Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2015 i Land Rover Monthly

LAND ROVER has unveiled a series of low and zero-emission powertrain technologies. The marque’s latest innovations come from the Concept_e division of JLR, with a high performance, electric drive module (eDM), capable of producing twice the power and torque of any electric motor-generator in production today. The eDM system was revealed alongside a series of other technologies at this year’s CENEX Low Carbon Vehicle event, held at the Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedfordshire. Concept_e is a two year £16.3m research project part-funded by the UK Government, and has helped see JLR become one of the leading UK researchers into green technology. Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “This is a long-term Jaguar Land Rover research project exploring all aspects of future hybrid and battery electric…

WHO WANTS DISCO SPORT? I am somewhat bemused by the Discovery Sport, having just seen one in the flesh. This is a rural farming country. No one wants an MPV, those are for yuppies taking their offspring 20 yards to school; here we need pick-ups, LWB or SWB, that can carry bales of hay, sheep and tow trailers across fields deep in mud. Only one product currently fits that scenario and that is ceasing production with seemingly nothing in the pipeline. Gerry McGovern may well have designed generically shaped upmarket vehicles, but he is deluded if he thinks those designs will translate into what farmers need. For the past ten years or more customers have been switching to double cab pick-ups such as the Hi Lux and Nissan because they…

How many Land Rovers does it take to make a Bond film? Well, in the case of Spectre, due to be released on October 26, it took ten Defenders and seven Range Rover Sport SVRs, plus five full-time staff to look after them and no fewer than seven container-loads of spares. In Spectre, the bad guys drive an SVR and two Defenders in formation, through a snow-ridden forest and down twisty, icy Alpine passes. They chase down a light plane, which eventually crashes through a building and into one of the Defenders, and get attacked by a helicopter gunship. The driving will have you on the edge of your seats, and it’s reassuring – but daunting – to know that all the stunts are real, without the use of CGI.…

Some folk look back through rose-tinted specs and say their schooldays were the best days of their lives. To that I can only surmise that their social life must have been pretty ropey. I saw time spent in the classroom as time wasted when I could have been outdoors, doing something much more interesting. That may have had something to do with where I went to school. In the Norfolk backwater where I grew up in the 1960s, education wasn’t taken too seriously – least of all by the headmaster of my village primary school. He wasn’t too bothered about pushing us academically. He reckoned that most boys would end up working on the local farms, just as their fathers and grandfathers had before them. The girls would get married…

Among the many rare Land Rovers we have in the Dunsfold Collection, the most popular with young and old alike is our bright yellow Bertram Mills Circus Series I, which appears to be driven by… an elephant. It was a star turn during the celebratory parade of Land Rovers at the recent Goodwood Revival, where it entertained the crowd by bringing up the rear and veering all over the track as the elephant tried to steer it in vaguely the right direction. Today’s elephant is a glassfibre model and the (human) driver is concealed beneath the rear bodywork, peering out between the elephant’s legs – but from 1959 until the mid-1960s a real elephant called Kam was the supposed driver. Kam had previously ‘driven’ a converted Willys Jeep when she…

The Rover car company had been building cars in Coventry since 1901, but World War 2 changed its fortunes – the Coventry factory wrecked by the German Luftwaffe's blanket bombing of that city in 1940. However, Rover continued production of aero engines for the war effort at a government shadow factory a few miles away at Solihull, on the outskirts of Birmingham. After the war, Rover bought the Solihull factory and, in 1947, car production resumed. However, post-war Britain was beset by shortages of raw materials, including steel, which was strictly rationed by the government. The country badly needed export earnings, so the lion's share of the steel was allocated to the companies that were selling most of their vehicles abroad. Unfortunately, the Rover company's car designs from the 1930s…

The year 1948 was a great one for motoring in Great Britain. In April the first Land Rovers were unveiled to the world at the Amsterdam Motor Show. We all know what happened after that; it was just the other day that they produced the two-millionth utility Land Rover. Then in September of 1948 they held the first post-war motor race meeting at a permanent venue, the West Sussex-based Goodwood Motor Circuit. The circuit owes its origins to the former RAF Westhampnett, which served as a base during the Battle of Britain. They say that over 15,000 spectators attended that first postwar race. The reason for this great turnout was simple: the British public was starved of live motorsport as the Brooklands circuit had closed down almost a decade before.…

Most of us greenlaners are keen outdoor enthusiasts and are always drawn to wild and beautiful landscapes, but unfortunately these areas are getting increasingly difficult to reach with more tracks being closed and as a result leaving fewer remote areas to explore. Luckily in the north-west of Ireland this is not the case with an abundance of remote Greenlanes waiting to be explored in the gem that is County Donegal. Donegal is famous for its rugged mountains and rough pasture that cover seventy per cent of the county with remote tracks that meander through a staggering 1.2 million acres or five hundred hectares of remote land. This stunning part of Ireland with its lake-filled valleys, unpolluted seas, vertical sea cliffs, expansive windswept moorland, craggy coastline and sandy beaches, is an…

OCTOBER 15 - 18 Romania – 100-Tracks Extreme Driving & Navigation Event, Buzau, Romania www.100tracks.net OCTOBER 16 – 18 Germany – Badisches Allradtreffen All-Wheel Drive Meeting Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany www.4-active.de OCTOBER 18 All Wheel Drive Club Trial, Corwen, North Wales www.allwheeldriveclub.net OCTOBER 18 Buchan Off Road Drivers Club CCV Trial Lumsdon, Aberdeenshire www.bordc.co.uk OCTOBER 18 Cornwall & Devon LRC Comp Safari, Saltash, Cornwall www.cdlrc.com OCTOBER 18 Dorset Land Rover Club Driving Day Matchams, Hampshire http://dorsetrover.co.uk OCTOBER 18 Isle of Man Four Wheel Drive Club, Mylcheest Challenge Event www.4x4.im OCTOBER 18 Lincolnshire LRC CCV Trial, South Thoresby, Lincs www.llrc.co.uk OCTOBER 18 Midland Rover Owners Club RTV & CCV Trial, Croft Farm www.mroc.co.uk OCTOBER 18 North Somerset Land Rover Club Laning Trip, Wye Valley www.nslrc.org OCTOBER 18 Viking Four Wheel Drive Club Odyssey…

DAVE PHILLIPS EDITOR DISCOVERY 1 YEAR: 1996 MILEAGE: 144,000 POWER: 111 bhp TORQUE 195 lb-ft MPG: 25 On September 13, 1931, half a million spectators lined the shores of the Solent in Hampshire to witness a British seaplane win the coveted Schneider Trophy. It was a Supermarine S6.B piloted by John Boothman from nearby RAF Calshot and it achieved a world record speed of 380 mph over the triangular course. Among the crowd that day was a local lad who had celebrated his 14th birthday a month earlier. In those days, even motor cars were a rarity around his home in the New Forest, so you can imagine the thrill of witnessing great seaplanes roaring past at almost 400 mph. There and then he decided he would one day join…

TREVOR CUTHBERT CONTRIBUTOR DISCOVERY TD5 YEAR: 2004 MILEAGE: Unknown POWER: 0 bhp (Engine in the boot) TORQUE See above MPG: 22 Any interest in a D2 with no engine, Trevor?” This was the call from my friend Frank at Jamison Land Rover Specialists (JLS). Frank phones me from time to time, if he has a trade car in that he thinks I might be interested in. Just like the cracking wee Defender 90 300Tdi that I had from him recently, which actually turned out to be too good to be a donor for a project that I have in mind. Now, what would I want with an engine-less Discovery 2, you might ask, when I already have a perfectly good one? The key thing for me was that the vehicle…

ED EVANS • General workshop tools TIME 3 HOURS COST FROM £330 DIFFICULTY RATING The sunroof on this Freelander has let a lot of water in over the years, even though it was just an occasional drip. Despite checking the sunroof’s drain lines, fitting a new seal to the glass and re-aligning the roof, the steady drip continued when the rain and wind suited. The result was a heavily corroded internal frame on the underside of the glass, and it led to the replacement of the lift mechanisms on both sides purely because the screws were too rusted to be removed. It’s another example of how prompt and more complete maintenance can save much time and money later. This extra work caused by the corrosion problems means that this feature…

TREVOR CUTHBERT • Tools: 13 mm socket wrench or spanner, 17 mm spanner, 21 mm spanner or adjustable wrench, brake cleaner spray TIME 2 HOURS COST £138 DIFFICULTY RATING The fuel system on the Td5 Defender and Discovery 2 is more complicated than the earlier diesel engine variations – the 200 Tdi and 300 Tdi. The system is under much higher pressure, and includes a fuel cooler to cool the unused fuel returning from the engine to the tank. This more complex, high pressure system has more chance of developing problems in older vehicles, and fuel can eventually leak from a number of areas. Thankfully, repair is uncomplicated, although replacing a fuel pressure regulator on the side of the cylinder head can be tricky, given the confined working space. Soon…

THE MOTORING world is going greener by the day, and with Land Rover’s latest car, we think they’ve cracked it with a new model that produces zero emissions (without cheating, as well). Solihull’s finest have created a special collector’s Defender pedal car concept, ahead of a full production model that will go on sale in spring 2016. The concept car was unveiled at Frankfurk Motor Show, with Land Rover unveiling it in tribute to 67 years of the Defender, and ahead of its final months of production. The exclusive Defender pedal car is hand built in the UK and styled to commemorate the legacy of the first-ever pre-production Land Rover affectionately known as ‘Huey’, thanks to its original number plate, HUE 166. Featuring an aluminium chassis, the concept features exquisite…

THIS YEAR’S UK Rhino Charge race has raised over £3000 for charity, it has been confirmed. The 2015 event, which took place at the Slindon Safari 4x4 Centre in West Sussex, in September, saw hundreds of competitors taking part. Together they raised a total of £3325 for the Kenyan-based Rhino Ark charity. Ian Purcell took the win for Team Tusker in his Toyota Land Cruiser this year, but green oval honours were saved by Vishal Shah, who came second for Team Crawler in his Range Rover bobtail pick-up The Rhino Ark initiative aims to protect the wildlife and ecosystems of Kenya.…

Last month I left you halfway through our Billing 2015 adventure so without any more ado... David and Chris Pickles are old Billing pals – known to that select group of people who have replaced the Range Rover Classic upper tailgate with David’s design made from alli. It came as a bit of a shock, therefore to find them on The Paintman stand and to discover that they’ve sold the tailgate business and bought this after the last bloke wanted to retire. All the kit you need for painting your Land Rover with proper paint in the proper manner – and they’re a right nice couple, too. They have a range of Series body panels as well. There are a lot of nice people involved in Land Rovers aren’t there...…

Do enthusiasts of other car makes also give their car names like so many of us Land Rover owners do? It seems to me that it’s very common within the Land Rover movement. Looking back at the Land Rovers I’ve owned over the years, their names do tell an interesting story. My first was a Range Rover Classic and it was named Doc because of its DKL reg plate. Then came Naddy my offroader with its NAD reg plate. Are we silly or what? Doc was replaced with another Classic four-door, which I called Jim because of its JIW reg plate. Some of my so-called friends called it the ringer, as it was on a 1973 chassis, the body panels were all odd, it had alloy wheels, a 300Tdi engine…

The Special Vehicle Operations division of Jaguar Land Rover and the Supacat division of SC Group both chose this year's biennial Defence Security & Equipment international (DSEi) military expo at ExCel in London's Docklands, for the global launches of unique vehicles. JLR's Range Rover Sentinel is the first armoured Land Rover to be fully engineered in-house by Special Vehicle Operations, previous armoured Range Rover designs having been contracted out. The Supacat LRV 400 Mk2 is a Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, which has taken the rolling chassis and automotive systems from the Land Rover Discovery and adapted them for specialist military applications. The Sentinel, which has a price tag of 400,000 euros, is based on the standard wheelbase Range Rover Autobiography, but at its core has a specially-developed six-piece armoured passenger cell…

It’s an assault on the senses. The sirens fill the air, intermittently pierced with intelligence coming over the radio channel, and the blue and red lights are reflecting off the vehicles that almost look like they’re standing still as we pass them. We reach the limits of the 3.0 V6 twin-turbo diesel, and whilst I’ve experienced faster on track, hurtling down a motorway, parting mid-afternoon traffic in something that weighs the best part of three tonnes is unnerving. Still, I’m giggling like an idiot and trying to capture the moment on camera, as I shout “it’s a good job I’m not a nervous passenger,” to which PC Darren Chapman replies, “and it’s good job I’ve done this before.” That’s probably somewhat of an understatement having been on the roads policing…

Where Donegal is one of the largest counties in Ireland at 85 miles long and 41 miles wide with many islands. It covers an area of 1.2 million acres (c.500,000 hectares). Two-thirds of the land consists of rough pasture and upland bog between 600 and 2000 feet above sea level. Getting There There are plenty of ferry services from the UK, including P&O ferries that run three sailings per day from Liverpool to Dublin. Other routes include Holyhead (Wales) to Dublin and there are also several ferries to Northern Ireland from the UK. Weather The North Atlantic drift brings warm waters, giving Donegal a temperate climate even at these northern latitudes. The best weather is often had at the end of April, beginning of May and again at the start…

If there’s one thing that unites kids and adults alike, it’s the love of remote controlled vehicles. They just have a mass appeal that draws people of all ages in; and the more realistic a remote control vehicle is the better. And To-Jo is achieving just that, bringing a product that is completely unique to the market. As well as a chassis that responds to rugged terrain in the same way a full sized Land Rover does together with a 1:10 composite body shell; their mechanical capability and level of detail will blow you away. It’s been a long and arduous journey to get to this stage however, as I found out after meeting with Company Director, Tom Lever, whose affiliation with the Green Oval goes well beyond his career.…

In a place called Tembe Elephant Park one might expect that the mighty pachyderm reigns supreme, yet it is the diminutive dung beetle that holds right of way. Their ignoble job of tidying up after 220 elephants is often under-appreciated, yet their unseen labours are essential to the health of the eco-system Tucked into a northeastern corner of South Africa along the border with Mozambique, the park is a hidden gem of nature and is unknown even to many South Africans. Solitude and ruggedness make the place special and the bumpy drive to reach its sandy forests is definitely worthwhile. The park has strong ties to the local Land Rover community. Each year staff host six fundraising events during which clubs are invited to visit and see Tembe in ways…

PATRICK CRUYWAGEN DEPUTY EDITOR DISCOVERY 2 GS YEAR: 2001 MILEAGE: 120 000 ENGINE: Td5 POWER: 136 bhp TORQUE: 232 lb-ft MPG: 28 Just when you thought Land Rover could not get any more technologically advanced, they invite you to the Burghley Horse Trials to show you an invisible trailer. If somebody told you 20 years ago we would be towing invisible trailers you probably would have had them admitted to the loony bin. Fast forward to 2015 and this was just one of the two technologies we got to see in action and try out for ourselves. The second was something they call the Cargo Sense App, this allows the driver to remotely monitor what is going on in their trailer via a smartphone app. In other words it can…

DAVE ROGERS • Test lamp, digital multi-meter TIME 1-8 HOURS COST TIME ONLY DIFFICULTY RATING A Land Rover’s electrical system performs an essential task – distributing power to all the necessary subsystems required for safe operation of the vehicle. Without it, the vehicle won’t actually do anything much at all. However, from a repair point of view it is one of the areas that is most often avoided. Electrics are sometimes considered mystical and many owners avoid even attempting to tackle an electrical fault or upgrade. This need not be the case because electrical faults are often due to a simple root cause that can be easily identified with a logical diagnostic process. Modern vehicle systems can be complicated, especially when you start getting ECUs, electronic sensors, actuators and controllers…

PERSEVERING WITH THE V8 Q Thank you sending me the information on swapping my 1990 Range Rover’s 3.9-litre V8 petrol engine for a 200Tdi (LRM Q&A November issue). The reason I inquired was because my Range Rover has been dry stored for around ten years and I have only recently put it back on the road. When I started the Range Rover after replacing the spark plugs, fuel filter and checking the timing, I found that when starting from cold the engine runs, but then cuts out. However, if I heat up the engine by pressing the throttle excessively it runs fine, but when it is idling it cuts out again. What do you think would cause this? I have also changed the airflow sensor. I would keep this original…

SEND US YOUR SHOTS Let us know what you’ve been up to – email patrick@lrm.co.uk…

In recent years diesels have surged in popularity – they are more efficient compared to a petrol engine of equivalent power and produce less C02 emissions, which means they cost less to tax, too. The reason why motorists have been able to enjoy cleaner, greener diesels is mainly due to the introduction of the diesel particulate filter (DPF). In order to meet Euro 5 emission standards, all diesel vehicles made from 2009 onwards required a DPF. A DPF is fitted to the exhaust system and is designed to trap soot and harmful particulates before escaping into the atmosphere. But DPFs aren’t without their drawbacks, and that’s where STP Diesel Particulate Filter Cleaner (£9.99 RRP from Halfords) comes in. For DPFs to work properly, the car needs to be driven at…

A chap turned up at the workshop with a Defender 300Tdi Station Wagon, which he had very recently purchased and was planning to take on a trip to the south of France. The vehicle came with a list of jobs which needed doing – a bit of welding, new brake pads, a couple of electrical niggles and a tendency to misfire and smoke when cold. As it happened I was temporarily short of space, and as I had the vehicle for a month I decided to drive it over to the new workshop and store it there. Only a ten mile trip, but by the time I had got there the list of items requiring attention had grown alarmingly. There was so much backlash in the drivetrain that you could…

December 2015 will go down in history as the month that the Defender production lines at Solihull finally fell silent. It is more than just the end of an era, for this is the end of the road for the greatest British motor vehicle ever built. This is the day the real Land Rover – the successor to the Wilks brothers' 1948 original – finally died. It's a very sombre occasion all right. Some might expect me to be wearing a black armband as I write a eulogy to the Defender's demise. But in fact I'm wearing a fond grin as I type these words, because this is no funeral. It's not even a wake to celebrate the life of the dear departed. And that's because Defender is not dead.…

So what does the future hold for Defender? Like I said at the start of this piece, the most iconic Land Rover of all is far from finished. Even in the worst-case scenario – if the unthinkable happens and Defender is not followed by a new model and never built again – you can sleep easy, happy in the knowledge that enthusiasts will keep the existing ones on the road for as long as the world has roads. The value of secondhand Defenders has increased dramatically in recent years due to the huge demand. There is no sign of this demand abating, which means that even tatty old ones which would once have gone to the scrapyard will now be restored. Just like Series Is are now. What about spares…

Born in the dusty wastes of the Californian desert, the no rules concept of King of the Hammers has made its way across to Europe. This was only the second running of the European Ultra4 Championship, with the 2015 events held in Italy, Wales and Portugal this year. The 4x4s used in Ultra 4 racing are just as powerful as a Formula 1 car while their suspension travel is better than that of a Trophy Truck. So going head to head in one of these beasts on an extreme Ultra 4 racing off-road course is definitely not for sissies. Ultra 4 racing is what it says on the tin; the ultimate form of off-road racing. Robb Pritchard reports back on how some of the better-known Land Rovers recently fared in…

THOM WESTCOTT CONTRIBUTOR SIII LIGHTWEIGHT YEAR: 1977 MILEAGE: Debatable, since the speedometer doesn’t always work and I replaced the dial some years ago, inadvertently dropping several thousand miles off the clock. ENGINE: 2.25 POWER: Quite a bit TORQUE: Several lb-ft MPG: Vastly improved! 14 - 16 mpg is the optimum given in handbook, but I like to think I fare slightly better with the overdrive Since being left in charge of the Lightweight, my brother Nick has been taking his job as active guardian very seriously as he sends updates about getting to grips with the idiosyncrasies of my lovely Land Rover. The good news, he tells me in early emails, is that the Lightweight (which he refers to as she) has been running well since he picked it up…

TREVOR CUTHBERT • Tools: General workshop tools TIME 26 DAYS COST £5016 DIFFICULTY RATING The Range Rover project is going very much to plan, with no unforeseen problems. But an undertaking of this magnitude is always going to throw up something unexpected, at some stage. And now we were faced with it. The body shell had been shot blasted ready for us to begin cutting out the bad metal and replacing it by welding in new material. Due to unexpected circumstances, the engineering works that was to refurbish the body shell was unable to go ahead with the project. Andy Webb (the owner of the Range Rover) and I discussed ways to get the project back on track. I then suggested that we talked to a young man who had…

DAVE BARKER • Tools: 10 and 13 mm spanners and sockets, long extension bar, screw driver, E10 Torx bit TIME 1 HOUR COST FROM £70 DIFFICULTY RATING Before power steering, turning the steering wheel could be a test of strength. Early Series Land Rovers have a relatively massive steering wheel just to give the necessary leverage. Power steering changed all that, and today’s steering is light and responsive using a much smaller wheel But when something goes wrong with the steering you notice it straight away as you try to turn the wheel. In addition to the modern power steering box or rack, there is still a much simpler mechanical link in the steering system, little changed from the old days. On the Discovery 3 there are three shafts in…

The eVeRLASTING nature of Defenders has always been a big selling point. They uncomplainingly slog on for a long time and, given a little TLC and the replacement of worn parts, will go more or less for ever. For this reason alone, there's never been a better time to buy a Defender. They are not going to depreciate when production ends and, even when the new model appears – reportedly in 2018 – they'll still hold their value. This is unusual in the secondhand car market. Usually, the introduction of a better-spec new model sees prices of the old model tumble. But that won't happen in the case of the Defender because the new model will inevitable be very different to the old one. It won't be replacing like for…

Who did you buy your project Defender from? A diplomat exported it from the UK to Bangladesh in 1999. He later sold it to another diplomat, I then bought it from him in 2013. What condition was it in? It wasn't great. It had loads of dents everywhere, the seats were worn and the rear side passenger doors opened wider than they're designed to, causing damage to the bodywork in the process. Has it given you any mechanical issues? The alternator went after a couple of weeks, and the lights and battery needed replacing. It’s a Land Rover so there will always be small niggles. My friends joke with me and say that I should’ve bought a Toyota, the most popular vehicle here. What has been the toughest part of…