James May
Defending the Defender
Never let it be said that I’m not a true motoring enthusiast. I’ve just spent a week in a Land Rover Defender 90, which, the more learned among you will know, is available only as a diesel. So that’s army transport powered by the evil genius of Dr Rudolf, and I have been driving it exclusively around the streets of London.
It’s a 90-inch job with a station wagon body plus some Lara Croft extras such as tread plates in unnecessary places. I’m constantly flabbergasted by it. Its basic design is older than my house – and you have to live in a pretty new house before you can say that of any other car currently in production. It doesn’t just hark from a time before computer-aided design, it seems to be rooted in an age prior to the invention of the mathematical instruments set we used for designing cars in the back of our maths books at school. The shape was obviously worked out using some pieces of folded cardboard, and the last time I saw hinges like the ones on the Defender’s back door, they were on the smokebox of a locomotive in the Science Museum.
Oh, sure, one or two cosmetic bits have been added over the decades. Lights and what have you, and a new plastic radiator grille. But as soon as you drive in to a few things on one of your ‘expeditions’, these will all fall off, and then you’ll be back with the Wilkes brothers’ farm biffabout of 1948.
I love it. It’s definitely a chap’s car. A woman would look ridiculous in it because you would know she must have more sense. I, on the other hand, am very happy bouncing around the capital, parking up and then standing on the bonnet just because I can. You may like to arrive in style – I like to arrive with an arse like a farmer’s face. Just how utilitarian is this thing? Well, there’s a flap just under the windscreen, running the full width of the vehicle, which can be opened with a crude lever from inside. Basically, you open this if the engine’s not quite noisy enough for you or, when you take the Land Rover to the local jet wash, you can do the inside at the same time.
However, yesterday, something bothered me about the Landie. At first I thought it was the centre console, which features all sorts of things that don’t belong in a Defender – electric window switches, seat heater switches, heated screen switches and a radio. Fitting these to a Defender is like carpeting a shed.
But it wasn’t just that. The real problem was that it was just too new. Somehow, a Land Rover is only truly acceptable when it’s old, and ideally given to you by your dad. I can’t really explain why, but it’s a bit like shotguns and wristwatches. Or money.
“How utilitarian is it? There’s a flap under the windscreen, which you open if the engine’s not quite noisy enough”
Now my Top Gear colleague Richard Hammond – he has a Land Rover that is cresting the peak of elegant decay. It’s a 110 V8 with ‘canvass and sticks’ (as Hammond would say. He means it’s got a removable and roll-upable fabric roof supported by a collapsible steel frame. And it usually does).
It’s black, but where the paint is flaking off in places you can see that it used to be red and the property of the Post Office. From a distance it looks quite tidy, but, up close, vegetation can be observed taking root at any sharp included angle. Anything not absolutely essential simply isn’t there any more, and several things that were once part of the engine are now in the passenger’s footwell.
It really is quite a magnificent thing and it has got me thinking. Soon, the Land Rover Defender will go out of production and England will be ruined unless something is done about it. Fortunately, I have a plan...
The other day, I had dinner with a man in his late Forties at his home. At the end of the meal he took out a bottle of rather fine but deeply obscure single malt whisky. In fact, it turned out to be his own. His father had bought a whole barrel of the stuff, freshly distilled, way back in the 1970s, and then left it in a hut somewhere in Scotland to age. This bloke hadn’t so much drunk his inheritance as inherited his drink.
Let’s face it, no-one has ever walked into a bar and asked for a nice young Scotch. The older the better, and that’s only possible if our forebears take the trouble to put the stuff aside for us. It requires a disciplined and far-sighted society, which is probably why we don’t have 18-year-old Greek ouzo.
Land Rover – officially at any rate – can’t actually build an old car, so it’s up to us to lay a few down while we’ve still got the chance. This requires thought. Whisky needs an old sherry barrel from the Iberian Peninsular. Balsamic vinegar, to take another highly coveted example, has to pass through a succession of barrels of various woods if it is to achieve the right flavour, and that can take 12 years.
So I quite like the idea of a barn-matured Defender. My experiences with the things suggests that two decades in the back of a cow shed should be just about right. That would give it a good nose.
On the other hand, those with a hardier palette might prefer a field-aged model, parked in a meadow with the windows half open to ensure a good mossy finish in 2025.
Come to think of it, this scheme would work rather well for the new Bentley Continental GT as well. It’s a great car now, but, rather like that cheap French grog that most of its first owners will drive off to collect once a year, rather nouveau. Half a lifetime in the car park of the Savoy – doors left unlocked so the odd pissed toff can sleep in it – should make it more pukka than a Rembrandt with your ancestors in it.
Sadly, my own father never did such a grand thing for me, and I don’t have any children of my own. So, had a son recently? Well, put his name down for a posh school or a golf club if you really must, but, for God’s sake, put him down for a Defender.
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Rubbish. If the vehicle is used for work or serious travel improvments need to be made. Off road with the correct tyres its the best non tractor vehicle. I've just been using one to mulch newly planted nut and fruit trees with woodchips on a sloping dampish field. (thinking we might have a warming summer coming up). Brilliant. That was a 300TDi. I also have a Series 3. Fantasic vibes especially at raves and the like. Put a (top range vibe) subbass in and its like convoy free rave parties cira 1991! Disturbing...but for working, a vehicle in 2009 has to have certain atributes like reversing lights, some acceleration etc. Things that could be improved in the latest transit engined Defender (test drove one yesterday):
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(cont) 1/ Please produce a (non metalic paint) standard county green coloured vehicle. Green roof also. I want to be invisible by merging into the mass of farmers vehicles - yes its that bad in rural blighty if one has dreadlocks. (rather than in some sort of incongrous luminous metalic paint job). Also people want green vehicle for camaflarge when hunting. 2/ As standard, put boxes ALL in the wasted space under the twin ledges in the back - thats bad design! People that use Landrovers as they should be usually have loads of bits and pieces that need to be put somewhere tucked away. SORT IT OUT PLEASE LANDROVER.3/ More leg room - Its horrificly cramped in the latest Landrover.
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(cont) 4/ OBVIOUSLY sort out water leakage issues - asking for trouble in a modern computor controlled vehicle to have water entering inside the cabin and engine electrics issues also.Hope you're listening Tata. Enough crappy tat please. Lets have some respect for the product..and customer. Otherwise the new Defender seemed ok - as always though reliability issues are raised. Basically the whole process through design and manufacturing needs a quality control audit, Tata.
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..forget nonsense like alloy wheels please Tata - think whats actually important in a vehicle like this. It must be sealed from elements. It must be reliable. It must have storage space. It must be green coloured. You must offer rides to ANYONE in order to carbon offset by the way (forget paranoia and scism) - sharing in general is the key not 'green' lifestyle per say..this is something that the now mainstream 'green' thing totally misses out on. What is needed is sound consciousness of sharing rather than trains/vehicles or whatever per say. Less consumseristaion, sound lifestyles and sharing what you have. Bless.
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Absolutely rubbish! Land Rovers in general are uselless and full of troubles. You've got to be masochist for driving around a Land Rover. British automakers will learn how to make cars only by the time that British whiskymakers will learn how to make whisky to taste good and in less than 12 years. You better ask Greeks, they may know because they produce this tasteful Ouzo and it does not take 12 years to them (what a waste of time!)
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I am very proud to be one of those women who are happy to look ridiculous at the driving wheel of a Defender! Mine is twenty years old, lives in Hackney, is white and rusty, slow and cold. Saying all this, it remains is the favored car of any of my friends, but most especially my 3 year old godson who won't get into any other car if he sees it. The magic of Defenders is they just are what they are, an uncomplicated box on wheels. I can't deny it has never let me down, but it has always been repairable, and once you find a garage that has an has a similar affection for such a car, the fight for their survival will continue! For such a vehicle, the amount of respect gained from the general public is quite unusual. In no other car have I been given such leigh way for slow speed, offers of parking places or even once directed to a space by an parking warden. Long live the Defender, but put your daughters down on that list as well, you just never know!
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i have a 1961 series 1 as my field car and that thign still goes perfectly, the accelarator peddle has come off and been put back on, the engine has been compltely rebuilt (almost completley) and its falling apart and rusty, but it won't ever stop working and its always repairable. the most reliable car i know of. it sits in a freezong 'well venitlated' (as in quite open) shed for 6 months and it starts perfectly when you go back to it. no problems at all, except starting it, ti takes about 35 seconds on the heaters. other than that, it starts better than any modern car.
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i bought a 1991 defender 90 for £400 its a great machine, its used on the farm and is described as a small step above the tractor in terms of comfort. but it can do plenty of work, it pulls cattle to the market every week and the clutch is still ok. a great way i know that this is a good farm machine is that the dog sits waiting to get into it where as he nearly needs dragged into cars. i love the fact that the defender is so basic and if anything breaks parts are easy to get. i broke the hazzard warning switch and pulled one of a peugeot 505 and it works fine. the only problem i can see is the chasis, the body is aluminium and it wont rust but the chasis is a rust trap and land rover could so easily have galvansied it or even applied a bit of waxoyl, so it cost me £1000 to have the whole thing stripped down, sandblasted, the rust fixed and galvanised. nonetheless its a great machine. like the massey ferguson 135
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Earlier this year I bought the "Puma" (Transit engine) Defender XS 90 Station Wagon. Very Ford inside the new layout, but the rev counter now same size as speedo is great for motoring on torque (max is @ 2000rpm). Elbow room, or lack of, is so far my only gripe. I wanted a distinctive 4 x 4, I could modify (to compensate for the punitive £408p.a road tax). And for its reputation, non-sort-roader-non Chelsea Tractor image & British heritage. Some folk buy Harley Davidson motorcycles, I bought a Defender.
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cont. The XS has air conditioning - Ford did away with those below screen flaps, excellent heating (just as well since bulky clothing hinders steering comfort), a better clutch than older models & 6 gears. 6th is overdrive, 2nd = 1st & so on (in high ratio box). So far, using the excellent 266bhp torque max, I can get 30mpg from the 2.4 diesel. Any speed over 20mph from 1500rpm, in 4th>5th, no gear changes are necessary. almost like an auto...except for the need of a clutch. Reverse is like 2 1/2 gear, backwards.
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Riding tall, the latest Defenders come on 235/85 all terrain tyres, but 265/75 can be fitted with no modification. Traffic jams can be looked along, until the next equally tall or taller vehicle. Roundabouts no longer impair visibility. Kerbs wont graze you paint or wheel centres. And the choice of tyre tread types with 4 wheel drive means winter ice, floods, slush & other detritis is less hazardous to drive over. I see my Defender as a long term investment/car to own. Can the TG team suggest any proper all-terrain Japanese vehicle to match. (Italy has the Iveco Massif, but its not being imported due to the cost of R/H drive conversion)
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Open Car Bar
dgr8stig commented on this article
27 February 2009
That Mr. May, Defines the essence of the defender. "Fitting these (electric window, heated seat and screen switches...)to a Defender is like carpeting a shed".
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