Naks

thanks for the comments! Here's another video highlighting the rest of the time we spent, this time at Madikwe Hills Private Game Lodge:

if you're not doing much mileage, then the supercharged v8 would be nice to have. The AJV8 engine is bulletproof and you will have a permagrin from the performance

some photos:

render of the 110 bakkie https://www.instagram.com/p/CMjm679MvJo/

90 looks good off-road!

Hmm, could be because they're cheap as chips now, but the maintenance & repair bills are not?

yeah, 5.0 SCV8 or bust. Or the TDV8, but avoid the S/TDV6. While the L494 is far superior ito comfort and luxury, the L322 is a bit more modifiable and its shorter wheelbase makes it excellent off-road. if you're going with the SCV8, watch out for a ticking sound at cold idle as that could indicate an issue with the timing chain tensioner - easily rectified if you catch it early, before the chain has stretched too long.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/british/check-out-new-ps100k-v8-powered-land-rover-defender " ... Land Rover has stuck its tried and tested 5.0-litre supercharged V8 in the new Defender. Available as either a two-door short-wheelbase ‘90’ or four-door long-wheelbase ‘110’, the V8 Defender makes 518bhp, accelerates to 60mph in a shade under five seconds and tops out at 149mph. Fuel economy is predictably shocking – just 19.5mpg and 327g/km of CO2. Happily the Defender’s chassis and suspension have been beefed-up to cope with the added power, though not, says Land Rover, to the detriment of its off-road ability. Larger diameter solid anti-roll bars aim to reduce, erm, roll. Then there’s the new “Electronic Active Rear Differential”, the stiffer suspension bushes, bespoke spring and damper rates and new ‘Dynamic’ mode for the Terrain Response system that helps drivers “exploit the more dynamic character” of the V8 “on tarmac and loose surfaces”. ..."

TFL Take 3 Iconic Off-Roaders Up A Mountain In a Snowstorm: What Can Go Wrong?

PowerfulUK head to LR Experience at Eastnor Castle:

Pirelli Develops Special Tire For Land Rover Defender: https://carbuzz.com/news/pirelli-develops-special-tire-for-land-rover-defender "... the Italian manufacturer has partnered with Land Rover to produce a special tire just for the new Defender. Pirelli says that the new tires offer best-in-class rolling resistance, which is always a benefit when you're trying to make vehicles as efficient as possible. ... Pirelli says that its new Scorpion Zero All Season ultra high performance tire is "designed to deliver excellent levels of comfort and safety" and reduces noise while providing maximum performance throughout any season, whether the road surface is dry or wet. New materials were used for the structure and compounds of the tire, and to ensure optimal performance, Land Rover tested the new tires "both uphill at a constant speed as well as sideways across the slope in order to assess lateral grip on wet grass." A new shoulder design and a double tread block help improve traction on mud, grass, and snow - something that Landy enthusiasts will surely appreciate. To ensure that the tires are truly capable in all conditions, a series of laboratory tests were followed by an outdoor program that consisted of tests in the UK's Malvern Hills, where the tires were tested on 66 miles of varied terrain. Following this, snow and ice testing took place in northern Sweden. Land Rover's Gaydon facility in England was then used to test soft handling and comfort while high speed and wet handling testing took place at the Nurburgring and at the Applus and Idiada facility in Spain. Pirelli's own Vizzola test track was also made use of. ... "

Very rally raid, this look

Damn, this looks the part! https://www.instagram.com/p/CI8EkgrC2zJ/

thanks! I posted a link to the video here: You will see how most vehicles struggled in the soft sand, and how the ND didn't.

Spent yesterday at Atlantis Dunes with the Cape Land Rover Club. Here's a video of the day:

Yesterday the club went to the dunes, one of the guys brought his ND. I was expecting it to get stuck often, but it ran rings around all of us. The only time he got stuck was when he tried deliberately to do so by doing a short run-up and to test extended mode + ATPC.

5-star rating for the ND: https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/land-rover/defender/41395

well, this is certainly an improvement!

"An off-road Rambo with mud in its veins Jeremy Clarkson Sunday November 29 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times Over the past six months this column has sometimes been about farming and sometimes about cars. And now it’s about both at the same time, because today I’m writing about the new Land Rover Defender. It has been designed by the company’s chief stylist, Gerry McGovern, to look like the old Defender, and I can’t see why. When Apple was designing its phone, it didn’t say: “It must be red and 8ft tall, and it must smell of urine and be full of ladies’ phone numbers.” It went ahead and did something different. But Gerry, a little man who hates me because I’m so much taller than him, may have been wise on this occasion, because he understands the British don’t like different. The last Defender was launched just after the Second World War, then not really altered at all for 67 years. And when the company did pull the plug, lots of Brexit-type people rushed about saying they would put it back into production themselves, so that proper British men — men, d’you hear — could continue to drive a car that smelt of damp dogs and was full of sharp edges. I was never a fan of the old Defender, and because the new one is so obviously designed to be a modern-day interpretation, and has been styled by a small man who hates me, I was determined to dislike it as well. Initially this was a struggle, because it does look good. I had the short-wheelbase Defender 90 model and there was definitely a Tonka-toyish charm allied to a hint of meat. The meat’s real too. This is a car that can wade through water nearly 3ft deep and is fitted with electrics so robust they can be submerged for an hour and still work. It is not, then, just a Range Rover with right angles. It’s been beefed up everywhere to cope with everything. And that was good news, because the day after it was delivered to my farm, men came with machines to resurface my drive. This meant that for a week the only way into the world would be via what we call the brown back passage. It is a very muddy track, and sometimes it’s very muddy without being a track at all. And I could not believe how well the Defender coped. Even my tractor slithers about in one notorious 200-yard slab of clay, but the little Land Rover kept on going. I didn’t even need to employ any of its “special programs”, which is a good thing, because to engage these you must first press a button on the dash and then use an iPad-style touchscreen thing to make your selection. That’s only going to work if you’re 12. Later that afternoon I heard gunfire on the other side of the farm, so, fearful that someone was shooting my deers, I set off up the brown back passage and into the woods, where the 90’s smallness meant I could zip about easily between the trees. It was also extremely comfortable, and although my test car had the 2-litre petrol engine, and not a torquey diesel, it was sprightly and gutsy too. Soon I forgot why I’d gone out, and was to be found trying to get it stuck in bogs and on muddy banks so I could be manly and use my tractor to pull it out. I was quite sad when I failed, but then happy the next day when someone borrowed it and called moments later to say that she was bogged down in some — not very — deep ruts. I won’t say who it was. Only that her name begins with an “L”. And ends with an “isa Hogan”. Even more impressive than the off-road comfort and ability was the interior. It’s not completely “wipe clean”, sadly, and I hated the tiny man’s faux and pointlessly visible screw heads, but there are so many cubbyholes and pockets for things, you could play kick the can in there and never find anyone. It looks good too, apart from the stupid fake screws, which I don’t think I’ve mentioned. I especially liked the folding canvas sunroof. It made me think of the Tudor Webasto on my grandad’s old Rover. After three days I was fairly confident that I would be buying a Defender soon, but then I checked the price and, er, I’m sorry. What? The car I’d had — the short-wheelbase model with the tiny engine — was more than £62,000 with the options factored in. Even if you take away all the extras that had been fitted, it’s still at least 50 grand and, excuse me, but if I want a vehicle to cart around bales of straw and sheep — and I do, by the way — why would I spend £50,000-plus on a Defender, when for much, much less I could do what all farmers do and get a pick-up? Certainly a pick-up would “bong” less. The Defender alerts you firmly and loudly when you open the door or don’t do up your seatbelt, and it becomes completely hysterical when you’re manoeuvring and nearing such terrors as blades of grass or a small shrub. This is all extremely annoying when you’re using the car as a tool. The problems continued the next day when I drove to London, because on the motorway there was quite a lot of wind noise and the sort of constant diagonal pitching motion most closely associated with cross-Channel ferries in the 1960s. Is this a consequence of the excellent off-road ability? Or has it been “engineered in” to give drivers a flavour of the old car? Rover did it with the styling, so who knows? In London it was the eve of lockdown 2.0 and absolutely everyone was squeezed into the tiny bit of the road network that hasn’t been turned into a cycle lane. It took three hours to get from the Strand to the River Café in Hammersmith and en route the Land Rover bonged at everything, convinced we were perpetually on the verge of a massive crash. But everyone was looking at it and everyone was giving it the thumbs-up. I admit that, thanks to some clever details and the silver paint with the optional satin film, it did look good. The tiny man who hates me has seen to that. His engineering department has done a bloody good job as well, because it’s not like those idiotic American backwoodsmen who dress up like Rambo and imagine they’re former Delta Force troops. This is the real deal. It’s a properly serious off-roader. I was determined to hate the new Defender, then, but I don’t. Despite the relentless bonging, it’s a fine and clever car. Sadly, however, I can’t see the point of it. For serious countrymen that price tag is too high, and for top-of-the-range models it goes higher still, to more than £80,000. I know there are “commercial” versions coming next year, and they’ll be less expensive, but for now I’m inclined to go for a cheaper, more tax-efficient and much more practical Ford Ranger Raptor. You, on the other hand? Well, if you are a hedge-fund manager and you commute every Friday night to your house in the country, where there are cattle grids and speed humps and sometimes a pheasant to steer round, be in no doubt: the new Defender will be not as good as the Range Rover you quite rightly have now."

JLR and Defender owners 😅