Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i Land Rover Monthly

WELL, what an honour to have been invited to be Guest Editor of LRM for a month! It’s been great fun and I now have a much more intensive appreciation and understanding of all the hard work and dedication the team puts in every month to bring to you the world’s best Land Rover magazine! To be honest, when our esteemed Ed first asked me if I’d be up for it I didn’t think he was being serious, so I asked him ‘Why me?’. The answer was that he wanted this issue to celebrate the launch of the original Range Rover 50 years ago and, as the mag’s resident classic Range Rover nut, it made sense for me to be the Guest Editor. I’m looking forward to doing it again…

IT is a long time since I bought and sold old Land Rovers for a living. Dealing in used vehicles was how I started out in the game, but I never found a way to make it pay. I quickly learned that cheap Land Rovers are usually cheap for a reason: by the time I had sorted out all the mechanical and structural issues to the point where I was happy to offer the vehicle for sale, there never seemed to be enough profit to pay the workshop rent, let alone feed and house myself. A couple of the vehicles I bought turned out to be worse than I thought, so I broke them for spares and made more money than I would have done trying to get them roadworthy…

IF I can give you one tip only for when you go greenlaning on the Yorkshire Dales, then that would be to make sure that you are not in the codriver’s seat of the first vehicle. Why do I say this? Well, you will open and close more gates than the busiest gatekeeper in the world. I was in the gatekeeper’s seat of Russ Dykes D4. Russ is the highly experienced guide from Ardventures. He is a local lad and I would describe him as your average grumpy Yorkshireman who has an above average knowledge of the lay of the land. Russ also does guided trips to Europe and Morocco. You won’t go wrong if you acquire his services. After spending a comfortable night at Leyburn’s Golden Lion Hotel, it…

TRY 5 ISSUES OF Land Rover Monthly FOR JUST £5 Visit: www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/land-rover/promo/lrm/apr20/ Email: subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk Or call: 01778 392033 quoting offer code: LRM/APR20 Gift limited to 150 subscribers. Please allow 28 days for delivery. UK only. Warners Group Publications PLC reserves the right to limit offers of this kind to one per household. If we deem this offer to be misused by either any discount sites or any individual, we reserve the right to withdraw the offer and not fulfil any issues or the gift. No money will be deducted. Plus receive this FREE GIFT YOUR GREAT DEAL Your first 5 issues for just £5, then a further 20% saving on the shop price FREE Land Rover Series I Fire Brigade Model (1:43 scale). Gift limited to first 150 subscribers FREE…

MANY hundreds of people in JLR and its suppliers are working on the new Range Rover. It’s expected to be revealed in 2021 and will be the fifth generation since the original was launched to the world in June, 1970. Back then, no one had seen anything quite like the Range Rover. Sure, there were things like the International Harvester Scout, the Willys Jeep Wagoneer and the Ford Bronco, but none came close to the Range Rover in terms of off-road capability, onroad performance and style. Journalists were universally impressed, astonished and positive. Rover couldn’t make enough of their new vehicle to satisfy demand and in the early years they didn’t even have to bother with advertising. Secondhand examples sold for more than the list price of a new vehicle.…

March 6 – 8 Welsh Xtrem, Challenge Event Lanelli, Wales thewelshxtrem.co.uk March 7 Four Wheel Drive Club of N. Ireland, RTV Trial Catcairn, Belfast 4wdni.co.uk UK Landrover Events, Eden District 4x4 Tour UK Landrover Events, Eden District 4x4 Tour March 7 – 8 North East Rover Owners Club, CCV/RTV Trial Penrith nero.org.uk Off Road Adventure Travel, Wiltshire 4x4 Explorer Tour Wiltshire offroadadventuretravel.com March 7 – 26 Morocco — Protrax Overland Adventure, Desert and Mountain Tour Morocco protraxoverlandadventures.co.uk All Wheel Drive Club, Comp Safari Round 1 Walters Arena, South Wales awdc.co.uk Hants & Berks Land Rover Owners Club, RTV Trial Brick Kiln Farm, Hampshire hbro.co.uk Brick Kiln Farm, Hampshire hbro.co.uk Manton, Lincolnshire llrc.co.uk Northern Ireland LRC, Self Assessment Event Wightmans landrover-club.com Pennine Land Rover Club, RTV/CCV trial Catlow, Lancashire penninelandrover.co.uk Scottish…

HOW many times can you build a Land Rover? This may seem like a strange question and the answer should probably be once, but with the old adage that a Land Rover is never finished – there is always some modification or improvement you want to do. As I work on building up a chassis cab for my latest Land Rover Tipper, the question came into my mind, because I have been around quite a few corners with this one! It all started as a project for LRM around a decade ago, where I built up a 130 Double Cab HCPU, using a brand-new galvanised chassis manufactured by Richards Chassis Ltd and a Mazda 3.5 diesel engine as the basis for the project. The Mazda SL35Ti is an engine that…

THE engine in this Td5 Discovery had given trouble-free motoring for over 240,000 miles, until it had begun to overheat and pressurise the cooling system. We decided to take the cylinder head off to investigate what had gone wrong, fix the problem and get the Discovery back into full service. Last month, in the first part of this two-part feature, we removed the cylinder head and saw, as expected, that the plastic dowels that help locate the head in position on the engine block had failed. The resulting head gasket leaks led to warping of the cylinder head – here, we fit the replacement head and build up the engine. NEED TO KNOW CONTRIBUTOR TREVOR CUTHBERT COST: £1332.50 TIME: 7 hours DIFFICULTY MODELS: Defender 90, 110, 130 Discovery 2 TOOLS:…

TECHNICAL EDITOR ED EVANS Win, win After covering 2000 miles with the SCR system installed, the Euro 6 Defender drives like any other 2.2-litre model, yet leaves a healthier environment in its wake. DEFENDER 2.2-litre diesel models built from 2011 onwards to the old Euro5 emissions requirements can now be upgraded to Euro 6 compliance. British-based Cybrand AEC’s Defender-specific conversion service is a new development which has been available only since the beginning of February, and uses established exhaust treatment components developed and manufactured by the German emissions specialist, HJS. For 2.2-litre diesel Defender drivers, this means the daily charge for entering urban Low Emissions Zones will no longer apply to their vehicles. It’s a massive reprieve for the original shape Defender, especially as more towns and cities across the…

How did you find your project I had an ear to the ground for a while and I found my dream Defender while scrolling through eBay. Luckily I managed to place a winning bid and now I’m the proud owner of a bright red Defender 90. How long have you owned it and have you been off-roading in it? I’ve owned it for six months now and have been on some gentle greenlanes with it. Nothing too challenging or extreme though. I want to make some changes and tweaks before doing that. For now, it’s still a rolling project. What about the engine? It’s a Td5 and they are just great as you and your readers already well know. It’s running really, really well at the moment but boys will…

JLR is going to cut about 10 per cent (500 posts) of its workforce at its Halewood plant near Liverpool, as it moves from a round-the-clock three shift pattern to two, under an agreement that allows it to extend some workdays to accommodate extra demand. According to Bloomberg, the reason for the reductions is “to cut costs amid mounting spending on electric cars”. On the other hand, Tata Motors (JLR parent company) explains that “it is about efficiency, not loss of volume”, and that the change was agreed as part of pay negotiations last year and that it will seek voluntary departures. Almost a year ago we reported that JLR had planned to cut 4500 jobs worldwide as it struggled with a sales slowdown caused by reducing demand for diesel…

JLR has reported financial results for the three-month period ending December 31 2019, and things are looking good. Revenues increased to £6.4 billion, up 2.8 per cent year-on-year, and while total retail sales fell 2.3 per cent, sales in China continued to recover (up 24.3 per cent) and sales in North America increased by 1.1 per cent. The improvement reflected a combination of the higher China volume, stronger product mix (specifically the Range Rover Evoque and refreshed Discovery Sport), lower operating costs (including the Project Charge transformation programme) and favourable foreign exchange. Despite the many challenges presently facing the industry, Jaguar Land Rover has continued to expect improved profitability and cash flow for the financial year ending 31 March 2020 with an EBIT margin of around 3 per cent, however,…

AS if I did not already have enough to keep me busy, my old three-door Discovery 200Tdi is broken. While out on loan it was accidentally driven through deep floodwater during a violent storm, resulting in (I suspect) a bent conrod. I haven’t yet had the vehicle back but apparently it runs roughly, smokes and sounds unhappy. I’m not expecting an easy fix, given that the air filter housing had pond weed in it. There are only two things I would criticise on the 200Tdi engine: the low-mounted turbo on the Discovery version (vulnerable to water ingress as many people have found to their cost) and the separate block stiffener which makes piston and conrod removal an engine-out job. It might be a little while before I can get round…

THE announcement was made exactly a year ago that the new Defender was to be built at JLR’s new state-of-the-art facility in Nitra, Slovakia. It took an investment of ¤1.4bn to create the impressive 300,000m² facility. On October 25, 2018, production of the Discovery begun at Nitra as it was a known engineering quantity and they needed to get the factory up and running and new Defender ready. Despite the fact that JLR were the first UK car company to open a plant in Slovakia, many more from other countries, have come before them and stayed. Did you know that since 2007 Slovakia is the biggest global producer of cars per capita? They produce an astonishing 202 cars per 1000 inhabitants. They built 1.1 million cars in 2019, which is…

OVER the past 50 years, the Range Rover has been chopped up, stretched, decapitated, fitted with extra wheels and modified more than any other car. It has been painted fire engine red as well as garish pink, there have been winches fitted, extra doors, elevating seats and pseudo Rolls-Royce grilles. It’s been stretched to the limit (and beyond), and if you can dream it, then chances are it’s already been done to a Range Rover somewhere, some time. The reasons for this are many. In the 1970s there was only one, relatively basic, version of Range Rover available from Land Rover, and as the vehicle became the choice of the world’s wealthly, they were keen to change and adapt it to suit their needs. As well as this, up until…

THE Essex Land Rover Club Xmas Pud Shakedown is an annual event that takes place just after Christmas each year. Recently it has been held on the first Saturday after Christmas although it used to be December 27 regardless of which day it fell on. It is an open driver day for club members similar to a pay and play, only with the site marked out in a one-way route. It attracts the general members who don’t usually take part in competitive events and gives them a chance to try some more challenging ground without the restriction of zealous grouping. This year for the first time, we held it at the Snuggs Pit site near Sudbury, Suffolk. The site required a considerable amount of preparation due to the extreme activities…

CONTRIBUTOR ALISDAIR CUSICK NEED TO KNOW COST: See next instalment TIME: 1 week COST: See next instalment TIME: 1 week MODELS: Discovery 3, Range Rover Sport 1 TOOLS: Metalworking power and hand tools, angle grinder, wire brushes, drill, ruler, pens, scraper CONTACT: • Machinor: 07891 518586; • James Holmes: 07507 787864 WORK SAFELY: • Wear protective gloves when working with corroded metal and with new sheet metal. Beware of sharp edges • Wear a full face mask and a particle filter to prevent inhalation of dust when grinding and cutting metal • Before grinding, check that sparks cannot land on anything that is inflammable, and keep a fire extinguisher to hand WE’RE all familiar with corrosion issues on Land Rovers. They’re no different to regular vehicles but, because of their…

LIKE most journalists, I like to think that I make a difference; that my rambling jottings in this column help readers to know what to buy and, just as important, what to avoid. I am, therefore, delighted that LRM’s campaign over the last six months to warn you about the risk of investing in diesel Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque models with Ingenium diesel engines has resulted in a sales slump of the affected models. To illustrate the point, I’ve just taken two screengrabs from the AutoTrader website, which show how pre-2016 examples of both models (when they were equipped with the reliable 2.2 Ford-derived diesel engines) are now fetching higher prices than newer Ingenium models. The most dramatic of the screengrabs is the two Discovery Sport adverts. Both…

LAND Rover has joined forces with Keswick Mountain Festival (KMF) to become title partner of one of the UK’s best-loved outdoor festivals. The KMF attracts around 20,000 visitors to Cumbria each year, offering a unique mix of live entertainment, sporting events, outdoor adventures, high profile speakers, taster activities, exhibitor stands and camping for all of the family. Thanks to support from Land Rover, facilities and activities on the site will be even more extensive in 2020. As part of a major new attraction, festival-goers will be able to test drive the new Defender across a challenging off-road course or get up close to the new car on Land Rover’s stand. The heart of KMF will be the Festival Village in Crow Park – with the backdrop of Derwentwater and the…

Send us your shot email patrick@lrm.co.uk to feature your photo in LRM…

THE DUNSFOLD COLLECTION is not yet open to the public but is hoping to establish a permanent museum. You can help make that a reality by becoming a Friend of the Collection for an annual subscription of £35. Visit dunsfoldcollection.co.uk to see more. Alittle over six years ago, former LRM editor Dave Phillips asked me if I’d consider writing a monthly column for this magazine. I wasn’t sure about it at the time; how could I possibly find something to talk about every month? But I was persuaded that it would be good publicity for the Dunsfold Collection, and I thought it might be worth doing for a year or so, maybe two years, tops. And now here we are, 68 columns later. When I wrote the first Dunsfold Diary,…

AS lifelong and passionate Range Rover enthusiasts, we’re all keen to kick off the 50th birthday celebrations as early in the year as possible. That’s why we’ve braved the pre-dawn start, the sub-zero temperatures, the thick fog and the rush hour traffic to get ourselves from all four points of the compass to Luton Hoo, home of Land Rover Experience London. Snapper Alisdair Cusick is joining us for the day to work his magic and ensure we have some memorable photos for the file. He’s also a Range Rover obsessive and his 1994 classic appears regularly in the pages of LRM. Sadly, it’s not here today and Alisdair explains that he has an ignition problem that is proving difficult to fix. He doesn’t trust the car to get him to…

IT’S dawn on the desolate north Norfolk coast and, apart from the wind off the sea and the haunting cries of wild birds, all is quiet — so quiet, in fact, that I hear the distinctive rattle of the 300Tdi engine before I see it negotiating the bumpy, muddy track across the saltings. It sounds like just another Defender or Discovery 1 heading for Thornham Harbour, but this Land Rover is very different. The Land Rover movement is a very broad church, encompassing worshippers from all walks of life. What they have in common is a love of the green oval, although they’ll invariably bicker over which model most deserves that coveted badge. Some love new Defender, some hate it. Some enjoy the comforts of the Range Rover branch of…

OUT in the jungles of Uganda the superstitious locals are so afraid of witchdoctors and their evil spells that they sacrifice children in order to appease them. It is said that they can contact the spirits of the dead to perform miracles, but the Ugandan owner of the Defender featured on these pages knew it would take more a witchdoctor to put right the years of abuse it had suffered in the jungle Instead he turned to a power even greater than traditional black magic: the internet. And there he found Nene Overland, a company well known for bringing aged Defenders back from the dead. The only sacrifice involved would be a financial one. And so the deal was done. “The owner contacted me out of the blue,” explains Nene…

AS the sun rose above Palm Springs, California, on a surprisingly chilly January morning, teams of three JLR retailer employees from the US and Canada made their way out to a car park in Indian Wells, where eight factory fresh Land Rover Defenders were lined up ready and waiting for the day’s activities Most teams had not had much sleep, as Land Rover TReK 2020 had formally started 15 hours earlier, when each group had been handed an unopened kit of the Lego new Defender and were told that the only way that they’d be getting the keys to the real thing, was to build the Lego one in time for the morning. The best team did it in just over nine hours, the worst, er, didn’t manage to finish……

I am writing this as a former European. It’s February and the UK has finally left the European Union. I suppose I ought to be either excited or disappointed, but I’m neither. Life goes on. I expect I felt much the same way on the day we joined. I say ‘expect’ because although I clearly recall what I was doing on January 1, 1973, becoming a European wasn’t something I remember. Maybe it’s because that day happened to be my first day on the job as a newspaper reporter. Although I’d been signed up as an indentured trainee the previous summer, I had spent the rest of 1972 on block release at college. January 1 was my first day behind the desk as a proper reporter. Coincidentally, it was the…

THIS product test comes with a wallet warning: seasoned welders might think they don’t need to replace their old helmet, just as I did until evidence to the contrary was very much staring me straight in the face. A simple rule of thumb is to suggest if your current welding helmet doesn’t have a GRIND setting, it’s unlikely to benefit from improved sensors, better controls and superior design, too. Auto darkening helmets have dominated for some years and with good reason. Long gone are the days of constantly flipping a single shade helmet down over your face just before striking up an arc. Being able to clearly view your work before, during and immediately after the welding process is key to accuracy and reduced effort spent in dressing ugly welds.…