After all the mechanical troubles of last year, we never imagined that we'd get both the Land Rover and the Range Rover to the show this year, but here's the photos to prove it! Above is "Benson", our 1971 Range Rover, and below is "Poppie" our 1972 Land Rover.
Poppie is sporting a brand new canvas, when I originally bought her, she had a Safari roofed hardtop, but I managed to find out a bit of her history, and she left the factory with a full canvas. I decided to change her roof as it's lovely and cool to run with a canvas in the summer, I've kept the hardtop, which we'll refit when it gets colder/wetter.
Here's Rosey adding the finishing touches to the new canvas, a "Best 4x4xFar" sticker in the back window. I got it in the neck afterwards as I forgot that you can't undo the canvas from the inside, and I'd left Rosey trapped inside, D'oh!
The wierd futuristic Mad Max type vehicle pictured above is actually a prototype of a Riot Control Vehicle called a Talon. Someone had brought this monster to the show and had organised tours around the vehicle for charity. It has three engines, an 8.2 Litre unit drives it, another powers the water cannon, and a third powers the electrical system. It's electrical system can provide 12V, 24V, 240V, and 11,000V (for it's electrified hull) It has a fire surpression system underneath the vehicle, plus air-conditioning and seats in the back for 14 crew. Oh yeah, plus infra-red cameras for night vision, and a Blaupunkt Stereo!
Not much left of this one. I thought the engine and gearbox would be seized for sure, but to prove us wrong the owner rigged up a patio chair as a drivers seat, a fuel can on top of the bulkhead as a fuel tank, and proceeded to drive round the campsite with it!
We couldn't believe it when it drove past us while we were eating breakfast. It made a hell of a racket as it had no exhaust, plus the owner was towing a Land Rover 90! We don't know if this was to prove that the engine still had some power, or whether the 90 had broken down, and this was all they had to tow it with! Later that day the owners took it for a drive round the main arena with a sign advertising it for 50 quid.
As a complete contrast, this is a 1952 80" Series 1 Land Rover that's just been finished restoring this year. We know the owner of this lovely Land Rover as he was the previous owner of my friend Twit's Series 1 Land Rover "Wumbat".
As you can see, it's been rebuilt from the ground up. Dave the owner even travelled as far as Belguim to find parts for this restoration. The engine and gearbox came from the Belguim Army Surplus.
As you can see the engine is like new, in fact it's been in storage for the last 40 or so years. Dave had the cheek to tell me that his engine bay wasn't very clean. Oh yeah, just check it out, I reckon you could eat your dinner off that engine it's so clean!
Saturday night and the Land Rover Show holds host to the smell of a thousand barbeques being lit simultaneously! We're no exception and here's ours. Were we cooking barbeque?, nope, just wanted something to keep us warm, and that it did!
Here's what we were cooking, Curry, yum! Rosey and Fran cook in the dark, while Chris uses the barbeque to grill the naan bread. It may look pitch dark, but it's just the camera, it's only about 8.30pm.
Here's the view through the window of one of two Hartwell Land Rovers that were being used on the off-road course. Obviously someone's being playing in the mud, lovely! It's actually the view out the back of a brand new Series II Discovery, we decided we'd take a ride round the off-road course in one to see what they're like. All I can say is that it made the same course I'd driven in my Series III seem effortless, you could say it almost made it boring, but then the driver hacked it back across the field at the end of the course like a nutter. I swear he managed to get the back wheels off the ground at one point! Chris and Fran went in the 110 Land Rover you can see in the picture, Fran's new to off-roading and was a little nervous beforehand, however once we got off the course, she said she loved it!
We then moved on to the other course to watch what was happening on the public course. Here's an ex-miltary Land Rover diving into one of the deeper water sections on the course. This driver made it through with no problems, others weren't so lucky, which is why this section proves to be one of the most popular spectator sections.
Oh dear, here's someone who's not been so lucky getting through the section, this Range Rover being a petrol driven V8, has fallen foul to damp electrics and the engine's died. Unfortunately I know the feeling all too well!
Here's the driver out the vehicle just getting ready to jump into what must be freezing cold water to attach a rope to the tow hitch so that his vehicle can be recovered. Below you can see the marshalls and one of their vehicles getting set to pull the stricken Range Rover out backwards. Due to the weight of the Range Rover and the slipperiness of the ground, two Land Rovers are used to pull the vehicle out. Here the marshalls are fixing a rope to the front of the first Land Rover ready to attach to the rear of the second Land Rover which is behind us out of shot.
Here's the Range Rover successfully recovered from the water, unfortunately as you can see, it's door seals are not watertight, and water is pouring out from around the doors where it's leaked into the vehicle whilst it was stuck in the water section. Behind it you can see the two Land Rovers belonging to the marshalls that were used to pull it out of the water.
A quick squirt of WD40 and quick wipe over of the electrics with a cloth, and the engine fires back into life. The exhaust didn't escape the water either, and huge globs of water spew from the exhaust as well as steam as the driver revs the engine. Give the engine a chance to dry out, and he'll be back for another go!
Finally, here's another Range Rover making easy work of one of the muddier sections of the course. This Range Rover happens to be an early example, very nearly the same age as ours and the same colour, although after driving this course, it's a lot muddier!
