My rear cross-member is rusting … don’t worry, they all do that sir
When Jesse Stone wrote his twelve bar blues classic Shake, Rattle & Roll, he wasn’t thinking about rock & roll, he was in fact writing about the venerable Land Rover. Bits fall off them; they leak water in & oil out. As for the runners that the rear windows sit in, there is just the right amount of moss that should be growing in them. The clutch peddle squeaks & the window winders work very very occasionally. Then there’s the smell: the delicate blend of old Labrador, smelly wellies & ditch water. Perfect
As regular readers will know Family FM will drive nothing else – after all, think of all the money that you save in car valeting when once a year, all your have to do is pressure hose the interior. Seriously. A few gallons of water, a firm yard brush & you are go to go in 15 minutes.
So anyway …
Workers at the Land Rover plant have met Prince Charles to mark the 60th anniversary of the company. The manufacturer, based in Solihull, West Midlands, produced its first vehicle in April 1948
… & to be honest, the design hasn’t moved on a lot since then, mainly because they got it right the first time round. Rather like an English ‘best gun’, future generations can try to improve upon it but for all their time & effort, all they do is frig around at the edges.
Now, there as those of you that live in countries where the Defender (to use its current name) is not currently available - not only does my heart go out to you but can I humbly suggest that you take the head of whichever agency has banned their import out the back & give them a proper kicking because you are missing out on the most capable 4x4 ever built. Without exception. Yes yes yes, you can go & buy something with a V hemi cross flow head Okie Kokie 2000 thousand thingy engine, take it down to the custom shop & spend squillions getting some cross country capability bolted onto it … or you can buy a Landie, drive out of the showroom & break down tackle just about any terrain in the world in its OEM specification. The biggest limitation to a Landrover’s cross country capability is the driver’s skill … & of course how brave he (or she) is feeling.
Oh yes & they look right. Yes I know that Fulham Farmers & the Home Counties crowd buy them in black these days, but that t’aint natural. They come in green or blue. Everything else is an aberration … a bit like the colour schemes of every other 4x4 manufacturer you care to mention.
When we are off out for a days shooting & one of the guns turns up in the latest Bitsaremushi Ruffty Tuffty replete with chrome bumpers & a surfeit of go faster spot lights, Mrs FM has been known to mutter darkly that they are not proper people & then go and get the heavy duty tow rope ready because before the end of the day, sure as sh*ts brown, she will be pulling them out of the gloop.
To my mind this well known picture says it all
… anything that was good enough for the stoutest of stout bulldogs is certainly good enough for me. & if you are going to complain that a Landrover has been left behind by more up to date designs, go & buy that piece of Jap plastic, it probably has a special hook in the cabin to hang your handbag from
Comments
I say, well put my man. Just come back from Driffields off-road course (El-Alamain Barracks ex-training ground) in my 90. Still smiling at the capability of a very standard vehicle. Some sever off-roading, and with little clean paintwork left and 140,000 miles on the clock, still drove the 200 miles home faultlessly. What a fantastic vehicle....
Posted by: Tinhut4 | May 15, 2008 8:16 AM
Mines still going, 53 years since it left the factory.
Posted by: EX_STAB | May 15, 2008 8:50 AM
Despite my old man having a rash about all things japanese (following a stay at his imperial majesty's pleasure some 60 or so years ago), I have bucked the trend due to empirical evidence and personal experience, and advocate the Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 (GX), sadly very few versions of this exist in UK, but Toyota Gibralter has churned out a plethora of these that i have used in africa, whilst pillaging the earth of its hydrocarbon bounties.
Landrovers in africa are for Diplomats and NGOs who rarely leave tarmacadam.
In fact if I could post an image, I'd show what happens to even those.
I would however use a landy in UK, as the terrain isn't tough enough to warrant a landcruiser.
(awaits incoming)
Posted by: SBP | May 15, 2008 12:02 PM
No incoming warranted, when LR gets off its backside and fits a decent auto gear box as an option to a 3 litre TD then I will finally succumb, oh and they need to shortern the steering column or move the drivers seat back a foot as I am too stout a bullock these days to drive without trapping my expenses sheet!
Posted by: TimC | May 15, 2008 1:09 PM
((No incoming warranted, when LR gets off its backside and fits a decent auto gear box as an option to a 3 litre TD then I will finally succumb, oh and they need to shortern the steering column or move the drivers seat back a foot as I am too stout a bullock these days to drive without trapping my expenses sheet!
Posted by TimC at May 15, 2008 1:09 PM ))
Yes Tim but the Suzuki Jimny is not exactly a noble alternative for the Stout Bulldog bent on Imperial revival is it? ;)
Posted by: EX_STAB | May 15, 2008 11:29 PM
The picture of the one with Churchill sure resembles the GREEN Short Wheel Base Mk 1 I had as a drive-to-work car when I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters 1977-80. Mine had spare tire mounted on the 'bonnet' and canvas top. My other car was a US spec, Left hand drive, TR-6. More than once after driving the Land Rover for several days I would go out and climb in the wrong side of the TR-6.
Walt
Posted by: Walt | May 16, 2008 5:52 AM
Did LR not pinch the design from the US jeep? gave the first few central driving position for ploughing?, seriously if you delete the dredfull Boge 'rock and roll' unit from the rear the off-road ability is unbeatable, even by a land cruiser, which is exclusively because it is a lot more reliable!! if not as good off road, thank our unions for that
Posted by: chris Edwards | May 17, 2008 10:05 PM
WTF?! Window winders?! You want the old sliding windows with the central "instruments", which included plugs for the spotlight. At least you could open beer bottles in the folds of the metal-work with those models.
(Not to mention the old foot starter button (or was it thumb - I'm getting old))
Anyway only a cad or a bounder would drive a LR with window winders.
Oubaas
Posted by: Oubaas | May 20, 2008 12:25 PM
I think I drove that very same Landy in my Army days, circa 1978.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | May 20, 2008 3:06 PM
Oh, and the new Toyota FJ will give the Landy a run for its money, I'm afraid.
It's a peach.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | May 20, 2008 3:11 PM
I truly love my old 1989 chawton white ninety.
my old faithful dog.
the only thing the new model lacks is a decent diesel engine and the old vents under the windshield
Posted by: marco | November 21, 2008 11:19 AM