I visit friends and family in South Africa every couple of years. I always spend some time driving a friend's Series Ones (he has 3 of them, the oldest being a 1949). First off, I can't even fit into the driver's seat without removing the door and sticking it in back. Driving that vehicle takes a considerable amount of strength, skill, and nerve. No power anything. I enjoy driving a S1 for the novelty factor, but after about 30 minutes I am physically worn out between wrestling with the controls and contorting myself to fit in the cockpit.
The S1 is the ultimate Land Rover purist's model. Everything after that was a departure and dilution of the original. The new Defender is unrecognizable from the 86" S1, and thank goodness for that. I find the new vehicle appealing and with the options that interest me the price tag is still <$60K. I'm keen to experience it from the driver's seat. I can't say definitively that I would buy one, but as a Rover enthusiast since the age of 6 whose first trip was across the Kalahari in a Series IIa, I don't think the company botched it.
I'm also patiently waiting to see what Ineos does with the Grenadier, and I'm also keeping an eye on the used car market in South Africa for a 300TDI Defender 110 to bring back to the States.
That's the thing about comfort in the middle of nowhere. It's important. Sure, we've all done the manly stuff, and those that came before us were made of tougher material, but how much more would they have accomplished if they'd been better rested; if their muscles were a little less sore, and if their backs didn't have those little kinks? How much more hydrated would they have been, and how much more clearly would they have been thinking?
It makes a difference. There's what you have to do, and then there's the best way to do it. There are pieces of military equipment that I
promise you are increased in effectiveness dramatically, simply because someone saw fit to air condition the damned things, as well as add a bit of extra padding and insulation.
My word I've driven some shit cars, but it's not as if I had a nice menu from which to choose. It's either there when I show up, or I've just got to find something. Every time I see one of those Top Gear adventures I laugh my ass off; because that's usually what happens: Either I end up having to find dog shit, or someone just leaves it there for me. Either way it's dog shit and I'm stuck with it.
What I find most interesting is the fact that "Defender" is important at all. It's really just the "Series IV Land Rover".
That's probably what it would have been called if the Range Rover never happened. Each model similar, and yet a striking departure from the past.
Now, this could
really go either way, but I believe the Range Rover was both the best and worst idea they ever had. The car was perfect; an instant icon, and a design triumph to this day. An original two door in the right color with tinted glass and modern bumpers could be sold new today 50:50; meaning from fifty feet or fifty miles per hour.
The name, though... That's haunted them for decades. Land Rover was a car. Then, Range Rover was a car. Cue almost fifty years of confusion. Sooner or later that bandage is going to have to come off, and there's never going to be a "right" time for it. The longer they wait to solve the problem, the worse it's going to get.
Cheers,
Kennith
We drove our 1967 IIa 109 up tp PEI from W.PA. which was much longer than 8h. All in the mindset. Same with the RRC. We just returned from a jaunt (1,350 miles) to Maine with no A/C.
