Land Rover Monthly November 2018

Brits will remember the summer of 2018 as the one that just kept on giving us great weather. According to our very accurate Met Office it was the hottest-ever summer for England and the joint-hottest-ever for the entire UK. Maybe Canadian rocker and former Defender owner Bryan Adams should do a remake of his Too Hot to Handle hit and call it ‘The Summer of 2018’? Call it what you like – it was a great time to be alive in Britain. The hot days just went on and on and on. I had to look at my GPS several times to confirm that I was still in England. While all my mates were jetting off on their exotic summer holidays to Greece, Cyprus and the beaches of Spain, I…

THE OFFSET rear plate on the new Discovery has certainly split opinion. Did Gerry McGovern leave that bit to the office junior? Apparently not, as he was quoted by AutoExpress as saying: “You know what part of the problem is with that offset plate? It depends on what number plate you put on it. And it was designed for a slimmer number plate.” The asymmetry might be a deliberate nod to the Discoverys of the past, but the number plate was offset on those old Discos for a practical reason, with the other side of the tailgate taken up by the spare wheel, and on the new one without that, well, it just looks, odd. Fortunately if you fancy a new Disco, but can’t look beyond the rear plate, a…

CONTINUING ITS 70th anniversary celebrations, Land Rover visited a remote location deep in the Indian Himalayan region known as the ‘Land of Land Rovers’. The rural community in West Bengal sits at an altitude of 3636 metres and is reliant on a fleet of 42 well-maintained Series Land Rovers dating back as far as 1957. Land Rover has released a film that highlights the spectacular 31 km journey made often by residents of Maneybhanjang to Sandakphu for their means of living. Towering gradients, rock-strewn pony tracks and treacherous weather are just some of the hazards faced on a daily basis by the residents and their Land Rovers on the journey to the hilltop village. Watch the film here and see page 108 for more: https://youtu.be/YNXU1IR2LR8 .…

BOWLER, BEST known for building extreme versions of the Defender, have teased a short video of their new road car – and it too clearly looks like a Defender. Unlike many modifiers of Land Rover products, Bowler’s offerings are so special that they created a brand partnership with the car manufacturer six years ago. According to carsuk.net Bowler aren’t revealing much about the new car, but they do say it’s set to be officially launched in October (in time for the Paris Motor Show?), and that it will be built on Bowler’s Cross Sector Platform, already used to good effect on the Bowler Bulldog. The video suggests that there is a V8 under the bonnet (the same 400 bhp engine from the Defender V8 Works?) and that it could come…

LAND ROVER has erected an very shiny art installation in central London in support of the Tusk Rhino Trail wildlife conservation charity. The 1.2-metre-long rhino sculpture was towed into Trafalgar Square using a new Discovery. The unique liquid metal finish model is part of an initiative involving 21 sculptures installed at prominent locations across the capital to raise awareness of the plight of the rhino, culminating in the celebration of World Rhino Day on September 22. Each of the rhinos will be sold to raise funds for Tusk projects across Africa at an auction hosted by Christie’s on October 9. Land Rover has been an official partner of the Tusk charity for 15 years, helping them reach some of the world’s most remote locations.…

JAGUAR LAND Rover has fitted virtual eyes to self-driving intelligent pods to understand how humans will trust self-driving vehicles. The ‘eye pods’ help work out how much information future self-driving cars should share with users or pedestrians to ensure that people trust technology. Current research studies show that 63 per cent of pedestrians and cyclists say they’d feel less safe sharing the road with a self-driving vehicle. The pods run autonomously on a fabricated street scene in Coventry, while the behaviour of pedestrians is analysed as they wait to cross the road. The ‘eyes’ have been devised by advanced engineers, working in JLR’s Future Mobility division, while a team of cognitive psychologists help to better understand how vehicle behaviour affects human confidence in new technology. The pods seek out the…