a bit off topic and i wasn't really sure which forum this should be in, but a friend gave me the link to this manual for dakar preparation for a lada niva.

some quite interesting reading as the solution is not 'give it to your multi million pound works garage' but its more little modifications for desert and rally work that an enthusiast could carry out on a budget. some stuff might be applicable to land rovers of varying sorts too.

http://www.veytisou.com/lada/Lada_Niva_Dakar_preparation.pdf translated from french so there might be some odd terms, but the person that did it did a really good job.