300bhp/ton

Fedima offer their Extreme's in a 750R16, my Uncle used them last weekend at the ALRC National and they performed brilliant, not too bad on the road either considering how biased they are to an off road tread pattern.

Found one example where having the shackles on the front of the springs was a disadvantage. Last weekend was the ALRC National trials, on the CCV event one of the sections had a very steep slippy drop down onto a concrete roadway. It was near vertical and slightly higher than a Land Rover. Defenders where banging the front bumper as they went down, but over all everyone was getting down without incident. Except for a very early Series 1 with the shackles at the front, as he decended the shackles must have been fully compressed and limted the front approch angle as both shackles dug hard into the roadway, the end result was one spring had all but one leaf snapped and the rear mount disconnected from the chassis. Only a few cars before a slightly younger Series 1 with the shackles at the rear had made the same decent without problem. Personally I still like the idea of having the shackles at the front, but I guess it goes to show there is no one perfect answer. Sorry no pics.

I'm not dismissing the ALRC, in fact I've been affiliated with them in one form or another since before I had a driving license. It's just that the modified rules are VERY restrictive on stupid petty things. Like running a tubular bumper on a Discovery, I've had two ALRC scrutineers tell me they won't allow my Discovery to enter if I have one, yet I am free to spend ££££££ on chopping my Disco down to an 80" special..... I just can't see the logaic. Seriously I'm there for the fun of it and don't care where I finish in the results list, but I'd just like to be able to run big, tyres, a sensible lift and after market bumpers without having to fight to prove I haven't broken any rules.

Assuming you mean the older 2.5 Diesel Turbo engine fitted to the Ninety's and such. Yes an intercooler will lower IAT (Intake Air Temps) which should promote more power. However the volume of the intercooler will also lower the boost seen in the intake manifold so you''d probably need to up the boost to compensate. Best way to do this is to tap the the intake manifold and run a boost gage direct off of it (not off the turbo). This way you can monitor boost before the intercooler and ensure the boost is correct after. You may need to alter the fueling aswell, as cooler air is more dense it will have a greater O2 content meaning you A/F (Air Fuel) ratio may be trown out. I suspect that all of these issues would be minor but for the sake of not wanting to blow the engine I think its worth checking. The only real consideration to remember is that these engines where never built as performance powerhouses so what other adverse affects may arise from making more power/toqrue I don't know. I guess the cheapeast option for a reliable power increase would be to convert it to a 200TDI. I bought an engine last year off of Ebay for £475. And being as it has no electronics should be a fairly simple swap.

The V8 is a good engine, but remember it hails from the early 60's in design so will need regular maintanence such as oil and filter changes. Do this and it should be reliable. MPG will suck and range from 12-21 depending on driving style and road conditions. Average will probably be 14-16MPG for most. If you like to drive spritied and a lot on road then I think ACE is a great thing to have as it will keep the vehicle more level in the corners. Don't discount a TD5 though, sure in stock trim they may not be the fastest, but Twisted Performance have their TD5 Defender upto 220bhp with just a few bolt ons and it'll see better MPG than a V8. But the V8 will be smoother and of course sound way better!!!

Think you are very unlikely to find such a graph, mostly because I don't think Land Rover released such things but I would think its also very unlikely for someone to have rolling roaded such an engine either. The engine is quite rare, fairly old, being a diesel wouldn't need tuning like a petrol (no need to rolling road it) and if a person owned such an engine they evidently aren't that worried about HP so I guess it would be unlikely anyone would pay £50+ just to see a dyno number for it. Was there anything specific you where wanting to know?

Are you sure a 235 is the proper equivalent? I know an imperial 31.10.50R15 means it's 31" diameter with a 10.5" width on a 15" rim. Surely a 7.50R16 means 7.50" width on a 16" rim, it just doesn't tell you the side wall height. But as 1" = 25.4mm then a 7.50 would be equal to a 190 width metric tyre. A 900 x 16 (9.00R16) would have a width of nearly 230mm so closer to a 235.

Interesting, never seen that before, what would you do with the bit left over?? Most people when bob tailing would leave no rear over hang like this: Bob tailing will involve a decent amount of cutsom work and fabbing, if you don't have the tools or somewhere to do it then you either need to find somewhere or look at getting someone to help. Most companies are not interested from what I've read, but I know Cheviot 4x4 would probably do the work, they have a bob tailed pickup Discovery and in one of the Land Rover mags (Land Rover World I think) it had an article on a red Bob tailed Range Rover pickup which they had done the work on. http://www.cheviot4x4.com/shop/

To some a Defender is more cramped and less comfortable, but to me I see them as being more purposeful and focused. My first car was a 300TDI 90 Hard Top and it is 18 cars later still the only one I regret selling. If money permitted I wouldn’t hesitate in owning another even as a daily driver. The elbow room is a funny issue and one a friend with a fairly new’ish TD5 90 was recently complaining about why hasn’t the new Defender got more elbow room. Well the answer is simple, the door itself is what makes it cramped not the trim or the interior. There are only two ways of getting more elbow room. 1. Moving the steering column and seat closer to the centre line of the vehicle. A lot of work, redesign and will reduce clearance to the transmission tunnel. 2. Make the entire vehicle wider thus moving the door away from the driver. Again a lot of resign, would make the vehicle bigger, bulkier and heavier. You’ll notice that even a Discovery 1 has a lot more elbow room, but that’s because the entire vehicle is a lot wider and bigger. Best thing you can do is see if you can test drive a Defender for a half day or something and see if you like it. But remember they are utilitarian and agricultural, which for many (me included ) is the big part of their appeal. I like the boxy shape, it looks good and is easy to know the dimensions thus making it easy to manoeuvre and park. The lack of elbow room also means it’s easier to look out of the drivers side window, or in fact stick your head and half your torso out as well. For performance I would highly recommend a bigger intercooler and chip. I sent my 200TDI to Allisport who gave top notch service and transformed the way my Discovery drives. Jeremy J Fearn and Twisted Performance as some other well known tuners. As for the transfer box, I personally wouldn’t bother, in fact I think the one in the Defender is better than the Discovery one and would happily swap in a Defender one to my Discovery. The lower revs won’t be massively lower and won’t really affect the noise all that much. You can buy aftermarket sound deadening kits which might help out a bit though. A better stereo with more good quality speakers would be a good options as well. And if noise is an issue try and get some tyres with a fairly low harmonic signature. BTW – the Discovery transfer box has the same low range ratio, it’s only the high range which is different. But yeah do watch out for lack of diff lock on the Discovery transfer boxes as you will be needing it. Land Rovers, specifically Defenders and Series are some what of a love affair. Some may hate them but if you let them into your life no other 4x4 will do.

Nope but a proper breather kit is on my list of "to buy" things. Yeah it's a good site, although I only found it after the fording trip.

Pretty sure my Uncles factory V8 90 had the side opening tailgate from the factory, it had a full tilt as standard also.

This was at the end of February beginning of March this year, thought some might be interested. Will hopefully be going again during summer so won't end up with wet carpets but will probably have a pub lunch , I'll probably arrange it thru my local LR Club but if anyone is local and wants to tag along for an informal jaunt one weekend then I see no problem. ___________________________________________________ Seems like we have record high water table levels here in the UK at the moment (and a frigging hose pipe ban as well ). So decided to go fording today as there are some really good fords not far away. Haven't done this for years. There's about 9 fords in total however I only grossed 8 today, one was just too deep!!!! This one was the deepest I went thru, and yes it did get the carpets wet. However the Discovery 3 seemed to take it in it's stride, their suspension really lifts them quite high for a stock vehicle, much higher than my Discovery rides anyhow, although you can see the water is still half way up the doors on this the LR3. I don't have a pic of the deepest ford, but it's about 60-80 yards long and you actually drive up the river a way. I did go part way in but deemed it a tad too deep plus it was very slippy and traction was an issue. The water level was well over half way up the doors as you can see by the water mark, and no it's not a splash it really was that deep and a little too close to the air intake for my liking. The Discovery performed superbly, even more so as I'd done ZERO prep work for this. It NEVER missed a beat all day, the only thing that happened was the power steering belt slipped when wet so made the steering a little heavy when leaving the water. But that's it!!!! Go diesel power!!! Oh I did end up with a little moisture in my spot lamps though

Side opening is rarer and makes it easier to load stuff in the rear bed, but a drop down tailgate is great to sit on (like a Range Rover). It also extends the load bay if you have something long to put in it. We often move clay pigeon traps which are mounted on fairly large frames and they are longer than a 90/Series load bay so leaving the tailgate down allows them to half sit on it.

I was thinking about galvanizing, I think the process can cause warping, but the metal used on wheels is pretty thick so I'd be suprised, after all you can galvernize a chassis with no problem. I've also seen Mach 5 rims zintech (sp?) coated, has a sort of gold appearance, I wonder how much that would cost? Certainly wouldn't be looking at spending loads of money, at £20-30 a rim it would probably just be cheaper to buy new ones every few years.

Anyone know if the starter motor for a 300TDI is the same as one on a 200TDI?