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Monthly Archives: November 2010

Hils Everitt – editor

jimnyOur Jimny has clocked up plenty  of road miles on various trips to  magazine shoots. One was up  to Derbyshire to meet a 4×4 on  the opposite end of the scale – Bowler’s  new Nemesis EXR, see last month’s issue –  then a trip to north Wales, to hook up with  contributors Wayne in his Defender Td5 90  and Toby in his 1945 Jeep, was a real test of  its on-road mettle.

Plenty has been said in the past about Suzuki’s rather under-damped suspension and lack of steering feedback, but it is a budget  4×4 and has excellent off-road credentials so  it will never receive too much criticism in our  books Cruising on the motorway you feel okay until the bad weather sets in and you have to share the tarmac with huge lorries. On the way back from one job in the dark, the heavens opened, the wind whipped up to a frenzy on the M40 and it was hellish every time  me and the little grey SZ4 overtook a container  lorry. This is where you really have to cling on as the Jimny is swept aside by the force of the lorries and the visibility is pretty awful which doesn’t really induce a feeling of total safety.

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advptcLast month we followed Toby, and partner Jo, down the Autoroutes of France in our long-term Mitsubishi Shogun 4Work Van to their friends’ old farm house, high in the hills of Northern Italy. Following a wine-buying spree, Toby ventured off onto some of the tracks in the area to give the Shogun a chance to stretch its legs before an eventful drive home via the Alps

Words & photos: Toby Savage with additional photography by Leigh Hooper

Our plans took a bit of a knock as we gazed out of the window at almost zero visibility. A thick mist, bordering on light rain, had descended and enveloped the hills in autumnal damp. Regrettably, we only had that Sunday free to do our off-road driving in the Shogun and, judging by the distant sound of shotgun fire, the weather was not deterring the hunters who would be out in force on this, the first weekend of the hunting season. Wild Boar is their choice of target, but, to be honest, any other moving animal will do. The hunting is fairly well controlled; hunters require a license and work in small groups communicating by radio. A battered 4×4 is parked nearby ready to transport the hapless beast back to the farm, where it is apportioned out among the team. Our one hope was, that in the poor visibility, they would not mistake us for game and take a shot at us!

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Ford is preparing to take the wraps off a comprehensively redesigned, new-generation compact pick-up developed in Australia for sale in 180 global markets.

From impressive gains in power and fuel economy to exceptional towing and payload capacity, the next-generation Ford Ranger is set to emerge as a clear segment leader. It has been designed to give owners a spacious, comfortable, feature-filled interior and more sophisticated driving experience that they would expect only from a car.

The all-new Ranger will go on sale in Britain in Autumn 2011.

Mazda held the global unveiling of the all-new Mazda BT-50 compact pick-up truck at the 2010 Australian International Motor Show during a press conference on 15 October 2010. The all-new BT-50 was centre stage on the Mazda stand throughout the show.

The all-new Mazda BT-50 is presented as an ‘active lifestyle vehicle’ that overturns the conventional image of a compact pick-up truck with modern and refined styling. Developed from the ground up as a brand new type of vehicle, the all-new BT-50 is designed to suit a wide range of customers who lead active lifestyles, including families, workers and pleasure seekers. It is a global model that will also be sold in Europe.

The latest 3.0-litre TDV6 variants of the Land Rover Discovery 4 and latest Range Rover Sport HSE can now enjoy extra performance, thanks to Superchips Ltd.

Superchips optimisation of the 3.0-litre TDV6’s engine management settings has resulted in a remap for Land Rover/Range Rover 3.0 TDV6s with power output increasing by over 30bhp at 3632rpm, equating to a maximum of 282bhp (compared to 247bhp as standard,) with gains from 1500rpm.

This Superchips ECU remap improves torque output, increasing it to 465lb ft at 2520rpm. For off-road use, towing or relaxed cruising, 438lb ft is available from 1600–3200rpm.

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Tunit Diesel Performance has now revealed that for the last three years it has been the product of choice by the British Armed Forces. In 2007 Tunit was approached to help in solving an issue of power and reliability that the forces were having in hot climates. After several months of research and development Tunit provided one of its modified products and solved the issues of many hundreds of vehicles in the field.

As part of a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of driving habits, seven motorists aged between 19 and 76 re-sat their driving tests. Only two of the seven participants in the first round of the experiment passed their test: Anna Dunlop (23) and Alan Hamilton (50). Those in their teens, 30s, 40s, 60s and 70s all failed to impress the examiner. The oldest participant, 76 year-old Robert Wright, failed after driving through a red light.

newskiaaportageThe world-renowned German certification agency TUV Nord has awarded the all-new Kia Sportage its highest environmental certificate.

Following a rigorous assessment of all environmental aspects, from production to day-to- day running through to recycling, TUV Nord certified that the new crossover complies with the strict environmental standards of the ISO 14040 life cycle assessment.

The new Sportage is produced in Kia’s European factory in Zilina, Slovakia. The factory was certified according to the ISO 14001 life cycle assessment standards in 2007 and was granted a certificate as an environmentally-friendly production facility.

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newsRNLISuzuki GB has announced that the Jimny 40th Anniversary website is now live. The site shows the history of the Jimny series since its launch in 1970 with the LJ10 model. Archive information is available on the site – www.globalsuzuki.com/jimny/index – on model background and specification with a range of photos of each model.

When it was introduced, the Jimny was an affordable and lightweight but fully capable on and off-road vehicle – as it remains – and was powered back then by a 360cc two-stroke engine.

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Used car values increased in August for the first time in months, according to Auction4Cars, the UK’s fee-free car auction website. A price hike of £177.49 between July and August saw average used car values rise marginally to £2587.74 (equivalent to a 7.36 per cent increase). Used cars values have been falling since April, gradually cancelling out the highs of 2009 – bringing them more in line with those of 18 months ago.

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