS LIST: Rear damper top mount x2, LR085485G, £53.33 each. Insulator x2, LR029020, £2.48 each. Anti-squeak pad x2, LR041112 and LR003915, £1.12 each. Anti-vibration bush x2, LR041112, £119.47 each. Bump-stop x2, LR001137, £8.27 each. Boot x2, LR073344, £18.82. Spring seat washer x2, LR006984, £13.99 each. Damper, LR0399178, £71.99. Gasket x2, LR001174, £2.52. Spring x2, LR019981, £49.68 each. Damper, LR0399169, £71.99. Fixings x10, BYH500040, £4.20. Damper nut, LR000055, £1.75. Anti-roll bar drop links x2, £33 each. WORK SAFELY: • Use the right tool for the right job. • Use the correctly rated…

AUSTRALIAN EV conversion specialist Jaunt has taken an unconventional route to showcase its latest electric drivetrain platform – by wrapping it in a heavily patinated 1958 Series II Land Rover. Complete with flaking paint and the original patina left intact, even the fresh ‘Electric’ badging has been artfully aged to match. But don’t let the rugged exterior fool you, because underneath lies a thoroughly modern machine boasting over 1500 new and revised components. Based in Melbourne, Jaunt delivered its first electric Land Rover conversion back in 2021 and has since built four more, refining the technology with each version. The example pictured here is its latest flagship and it’s packed with upgrades. The newly developed electric drivetrain offers a claimed range of up to 249 miles (400km), and customers can…

COMING SOON… A BRAND NEW LAND ROVER EVENT. BRINGING FESTIVAL VIBES AND THRILLING ACTION THAT INCLUDES AN OFF-ROAD COURSE – IT’S THE 2026 EVENT YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS! VISIT bit.ly/lrmevents1 FOR MORE INFORMATION SAVE THE DATE…

IT’S impossible not to be concerned about the current state of the European car industry, which seems to be facing a series of challenges that are leading some commentators to question whether certain well-known brands will survive, at least in their current form. Barely a week goes by without one or other car maker announcing bad news. JLR has recently endured its own special kind of nightmare, of course, following the malicious hack in August that forced it to shut down all its IT systems and halt vehicle production. No doubt in due course we will discover more about exactly how the hackers managed to gain access to JLR’s computer system, but for now we can all be relieved that the company has managed to restart vehicle production, at least…

Ihave new neighbours, and naturally I twitched the curtains to see who was moving in as the stream of pantechnicons arrived. In between the trucks, the new family arrived in a Discovery 4. Things were already looking good, but hanging off the tow hitch was a covered car transporter. I could only wait a few minutes before I decided to take the dog for a walk so I ‘accidentally’ bumped into them and introduced myself. The family are friendly, and the car in the trailer turned out to be a 1971 Ford Escort Twin Cam – a lovely thing but not really my cup of tea. Once we’d finished talking about cars, we got chatting about the process of buying a house and how stressful it is. They had nearly…

KINGSLEY Holgate removes his hat and raises it in a triumphant fist out the driver’s side of his Defender 130. “Jesus, can we make it to land first!” mutters his son, Ross, shaking his head but smiling as he guides the winch through the final critical moments, pulling the old pontoon, Holgate and his partner, Sheelagh to the safety of the riverbank. Just as soon as the tyres of Kingsley’s Defender, the last in a convoy of six, had touched grass, he was out of the car, grinning, thanking the crew aboard the pontoon and calling them in for a picture. About a minute earlier, his vehicle had nearly overshot the decking into the water, but you wouldn’t think it. ‘Using adventure to save and improve lives’ has been the…

THE vehicle you see here is probably one of the best-known and most photographed examples of a preserved police Range Rover. TJA 972X has appeared in numerous books, attended classic car shows and police events, appeared on TV, performed on a music video and escorted the funeral cortèges of 30 police officers, but its story has never been told in full before. Its remarkable survival is due to the persistence, tenacity and vision of 75-year-old retired police Inspector Geoff Taylor, who was associated with the vehicle when it was in service with Greater Manchester Police. I’m meeting Geoff at his home in Bury, before we set off to take photographs of the vehicle. Unfortunately, we have chosen the day when Storm Amy is battering the country with gale-force winds and…

8 MAY 1989 Jay 53 C742 HUH Peak test route, 10-hour shift, 241 miles: No faults. A good vehicle to drive. Note: Jay 53 is the third oldest surviving Jay pre-production vehicle and today is owned by Charles Whitaker. 19 MAY 1989 Jay 57 C862 CEU MIRA, 10-hour shift. 353 miles. engine type Gemini diesel: High speed constant 95mph. No problems. 1 JUN 1989 Jay 16 A711 VHB North test route, 10-hour shift, 398 miles: Not as good as other V8s. Sluggish on take-off. Drops out of fifth gear. Synchromesh faulty from fourth to fifth. Seats need more adjustment. Wind noise around side windows. Rear wipers on all Jays would be better with intermittent wipe facility. 19 JUN 1989 110-127 D540 BDU 10-hour shift, 286 miles, engine type 2.5 diesel:…

SCREWFIX NO NONSENSE DEGREASER £12.99 screwfix.com Tested by: Martin Domoney Owned for: Four months (current bottle) I degrease a lot of stuff, and for years Screwfix’s No Nonsense degreaser was a cheap, effective way of melting years of caked-on grime from any Land Rover engine bay or component that needed a clean-up. Unfortunately, it seems they’ve changed the recipe, as my latest bottle isn’t nearly as potent as the previous ones. The bottle gives instructions on diluting it, but I’ve always dolloped it on neat, agitated with a brush, waited a few minutes, scrubbed again and rinsed. The previous blend (I’m sure it used to be clear, this one has a yellowish tinge) would cut through oil and muck without breaking a sweat, but the stuff I bought a few…

DEFENDER 110 DCPU A few months back I wrote into LRM about a big adventure to collect my dream 110 double cab pick-up from the very top of Scotland and drive it home to the south coast of England. My question was regarding what I needed to take with me, and Martin and Steve answered it on The LRM Podcast. My adventure began when I took the train up to Wick in Scotland, a 22-hour journey which included the Caledonian Sleeper. The seller, David, kindly collected me at the station in Wick in his daily 90 and we set off to his croft for a cuppa and to check out the 110. I was smitten the moment I clapped eyes on the DCPU; it was my favourite colour (Bonatti Grey), with…

SUPPORTED BY BRITPART The quality parts for Land Rovers NEED TO KNOW TIME: One day. COST: See below. DIFFICULTY: MODELS: RHD 90, 110 and Defender (pre-TDCi). TOOLS NEEDED: Socket set, spanners, hammer, chisel, impact driver, drill and bits, wire brush, vacuum cleaner, riveter and rivets, closed-cell foam, contact adhesive. PARTS AND COSTS: • Uprated heater fan kit £172.99; Heater intake seal £9.99. Boltonbits.co.uk • Standard heater matrix (early, AAP817) £41.39; OE bulkhead gasket (STC952) £27.49. Jgs4x4.co.uk • Uprated heater matrix £296.40. Allisport.co.uk • Camping mat £5. Halfords.com WORK SAFELY: Wear the correct PPE at all times, and support the vehicle securely on rated equipment. Wear eye protection when drilling and riveting. ONE of the most common gripes about Defenders is the heater. And actually, when they’re in proper working order,…

Limited Edition Land Rover Monthly Collectors’ Diecast set Limited Edition  Only 250 available – each uniquely numbered – once they’re gone, they’re gone! The gift that keeps on giving! RRP: £49.99 Order today for just £80 and guarantee Christmas delivery – bit.ly/lrmxmas25 Or call 01778 392033 quoting LRM/XMAS25 Offer open to UK residents for limited time, while stocks last. Order before 29 November 2025 to ensure delivery before Christmas. Scan me…

IN a world where once-trusted commercial 4x4s have softened into lifestyle SUVs and pseudo-premium playthings, there’s a growing void where the true utility vehicle used to be. With Land Rover stepping away from its rugged Defender roots, and the Ineos Grenadier failing to deliver meaningful payload capacity, fleets and field operators are left asking: what now? That’s the question Munro Vehicles has built its business around. And according to CEO Russ Peterson, the answer isn’t complicated – it’s just been ignored. “From the ground up, this vehicle is a commercial truck. Not a softened SUV with the seats ripped out and tinted windows. It’s built to work, and to keep working.” Where the new Defender has gone luxury-first and the Grenadier has found a following among owner-drivers with light commercial…

1:10 SCALE CAMEL TROPHY MODELS £389.99 website: fmshobby.com Who wouldn’t want a Camel Trophy Land Rover in their collection? You can make that dream a reality even if you don’t have room for the real thing on your drive with one of these 1:10 scale radio control models. You can choose from Discovery 1, classic Range Rover and Defender/One Ten – and all feature realistic kit, roof racks, lights, etc, on top of a two-speed chassis. Check out the full first look in the Scale Matters section on page 76 of this issue. LOAD BIN MOUNTING KIT £385.08 website: expedition-equipment.com Make a neat job of fitting a roof tent to your Land Rover’s rear tub or trailer with the Eezi-Awn Load Bin Mounting Kit. This kit provides ample space for…

IN a Tube strike-stricken London, he who has a car is king, or can at least get around somewhat better than much of the rest of the capital. Except that, with everyone forced above ground onto the road – specifically the main roads, thanks to the idiotic Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – the traffic is phenomenal, with people literally fighting for standing room on a bus. I support the right to strike but the main reason for this crippling five-day strike – to try reducing the working week of Transport for London’s workforce from 35 to 32 hours – is a bit much by anyone’s standards. Especially when the hardest hit are those whose daily grind involves manual work which cannot be done from home and for many of whom a…

Cleared out IT’S done. As I type these words, I’m sitting at the kitchen table in a lovely holiday cottage on the border between England and Wales. My tools, equipment and parts are scattered across four different locations, I have a notebook beside me full of plans and ideas for how I will configure my new engine-building workshop, and Dave’s new tenant is busy rearranging my old workshop to suit his hog roast catering business. The only sign that Land Rovers were ever repaired in the Norfolk Garage is an empty oil drum which I forgot to give to Jesse the scrap man. It has been a long hard slog to reach this point, relentless ten- or eleven-hour days, six and sometimes seven days a week since mid-August when I…

BOOKS FILM ROLES • LAND ROVER FRANCE P38A LAUNCH VIDEO: French actor, dressed as an English country gent, drives his French-registered P38A around the Pennines, encountering different classic Range Rovers. Whilst dressed as the Pontiff in the rear of the Range Rover Popemobile he is pulled over for speeding by a GMP classic Vogue SE and 972X • RED RIDING: Channel Four trilogy loosely based on the Yorkshire Ripper story • BBC NORTHWEST TONIGHT: Vehicle used for three days covering the first elections for Police & Crime Commissioners • MUSIC VIDEO: Vehicle used to chase a Ford Zephyr down country lanes in Cheshire filmed by an overhead drone • BORDERLAND, renamed DEAD SHOT: Sky Films production about the IRA bombing the London Underground, filmed (strangely) in Edinburgh MODELS…

MY drive today takes me past JLR’s global parts centre, Mercia Park, located just off the A42 in Leicestershire. As I drive by, I notice the site is absolutely silent. As I write, we are in the middle of the JLR cyber attack, which has been widely covered in the mainstream news. As a result of this, JLR cannot supply parts to its dealer network or specialists. The physical impact of this is obvious looking onto Mercia Park this morning. There are no lorries going in or out, and the gates are firmly closed. Normally the site is awash with logistics lorries moving backwards and forwards constantly, but today it’s as quiet as Christmas Day. Let’s hope the situation is resolved quickly for everyone involved. My journey continues a little…

SUPPORTED BY BRITPART The quality parts for Land Rovers I feel it’s high time I updated these pages with the progress that has been made on my project Ninety – or should it now be Defender 90, due to the number of new parts fitted? Anyway, when I say progress, I mean money spent as there seems to have been a fair amount of it leaving my pocket of late. If you are familiar with the build, the original strip-down began way back when Covid was a thing and the country was in lockdown, the sun shone and before I knew it, I had worked my Halfords socket set to death, along with the sporadic use of the angry spanner, aka the angle grinder, and the result was a pile…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Call for a free quote on 01480 484 803 November 5 SERIES I, II, III CLUB NEW FOREST PUB MEET The Fox and Goose, Coombe Bisset, Salisbury series123club.co.uk/newforest/index.html November 7-9 CLASSIC MOTOR SHOW 2025 NEC, Birmingham necclassicmotorshow.com/ November 8-9 THE NEWARK VINTAGE TRACTOR & HERITAGE SHOW Newark Showground, Coddington, Newarknewarkvintagetractorshow.com/ November 9 TYNDALE ROUTE B Hartside Top to Hexhamuklandroverevents.com/events.htm LAND ROVERS OUT OF LONDON GOODWOOD BREAKFAST MEET Goodwood Motor Circuit, Chichester, West Sussexlandroversoflondon.com/products/lrl-goodwood November 15-16 BHCLRC TWINEY WOOD TRIAL Twiney Woods, near Standon, Ware bhclrc.org.uk/events/twiney-woodstrial/ November 16 THE ARMISTICE INTERCLUB CCV Brotherton Trials Site, Fairburn, North Yorkshire ylroc.co.uk/events November 20 RED ROSE LAND ROVER CLUB BLACKPOOL LIGHTS RUN Blackpool landroverclub.co.uk/event-detailsregistration/rrlrc-blackpool-lightsrun-2025 November 22-23 MROC TYRO/RTV AND CCV TIMED TRIAL Newman’s Quarry, near Moreton-in-Marsh mroc.co.uk/calendar November 23 WENSLEYDALE ROUTE…

SUPPORTED BY BRITPART The quality parts for Land Rovers NEED TO KNOW TIME: 11 hours. COST: £5888.40. DIFFICULTY: MODELS: Defender 90, 110, 130 TDCi. TOOLS NEEDED: Vehicle lift, spanners, socket wrenches, jigsaw, drill, hole saw, wire strippers, wire crimpers, heat gun. PARTS LIST: TDCi Defender Automatic Gearbox Conversion Kit. £5888.40. Ashcroft Transmissions Ltd. WORK SAFELY: • Wear protective gloves and steel capped safety boots when handling heavy objects. • Wear eye protection when using compressed air lines and electric power tools. • Ensure raised vehicle is stable and secure. • Wear a bump cap. CONTACT: Ashcroft Transmissions Ltd. Tel: 01582 496040. Email: conversions@ashtrans.com Completing the electronics and interior fittings In this final episode, Trevor wires up the auto box and installs the gearshift and centre console THE ZF 4HP22EH automatic…

How long have you owned it? Nearly a year. I change Land Rovers regularly, as I’m often reminded by my friends. What made you want to buy this particular Land Rover? With having dogs and needing to tow trailers and our caravan, going camping and having a busy family life, it seemed like the right vehicle to have for our lifestyle. The utility body is ideal for what we need. What’s the story so far? Before the 110, I had a Td5 90 challenge truck that I bought (amongst other Land Rovers) with the intentions of getting back into off-roading, but with work and family it never happened and the 90 just sat in my work’s yard looking sorry for itself. The 90 and my wife’s Volvo were sold (as she stole…