Off Roading

[mayevora]

Never had the oppertunity to induldge in this passtime. Been to quite a few events as a spectator where the marshalls set a course through the a forrest/woods and time the competitors dishing out penalty points if gates missed ect ect.

The Brittish Army used to be quite into testing Land Rovers back in the 50's + 60's as they thought the need might arise to put into practice.

Edited January 16, 2008 by mayesprit

[Advantage]

Might have. B)

[mayevora]

Looking good - do tell more Graham.

Edited January 16, 2008 by mayesprit

[Advantage]

Not much to tell, really. I've been a Land Rover fan for ever. I've had more Range Rovers than I've had Esprits (which is a lot!), infact the two seem to compliment one another well.

All my Range Rovers have got dirty. It's a different sort of 'track' driving and very addictive. (Even Louise enjoys it, she's had her wagon beached so well it needed two LR 90's to recover it!)

I've managed to get hold of a spare set of alloys so I can put some decent ATs on them and my latest acquisition has been one of these. (The Genuine Parts fitting kit is hen's teeth) I've just bought a secondhand bumper to paint and chop so I can fit it.

[esprithk]

I like the SUZUKI JIMMY....what a little devil! ( I think it's called SIDEKICK oversea)

Edited January 16, 2008 by esprithk

[redshift]

Well having a farm and horses, making the hay, delivering dung to neighbours fields and taking the dogs out to the local lake, I can safely say that the land rover goes offroad just about every other day.

In fact it makes a change to drive it on the roads occasionally.

[Kimbers]

I've had more Range Rovers than I've had Esprits (which is a lot!), infact the two seem to compliment one another well.

All my Range Rovers have got dirty.

Are you sure you're not a spy, or maybe some "Secret Millionaire" like on the TV, assessing which of us poor oiks may need some help fixing our cars?

[red vtec]

Yep got a 110, it has been to few very muddy zones, and off road courses. Amazing where they will go.

Here is a pic

Edited January 16, 2008 by red vtec

[andydclements]

I haven't got a Landy or RR, but I am supposedly helping somebody re-build a landy.

It was a 90 with a blown engine, got engine sorted, spotted small hole in chassis, investigated, found smallhole wasn't actually small.

Took body off, found hole wasn't a hole as such, more a small piece of metal along a stretch where abig piece of metal should be.

So a 90 2.5 TD is becoming a 110 TDi.

Andy

[Tentenths]

As a youngster I spent many happy hours messing around in 4x4's on a friend's father's farm. We usually took one of the tractors as a recovery vehicle as we invariably managed to get stuck somewhere... although much of the time it was contrived so we could play with the tractor and/or blast some passing wildlife

Happy days

Haven't done much since other than one or two relatively tame corporate hostility events.

[Backmarker]

Done it in one of Landrover's own Discoverys (not my own........didn't want to have to remove the side-steps and get it all dirty) at their course just outside Bala.

Brilliant day and would highly recommend. Think you've got to be a Landrover owner though to get a place on the course.

Better than this though was green laning on a Honda MTX 125. Great fun. Lots of falling off usually in water or soft mud. Sadly even a 2 stroke 125 can become heavy once covered in mud.

Graham.

[Bibs]

Back in the days of the yahoo lists I noticed that many Esprit owners owned Land Rovers/Range Rovers and when I asked why, the unanimous response was that they wanted the best, on the roads and off!

I learnt to drive in an RAF SWB Landy, took 10 mins, very simple and great fun and I had a 'driving' licence at 16 to be able to tow gliders about on MOD property (RAF FMT600)!

[mangel]

Yes, Lots!!

Used to be involved with the armed forces AWD challenge (driving Force) down on Salisbury plain.

Have owned most Rangey's, except the new one which I was about to buy but now having a new house instead (can't have finance to get the mortgage initially) but going to buy a disco 2 instead I think.

Off roading is massive fun would recommend it to anyone. I know someone who owns and runs offroad driving experience days in the Midlands if anyone wants to try it.

Also as an aside one of my best mates is a test driver for Landy and spends most of his life jetting round the world smashing them up in odd places including Canada and the Nurbergring

[Kimbers]

The old man had a few Rangeys and we also had a Nissan Patrol and Diahatsu Fourtrak.

However most of my off roading experience comes from my 3 years association with Tata. Believe it or not (I do because Ive used them) they were the only vehicles to follow the Defender off road when every other 4x4 being tested got stuck. They were both powered by an older Peugeot 2.0 diesel and were pretty basic inside. However there was no cpu's etc and were designed so they could be botched on the side of the road.

I loved them to sell as they were so cheap farmers would buy them and dispose of them after 3 years.

[Malc Holmes]

Land Rovers and Lotus, ying and yang, both are the best at what they set out to do. Thats why so many Lotus owners have a Land Rover too. The best of both worlds. Opposites attract....

I have owned loads of Land Rovers over the last 20 years. I still have an S11A 1967 SWB and a 1996 Japan Spec Disco at the moment. The best I ever had was a 2002 Defender 110 which we drove all over Europe and off road almost all the way from Narvic to the North Cape back in 2005.

Land Rovers... love em...

Also, sent several years of my life working on the Nissan Pathfinder and did a little winter testing testing in Germany and Switzerland a few months before start of production

Malc

Edited January 16, 2008 by Malc Holmes

[gghc87]

shogun LWB me, many moons ago. Wonderful V6 engine did 160,000 miles without a hitch. Managed to pull my Dad in his SWB Shogun out of a river on his farm in Devon once what fun.

[fmxa]

I love my Range Rover, although I'm ashamed to say it's never really been "off road" ...

[Louise]

(Even Louise enjoys it, she's had her wagon beached so well it needed two LR 90's to recover it!)

Can I just say that it was quite challenging terrain and not my crappy driving that I ended up being beached!!

The Land Rover driving days are brilliant. I had such a good time and got to drive a 110 and a Freelander which was great for me because at that time I did indeed have a Freelander that I just got a bit grubby from time to time. (It was my previous one I beached)

If you get the chance to go on one of these driver days, or go off roading with a club of somesort, I would definately recommend it!

LouX

[mangel]

Most suprising car off road I've ever driven was Subaru Forrester, few bangs on the bottom but over all massively competent.

[Jukka]

Yes, I like our Discovery. Before that we had Shogun. Reason for owning 4x4 is ballooning, our older hobby. Landing places may be so difficult that recovery is much easier by 4x4 car.

Interesting to drive in snow or mud. I'am subscriber of Land Rover Owner Magazine. Nice articles about driving in Africa.

[andydclements]

Don't forget they're useful for recovering Lotus cars that have either "developed a quirk", that quirk being not working, or gone off road due to unforeseen road conditions (didn't make it round the corner).

You can winch the car to the road, winch it onto a trailer and tow the 1300Kgs with no issue.

[Wilf]

I had a '64 swb landrover with a V8 conversion that I used to trial with quite regularly - great fun. Not a straight panel on it and had great road presence! Nice to see another balloonist too - I have a friend with one and help out during the summer.

[Paul C]

Been off roading in landrover 110's, landrover 90's, Range rovers and some chopped

and custom SWB range rovers. All very good fun, and was lucky enough to have a lot

of drive time as it was in the days before the 'red letter vouchers', so you could get a

whole day for a hundred quid, rather than the half hour you get now.

More recently i went round a course in one of those suzuki jimmys. Ok i know they are

a bit 'can you cut my hair on tuesday please?' when spotted on the road, and i know the

guy from 'Bros' drove one, but they are very, very, surprisingly capable things offroad!

[mangel]

^ Yep had both a Suzuki SJ and a Vitara and both very good off road!!^

[esprit350]

Renu is the off roader in our family, she has owned a shogun pinin, landrover 90 and currentyly has a swb isuzu trooper with M/S tyres which is very capable, she has done some courses and we we have visted a couple of off road sites, old quarries and done some green laneing.

we did an off road safari through the atlas mountains in morroco a few years ago, but we had drivers. the toyota land cruisers were very capable and the secenery was stunning...