Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Land Rover Monthly

IF you’re a Royalist and a Defender diehard then you missed out on the car of a lifetime – or perhaps you’re the lucky owner of the 110 County that went up for auction through Collecting Cars. Previously owned by the late Prince Philip, the 2010 model has just 15,451 miles on the odometer, so not surprisingly is in very good condition, with only a few small scuff marks. It comes in Keswick Green paint, and is powered by a 2.4 turbocharged in-line four cylinder diesel engine, and sits on a set of 16-inch Boost alloys shod in General Grabber TR tires. On the inside, everything looks as new, as the original dark gray upholstery has been covered by seat protectors. The piece of royal history received 27 bids and…

DOBBO DOWN UNDER DAD has been staying with us for the last two months here in Brisbane. Unfortunately we’ve just one week before he sets off, heading to LA to catch up with my eldest brother. I’m not sure dad would describe his time here as a holiday, because in all honesty he has spent most of his time incarcerated in my workshop fixing Land Rovers. He protests, though I know deep down he has secretly enjoyed it. We have both enjoyed it immeasurably. It’s been funny working together again. The last time was some 25 years ago when we rebuilt my 88-inch IIA together. It’s not all that long ago, but times have certainly changed and we have both been reflecting upon that. Back in the day, we were…

THE fallout from the Covid pandemic continues to cause problems with parts supply. Replacement parts for older Land Rovers are sourced from around the world and can come from some surprising places: a radiator from Cambodia, pistons from Brazil and crank pulleys from Argentina are among the items in my parts store at the moment. Two of the biggest countries, China and India, have suffered a great deal of disruption to manufacturing, and global shipping is in a mess with sea freight container slots hard to find at any price. As existing stocks are run down, even some of the very common, high volume parts are becoming scarce. Good quality shaft seals, for example, are proving very tricky to find. My preferred brand for engine seals (crankshaft and camshaft) has…

LIBBY Williamson is not your average Land Rover fan. She has guided LRM on greenlaning trips in Yorkshire, the Peak District and also the Lake District. Not only is she a 4x4 driving instructor, she is an accomplished 4x4 driver. In fact, Libby and partner Andrew Robinson have an affliction that affects many other green oval fans the world over; they can’t stop buying Land Rovers. In fact, they have a barn full of them. Some of the tastier ones include a 1957 Series I 88-inch, 1991 Range Rover Classic 3.9, Range Rover Sport SVR and a very tidy 1997 Range Rover P38 4.6. While their collection might sound impressive, today all I’m interested in is Libby’s bright red 1994 three-door Discovery 1 300Tdi, as it has an interesting story…

“This is not the kind of show you can visit in a day. It is just bloody enormous” IF you ask me to describe the annual Abenteur & Allrad show held in Bavaria in just four German words then it would be, ‘Ja, das ist gut’. That is also the sum total of my command of the German language. It roughly translates to: ‘Yes, it’s good’. For as long as I’ve been going to far-flung places in Land Rovers, I have always wanted to attend this massive annual event for overlanders held in Bad Kissingen. For some or other reason, it just never happened. Enter into the fray Johnny Nel, the man who recently improved Front Runners’ sales and aftermarket service in the UK. His plan was simple: drive a…

IN the December 2020 issue of LRM we wrote at length about the Stage 1 V8s that were acquired by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in the 1980s. The best guess is that 566 were assembled between 1982 and 1986 in the New Zealand Motor Corporation’s factory at Nelson, South Island, from CKD kits shipped out from Solihull. It would be fair to say that the vehicle was not a great success, at least initially. The NZDF had specified a 24-volt electrical system, but this proved to be highly problematic. There were also some very odd engine issues including premature camshaft wear, with instances of cams lasting only 15,000 miles or so. Frequent misfire problems were only resolved with the fitting of Mallory electronic ignition systems. The Stage 1’s…

I will always think of my Defender 130 as the Lockdown Land Rover. While the build had been in the planning phase back in 2019, it was during the first Covid lockdown that I carried out most of the work to get the machine together. I’d already gathered virtually all of the parts needed and now I had the time to put it all together. I was ably assisted by my son, Tristan, who was home from medical school because all of his clinical placements had been cancelled. Tristan and I actually did quite a lot of spannering together in my workshop during those long, strange weeks, on various Land Rover projects. The plan for the 130 had always been that the truck will be a drop-side tipper. However, during…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THIS 2005 Discovery 3 with 175,000 miles on the clock was booked into the workshop after an MoT test suggested both front suspension lower arms should be replaced because they were knocking. However, as the Discovery was being driven into the workshop there was no knocking to be heard, and on the vehicle lift the upper and lower arms on both sides were found to be in good condition with no signs of play. There was, however, play in the top joint of the left-hand front anti-roll bar drop link, and it was enough to cause a knock while driving. Replacing a single anti-roll bar drop link is considerably quicker and cheaper than replacing a pair of upper or lower suspension arms. Corrosion 1 The threaded ends…

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THE ENTHUSIAST IS there any other make or model of car in the history of the automobile that can present as many mind-blowing variations of itself as the utility Land Rover? I very much doubt it. Go to almost any Land Rover show and it’s obvious. And it’s not just the vehicles built by The Rover Company and its descendants, from the first prototypes in 1947 to the end of ‘real’ Defender production in 2016, that have created this astonishing variety. And before you start bombarding the LRM editorial office with emails, I know the pre-pro 80s were built in 1948. But the fabled Centre Steer was built in late 1947, and although it was based on a Jeep chassis it had a Rover engine and bodywork built by Rover’s…

MARKET NEWS IT won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that prices of classic and used Land Rovers have gone through the roof in the past year. For used cars, the restricted supply of new models has pushed buyers to the secondhand market. For classics, enthusiasts seem to be cashing in savings which are earning a pittance in interest and buying a car they’ve always promised themselves. Investors too are piling in, attracted by the tax-free profits which can be made from collectable Land Rovers in an economy where the value of money is shrinking. This rise in prices has attracted another form of ‘entrepreneur’ to the Land Rover market, and it’s a group which is a lot less desirable – criminals. The trade in dodgy Land Rovers is now even more…

BEFORE we start our interview with Kingsley Holgatte, please allow me to introduce this renowned explorer and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. This larger-than-life man garners huge respect and admiration wherever he goes. He has no airs nor graces and mixes beautifully with everyone, from presidents to paupers. He is a gentle and kind soul who has been extremely successful in all his exploration thanks to his charismatic personality, enormous heart and humility. Like a true Land Rover man, Kingsley’s blood is green and he is driven to change, save and improve lives through adventure. You (and your other five expedition members) have just become the first to cross the African continent in new Defenders. How does that feel? Well, we feel humbled, privileged and proud. It has been…

Scheel Mann Defender seats When I spoke to the Scheel Mann rep he boasted that the company’s seats were better than anything made in Britain. Yes, he was from the same country as Donald Trump. I did take a sit in its Traveller LR Edition chairs and was suitably impressed with the comfort and way it hugged my sides. This seat retails for €1199 – for that price, you’d expect it to be good. For more visit greiner-gmbh.de. Overland Fuel Very impressed at not only the fuel and water storage containers but also at the way you are able to secure them to the side of your Land Rover, or to the roof rack. Overland Fuel gave us a heavy hammer to try smashing the containers but it barely made…

FOR those Land Rovers suffering from itchy tyres, desperate to get back out on- and off-road following the recent dearth of expedition and adventure, a delve into the most recent gathering of the Scottish Land Rover Owners Club, will serve to whet appetites and quench a little of that wanderlust. This vibrant, positively driven club keeps the calendar utterly bulging with Land Rover-related events and socials to fire up everyone from the least competitive and more laid back Land Rover lovers, to the adventure thrill-seekers. With around 30 events a year to choose from, plus regular non-competitive days out, options include tyro, road taxed and cross-country vehicle trials, with timed trials taking the adrenalin up a major notch. There are also comp safaris and plenty of variations on the theme.…

IT was the car’s one enigma: at idle, the exhaust chuffed black smoke. Rich idle is commonly reported of Solex carbs, and you’ll find references to people fitting Webers, Zeniths or SUs to sort it. When I drove my SI to the 2018 Legends show, I did check with the right people, and the consensus seemed to be that as it drove well enough; it was probably just blowing itself clear after being laid up for 17 years. But it continued. It drove fine, the plugs were clean on a run, but sooted up from over-fuelling quickly at idle. Sometimes the carb sweated; sometimes the fouling choked the engine to stop. I went to get the car out in April, and it started misfiring again. Nothing jumped out as a…

Sunday 2 October Newbury 4X4, Land Rover & Vintage Spares Day 9.30am – 2.00pm Newbury Showground, Berkshire, RG18 9QZ Sunday 30 October Malvern 4x4, Land Rover & Vintage Spares Day 9.00am – 1.30pm Malvern, Three Counties Showground, WR13 6NW SHOWS FEATURE: • All eras of Land Rover and 4x4 spares and accessories ● Ex-army surplus and equipment ● New, used, obsolete and rare parts ● Autojumble ● Tractor parts ● Barn finds ● Yard clearances ● Vintage car spares and parts ALL EVENTS: • Pre-book public admission: Adults £7.50, £10 on the day, under-15s free ● Free parking ● Pre-book plots from £35 4X4SPARESDAY.CO.UK OR CALL 07586 023248…

FOR anyone thinking of converting their battered, farmyard workhorse to electric propulsion, Electrogenic may have the answer, but you’ll need to fork out £24k for the kit, plus a bit more to get a suitably trained mechanic to fit it. Despite that being equivalent to buying a couple of mid-nineties Defenders in well-used condition, Electrogenic reckons that owners can save up to £6000 per year in fuel and maintenance with its EV converted Defender – assuming the vehicle is used every day. And it’s not all hot air and PR – the Electrogenic team knows these figures are broadly accurate because it tested its EV conversion kit around Worthy Farm – site of the Glastonbury Festival – over the past 18 months. Steve Drummond, co-founder of the company, says: “Defenders…

A fabulous variety of rare and interesting Land Rovers descended on Thruxton Circuit for the 2022 edition of Land Rover Legends in June. Running alongside the lively Thruxton Historic race meeting, the weekend featured a unique Land Rover track parade on the circuit each day, with participants from the leading clubs, Dunsfold Collection and, of course, finalists for the National Awards, sponsored by Britpart. Great weather helped to bring out a record attendance over the weekend, with spectacular flypasts from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and a vintage aircraft fly-in adding to the entertainment. If you missed out, fear not, the show organisers are already working on plans for 2023. Find us on @LRMonthly LandRoverMonthly @land_rover_monthly Land Rover Monthly…

Send us your shot Email your pics to patrick@lrm.co.uk and you could see your Landy in LRM…

ROVING REPORTER ALTHOUGH my global gallivanting has long held keeping an allotment a distant dream, it is about to become a reality. Lockdowns in England forced me to try to find gainful activities with which to occupy myself, one of which was to turn the Fella’s compact garden into a vegetable patch. Before I started working so much abroad, I had always grown seasonal easies, but a whole garden, albeit a small one, was a new challenge. On account of largely being without work, I bought a great book entitled How to Grow Food for Free and got the Fella (a key-worker) to source abandoned pallets, from which we constructed several raised beds. Once these were planted up, with all remaining space filled with grow-bags and pots, the garden’s capacity…

NORFOLK GARAGE WHEN did you last grease your propshafts? Pretty much every ‘traditional’ Land Rover has two of them, taking drive from the transfer ’box to the front and rear axles. The exceptions are the two-wheel drive Series vehicles built for the Royal Air Force which only have one propshaft, and the three-axle 6x6 vehicles which have three. The vast majority of these propshafts are of the conventional type, with a spider-style universal joint at each end and a sliding section towards either the front or the rear of the vehicle. There is a grease nipple on each joint and one for the sliding spline: these should be given three or four pumps from a grease gun at each service, and more often for vehicles regularly driven off-road. There are…

I’M standing the middle of a rather windswept moorland field, on the Somerset-Devon border on Exmoor National Park. High up, away from any roads, rolling hills surround me in every point of the compass bar one, where the sea, far off on the horizon forms the only straight line in my view. Looking around, I can’t see a single house or farm; just endless moorland, separated by lines of trees and bushes. Amongst the verdant scenery, a full three fields away, the tiniest white dot appears from a dip, slowly bobbing and weaving through the view towards me. It is the familiar shape of a Defender, and this is the landscape it works in. The Land Rover belongs to Exmoor Search and Rescue Team who are today using the Defender,…

What spec new Defenders are you using on this expedition? The Holgate’s Land Rover-sponsored Defender 110s are P400 S models while Mike Nixon is in his personal Defender 110 D300 Dynamic X. It would have been nice if they were all diesels, but we need to make the best of what we have. Why did you not go for the D300? These are 2020 models and in South Africa we only had the D240 and P400 options at the time, so the advice they gave us was that the D240 would not like the unhealthy diesel you find in some parts of Africa. It was out of our hands really. What did you change? Wheels? Tyres? What is wonderful about the Land Rovers we have used since we changed from…

“AND now for something completely different,” as John Cleese used to say in Monty Python’s Flying Circus. What you see before you began life in 1963 as a perfectly standard Series IIA, and now it is one man’s homage to the (in)famous Bell Aurens Longnose. An act of vandalism or an inspired piece of DIY engineering? As the fictitious Prime Minister Francis Ewan Urquhart said in that wonderful British TV thriller House of Cards, “I couldn’t possibly comment.” I’ll present the facts and leave you to make up your own mind. First, some history. The Bell Aurens was designed in 2008 by two German Land Rover enthusiasts, Thomas Bell and Holger Kalvelage, who intended it to be powered by a 27-litre V12 Rolls-Royce engine that would, in its Merlin form,…

MOST of you know that while my day job is editing LRM I do partake in other pursuits. One of my newest is stand up paddle boarding, also known as SUP. Not content with just cruising down my local River Ouse, I recently did the Loch Awesome 75km SUP Challenge in Scotland. Where is Loch Awesome? Actually it’s called Loch Awe but the organisers thought they would tweak the name; it’s just over two hours north of Glasgow, but give yourself three hours if you’re in an old diesel Land Rover. For the duration of this two-day paddle we were based in the village of Dalavich, which lies on the western bank of the loch. While there might only be about 50 people in this village, they welcomed the paddlers,…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH IT was a very satisfying exercise to strip down the Defender’s original bulkhead and carry out the extensive repairs, as shown in last month’s feature. Saving a major component, rather that scrapping it, is certainly the best option from an environmental point of view, but I also have the knowledge that this original Land Rover part will fit perfectly as the rebuild of the Defender 110 Td5 progresses. Following the repairs, the bulkhead was completely sandblasted and then sent to Sperrin Galvanisers in Co. Derry to be hot-dip galvanised in order to prevent rust recurring in the future, or at the very least slow it right down. However, after parts are galvanised, there is nearly always rectification work to be carried out. Shining brightly 1 The original…