Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i Land Rover Monthly

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE... I AM getting increasingly concerned about the styling of new Land Rover models. Is it my imagination, or are they all beginning to look the same? In fact are all cars beginning to look the same? As a boy in the 1970s I could identify just about every car on the road, at a glance – and so could all my mates. Every car had very distinctive features that made identification a doddle. Not so these days. It’s not for nothing that everyday modern hatchbacks are dismissed as ‘jelly moulds’. Modern car design is very bland and has been since the 1990s, when most manufacturers adopted similar looks. Back then, Land Rover was the odd man out with its Defender, Range Rover, Discovery and Freelander. Each one…

One of the many pitfalls awaiting anyone who works on old Land Rovers for a living is the red herring. This is when a vehicle comes in with a fault, you find and fix a clear and obvious cause for the fault, send the vehicle out and it comes back the next day with the same fault and a rather grumpy owner. Just as I was settling down to write this column, one such red herring turned up in the shape of a 1967 Series IIA, fitted with a 12J non-turbo diesel taken from a military One Ten. The vehicle had been in the previous week to rectify a couple of minor annoyances, namely a non-working horn and an intermittent squeal from the front end which the owner described as…

“There would be two British icons together, both made of aluminium and rivets” Having just given up racing motorcycles, with 40 years of body damage to show for it, my wife decided I needed a new interest to keep me occupied. I had dropped the odd hint about getting a Land Rover but was taken completely by surprise when she got interested in the green oval. It was not long before we found a suitable SWB Series III not far from where we live in Norfolk and, on inspection, looked exactly what we wanted for greenlaning, with all the faults the pundits had flagged up. I was going in with my eyes open, at least. The bodywork had been badly brush-painted and had a good selection of dents – patina…

Since I first set off for Norway in 1982, I had returned 19 times to take in the amazing scenery and culture of this, the most remote of Scandinavian countries. For my twentieth voyage I decided to journey as far north – my aim to reach Nord Kapp (North Cape), the most northerly point in Europe. It wasn’t to be some madcap dash. I wanted to take my time to soak up the atmosphere of the area and allowed six weeks to travel the distance. During previous trips I had come across the Norsk Land-Rover Klubb (NLRK), and after attending a few of their annual meets quickly learnt what a good time they have. The NLRK are an enthusiastic club of around 1500 members spread across this large but sparsely-populated…

DAVID LILLYWHITE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR RANGE ROVER P38 YEAR: 1995 MILEAGE: 120,000 ENGINE: 4.6 V8 MPG: 20 POWER: 221 bhp TORQUE 280 lb-ft Did you read last month’s ‘£1000 challenge’ feature? If so you’ll know that four of us spent our own, hard-earned cash on Discoverys 1 and 2, Freelander and Range Rover P38, and drove them home from Anglesey via Snowdonia greenlanes, Viezu Technologies’ rolling road and the Solihull Land Rover factory. The P38 4.6 HSE is mine – and what a machine for the money! As bought, it had 120,000 miles on the clock, some service history, particularly from its time as a company vehicle for West Yorkshire Foundries (which at one point cast cylinder heads for Rover V8s), later model triple-spoke 18 inch alloys and a spare dashboard...…

TREVOR CUTHBERT CONTRIBUTOR DEFENDER 90 YEAR: 1999 MILEAGE: 143,000 ENGINE: Td5 POWER: 136 bhp TORQUE: 220 lb-ft The Defender 90 Td5 came to me as a convertible (not a traditional soft top), from a good friend of mine who had bought it after it had been accident damaged. Aaron had ideas of repairing the damage and selling the Land Rover again to make some profit, but a house purchase happened sooner than expected and he had to get his cash back pronto. I bought the rather quirky, but sad, truck with no particular idea about what I would do with it – the convertible top wasn’t for me, so it would perhaps become a proper soft top or a hard top. But I left it sitting around a little too…

DAVE BARKER • E-Torx 5, 8 mm, 10 mm, 11 mm spanners and sockets, small pick and posssibly a specially adapted slide-hammer. TIME 2 HOURS COST PRICE £120+ DIFFICULTY RATING The owner of this regularly-serviced Freelander was complaining that the vehicle was juddering and had a misfire, especially when the engine was cold. This could be caused by a number of faults with the fuel system. The vehicle was put on Autologic diagnostic test equipment which revealed a fault with the fuelling and identified number four as not delivering fuel correctly. A new injector was fitted and, when the engine was started, it sounded to be running much smoother. It was reconnected to the Autologic which showed all four injectors now working within excepted parameters, and on a test drive…

DAVE BARKER • General workshop tools, 13mm and 8mm sockets and a torque wrench, plus a 30mm spanner or a large adjustable spanner. TIME 2 HOURS COST PRICE £180+ DIFFICULTY RATING This 2005 Discovery 3 has suffered from a number of well-known faults that have affected certain vehicles, some resulting in engine failures, especially on the early models. However, many vehicles have covered a high mileage, been worked hard and, apart from regular, routine servicing and replacing worn parts (mostly on the suspension) have not suffered any major problems. But the problems of old age, including rust and corrosion are creeping up on the earliest Discoverys (though in traditional Land Rover terms you wouldn’t expect being 12 years old to be an issue). One such corrosion problem affecting Discovery…

Over the years, Land Rover vehicles have proven to be an ideal platform for specialist conversions, serving as both fire engines and ambulances. While most of the conversions are produced by specialist manufacturers, licenced to produce such emergency vehicles, like Carmichael & Sons, initially Land Rover sold its own fire appliances based upon the Series I 80". Originally sold to a Land Rover dealer in Manchester in 1957, David Rosenfield Ltd., this example was then sold to the Cheshire County Fire Brigade as a L4P (light four-wheel driven pump) where it was stationed at Hazel Grove, and later moved to Stalybridge. It is a specialist hi-expansion foam unit, which is rare, and is believed to have been converted to this configuration to meet the need for fire fighting at the…

The Rétromobile Salon in February this year saw the world debut presentation of the next in the Reborn series of expertly sourced and comprehensively restored Classic Land Rovers. Capturing the imaginations of the world’s automotive media at the annual classic car show in Paris, the factory-restored 1978 three-door Range Rover Classic builds on the successful introduction of the Land Rover Series I Reborn project that was introduced last year. Finished in the oh-so-seventies but period correct colour of Bahama Gold, the 3528 cc V8 Zenith-Stromgberg 175CD type engine has been overhauled to develop its original 132 bhp (at 5000 rpm) and 186 lb ft of torque (at 2500 rpm) through a four-speed manual transmission. The new programme, which will restore an initial ten examples of the luxury SUV, gives customers…

Following the success of the Vivaro Siberia Challenge in which three injured ex-soldiers joined Max Adventure on a 12,000 mile overland expedition to Far East Russia, the company has launched Driven to Extremes, an initiative to help more veterans suffering from PTSD. The first expedition, Feel Low, Drive High, is to Europe’s highest village – Ushguli, Georgia, under the peak of Mount Shkhara. This 6000 mile adventure in July will see veterans tackle the stunning passes of the Caucuses Mountains before returning via Stalingrad and Moscow. Fund raising for these adventures includes a 10-day 4x4 Rally in which participants will drive their own vehicles to the most extreme northerly point of the UK – Skaw in the Shetland Islands. Starting at Glencoe and finishing in Inverness, the 10 day trip…

The Velar we know and love had a hose-out interior and a four-speed manual ’box. It was rugged and go-anywhere, full of purpose, but it was a secret – hence the name, taken from the Latin for to veil or hide. It turned into the Range Rover, and hence contributed to Land Rover’s survival and success for the following 40-odd years. Now, a new Velar is out in the open. Of course our instinct is to think it’s another instance of Land Rover going a bit, well, soft. New Defender still hasn’t been seen, and won’t be for another year, and yet here’s another new model that absolutely isn’t a Defender. But this is how Land Rover as a company will survive. New Velar is part of that; plugging a…

1. Alex Firth-Williams and son Fiontan in the Muddus National Park in the Arctic Circle. This was taken while on a trip to see the wreckage of the RAF Lancaster bomber Easy Elsie that crash-landed in October 1944 after a bombing raid on the battleship Tirpitz, which was moored in Norway at the time. 2. Ben Ford enjoying his first-ever laning trip in his Discovery 2. 3. Bill Roberts says that there is no finer vehicle for quantity surveying than a Defender 90. Here he is working away at a wind farm north of Alnwick. 4. While Nick Edwards from Sydney uses his Defender to transport his surfboards, the silly Jeep driver in the background decided to use his vehicle as the surfboard. 5. Landscape photographer Ian Dobbs uses his…

Among the old Land Rovers cluttering up my workshop at the moment is a Series III Lightweight of mid-seventies vintage, much used and modified since the Army disposed of it. As I have mentioned before, I have a soft spot for Lightweights, since one of these slightly awkward-looking beasts was my first ever Land Rover back in the late eighties. The vehicle now in my workshop came in on a trailer, with an ex-Sherpa 2.5 diesel engine under the bonnet which would only start with a tow. The plan was to replace this engine with a 200Tdi, in this case a lowish-mileage one salvaged from a very early Discovery, which had done the usual Discovery thing and fallen to bits around its last owner. The vehicle was dropped off on…

SPRING IS on the way, which reminds me that I really need to get on and finish the restoration of VAC 265, a 1956 Series I 86 station wagon. We have our Open Weekend coming up on June 10-11, which we have now re-christened as The Dunsfold Collection Land Rover Show. I’d like to have the car ready for that, and show it at some other events over the summer, too. The plan is that it will take over duties from our grey 1954 107 pick-up, which has been seen a lot over the last few years. I love the 107, it’s comfortable and it’s quick, but it’s starting to become a bit old-hat now that everyone seems to have one! Where all this interest in the long-wheelbase Series Is…

You’ll almost certainly know plenty about the new, fifth generation Discovery already. Even if you’ve not read LRM’s analysis and early off-road test, you’ll have seen plenty of publicity from Land Rover. Should you care? Yes, even if only because income from the new model will support the Defender replacement, the ‘Reborn’ restoration programme and the drive to produce out-of-stock spares for classics. But you should also care because it’s a Land Rover, and as true to the original Discovery brief as was the 1989 original. It’s still a go-anywhere leisure vehicle, with unprecedented effort having been put into making it comfortable and convenient for the family. But you probably knew that. What none of us knew until now is how it would drive on the road. The Discovery’s world…

“The key is not to go too fast” Go to The Pecanwood Oktoberfest in South Africa and you will get to see Landies leaping as never before. Kwa-Zulu Natal Land Rover Owners Club has been involved in the local outdoor festival (pecanwoodoktoberfest.com) for three years, developing a 4x4 course from scratch so they could put on a show for festival goers and even take them for rides. But the highlight of the event, says Zack de Lange, is when they make a Defender fly. “I purposely built the ramp so that I could use it to jump,” says Zack, owner of the Defender. “Each year I have tweaked the jump, pushing the limits and, of course, reaching greater heights. “I am continuously tweaking the suspension on my Landy, Spyker. Spyker…

Siberia is getting ready for winter. This is evident in the huge piles of firewood stacked neatly outside houses, and many delivery trucks loaded with timber trundling along the perfect Russian Tarmac. With drizzly rain and a chill in the air, we pass the border from Russia to Mongolia with relative ease but we do endure the most thorough search of the car we have received at any border. With smiles and as much banter as we could muster, we oblige to the opening of almost everything. We don't begrudge this, but had become accustomed to the more chilled-out approach. And on to Ulaanbataar (UB), the coldest capital city in the world. It takes me a little while to grasp the rules of the road but we find everything we…

“It is something you might expect if Warhol were chief designer for Jaguar Land Rover” The Miracle Mile, a wide corridor between Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, California, is the address for world class art and historic collections, including the Petersen Auto Museum. The museum was founded by publisher Robert E. Petersen and his wife Margie. The Petersen magazine portfolio included dozens of publications including Motor Trend, Car Craft, Rod and Custom, and Hot Rod, reaching nearly 50 million readers. Since 1949, Petersen publications have laid the foundation for North American speciality car interest. In 2016, the museum featured a vehicle unlike anything seen by even the most avid Land Rover enthusiasts. Post World War II, California was at the heart of a growing interest in testing the limits of…

TIM HAMMOND CONTRIBUTOR RANGE ROVER P38 YEAR: 1997 MILEAGE: 220,000 MPG: 20 POWER: 185 bhp TORQUE 277 lb-ft Well it happened again! After last month’s purchase of an early 1982 four-door Range Rover, I stumbled across another, which I just could not resist. So much for me having a clear out of some of the project vehicles I’d collected! This time it all kicked off when a friend of mine had told me he had a 1986 Classic come in that he was going to break. I needed a few bits for my own 1986 Classic that I use on a daily basis, knowing that many interior items on 1986 cars are unique to that year only. I made him a bid on the complete vehicle. What he then went…

DAVE BARKER CONTRIBUTOR FREELANDER 2 XS YEAR: 2013 MILEAGE: 30,000 ENGINE: TD4 POWER: 148 bhp TORQUE: 310 lb-ft MPG: 32 – 42 Is it me, or does everyone get anxious when they take their Land Rover for its MoT? I know a lot of my friends in Ireland seem to get themselves very stressed when they take their Land Rovers for the annual DOE Test, the CVRT (Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Test). And to be honest I don’t blame them, it seems more intense than the MoT in England and it’s more expensive. The Freelander’s MoT also coincides with the its annual service. In fact, this year that service was due only because it’s a year since the last one rather than mileage (15,000 miles or 12 months). Surprisingly, this year…

Tell us a little about yourself I’m originally from West Yorkshire but I'm now in County Limerick, Ireland, where I am a bespoke Land Rover builder. I’ve been blogging about Land Rovers for the past few years (funrover.com) and in 2015 I received the GOMW Blogger of the Year Award. Tell us about your latest creation This Defender was sourced for a customer who wants me to create the ultimate summer beach Defender. He obviously lives somewhere warm and sunny. It will be a fun build. How did you source it? It was parked down the road from my workshop. It is a German Defender that was imported into Ireland some years ago. It has not moved for the last four years. The chassis is in excellent condition so I…

A giant, multinational company is pressing ahead with plans to design and build a rugged 4x4, following the demise of the Defender last year. INEOS – a £35 billion turnover chemical company – announced the idea of a rugged 4x4 in summer of 2016: “I am a great admirer of the old Land Rover Defender and have enormous respect for its off-road capability,” said Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS Chairman, (pictured right) “and our new 4x4 has been inspired by it. But while our off-roader might share its spirit, our new car will be a major improvement on previous models.” Now, following a six month study, INEOS is pushing ahead with its plan to create the new car. It says it is now talking to its potential customers to ensure it builds…

Nearly two weeks after a film-style heist at Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull plant four men aged 29, 40, 47 and 56 were arrested. The gang had struck shortly after 10.30pm on Tuesday, January 31, by driving through manned security gates in a stolen HGV lorry and in full view of security cameras, before leaving with a trailer full of engines in less than six minutes. Astonishingly, the same lorry returned some hours later and hooked up to another trailer to steal more engines. The engines reportedly worth £3 million were seized at locations in Kingsbury Road, Minworth, and Bermuda Industrial Park, in Nuneaton, on Monday, police said, and will be forensically examined by specialist officers. JLR said it was offering a reward for information about the theft. The plant was…

FROM: £319.95 BUCKET SEATS Heavy duty leather bucket seats with dual reclining mechanism. These comfortable seats have a width of 54 cm across the base and backrest while standing nearly a metre tall. Suitable for all Defender models except County and pick-up. bbclassics.co.uk PRICE: £47.50 WING TOP VENTS Give your Defender a more stylish look with these wing top vents. Also available in silver with black mesh. Other Defender enhancements available in Britpart’s XS range including wing mirrors and air intake grilles. britpart.com FROM: £18.40 GEOMET COATED BRAKE DISCS Geomet has become the standard treatment finish for the surface of a brake disc. During the process, its surface is coated with a special water-based solution only eight microns thick. So no need worry when applying the brakes of your heavy…

“I was lucky enough to be there, witnessing the end of an important chapter in Land Rover’s history” I remember it like it was yesterday, except it was 365 days ago, to be exact. January 29, 2016 was the day Land Rover Defender production officially ceased. The day that the world just could not get enough of Defenders. When you turned on the radio or TV everyone seemed to be talking about the much-loved British and global icon. At exactly 9.22 am, the final Defender, a Grasmere Green soft-top 90, left the Solihull production line. It was number 2,016,933 to be produced. Incredibly number 2,000,000 had sold for £400,000, a month earlier. The Defender line workers and media cheered. I was lucky enough to be there, witnessing and celebrating the…

“If car marques were a corps in the army, then Land Rovers would be the infantry” I have been off-roading on this mud island for a tad over four years now. In that time I have never ever visited a pay and play site. So when my good mate Stu Pickering, the Shropshire GLASS rep, invited me to join him and the lads at the Cyfannedd Woods 4x4 site, I jumped at the opportunity. The site lies on the west coast of Wales. Life is all about new experiences. Well that’s my philosophy anyway. Wales is one of my favourite parts of the UK; well, just like me, the locals love both rugby and singing. Plus, if you’re into your outdoor pursuits, the place is like a home away from…

"I learnt to drive in a Series II when only nine years old" One can be forgiven for thinking that Martin Gregory has it all. He is a Lead Instructor at the Land Rover Experience Eastnor, set in the magnificent Malvern Hills and gorgeous grounds of the imposing Eastnor Castle. With over 30 miles of tracks for Martin to instruct and play on, the place is like heaven on earth for off-roading fans. So what do you get a man, who already has it all, for his 40th birthday? Martin’s wife Claire got it spot on when she bought him the very same G4 Range Rover that he used to drive the film crew around in on the 2006 Land Rover G4 Challenge in Thailand and Laos. The Land Rover…

After the annual ALRC National Rally, the most popular club events are the Interclub sessions run over the Bank Holidays by various clubs. They give club members the opportunity to compete against members from other clubs. For noncompetitive members, it’s the opportunity to meet up and socialise with friends made over many years from other clubs. One of the most popular Bank Holiday Interclubs, is run by the North Wales Land Rover Club over the August Bank Holiday. Last year’s Interclub was a massive success and once again the plans for 2017’s Interclub is well in hand. In fact, it looks set to be as successful as ever, attracting members from the ALRC club around the country. And with the Comp Safari being an open event, it will attract competitors…

TREVOR CUTHBERT • General workshop tools, brake flaring tool and brake pipe cutting tool. TIME 1 DAY COST £60 DIFFICULTY RATING When building with a new chassis, all holes are already drilled to the correct diameter and threaded holes are re-tapped to remove excess zinc. This saves a tremendous amount of time compared to a restored and re-galvanised chassis where removing excess zinc from plain and tapped holes delays the bolting of parts and components. The holes on this chassis are pre-drilled for the fuel pipes and chassis wiring loom, and having carefully saved the original clips and fasteners, refitting these items is straightforward. Each of the three systems covered here – the fuel system, the chassis wiring loom and the brake pipes – are in close proximity with each…

Having the right tools for the job always put you at an advantage, and that is no truer than where sockets sets are concerned. Being a Land Rover enthusiast, you probably find that switching between imperial and metric tools is inevitable and, at times, frustrating. For example, we’ve all used 13mm sockets and spanners on 1/2-inch nuts and bolts, and vice versa. So which way do you jump? A set of each? Or a hybrid set, capable of tackling both imperial and metric safely and confidently? Imperial sockets sets have diminished in range and scope in recent years as the march of metric continues. But it is still possible to find top-quality imperial sets at affordable prices. Metric sets have evolved too, to meet the ever-increasing need for tools capable…

Building a special Land Rover doesn’t have to cost the earth. We saw that last year when we ran a series of features about transforming a battered farm truck Defender 90 TDCi into a bespoke and personalised masterpiece of a machine. The initial cost of that vehicle, plus the price of a good respray and a set of Sawtooth alloys transformed it from a hacked pickup truck into one of the most competent Defenders around. The trick here, though, is that you don’t need to do all of those mods and improvements to make a special Land Rover – somewhere between a set of polished gear lever knobs and a four grand set of Corbeau seats is a budget-fitting level that we can all aspire to. MASTER PLAN THAT FARM…