Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Land Rover Monthly

IT’S been a busy old month for us at LRM but thankfully for all the right reasons. Our adventures have taken us to the launch of the brand-new Dunsfold Museum, which is a truly mesmerising experience that you won’t want to miss – flick to p50 to see what all the fuss is about. We’ve also been to an event that’s perhaps slightly more unusual to see Land Rovers at; Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb. When most of us hear the words ‘hill’ and ‘climb’ in the same sentence we generally think of engaging second gear in low ’box, and clonking centre diff lock in if it’s slippy. But this was a rather different type of hill climb; a mile-long ribbon of tarmac that snakes up between the Worcestershire hills, and…

Small size, big project We were interested to see the Work in Progress article in the back of the June issue. We have also been building a scaled-down Land Rover for the last ten years or so. It was going to be for my oldest of five kids, but now it just might fit the youngest at a squeeze! We had the same idea as Philip Weiss of using a ride-on mower chassis, which I shortened to fit the wheelbase of Toylander plans. I think it was a ‘Wheeled horse’ ride-on machine that I used. I’ve attached a photo – I may even finish it one day. Dave McCluskey MARTIN REPLIES: Many thanks for getting in touch and sending over the photos of your project, Dave. You see a few…

COMFORT CUBBY BOX PRICE: £450 CONTACT: store.ruskinoriginal.co.uk ADD Ruskin style and luxury to your Defender Td5 or TDCi with one of these Comfort cubby boxes. Available in a choice of trim colours including black, brown, grey, burgundy and tan, and with either a 75mm or 100mm-thick padded lid, they come finished in Ruskin’s usual amazing quality and ready to fit with the supplied hardware. LAND ROVER BLANKET PRICE: £155.72 CONTACT: exmoortrim.co.uk THIS multi-purpose blanket is ideal for any occasion, whether you’re picnicking on a greenlaning trip or after some extra warmth around the campfire. Made from a durable, wool-rich blend, the blanket has a cotton-twill binding and Land Rover applique in the centre. XL WHEEL CLAMP PRICE: £240 EMAIL: productnews@allmakes.co.uk THIS XL wheel clamp from Terrafirma adds another precious layer…

IT feels like I am forever tripping over bits of Land Rover at the moment. There are three undergoing complete rebuilds in my workshop and in their current state of undress it means there are bits everywhere. I keep trying to create space by selling surplus parts, but it seems for every part I sell, they are replaced with two more. It happened recently with a Salisbury rear axle – I sold one and barely a week later I found myself with two more! It’s surprising how much space a Land Rover will take up when you start taking it apart. The 80-inch I’m currently restoring is such a small thing but it still seems to have commandeered a vast amount of space. Speaking of which, what an expensive undertaking…

GARY’S VIEW Gary Pusey is LRM’s Classics Editor, whose daily driver is a 1990 Range Rover V8. He also owns an enviable collection of rare Land Rovers REGULAR readers will recall that I’ve driven the Grenadier on two previous occasions. The first was in February last year, when Ineos invited motoring journalists to visit its newly acquired (from Mercedes) factory at Hambach in France, close to the German border. At the end of the tour, we were driven to an abandoned coal mine, where we were allowed to drive pre-production vehicles off-road around a vast, sodden area of black mud. Almost a year later, I got behind the wheel for the second time when I joined the global media launch in Scotland, and this time I was able to drive…

THE week-long Defender Trophy started with a leisurely Sunday afternoon reporting for duty at the South Gate Country Lodge near Polokwane, South Africa. For Team Front Runner (myself, Michael de Bruyn and his 13-year old son Nathan), this involved a five-hour drive north from Johannesburg in Michael’s well cared for Defender 110 TDCi. I wasn’t the only one who’d travelled from abroad for the event; young James Birkholtz, who works on luxury yachts in Fort Lauderdale in the US, had flown in to join his father, Tony. The first thing you do after checking in is to sticker up your Defender; this took a while as there were loads of sponsors. I used the time to reacquaint myself with some of the old Trophy legends, such as Chris Ash and…

AS well as several smaller sites, the Breckland Land Rover Club has two larger sites where the whole club can get together – one at Dersingham, the other at Horsford. The club acquired the latter several years ago, comprising a mix of open land and woodland covering many acres. A local company kindly loaned the club use of a digger, and one of the members put together a Cross Country Vehicle (CCV) trials course and a less severe Road Taxed Vehicle (RTV) course. The Horsford site is big enough for a generous campsite plus a hospitality area for a marquee, food vans and vehicle displays. It also accommodates a 1.8-mile Comp Safari course, so was the club’s obvious choice to hold the Easter Get-Together with CCV, RTV and Tyro trials,…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WITH more and more new-shape Defenders being used off-road and for overlanding and expeditions, the importance of proper underbody protection is stronger now than ever. The L663 has proven itself as a strong off-roader and a durable vehicle in harsh conditions, but as with almost every other modern 4x4, the engine and driveline are left vulnerable to big hits as the standard underbody guards are only made of thin metal. Being left stranded if the engine or gearbox’s oil sump were to be cracked or powertrain mounts damaged is one thing, but the cost of repairing or replacing any smashed parts can be potentially eye-watering. Most components are still genuine Land Rover only and the hours of labour needed to make substantial repairs can make a real…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WHETHER it’s pulling the steering to one side, a pulsing brake pedal or just not stopping at all, Series Land Rover drum brakes are another quirk of the marque to have earned themselves a reputation. Typically though, they just need a little attention to return them to a fully functional condition so you can get the most out of your braking system. If you know what to look for, it’s fairly easy to diagnose issues with your brakes and, sometimes, it’s not directly a problem with the brakes, but instead something else causing adverse side-effects. The first and best place to start is with a visual examination of all brake lines and the master cylinder. It is definitely advisable (given the MoT is no longer compulsory for…

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HAVING commented on the increasingly wacky world of JLR on this page in the last two issues of LRM, once on their rebranding fiasco and then on their apparent indifference to the 75th anniversary of the Land Rover that the rest of us are busy celebrating, I was determined this month to talk about something else. But then I was sent a copy of a piece of paper and when I read it, I knew I would have to break my promise. The document seemed to me to be such a bizarre thing that my first reaction was that it had to be a send-up. But my discreet enquiries seem to confirm it is genuine. It claims to be a communication from JLR to, presumably, their staff, their retailers, and…

MY kids will start to roll their eyes when I say how hard things used to be ‘in the old days’, but car traders used to have to work hard to find a bargain. When I was a kid doing a paper round, the only other people waiting by the door at 6.00am for the newsagents to open were the car dealers, anxious to get inky fingers as they scanned fresh editions of Auto Trader, Exchange & Mart and Loot. They’d sit in the café opposite with a mug of tea and a bacon sarnie comparing the prices to a well-thumbed copy of Glass’s Guide. If they had no luck there, then they’d head to the auctions to breathe in exhaust fumes and hope to assess a car’s mechanical and…

IF you saw the jaw-dropping selection of motors that the Dunsfold Collection brought to our LRM Live event back in May, you’ll understand how excited I was to get an invitation to the opening of the Dunsfold Museum – the UK’s first and only dedicated Land Rover museum. This mammoth project has been a labour of love for Philip Bashall and the trustees, including LRM’s own Gary Pusey, and has been years in the making. As a Gold supporter of the Dunsfold Collection, LRM was on the list for early access to the new facility to pore over all the carefully curated pieces of Land Rover history and, of course, take in the plethora of amazing Land Rovers on show. Simply arriving at the museum is a treat in itself…

1959 SERIES II 88in Mileage: Unknown Power: 52bhp Torque: 124lb ft MPG: Not a clue! RATHER embarrassingly, it’s been months since the Trans-Africa Series II last made an appearance in the magazine when, on that occasion, I documented the excellent pilgrimage to Anglesey in support of Kingsley Holgate’s latest expedition. So just what has happened since then? Well, here’s the thing – the Series II is a daily driver and so for the most part, it just does the normal, relatively unremarkable stuff: school runs, dump runs, shopping trips and whatever else I need it to do in order to fulfil my day-to-day work commitments. Hardly worth writing home about, is it? Except, perhaps it should be? I still consider it to be quite remarkable that, in a world where…

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH WE can all recite complaints made around later Land Rovers’ increasing reliance on electronics. The latter TDCi years of Defender were no different. But incorporation of electrical systems is actually a positive thing, for it permits many modern extras to be easily added utilising existing wiring, one of which is cruise control. Cruise control is a handy feature in modern driving, not just for long-distance motorway journeys, but in everyday use where speed cameras are ever-ready to punish a momentary lapse in concentration with fines or licence points. And although the Defender was never fitted with cruise control from the factory, it is a relatively simple system to add on. The system we’re installing works by piggybacking various electrical signals on the Defender. Mobile Centre’s kit has…

JAGUAR finished bottom for the second year in a row in the Car Dealer Power 2023 survey, which asks dealers which are the best and worst manufacturers to represent. The luxury car maker scored a woeful 48.4 per cent: winner Toyota scored 91.5 per cent. Land Rover didn’t do much better dropping 11 places in the survey and finishing third from bottom in 21st place with 62 per cent. Dealers were asked to rank their manufacturers in 13 categories and these were used to create a score out of 100. It’s clear that the company’s recent news that we reported on last issue – the fixed price agency sales at the end of next year and cutting the number of UK dealers as part of its move towards a ‘House…

THIS year’s Capel Military Vehicle Show, held near Dorking in Surrey, saw a great number of fantastic Land Rovers. Held on the first weekend of July in aid of veteran’s charities, the show this year celebrated its tenth anniversary, featuring heavy armour and tracked vehicles, living history displays, tank rides, the firing of naval guns, Chinooks and Wessex Lynx helicopters flying in and an impressive Red Arrows flypast. Among 138 Land Rovers being exhibited, there was a Dutch Army Minerva, an RAF 80in, the last military-spec Defender 90 ever built, 30-odd Lightweights, around 20 101s and various other weird and wonderful iterations of military Land Rovers. To find out more about next year’s event, head to capelmilitaryshow.com.…

THE dust may be settling and the roar of screaming engines fading after an incredible 2023 Billing Off Road Show, but the memories of a brilliant weekend will last until next year’s event. The 2023 show kicked off on Friday the 30 June, with the legendary Riverside off-road course open all day to those early camping arrivals. Friday evening brought out the barbecues, and the smell of sizzling burgers, sausages and chicken soon filled the air. With stomachs lined, show-goers descended on the beer tent to rehydrate on the excellent drinks on offer and enjoy the great live music. Saturday morning saw the main show kick off, and the start of the Challenge South West passenger rides – if you’ve never been to Billing before, watching what these guys put…

HAVING been tasked with booking a five-day walking holiday in Sicily and left it so late that flights were sold out, with rival destinations retailing at around £1000 for two on a budget airline, I have really had to pull something out of the bag. And that something is wonderful Wales which, luckily, is set to be the hottest place in the UK for the bank holiday weekend. A little internet research turns up a ‘Land Rover Rodeo’ over at Swansea Bus Museum and Heritage Transport Centre. Although I’ve no idea what this might actually entail, and doubt that my imagination’s instant visual of people trying to cling onto an irate old Land Rover kicking up a whole load of muck in the middle of an off-road course is in…

Anice little Series III was in for an MoT and service a couple of weeks ago. It was a short wheelbase hard top with the good old two and a quarter diesel engine and had started life with the fire brigade. I suspect that if you dispatched a Series III diesel to a conflagration, by the time it arrived the fire would have burned itself out. I am very fond of the old diesels but they are not exactly the fastest thing on four wheels. This one seemed to womble along happily enough at 45mph or so, but I noticed a roughness at idle, as if it was only running on three and a bit cylinders. I set about finding out why. These old diesel engines are a bit fussier…

“I almost didn’t go for a Land Rover,’’ grins Michael Howell-Walmsley, owner and builder of this formidable Freelander 2. ‘‘There were a few different vehicles that fit the bill of what I needed, but the Freelander came out on top. I’ve had it three years now. I think it was the right choice.’’ Looking around this thoroughly worked-over F2, it’s hard to get your head around how differently it presents to a standard example. It oozes presence; the modifications amplify the stylish body lines, and the whole vehicle just seems so much bigger and more purposeful. One of the last Freelanders off the Halewood line, this 2013 gen 2 facelift actually shares a lot of its components with its period Evoque sibling, in an era when Land Rover was starting…

BRITISH Railways and Land Rover are both celebrating their 75th anniversaries this year. British Railways came into being on 1 January 1948, when Clement Attlee’s Labour government nationalised the country’s ‘Big Four’ privately-owned railway companies. At the time, it was probably the only way the UK could even begin to consider addressing the challenges of rebuilding the war-ravaged railway system, while at the same time dealing with its modernisation. The Land Rover, of course, debuted four months later on 30 April 1948, when it was officially launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show. It is not commonly known that as well as thousands of locomotives, carriages and wagons, and thousands of miles of railway lines, the fledgling British Railways operated a huge road vehicle fleet, ranging from vehicles used to deliver…

2002 DEFENDER 90 Td5 Mileage: 74,404 Power: 122bhp Torque: 221lb-ft MPG: 28 MY Facebook memories prompted me to write this update, as it recently informed me it’s already been two years since collecting my Td5 Defender 90 from the Welsh border. My promise to Adrian, the previous owner, was that I gave it a good home. He was rather attached to the old girl, having owned it for some 15 years prior. I also promised I would not modify it beyond belief, keeping it true to its heritage. Although it’s not my main daily transport, I’ve still managed to accrue around 10,000 miles or so over the last couple of years, which equates to roughly the same amount of work it had done in the ten years before I bought…

lrmtechnical@gmail.com ED EVANS TECH EDITOR LRM technical lead, drives 90 V8, RR Sport TREVOR CUTHBERT CONTRIBUTOR Pro re-chassis and total rebuild specialist MARTIN DOMONEY  EDITOR Drives a 1975 Series III 109 ALISDAIR CUSICK CONTRIBUTOR Patina expert, drives Series I, Range Rover Classic JAKE SHOOLHEIFER CONTRIBUTOR Pro restorer, drives Minerva (SI) Playing the repairs game SOME of us drive a 100 grand’s worth of Range Rover or new shape Defender, others own a battered £5k classic Defender. One thing we all have in common is the need to make decisions on the amount of repair and maintenance work to be done, and the amount of money we’re able to put into it. The cost of repair work is often dictated by the resale value of the vehicle. If a £10k Skoda needs…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH The trouble with the glow plugs on the V6 diesel engines fitted to Discovery 3 and 4 and Range Rover Sport 1 is that they last such a long time that when it’s finally necessary to change them, they can be well and truly seized in. They are also difficult to reach, and they’re easy to break, and when that happens it’s a specialist’s job to extract them after a fair amount of dismantling. Why glow plugs? At this time of year, a good diesel engine will fire up without the need for the glow plugs to operate. When the engine is turned over on the starter, the pistons compress the air in the cylinders making it hot enough to ignite the incoming diesel fuel from the…

ED EVANS TECH EDITOR LRM technical lead.  Drives 90 V8, RR Sport TREVOR CUTHBERT CONTRIBUTOR Pro re-chassis and total rebuild specialist DAVE BARKER CONTRIBUTOR Our man for later models. Drives Discovery 4 ALISDAIR CUSICK CONTRIBUTOR Patina expert.  Drives Series I, Range Rover Classic STEVE MILLER CONTRIBUTOR DIY and resto man. Drives Td5 Defender 90 CLUTCH’S MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE Can you explain clutch actuation systems? I’m interested to know how they work with specific reference to the ‘fulcrum-load-effort’ system of the release fingers. A.M ED EVANS REPLIES: The clutch system shown in the diagram above has the drive from engine to gearbox engaged. The diaphragm spring (blue), which keeps the clutch engaged, is a circular spring-steel disc with radial slots cut outward from the centre forming the ‘release fingers’. This diaphragm spring is…

Thurs 20 – Fri 21 July UK LAND ROVER EVENTS, EDEN & TYNEDALE LODGE LAND ROVER TOUR Hawes, North Yorkshire 07787 555060 uklandroverevents.com Sat 22 – Sun 23 July STAFFORDSHIRE & SHROPSHIRE LRC, TYRO TRIAL, COMP SAFARI CSC ROUND 3 Aston Lodge Farm, Stone, Staffordshire saslrc.co.uk WORMHOUGH 4x4 CLUB, TYRO & CCV TRIAL Wormhough, Macclesfield wormhough.co.uk SOUTHERN COUNTIES OFF ROAD CLUB, 4x4 TRIAL AND COMP Bilsington Priory, West Sussex scor4x4.co.uk LAND ROVER SOCIAL South of England Showground, Ardingly, West Sussex landroversocial.co.uk  TRAILS & TRACKS 4x4 ADVENTURES, FOUR COUNTIES GRAND TOUR Hexham, Northumberland trailsandtracks.co.uk Sun 23 July BUXTON & DISTRICT LRC, 5 GATE CCV TRIAL Wormhough, Rushton Spence, Macclesfield badlrc.co.uk CHILTERN VALE LAND ROVER CLUB, RTV TRIAL Weston Underwood, Milton Keynes cvlrc.co.uk ESSEX LAND ROVER CLUB, GREENLANING TRIP T BC elrc.info LINCOLNSHIRE LAND…