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The Range Rover was not ready in time, so its owners were treated to a tour of the L*ndR*ver Fest off-road course in the Surf.
Discovering that this had red sections ("proper Land Rovers") and green sections (FreeLoaders), we decided always to follow the red. There was a little bit of tow-bar banging, but all in all a pretty easy drive. Apart from stopping to watch stuck vehicles such as a road-tyred Discovery in 18" of gloop (tee-hee), and a Defender that seemed to have hydrauliced (not nice), it didn't stop once.
All was well, that is, until the final mudhole. These Surfs need a little more thought put into them. I discovered mud on the inside of the air intake
and chronic overheating on the way home. Anything above 40mph sent the temp gauge soaring, as did hills. It took 15 minutes at a jetwash and some contortionist moves by my friends to get the worst of the mud out of the rad, and I'm going to have to strip the front off and jetwash it again this weekend to be on the safe side.
Still, it didn't have trouble where the "proper" Land Rovers did so I'd count that as a point for us.
The Range Rover, incidentally, was got running on Sunday morning. It's running an ex-Overfinch 4.6l engine with early-80s carbs and distributor, putting the power through a 3-speed TorqueFlite auto. It's not yet been tuned, but wheelspin is already a problem on dry tarmac. I can't wait to try it off-road
Discovering that this had red sections ("proper Land Rovers") and green sections (FreeLoaders), we decided always to follow the red. There was a little bit of tow-bar banging, but all in all a pretty easy drive. Apart from stopping to watch stuck vehicles such as a road-tyred Discovery in 18" of gloop (tee-hee), and a Defender that seemed to have hydrauliced (not nice), it didn't stop once.
All was well, that is, until the final mudhole. These Surfs need a little more thought put into them. I discovered mud on the inside of the air intake
and chronic overheating on the way home. Anything above 40mph sent the temp gauge soaring, as did hills. It took 15 minutes at a jetwash and some contortionist moves by my friends to get the worst of the mud out of the rad, and I'm going to have to strip the front off and jetwash it again this weekend to be on the safe side.Still, it didn't have trouble where the "proper" Land Rovers did so I'd count that as a point for us.
The Range Rover, incidentally, was got running on Sunday morning. It's running an ex-Overfinch 4.6l engine with early-80s carbs and distributor, putting the power through a 3-speed TorqueFlite auto. It's not yet been tuned, but wheelspin is already a problem on dry tarmac. I can't wait to try it off-road
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