Toby Savage joins a Camel Trophy style expedition in deepest Guatemala in search of undiscovered palaces. Part One of this story explains how Toby found mud. Lots of mud…

Words and photography: Toby Savage

When my pal, Jason Paterniti, emailled me from the States back in August 2013 asking if I fancied a Camel Trophy style drive through the jungles of Guatemala early in 2014, I waited a full 10 seconds before answering the affirmative. To reassure me that I had made the correct decision, Jason then sent the small group of us who had agreed to his wild plan, links to the 1995 ‘Mundo Maya’ Camel Trophy event that used some of the tracks we were actually going to drive. Our plan was to cover about 1000 miles over 12 days, visiting several difficult to reach Mayan Archaeological sites and, to give the project some vague justification, we were to meet with a group of Archaeologists from San Diego University to try and confirm that potential new Mayan sites identified by remote sensing (staring long and hard at Google Earth) could indeed be outlying tombs on the already excavated El Zotz site.

The Mayan Civilisation existed in Central America from roughly 2000 BC until as recently as the 13th Century and their descendants live and farm the area to this day, but have largely integrated with other races to become a generic group of Central Americans. In their heyday they built some remarkable structures such as tombs and palaces, some of which have been excavated and preserved as tourist attractions, but many others are still buried under 1000 years of jungle. With excavation costs and the logistics of even getting to them being very expensive, it is likely that they will remain buried for many years

To state that a vehicle ‘revolutionised the 4×4 landscape’ is quite a claim, and regardless if that is a little too much marketing rhetoric for some, there is no doubt that after 25 years and one million models, it is certainly time of a celebration; hence the arrival of the new Discovery XXV Special Edition.

Of course, this new model has little in common to the original version that was first built back in 1989. The original model was built at a time when the company’s future was particularly fragile, then under the ownership of British Aerospace, and before the sale to BMW, Ford and then to Tata where all can agree it has flourished. It’s perhaps not surprising that those early models were something of a fragile mixture themselves, built from raids to assorted British Leyland parts bins, grabbing items previously seen on Morris Marinas, Austin Allegros and even Sherpa commercial vans.

Last year was the best ever in terms of sales for Isuzu UK, and the company’s intention to be the number one in the UK pick-up market continues with the introduction of a new D-Max version, the Blade. The new model has an under rail loadbed liner with either the Aeroklas hard top or a Mountain Top roller cover. The 18inch ‘Shadow’ alloy wheels help distinguish the model and the exterior upgrades include a ‘Shadow’ grey front grille, privacy glass windows, black door and tailgate handles, black roof bars and rear bumper and side steps. The new Blade will also have a Pioneer DAB digital radio included in the touch screen navigation system. As with other D-Max models, the Blade has the 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine allowing for a 3500kg towing capacity and a 1000kg payload. It has been designed to increase the market for the excellent pick-up into what Isuzu call ‘urban tradespeople as well as recreational lifestyle users’. The Blade is available through Isuzu UK’s 100-dealer network.

THIS YEAR’S Geneva Motor Show did not disappoint when it came to new 4x4s. Obviously the most significant model unveiled was the Jeep Renegade, and we have given this a detailed description starting on page 20 of this issue, but there were some other highlights to get the year started; special editions and new concept vehicles shown to the public for the first time.

PERFORMANCE EVOQUE
The Autobiography nomenclature has now been given to the Range Rover Evoque in what Land Rover describes as being ‘the most performance-focussed Evoque’ yet. The new Autobiography Dynamic has the Evoque’s 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine upgraded to 281bhp and 400Nm. This is a substantial increase of some 45bhp and 60Nm respectively, and will certainly give the Evoque a particularly sporting character when matched to the new nine-speed ZF automatic transmission. This additional power has Land Rover’s Active driveline as a standard fitting for this model (it’s optional on other Evoques) which is said to improve traction, enhance agility and also improving fuel efficiency by engaging just the right amount of drive to each wheel as necessary. The Autobiography Evoque also has upgrade suspension geometry, firmer spring rates and recalibrated adaptive dampers – while not, it is claimed, affecting the ride quality. Upgraded 350mm front brake discs have been fitted and the Torque Vectoring by Braking system is now standard, which is said to reduce understeer and therefore give a sharper handling feel.