Back at Billing once again, with both Poppie and Benson. As with last years show the Range Rover Register once again let us display Benson on the club's stand. Here you can see Benson on the stand in front of the Air Ambulance Trust Helicopter. The Air Ambulance Trust is the nominated charity of the RRR and the club was collecting both on the stand and the off road course for the trust.
Inside the Hartwells Land Rover marquee we found the Concept SVX Land Rover. Integral roll cage with built in raised air intake, 4.6 V8 power, and 22" alloy wheels are just some of the features of this monster Land Rover. Come on Land Rover, take a leaf out of Volkswagen's book and put this into production as Volkswagen did with the New Beetle.
Wandering rounds the stands we came across another early Range Rover. This one has been restored by a tutor and a group of students from Northampton College. The Range Rover has been a technical restoration and has modern running gear. A 4.6 V8 auto powers this Range Rover. It has air lift suspension on the rear for when towing or carrying heavy loads. The chassis and the bumpers have been fully galvanised.
Sunday morning and members of the Range Rover Register line up in the arena for the club display. We were very proud to be asked to lead the convoy into the arena as we had the oldest Range Rover there. Next to Benson is a Carawagon camper conversion Range Rover. Very rare, and it won the Land Rover Enthusiast editors choice award.
Here's a closer view of Benson and the Carawagon camper Range Rover. Rosey stands in between and awaits to be questioned by David Bowyer (the arenas master of ceremonies) about Benson.
As per normal there was lots to see on the off road course at Billing. Above a marshal prepares to recover a stuck Disco from the mud. Difficult when the Disco in question has no recovery points at the front and a plastic bumper. In the end the Disco was pulled out backwards by its tow hitch.
We also managed to capture some of the action on the off road course on video. Click on the following links to download the video clips, please be patient as the files are about 300K each.
The first clip is of the Land Rover Seesaw on the off road course. The idea of this obstacle was to try and balance your Land Rover on the seesaw for as long as possible. Not as easy as it sounds as most people found out. Most attempts involved driving up the ramp, the seesaw tips up and crashes down, and the Land Rover drives off. One talented Defender owner managed to balance on the seesaw for 1 minute 50 seconds. The Range Rover Register were operating the seesaw and collecting donations for the Air Ambulance Trust, which meant that Rosey and I did a stint helping out at the seesaw.
We also ran into some friends from last years show and watched them driving round the off road course. Here they are ploughing through the water section.
Off Road Course Water Section MPeg Movie
Finally here's a Lightweight Land Rover giving it some welly through the mud section.
Off Road Course Mud Section MPeg Movie
