Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i Land Rover Monthly

IT’S mid-March as I type this but the camping tickets for the Billing Off-Road Show to be held at the end of June have already sold out. Yes, you read that right. Never before in the illustrious history of this popular show (which LRM is proud to be closely associated with) has that happened. I guess Land Rover lovers are looking forward to going off-roading, camping and buying gear (not to be confused with beer) again. Who can blame them? It’s been a while. Hopefully things will continue to improve in Britain so that you might be able to enjoy some sort of a normal summer. For those who missed out on Billing Off Road Show camping tickets do not fear, we have the perfect solution for you. If you’re…

GOING on a motoring event during lockdown is just plain weird. As I arrive at the Eastnor Castle Land Rover Experience I’m told not to leave my old Defender. A lady in a bio hazard suit comes over and tells me to stick a swab up my nose and throat, then 30 minutes later she confirms a negative test result and I’m free as Nelson Mandela. After a short, socially-distanced brief, I climb into the 21MY Discovery. How ironic that I find myself alone in what they have just sold to me as the ‘only full-size seven-seater premium SUV.’ That's like being the only person on the dancefloor when the DJ plays your favourite tune. But now it’s time to dance with the new Disco. The biggest changes for the…

TOTAL PRIZES WORTH ALMOST £900 TO BE WON! FIRST PRIZE WORTH £195 + 1 YEAR'S FREE MEMBERSHIP WORTH £120 (12X£10) +VAT TOTAL PRIZE WORTH £378 incl.VAT DEFENDER DEFENDER THE Defender Defender is an all-inclusive security system designed to stop criminals at source and guard your vehicle from theft. Through use of a mobile app you can monitor the location of your Defender 24/7. A combination of inbuilt motion sensors and GPS technology result in immediate alerts (SMS/Phone Call/App notifications) directly to your mobile phone the moment any unlawful activity is detected. Trigger points include: internal vibration, vehicle movement, keyless ignition or battery disconnection. Rest assured, if all these alerts go unheard, the Defender Defender has a remote-control isolator switch and tracking capabilities that you come to expect from a product of…

GARMIN OVERLANDER GPS UNIT PRICE: £599 CONTACT: buy.garmin.com IN MY 20 years of overlanding I have used several Garmin devices. Some of my favourites include the 276C, GPSMAP 62S and the Montana 610. I now have a new favourite, the Garmin Overlander. Comparing my old favourites to my new favourite is like comparing a small, old black and white TV to a large, new Smart TV. I know that the primary function of a GPS is to prevent you getting lost but once it becomes a smart GPS then I am all for it. For starters the Garmin Overlander is bigger than any other Garmin GPS unit I have ever owned thanks to its 7in screen. The unit weighs nearly half a kilogram and feels like it will be able…

SOMETIMES the answer to a problem is very simple indeed. I had two vehicles in the workshop within a couple of days of each other. A Defender and a Discovery, both top-notch examples, both fitted with the 300Tdi engine and both feeling a bit sluggish and down on power. They ran well enough but needed a big boot full of throttle to get going and quickly ran out of puff on the long straight that forms part of my usual road test route. The cause in both cases was the same: an incorrectly-adjusted accelerator cable. The adjustment system on the 300Tdi is common to many other Land Rover products of the same era. The outer sheath of the accelerator cable is formed in a spiral, like the thread of a…

WHAT is it they say at the end of every advertisement exhorting you to buy a financial services product? ‘‘The value of your investment can go down as well as up’’, or something like that. And then there’s the thing you always hear from specialist dealers and advisers about whatever it is you collect. Whether you’re a petrolhead or a pocillovist, they tell you to buy only because you like it and not because you think it’s an investment. And since you ask, a pocillovist is an egg cup collector. How do I know that? I live with one. What always fascinates me is that all these advisers offer such sage and sensible words of caution to us, but completely ignore it themselves. I haven’t yet met a Land Rover…

Velar THE pre-production Range Rovers are as desirable as the pre-pro Land Rovers, and for similar reasons. Both are the pioneers of their respective breeds, and all did interesting things during Rover’s vehicle engineering development and testing activities. Values started to climb in 2010 around the time of the 40th anniversary, as they did for all classic Range Rovers, although a Velar is always going to be more highly prized than even the earliest production two-door Range Rover. Amazingly, most of the Velars have survived although there are still a few missing. Rumours of survivors come up from time to time, and I heard one only a few weeks ago, concerning a Velar that was buried in a landfill site in Australia… allegedly. “Many independent specialists are offering their own…

OWNER Arnaud Lemoigne: I have a passion for Land Rovers and a real love affair for the P38A Range Rover. I have owned countless models over the past 18 years, from basic SE, Autobiography, ex-Metropolitan Police, manual V8 to Vogue spec – and all V8s, of course! I acquired Frank back in June 2019, when it was advertised for spares or repair due to a head gasket failure. I decided to keep it on the road and the owner kindly gave me his pride and joy, which I still owe him a case of fine wine for. A top-end engine rebuild was achieved on my driveway with the help of a close friend. I then decided to make it my ideal off-roader/overland vehicle. After carrying out extensive research on websites…

CHOOSE FROM 3 GREAT DEALS! 1 EXACT JUST £9.99 A QUARTER BY DIRECT DEBIT OR A FULL YEAR FOR ONLY £39.99 Enjoy access to a fully searchable digital library of every issue of Land Rover Monthly since May 2015, plus enjoy the latest issue and future issues before they go on sale in the shops for as long as your subscription remains active. Read any feature from LRM during this time – buying guides, tests, reviews, tech advice or something else. VISIT: LANDROVERMONTHLY.CO.UK/STORE/DIGITAL-ARCHIVE/LAND-ROVER-MONTHLY Whichever option you choose, you will enjoy all these great benefits: 2 POCKETMAGS The ultimate digital Land Rover Monthly with all the extras including photo galleries, videos, live web feeds, page jumps and hyperlinks. Plus, each issue is yours to keep and download with…

If you’ve read our P38 Buying Guide in this issue you’ll know there’s a broad price range covering all examples from rough to resplendent. If buying a cheap and tired example for restoration, you really do need to understand electronics and diagnostics, and enjoy fettling the beast without worrying too much about budget. Further up the scale, mid-priced examples represent bargains that may run nicely for a long while – if fully serviced. This supplement to our buying guide explores some of P38’s systems, and gives tips on checking a prospective purchase and monitoring a car’s condition. Electrical The heart of the electrical systems is the Body electrical Control Module (BeCM), a multi-purpose unit with its own fusebox, powering multiple ECUs around the vehicle, and providing dashboard messages to the…

A well maintained P38 is a sound machine that, despite its unwarranted reputation, isn’t going to give you a wallet-crunching nightmare of failures. Buying a bad one that’s been abused, run on a budget and poorly serviced is likely to cost big money to bring up to reliable standards. P38 was never designed to be a cheap runabout, so a good service history is to be expected, especially given that routine servicing is not expensive and, ideally, that service history should be with a main dealer and/or a good independent specialist. If buying from a dealer, a good warranty gives peace of mind, but many warranties are not worth the paper they’re written on, so scrutinise it before agreeing a deal.…

Tell us about your Ninety project It has had a rather interesting history. It was my first-ever car after passing my driving test. I then had it for four years before rolling it and ending up in a ditch one cold and frosty morning. I was obviously upset. We then spent two weeks rebuilding it before selling it on. Is that the end of the story? No. At the end of October last year I bought my first true love back again as a project. My other half, Jack Allchurch (who has graced the pages of this wonderful magazine), and our mates Ben and Dave helped me go and pick her up again as I needed a trailer. What sort of condition was it in? It has had a 200…

Enjoy access to a fully searchable digital library of every issue of Land Rover Monthly since May 2015, plus enjoy the latest issue and future issues before they go on sale in the shops for as long as your subscription remains active. Read any feature from LRM during this time – buying guides, tests, reviews, tech advice or something else - for just £9.99 a quarter by direct debit or a full year for only £39.99 SUBSCRIBE TODAY: LANDROVERMONTHLY.CO.UK/STORE/DIGITAL-ARCHIVE/LAND-ROVER-MONTHLY…

Unfit to be called Defender RE. Gary Pusey’s article Onwards and Upwards (LRM, March): In effect Land Rover has abandoned its traditional Defender market to produce a very expensive high-tech toy for the rich and famous - an absolute appalling use of the Defender name. This will make the old Defenders that much more appealing, simply because Land Rover cannot offer a replacement vehicle. Keep up the good work. Rick Cook South Australia Who needs a 149mph Land Rover? I’VE just read the story of the 149mph V8 new Defender (LRM, April) and I’m not impressed. It is so out of step with the modern world, it’s a joke – in very bad taste. Perhaps JLR needs reminding that we are supposed to be saving the world’s resources, not blasting…

Find us on @LRMonthly LandRoverMonthly @land_rover_monthly @ Landrovermonthly Want to see more of your Landy pictures? Then visit our new website: landrovermonthly.co.uk Send us your shots Email your pics to patrick@lrm.co.uk and you could see your Landy in LRM!…

1 JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON. This can be a dangerous thing after it’s already started rolling. Savvy investors get in early. The people that make the biggest returns are the ones that buy before the rest of us have even seen it coming. Once the rest of us cotton on, you can still jump on as the market rises. But leave it too late and you may pay top dollar for something just as the values level out. 2 THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TACTICAL FLIPPING AND STRATEGIC BUYING. Spotting something you can buy today and sell for a quick profit tomorrow is one thing; investing in a vehicle because you think it will increase in value over the coming years is another matter entirely. I’ve never been any…

Series II THE Series II is in many ways a far more practical Land Rover than a Series I, and many think it is more attractive as well. Values have been increasing for some time, probably driven by the fact that Series Is are now too rich for many people’s pockets. My guess is they still have a way to go. Series III THE one to watch, with values starting to increase but with the potential for real growth. A very practical and usable Land Rover with all the charm of a Series vehicle but with greater usability and relatively more comfort. A Series III is probably still the cheapest way to get into Land Rover ownership. Early coilers INTEREST in the early coil-sprung vehicles is a relatively recent but…

OUTDOOR country pursuits and horses have always been Joanna Read’s passion. While she never previously owned a Land Rover until recently purchasing a Defender 110 for her hearse business, she fondly remembers growing up around them and she is quick to admit that her life changed for the better, when she finally became part of the green oval clan. “I love the feeling of being a part of the greater Land Rover community, I’m hooked now and part of one big family," she says. So, how does one go from a country girl to Defender hearse owner and driver? “I’ve tried many things over the years and I wanted to find something that was heart-led. Because of my passion for horses, I became involved in horse-drawn funerals. It was a…

AS a child growing up, I have fond memories of a family friend, Ken, driving his beautifully-kept Series III, which was the genesis of my love of Land Rovers. Some years later he offered to sell me the SIII, knowing my attachment to it. I was just 17 and still learning to drive and unfortunately at that point in my life, it was not to be and I turned down the chance – something I always regretted. In 2005, we were fortunate to be able to use Ken’s Landy as my wedding car. It had been polished specially for our big day and looked fantastic. However, shortly afterwards he sold it on. Over the years I always wondered what became of this particular Series III, which soon turned into an…

IT would be fair to say that many hardcore Land Rover fans have been, at best, rather dismissive of the Freelander, condemning it for not being a ‘real’ Land Rover. To the company that designed and built it, it was probably another life saver on a par with the first Discovery. It undeniably filled a niche in the market and for several years was Land Rover’s top seller. By the end of April 1999 it was at the top of the UK 4x4 sales chart, having sold twice as many as its nearest competitor, which was the company’s own Discovery II. At the same time, the Freelander had become the best-selling 4x4 in Europe, outselling its nearest rival by 40 per cent. But when it first appeared on the scene…

CAT Vinton is an adventure and ethnographic photographer, which basically means she has a curiosity for humanity and for the people who roam the very farthest corners of the Earth coexisting in harmony with nature. Her love of photography began as a child and a certain neighbour who was a snapper for the Sunday Times. She would spend hours poring over his collection of photography books which ranged from war torn landscapes to glamorous celebrities and migrant workers across the globe. Coupled with the fact that her house was full every summer with foreign students learning English, further feeding her curiosity for other cultures, at the tender age of 16 she left her quiet village streets of central England for the big smoke to attend art school in London. After…

I won’t lie. For someone who likes to travel, the last year has been… let’s call it different. With the gradual easing of lockdown rules on the horizon, I have slowly started to get ready for summer. I’ve booked a campsite for mid-April. The same one we featured in the Winter 2021 issue when we went greenlaning in Shropshire. I think hiding away in a private forest with a select few mates is a great way to avoid crowds, enjoy nature and avoid keyboard warriors. With restrictions on travel currently still in place, I have zilch to report on the travel front. Last week I had to go to Eastnor Castle to drive the 21MY Discovery and Range Rover Velar. It was a round trip of 300 miles and never…

THE cabin heater in a Defender doesn’t have the greatest of outputs. Working off the engine coolant, it’s only at working temperature when the engine is fully warmed up and running. If your Defender doubles as a camper or overland base, then you’ll need a better heat source than the standard system, which is where auxiliary diesel heaters come in. Popular in camper conversions, and similar in principle to the gas powered systems used in motorhomes for years, their small size belies the heat they produce. A compact 2kW heater can provide 86 cubic metres of warmed air per hour: more than ample to heat the relatively small cabin space of a 110. With the majority of Defenders running on diesel, most (but not all) installations simply tap into the…

This luxury express drives with all the characteristic hallmarks of a Land Rover product. I guess it was the combination of beam axles, the high seating position, the low glass line, and a stability that gave the car a confident stance whether fast cruising, negotiating town centres or clambering overland. It’s an easy truck to drive in any situation and the expanse of glass gives superb all-round visibility – no need for reversing cameras here. It’s a great tow car, load lugger and can be a practical workhorse. The improved air suspension enhances comfort, depletes road noise, ensures correct stance accounting for passengers and load, and is only troublesome if neglected or incorrectly maintained. Air suspension combined with improved axle articulation and four-wheel electronic traction control means P38 is potentially…

A WEEKEND packed full of 4x4 fun for all of the family – whether you’re knee high to a grasshopper or closer in age to the Series I – there is no excuse why you shouldn’t be booking the date in your diary, which by the way is Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 June, 2021. Here are our top 5 reasons why you should be coming to the Billing Off Road Show. 1 Show and Tell The Land Rover Monthly team will be presenting a 90-minute ‘Show and Tell’ event each day of the show, whereby the owners of some very rare and special Land Rovers will drive their vehicles on to a stage and talk about them to the editor and our various expert contributors. It’s new for 2021…

Enjoy access to a fully searchable digital library of every issue of Land Rover Monthly since May 2015, plus enjoy the latest issue and future issues before they go on sale in the shops for as long as your subscription remains active. Read any feature from LRM during this time – buying guides, tests, reviews, tech advice or something else - for just £9.99 a quarter by direct debit or a full year for only £39.99 SUBSCRIBE TODAY: LANDROVERMONTHLY.CO.UK/STORE/DIGITAL-ARCHIVE/LAND-ROVER-MONTHLY…

Series I pre-production vehicles ONLY 48 were built and 21 are known to have survived. Others may still be out there waiting to be discovered: JLR Classic’s Pre-pro L07 was found in a Birmingham garden as recently as 2006. Any pre-pro is hugely desirable and very valuable, perhaps even more so now, given what has happened to production Series I values over the past few years. Track down a missing one and you’ll have your pension sorted, but don’t spend too much time looking for the fabled Centre Steer! Most historians agree that it no longer exists. Series I ANY Series I is now valuable, but the early lights through the grille 80in model are generally more highly prized, although a later model with 86 or 88in wheelbase is more…

Discovery I and II I’D say these are a sound buy now and will only continue to go up in value. Finding a good, rot-free example is getting harder by the day, but if you find one, then go for it! The fabled G-WAC development and press launch vehicles are always going to be interesting, in the same way the Velars are, but it is wise to remember that not every Land Rover with a factory registration number is an historically important vehicle. It might just have been somebody’s company car! INVESTMENT LEMONS? I’m not sure I’d be putting my money into any Range Rover later than a P38A, and that includes the Sport and Evoque. The same applies to the D3 and D4 and all variants of the Freelander.…

Guernsey and Covid-19 THE Channel Island of Guernsey had been one of the few places to be Covid-free and still was at the time this club event took place, in early January. Sadly, shortly afterwards, a handful of coronavirus cases were reported on Guernsey and the island went back into lockdown. The club is hopeful normality will return soon and once again club activities both social and off road will once again be possible. WHEN LRM’s clubs editor, Dave Barker, suggested featuring Guernsey Land Rover Club as Club of the Month, members were eager to promote its activities to enthusiasts on the island and further afield. After all, it was a rare opportunity to see many familiar faces again. Guernsey being a relatively small island of 25 square miles, it…

OWNER Robbie Lucas: I got into Land Rovers when I lived in Wiltshire and a friend invited me to go off-roading with him in his Range Rover. When I moved to Guernsey, I had a Defender, but decided I wanted a Range Rover like that first one back in Wiltshire. I eventually found this one, which was the exact specification I wanted – standard and original, but could be used on and off-road. Apart from having front and rear fibreglass wings and aftermarket Ramair air filters, it’s very much standard. My future plans for it include reinstalling the rest of the original interior.…

THE enforced lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic have seen an upsurge in Land Rover projects, with some retailers selling out of parts as the Landy community got spannering. The Turnbull family in southwest London was no exception, with the first lockdown giving them the incentive to finish off a Series IIA restoration that they’d started in 2014. It had been the brainchild of dad Harry, who reckoned it would be a great way for his son March, then aged 11, to rebuild his own Land Rover in time for his 17th birthday in March 2021. But the 1968 SIIA – bought unseen on eBay – was in a worse state than they expected and, with March away at boarding school, it looked as though the project might not be finished…

MY Land Rover Discovery 2 was sold last year for a number of reasons. It had been SORN’d (declared off the road) for quite a while because I wasn’t using it much at all. The main towing duties had been taken over by my VW Transporter van – which doubled up as a great vehicle for moving Defender body panels to and from the paint shop – and I no longer needed the seven-seat passenger carrying capacity of the D2. I didn’t go looking for a buyer for the 2002 Discovery Td5, but when John Bowden of Gumtree 4x4 contacted me about a client who would pay good money for a well-sorted example, the timing was perfect, because I needed funds to commence the construction of a purpose-built workshop at…

NOT every Land Rover that comes in to my workshop for a new chassis has a new clutch fitted. Sometimes the owner will know the clutch is in good condition – perhaps because they had it replaced recently. Others may be keeping a tight rein on the budget, and have the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” attitude (possibly false economy with a clutch of unknown mileage). I remember one owner who said at the workshop that his clutch would be okay, only to telephone me on his way home to ask me to change it after all. It was a very good thing he did – when I took it apart, the clutch was worn out and his clutch fork (one of the earlier pressed steel types) was…

AT A GLANCE… STATISTICS Length: 4713 mm Width: 2228 mm Height: 1817 mm Weight: 2220 kg Loadspace: 1640 litres Wheelbase: 2745 mm TOWING Max gross vehicle weight: 2780 kg Max trailer towing weight on road: 750 kg (unbraked); 3500 kg (over-run brakes) ENGINES 4.0-litre petrol V8 (GEMS Lucas): power 190 bhp; torque 236 lb-ft 4.6-litre petrol V8 (GEMS Lucas): power 225 bhp; torque 280 lb-ft 4.0-litre petrol V8 (Bosch Motronic): power 188 bhp; torque 250 lb-ft 4.6-litre petrol V8 (Bosch Motronic): power 215 bhp; torque 295 lb-ft 2.5-litre diesel in-line six BMW M51: power 136 bhp; torque 199 lb-ft NOT only misunderstood, but currently vastly underrated. P38 was launched in September 1994 with a tall order: to replace Range Rover Classic, the world’s best combined road and off-road vehicle, and…

“Let's do this project. The only tools required are a club hammer and a box of plasters” IAN WEST Ian’s been driving Land Rovers for over 40 years and drawing for LRM since issue 2. He lives on the coast of East Anglia and drives a Freelander 2 DISCLAIMER: The views expressed by contributors and advertisers are not necessarily those of the publishers. Every care is taken to ensure that the contents of the magazine are accurate but the publishers cannot accept responsibility for errors. While reasonable care is taken when accepting advertisements, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any resulting unsatisfactory transactions. They will however investigate any written complaints.…