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Thoughts and musings on the new defender


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10 hours ago, Happyoldgit said:

Rich neurotic types.
Beardy types.


😉😉😉🤣

Would you care to elaborate?  The way this comes across is very offensive to those of us who keep our faces the way God intended...

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1 hour ago, Gazzar said:

Sun glasses are important. 

I got my first ever pair of prescription suglasses last year. They were aviators (fake ish ones) but I could use them because they were prescription. Maybe I am ready for a Pretender....

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1 hour ago, deep said:

Would you care to elaborate?  The way this comes across is very offensive to those of us who keep our faces the way God intended...

Only quoting what others have said so no need to be so offended, besides those of us might just include me.

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7 hours ago, Happyoldgit said:

Only quoting what others have said so no need to be so offended, besides those of us might just include me.

Probably around half on here are that way, beards are the way forward. Just not the type you need to comb, I don't need to comb my head I'm not about to start with my face......

Mike

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10 hours ago, reb78 said:

I got my first ever pair of prescription suglasses last year. They were aviators (fake ish ones) but I could use them because they were prescription. Maybe I am ready for a Pretender....

Mine are genuine, had them thirty years. They've been re-lensed twice with prescription. Cop shades. 

They are worth the money, very robust, spares available and do the job well.

I believe they were developed from a war design, for pilots.

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10 hours ago, reb78 said:

I got my first ever pair of prescription suglasses last year. They were aviators (fake ish ones) but I could use them because they were prescription. Maybe I am ready for a Pretender....

Exactly what I have, because... 😄

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6 minutes ago, Gazzar said:

Mine are genuine, had them thirty years. They've been re-lensed twice with prescription. Cop shades. 

They are worth the money, very robust, spares available and do the job well.

I believe they were developed from a war design, for pilots.

 

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https://www.whichcar.com.au/reviews/2020-land-rover-defender-l663-review

 

Drive impressions
Our first taste of the new Land Rover came in Namibia driving a D240 variant looking very traditional in its Pangaea Green paint with white roof and white steel wheels. The overall look of the new vehicle is sure to be polarising, as it takes no prisoners with a design that is modern while incorporating hues of the classic Land Rovers of the past.
 
The vehicles on this trip were fitted with the Expedition package which includes a raised air-intake snorkel, expedition roof rack, a ladder to access the roof on the passenger’s side, and a storage box on the driver’s side. They were also fitted with Goodyear Duratrac all-terrain tyres to conquer sharp, rocky tracks in confidence.
 
The D240 is powered by the 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel engine that makes a sprightly 177kW and 430Nm, making light work of the steep African terrain and sandy tracks. The diesel engine is stunningly quiet both at idle and under load and you’d be hard-pressed to pick it as a diesel from within the cabin.
 
The eight-speed automatic transmission is perfectly matched to the modern powerplant, giving smooth and refined shifting. The engine is relatively small but the power and torque figures are on the money; though it will be interesting to drive this combination with a heavier load on board than what we had here. ...
 
The low-range/low-gear engine braking is good, but, even so, the descent still required the driver to hover a foot over the brake to control speed. We found the sensitivity of the brake-by-wire system to be odd, providing little to no retardation at minimum brake input and then jolting the vehicle to a stop if squeezed a tad more.
 
We brought this up with chief engineer, Steven Frick, citing it as a problem, and he said we weren’t the first to note it and it is something the company will look at on the production vehicles. All of these cars were pre-production models and calibration of the brake-by-wire system should be easy to refine to get the right feel and performance. It’s something we’ll certainly look for when we get to drive production vehicles back here in Australia later this year. ...
 
We also got to drive the P400 110, and what a pleasure that was. This is powered by Land Rover’s new 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine, which is also boosted by an electric supercharger feeding from the 48-volt electrical system. The theory is that the electric supercharger provides the boost at low revs before the turbocharger wakes up as the revs climb.
 
It works too, with 294kW on tap and 550Nm from as low as 2000rpm. That torque feels almost diesel-like in its delivery, making the P400 a pleasure to drive both at low speed over off-road terrain and quicker over fast-flowing roads.
 
We didn’t get actual fuel figures on this drive, but at fill-up time the diesel D240s were taking almost half as much fuel as the petrol P400s, and that’s driving over the same 680km route, of which only 4km were on sealed roads.
 
It was on these flowing open roads that the true ‘breadth of ability’ of the new Defender revealed itself. Never before has a Defender felt so composed at speed – it is a real confidence-inspiring high-speed tourer. The steering is perfectly weighted and the communication of the suspension through to the driver is superb for such a large vehicle. The L663 feels right at home on high-speed sand and gravel roads, which is something you would never have said about a Defender in the past.
 
It’s this new-found performance and on-road manners that make this new Land Rover such a revelation which, depending on sale price, should be hugely popular in a big country like Australia. ...

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^^^^ Land Rover have lived off the back of the "Expedition" ethos for many a year and rightly so but now? Trendy middle class types driving in luxury to parts that thousands have gone before, come on. The days of "Dr Livingstone I presume" are long gone. Marketing and journo bullcarp.

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I take issue with “never before has a Defender felt so composed at speed “

ive never had an issue with the handling of any Land Rover model I’ve owned , every one of them capable of being hustled  along . It’s one of those presumed Land Rover traits that I’ve never understood and I find quite irritating 😠 

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7 hours ago, Ozzy50 said:

I take issue with “never before has a Defender felt so composed at speed “

ive never had an issue with the handling of any Land Rover model I’ve owned , every one of them capable of being hustled  along . It’s one of those presumed Land Rover traits that I’ve never understood and I find quite irritating 😠 

 

You must only drive on perfect motorways then... 

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Land rovers handle well but you need to understand them to go quickly. They need to be driven like a front wheel drive. If you lift off half way round a bend your going into the hedge. But equally if you give it to much you'll be on your roof. I frequently upset cars by hustling along way quicker than they expect. If yours doesn't then it needs loading differently, the suspension needs looking at or I'm afraid you need to learn how to drive it quickly (no offense intended).

Mike

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People claiming live beam axles drive badly are either driving badly maintained vehicles or are incompetent.  They don’t drive like sports cars, but they certainly aren’t a struggle.

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52 minutes ago, Naks said:

 

You must only drive on perfect motorways then... 

Nonsense. My 110 floats along very smoothly on less than perfect tarmac. The suspension is all setup properly and the bushes are all in good order.

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34 minutes ago, miketomcat said:

Land rovers handle well but you need to understand them to go quickly. They need to be driven like a front wheel drive. If you lift off half way round a bend your going into the hedge. But equally if you give it to much you'll be on your roof. I frequently upset cars by hustling along way quicker than they expect. If yours doesn't then it needs loading differently, the suspension needs looking at or I'm afraid you need to learn how to drive it quickly (no offense intended).

Mike

Indeed. If you can drive a Land Rover, they're pretty quick. But for the average motorist, they're putting it in the hedge on its roof :P

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I drive mine mostly like a hot hatch, but on less than perfect tar roads, it is a handful. 

We live in farm country, and a lot of the minor roads are trampled by trucks and tractors. Some of them I can't even drive at the 100kmh speed limit because I'd end up in the cows.

And yes, it is maintained properly and everything is in order.

Your definition of a bad road and mine are worlds apart :)

Funnily enough, it handles best on Namibian gravel roads - 5 weeks of that was sheer driving pleasure!

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4 hours ago, Snagger said:

People claiming live beam axles drive badly are either driving badly maintained vehicles or are incompetent.  They don’t drive like sports cars, but they certainly aren’t a struggle.

You mean you have never driven a beam axled car like a 1930's Morris Minor

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If you want sports car handling, buy a sports car!  Honestly, some people really want to have their cake an eat it.  Yesterday, you can start making vehicles that will behave well in both regimes, but then you have to compromise on complexity, which means enormous price, maintenance and reliability issues.  Any car is a handful if you drive foolishly.  But no standard and well maintained Series, Defender Discovery 1 or 2, RRC or P38 has significant handling difficulties.  They are benign and easy to drive if you don’t have an excess of speed, no different from any other vehicle.

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Fair enough, but our experiences are quite different since you have better roads, a lower speed limit, and you don't drive long distances.

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1 hour ago, Naks said:

Fair enough, but our experiences are quite different since you have better roads, a lower speed limit, and you don't drive long distances.

Apparently you have never driven in the UK.  Everything other than the motorways are in horrible shape, very narrow and have a 60 mph speed limit, at which, every local drives.  Why do you think so many great rally drivers come from the UK.

 

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The motorways and dual carriageway trunk roads are not so great either , the roads just cannot cope with the volume of HGV's and the lanes are too narrow for modern tractors and Ag towed equipment so the edges get undercut ...

All terrain that is doubtless categorized on the Edsel Defender touch me screen ...

I see a lot more modern hatchbacks upside down in fields and ditches around here than anything else.......

Steve b

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