Something that was clear for all to see at the recent Bath and West edition of the Great British Land Rover Show was the huge number of Defender fans now who have turned their vehicles into camper vans or full-on expedition vehicles. There’s a lot of home-brewed ingenuity to be seen among this new breed of modifi ed Landy, however an increasing number of owners are turning to professionals to help them create a true motorhome-style interior. And here’s an
excellent example of the latter.

It’s an early Puma, dating from 2007, which makes it a 2.4 TDCi. Its owner, Lewis Maynard, bought it last year with about 120,000 miles on the clock and a freshly installed camper conversion on the back.

The work was done by Black Paw 4×4, who installed everything including, yes, the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink, IndelB 30-litre fridge-freezer, Dometic Smev two-burner hob with automatic lighter, you know the sort of thing. As always, making the most of every square inch is critical to a good installation, and the sink has a large storage cupboard beneath it.

Read the full article in the September issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202409

Isuzu has never been shy about playing the special edition game with the D-Max, and the new Steel model is a perfect example of that. Based on the range-topping V-Cross, it’s available in manual and auto form with a limited run of
300 vehicles.

We drove one recently during a media event featuring a range of D-Max models. It’s mechanically identical to the V-Cross, however with a variety of additional features it offers something on top of what is already a well equipped package.

To recap, you get 18” alloys, leather, heated seats, dual-zone climate, cruise, a rear locker, front and rear parking sensors, reversing camera, a range of advanced driver assist safety systems, DAB and a 9” touchscreen running Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The V-Cross is also marked out by its gunmetal styling theme.

Read the full article in the September issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202409

SsangYong had been making good vehicles for a long time now, but they’ve been held back in this
country because people didn’t know whether to order their SsangYong withnoodles or rice. Well, last year the company
changed its name to KGM – so maybe now British 4×4 buyers will start taking them at face value instead.

You’ll be familiar with the Rexton, Musso and Korando, but the Torres is the first vehicle to be launched under the
KGM badge rather than inherited by it. It’s a medium SUV with a distinctly chunky, up-for-it sort of off-roady character, and it’s available with either a 1.5-litre petrol engine or an electric motor.

That’s ‘an’ electric motor, singular. This is plenty powerful enough but only drives two wheels; the petrol version is available with all-wheel drive in the range-topping model, but that aside the Torres (which takes its name from Torres del Paine, a spectacularly mountainous region of Patagonia) is built to be a family SUV rather than a true off-roader.

Read the full article in the September issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202409

Corporate slogans are often fairly meaningless – Hilton’s hotel slogan used to be ‘Travel should take you places’. Holiday Inn’s was ‘Look again’. But to be fair to Ineos, their new campaign states that the Grenadier is ‘Built For More’, and they’re busy backing up that statement.

This campaign also underscores just how far the Grenadier has already penetrated round the planet, and just
how many useful partners the brand already has. What you see here represents imaginative work from Germany to
Botswana, with components from Austria to the UK.

Five new interpretations of the Grenadier were first shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Bear in mind these aren’t some rough cardboard cutouts, they’re finished vehicles, or virtually so. They focus on everything from competitive speed to even more off-road ability for a wide variety of practical purposes.

Read the full article in the September issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202409

The new Defender Octa will cost from £145,300 when the order book opens at the end of July. And the Octa Edition One, whose availability will be limited to the first year of production, is set to take the price still higher to £160,800.

Powered by the 4.4-litre twin turbo V8 from the Range Rover Sport, the Octa is SVO’s take on the Defender 110. The
engine delivers 635bhp and 553lbf.ft – figures which translate into a 0-60 time of just 3.8 seconds and, when equipped with 22” road tyres, a top speed of 155mph.

This doesn’t make it quite as fast as some of its similarly priced rivals in the ultra-SUV market. However JLR promises that unlike them, it will be ‘as fun to drive on‑road as off‑road, with no compromises.’

Read the full article in the September issue of Overlander 4×4 –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202409

As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of this magazine, for the last few years we’ve been running an Isuzu D-Max as our go-to off-road machine. It was built by Isuzu, to a spec we drew up with the guys there, the idea being that they’d exhibit it at the NEC’s Commercial Vehicle Show then afterwards it would spend a period of time featuring in our roadbooks and green lane guides.

That particular CV Show was the one in April 2020, and we all know how that worked out. But at least the bit about us using the D-Max for green laning went to plan… so much so that it’s still with us now. That’s us sorted, then, but what about Isuzu?

After going to all that effort, they missed out on giving the D-Max GO2, as it was named, its big moment in the public
eye. Then a few months later the all-new model came out, meaning ours wasn’t much use to them any more.

Read the full article in the August issue –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/current-issue/4X4

Six months ago, Kia flew Britain’s motoring press to Inverness for the UK launch of the new EV9.
We spent a lot of time behind the wheel and got to experience the vehicle in all sorts of various conditions and on all
sorts of roads – but we didn’t get a sniff of anything not covered in tarmac.

But this is a big, premium SUV with all-wheel drive. Not price-pointed against the Range Rover, perhaps, but in its own
way Kia’s equivalent to that kind of vehicle. It doesn’t need to be able to get you across the Darien Gap, maybe (that was then and this is now), but it does still need to be a credible way of getting you to the other end of a rough track.

Houndkirk Moor, a very well loved byway west of Sheffield, is a rougher track than anyone who buys an EV9 (or rather who leases one, or more likely gets one through their company) will ever attempt. Is that too bold a statement? I suppose short of shouting FACT like some loser on Facebook, it can’t be proven, but I wouldn’t mind betting
this was the most extreme thing anyone in Britain has ever done in one of these vehicles. And it made it look like a stroll in the park.

Read the full article in the August issue –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/current-issue/4X4

We’ve previously described the Skoda Kodiaq as the best vehicle never to win 4×4 of the Year. It arrived in 2017
and kick-started a new era for the Czech company, moving it further away than ever from its dodgy old roots and entrenching it in the mainstream as a brand that’s not just acceptable, it’s aspirational.

Our editor tells the story of a friend whose family owns a giant country estate in the south-west of England. Proper old money, and lots of it. Her car of choice? Not a Bentley, not a Roller, not even a Range Rover, but a Kodiaq – and she
absolutely loves it.

That’s just a one-off anecdote, of course, but it’s an illustration of how far Skoda has come – and of the
job the company has on its hands with the new Kodiaq, which has to replace a full-on superstar.

Read the full article in this month’s issue –

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/current-issue/4X4

One of the very earliest Range Rovers has emerged into the daylight after more than 35
years. Registered NXC 234H, the 1970 Suffix A was the third pre-production model to be built after the initial run of 25 Velars; requiring full restoration, it has been owned since 2006 by lifelong Land Rover enthusiast Peter Butters but is now for sale at an asking price of £45,000.

Originally painted Masai Red, the Range Rover was manufactured between 22 April and 28 May 1970. It was one of those used on the press launch in Plymouth but was later repainted in Lincoln Green – the story goes that it was chosen to be presented to the Queen on a visit to Solihull and loaned to the Royal household for a short period of time afterwards, and that Land Rover’s top brass felt that Prince Philip was unlikely to appreciate his new shooting
party transport being bright red. Just as the Range Rover has some outstanding tales to tell, so too does the
man selling it.

‘I fell in love with Land Rovers at about the age of five,’ says Peter, ‘when my Grandfather bought a new Series
II in 1959 – which I recently found and intend to restore.’

Read the full article in August issue https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/current-issue/4X4

Defender takes luxury adventure to new heights with greater choice and more power,’ begins the latest communication from the entity once known as Land Rover. The company’s ‘unstoppable 4×4 has been
updated with a suite of comfort-enhancing features for more luxurious all-terrain travel’ and is now available with a new diesel engine as well as a special edition named after an old Kia people carrier.

This is the Sedona, a version of the 110 whose deep red colour was inspired by the iron-rich sandstone of Sedona, Arizona. So not the Kia Sedona after all, soz.

Based on the already highly kitted X-Dynamic HSE, the 110 comes with extensive black trim and details including 22” alloys, a bodycoloured spare wheel cover and Kvadrat seats which provide ‘a tough and highly tactile environment.’ It costs £82,130 before you get started with the options.

Read the full article in this month’s issue https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/current-issue/4X4