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Thoughts and musings on the new defender


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1 hour ago, Anderzander said:

That 90 was quite heavily modified - lots of travel front and back, and either running the XS traction control Set up or lockers I would think ? 

Absolutely. Not sure if actual lockers or an ATB together with traction control, but no way those are stock diffs.

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2 hours ago, elbekko said:

Absolutely. Not sure if actual lockers or an ATB together with traction control, but no way those are stock diffs.

Does that not just give it the same toys as the new defender then and put them on an equal footing where the older modified vehicle still made it look easy compared to the new one with similar gear (i think i read the new one had a rear locker and obviously traction control?)

I would have liked to see the 110 earlier in the video attempt the same bit for a better comparison of older standard (assuming it was) to new.

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1 hour ago, reb78 said:

Does that not just give it the same toys as the new defender then and put them on an equal footing where the older modified vehicle still made it look easy compared to the new one with similar gear (i think i read the new one had a rear locker and obviously traction control?)

I would have liked to see the 110 earlier in the video attempt the same bit for a better comparison of older standard (assuming it was) to new.

I think it would be much more fair to compare stock to stock. And stock that 90 would've needed a hell of a driver and/or a hell of a run up to make that hill :)

And the new one that was featured didn't look like it had the rear locker. Others in the group probably did.

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The 'rock-crawling' stuff is rather far-removed from anything I'd be likely to do in practice.  I'd be interested in seeing some videos of it doing the "Moose Test" swerve [we don't have Mooses? Meece? round here but there are quite a few Roe/Fallow Deer who wander around the roads at night and not far away we have free-range Wild Boar too, so plenty of things to need a swerve. We don't swerve for Muntjac].

Some videos of it towing a loaded twin-axle trailer would be nice to see as well. Particularly an uphill start on gravel/shingle while towing a heavy trailer. Doing this in my Defender, it just burrowed all four driven wheels into the gravel then sat there looking silly. I suspect an automatic would have done better.

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4 hours ago, Naks said:

Comparison with the D4

 

 

I found this video fascinating.  Two such remarkably similar cars! (Well, apart from the actual chassis but they end up being close to the same size and shape, suspension etc.).  If anything, the D4 is more "Defender" than the new Defender, in that it is more of a utility vehicle and the Defender more of station wagon.  The clearance at the front in that picture just emphasises the idea.  I know which one would make the better camper or cargo hauler...

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4 hours ago, Naks said:

Comparison with the D4

 

Is it just the angle that's shot from, or is the new Defender quite significantly wider than the Discovery 4? That's getting into Land Cruiser "oops, doesn't fit through the gate" territory if it is!

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8 hours ago, Anderzander said:

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I think it’s very wide. The picture of it next to a defender made me notice.

1791mm vs 2,008mm according to google 

The more I see it. The less I think it looks anything like the old one. I think this is a big fail. Its a completely different car!

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This debate has certainly raised my level of interest in the D3/4. I suspect it's probably on the limits of what a DIY hobby mechanic can cope with, but as that's also true of the current spouse friendly motor, that's no real difference.

 

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On 6/9/2020 at 8:34 AM, Anderzander said:

That 90 was quite heavily modified - lots of travel front and back, and either running the XS traction control Set up or lockers I would think ? 

Lockers maybe, although TCS has been standard on 90's since 1998! The suspension didn't look all the great IMO, a bit wobbly. It probably had more travel, but I'm not sure it was really an improvement over stock, just different.

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3 hours ago, reb78 said:

The more I see it. The less I think it looks anything like the old one. I think this is a big fail. Its a completely different car!

This is one of the first things I said when I saw it. I'm amazed that JLR didn't want to make it look more like a "Defender", regardless of where it is pitched as a model. It really shares no design language with the "Land Rover --- 1948 thru 2016" at all. Which is just super odd IMO.

Look at a Wrangler/Jimny/G-Wagen and regardless of their design, visually they all hark back to their past variants, style and design language.

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39 minutes ago, Anderzander said:

Everything less than 2m is a single seater ? 😊

Pretty much so, yes - if ia SUV/truck wants to get anything above a 'marginal' 3* classification in the driver/passenger-safety rating in the Euro-NCAP tests.

You need the space for the door-intrusion bars, steering-wheel/passenger-fascia/screen-pillar/B-post and footwell-space airbags, along with seatbelt pre-tensioners.

[NCAP tests let small/light cars get away with less protection - which is deeply strange to me!]

Personally, I'm all in favour of lots of structural-safety-stuff in cars, having seen what happens when someone barrel-rolls a Defender down a Welsh hillside.

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