Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Land Rover Monthly

@busheditor I never thought that we would ever have an electric Defender on the cover of a magazine on my watch. Now that it has happened, I’m not surprised at all. When on holiday in Botswana a few weeks ago we were watching a young pride of lions hunt in the Chobe National Park. I was in a Toyota Land Cruiser and there must have been about ten other Cruisers nearby. There was also one lonely Land Rover Defender game viewer. As it crawled past us, I tried to listen to its sound in order to identify the engine – except for the crunch of rubber tyres on dirt tracks, it made no sound at all. I asked my guide about it and he confirmed that it was electric. Now…

ENGINE: TVS (forged steel crankshaft and conrods) or TTD (ECU upgrade with performance air filter, full stainless exhaust system from DPF back) CHASSIS: Twisted’s progressive suspension which incorporates dual-rate springs, custom shock absorbers and upgraded anti-roll bars. Performance six-pot front and four-pot rear brakes. Entire chassis is coated EXTERIOR: Twisted Classic 18in alloy wheels (available in different colours), shod in BF Goodrich all-terrain tyres, various billet items, Twisted stage one front end conversion, Lazer daytime running and driving light front bumper and steering guard, LED lighting all-round, colour-coded door mirrors black sidestep tops, painted crossmember with integrated towing electrics, full-width tubular step bumper INTERIOR: Stripped out, panels re-aligned and vehicle made thoroughly watertight, dual-layer soundproofing, premium black carpet, seats and key touch points trimmed in customer’s choice of leather and stitch…

IF there is one book that inspires Land Rover owners the world over to head off into the sunset and explore, then it has to be The First Overland by Tim Slessor. For those who don’t know, it tells the story of the 19,000-mile Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition. Basically, six university graduates drove two Series I 86in station wagons from London to Singapore in 1955 – and boy-oh-boy did they have an adventure along the way. In fact, The First Overland is the book that inspired my quest to see as many countries as possible in a Land Rover. No one really knew what happened to the poor old famous SIs after that. They kind of just disappeared off the face of the earth. When Oxford (one of…

TRAVELLING through the world’s most inhospitable terrain – the Darién Gap – the now infamous crossing had all the makings of a classic adventure story: endurance, impenetrable undergrowth unmapped to any humans, wild animals, ill health and, of course, Land Rovers. Fifty years later, I’m fortunate enough to catch up with expedition leader, Colonel John Blashford-Snell CBE, for a trip less down memory lane than along a track slashed through unconquered jungle. Although it was five decades ago, Blashford-Snell’s recollections of the expedition remain crystal clear. Trying to forge a navigable route through uncharted jungle, with two broken Range Rovers languishing behind, he counts it as one of the toughest challenges of his long and fascinating career. “It was a race against time,” he recalls, from his permanent Expedition Base…

I always say the world is a small place when you drive a Land Rover. A few months ago my partner Brooke Robinson, who is an osteopath, introduced me to one of her patients Amber (not Heard) who just happens to be a massive Land Rover fan. So too is Amber’s partner, Stefan, and he owns several of them. Fast forward to this past weekend where I was lucky enough to attend Amber and Stefan’s wedding with Brooke. It was like no other wedding I have ever been to. There was a special parking area reserved just for Land Rovers. Not a Toyota in sight. Maybe they had a special out-of-view parking space? It was bloody great. There was a lovely spread of Land Rovers from various eras including a…

Wed 12 – Sat 15 Oct CHILE CHALLENGE Caballo Lake State Park, Caballo, New Mexico chilechallenge.org Fri 14 – Sun 16 Oct UWHARRIE ROVER EXPEDITION Uwharrie National Forest, North Carolina, USA onslrs.org Sat 15 Oct SATURDAY SOCIAL MORNINGS AT OFF-ROAD CENTRE Crediton, Devon davidbowyer.co.uk Sat 15 – Sun 16 Oct CCV & RTV TRIAL Ashford, Kent sroc.co.uk Sat 15 – Sun 30 Oct AFRICA ECO RACE Morocco to Senegal africarace.com Sun 16 Oct LANING TBC, Yorkshire ylroc.co.uk RTV/CCV TRIAL TBC, Yorkshire northlakes4x4@gmail.com 4X4 RTV TRIAL Brotherton, North Yorkshire yorkshireoffroadclub.net TREASURE HUNT Barton, Milton Keynes muddyduck.org.uk LAND ROVER CCV & TIMED TRIAL Stainby, Lincolnshire lrlrc.co.uk WINCH CHALLENGE EVENT Kettering, Northamptonshire viking4x4club.com RTV TRIAL Burgh Castle, Norfolk brecklandlrc.com RTV & TYRO TRIAL Burnley, Lancashire landroverclub.co.uk RTV & LADIES TRIAL Wickenby, Lincolnshire llrc.co.uk…

How did you find this project? I discovered it in a garage in Luarca, my hometown – it was about to be scrapped. What’s the story so far? The car was standard when I found it and it has since gone through several evolutions, to where it is now. I began with 235/85 R16 tyres and an Old Man Emu suspension setup. Then I changed to 285/75 R16 tyres and higher springs, together with a front bumper and a Britpart winch. Later I put 35/12.50 R15 tyres and installed a Terrafirma Stage 4 kit along with appropriate spring weight rating. To accommodate that tyre size I placed KAM differential and Ashcroft halfshafts together with an Eaton rear lock and an Ashcroft front lock. I replaced the transfer ’box with an…

HER Majesty the Queen was well-known for her admiration of Land Rovers, and there are countless photographs of the Royal Family with them, many of them showing the Queen herself behind the wheel. Prince Philip’s liking for Land Rovers led to him designing in collaboration with the company two modified Land Rovers for use at his own funeral. They remained one of the best-kept secrets in Land Rover’s rich history before one of them appeared on millions of television screens around the world on 17 April 2021, during Prince Philip’s funeral. The Royal Family’s connection with Land Rover began almost as soon as the 80in was launched in 1948, when Rover presented the Queen’s father, George VI, with one of the earliest built, chassis number R860101. I doubt that Rover’s…

IT is the year 2139 – bear with me, this is a Land Rover story. An unspecified calamity has turned the world into a dystopian, post-apocalyptic and barely habitable wasteland. Most of those who survived the disaster that brought humankind close to annihilation are living in vast, crime-infested Mega-Cities. Law and order are the responsibility of a special force of officers who combine the roles of policeman, judge, jury and executioner. One of them is known as Judge Dredd, and in the 1995 film of the same name he is played by Sylvester Stallone. You might remember the movie, Judge Dredd, which was based on the 2000AD comic character. It’s probably a good thing that we aren’t here today to be film critics because, if the truth be known, the…

WE featured Series I restorer and parts manufacturer CKD Shop in the December 2021 issue of LRM when we looked at two beautiful 80in vehicles, CKD’s Build Numbers 3 and 4, both of which had been restored to concours condition. I had an interesting conversation at the time with the company’s founders, Alex Massey and Rob Sprason, about their upcoming projects, and they told me about their plans to complete CKD’s first patina restoration. Interest in preserving care-worn paint and body panels that bear the scars of a lifetime has been increasing steadily over the past couple of years and, while there’s a lot to admire in a meticulous and painstaking restoration to better than new condition, an old Land Rover is only original once. Rob and Alex both own 1948…

WORK SAFELY • Wear thick protective gloves when working with sharp edges, grinding, cutting and using an angle grinder. • Hold the angle grinder with two hands to control torque twist and kickback. • Wear eye protection when grinding, cutting, wire brushing, sanding, releasing springs and clips, when opening fluid lines and working on overhead parts. • Wear a particle filter when removing rust and cleaning brake parts. • Wear steel toecap work shoes that will protect against falling objects and ensure better grip on slippery floors. • When welding, wear specialist welding protective gloves, clothing and mask, and ensure appropriate firefighting equipment is available close-by. • Never work on a cooling system, nor remove the filler cap, until the engine and coolant are fully cooled, and then always remove…

LAST month we detailed the process of stripping the ancillaries from the original failed engine, deciding what parts to bin and which could be reused. Broadly, if the component has moving bearings, such as the alternator or belt pulleys, or if access for future replacement would be difficult on a finished engine, then it makes sense to consider fitting a new part to the new engine. However, many items like brackets can happily be reused on the new motor. That does throw up an issue after a decade’s use, is that many of the aluminum-based components look dirty and tired. Surrounded by brand-new bright metal, they’d take the edge off the final appearance of the installation in the Defender. There is an easy, affordable solution to that, which Ian Baughan…

SAY the words ‘barn find’ and you conjure up images of a rare classic car that’s been rediscovered after being stored for god knows how many years, and more often than not in derelict condition. Twisted Automotive has given the term a twist, if you’ll excuse the pun. And that’s because for the last six years it has been intentionally storing 16 Defender 110s, and now they’re up for grabs. So, they tick the boxes for rarity (they’re the last of the line) and they’re valuable, as one would expect from a barn find, but they’re in mint condition as they’ve been dry stored all that time and, well, not all that old really. It seems Twisted is a shrewd investor as well as a Defender specialist, because Charles Fawcett,…

I’M NOT sure I’d like to be one of JLR’s franchised dealers right now. In fact, I’m not sure I’d want to be a traditional main dealer for any marque, given the direction things seem to be going. The ongoing semiconductor supply problems mean that most car manufacturers still can’t make the numbers of vehicles they want to, but at least customer demand was buoyant and order books were bulging. But demand for new vehicles is now expected to soften dramatically. With inflation beginning to bite amid spiralling fuel and energy costs, and with fears of recession, people are understandably putting off buying a new car. There are also rather more existential threats on the horizon as car makers look at how they expect their sales channels to evolve in…

AS public interest is driven away from internal combustion engine – ICE – vehicles by environmental concerns and legislative pressure, electric vehicles – EVs – are becoming more relevant than ever. Modern EVs cost significantly less to juice – especially when you charge from home, which most EV owners do. Now, this doesn’t really help Land Rover enthusiasts since the Green Oval is not making a mass market EV anytime soon. Also, classic Land Rover lovers and users might feel left out – but should they? What if, instead of buying a new electrically-powered vehicle, you could simply replace your faithful Landy’s tired, high CO2 emitting engine with an electric motor and battery pack? Replacing a Land Rover’s powertrain is not a new idea. Even equipping it with an electric…

AFTER the recent trip to Le Mans, I had planned to give the Series II some overdue love before the next big journey, but in reality that extended to replacing the points and setting the valve clearances – its daily driver status meaning that it’s difficult to do anything that may take it off the road for any length of time. And so it turned out that before heading north, the oil and water were both checked, camping gear thrown in the back and son Dylan and I pointed the Land Rover in the direction of Shropshire. Although a quiet Sunday morning M4 occupied the first half an hour of our journey, from there on it was a combination of A- and B-roads that took us through Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and…

lrmtechnical@gmail.com LAND Rovers take a long time to reach classic status. Our most classic type, the Series I, took decades longer to be accepted as classic than did any other motor vehicle from the 1940s and ’50s. Series II and IIA barely stand out in the classic world, though the Series III does, probably because it’s the ultimate and final development of the Series trucks. So which will be the next Land Rover to be unquestionably recognised as classic? Being a thoroughbred was once vital for classic status. It implied (often incorrectly) that the vehicle was designed and built totally in-house, such as Bentley, Ferrari, Jaguar, etc. But can late Jaguars be called thoroughbreds when so many have Ford engines? Thoroughbred is not a factor in modern classics, and that’s…

THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF ZIT One of three trialling Series Land Rovers built by the legendary Stafford Dovey. This unique 80in not only remains competitive in period trials, it also serves as a working Land Rover. Quick release wings, Austin Healey seats and bodywork with more scars than a bare knuckle fighter. You won’t find another one quite like Zit. WINTER ISSUE ON SALE 9 DEC Or download the digital issue and get instant access to over seven years of issues. Visit: bit.ly/lrmdigi22…