Robert Pepper
Six recoveries this month, each of which has their own little story. No sooner I had finished enjoying the nostalgic delights of a Series 1 then it was into the most talked about car of the year, the Evoque, on a mission to see just how good it really is in the rough stuff. I have the answer, which will be featured in this magazine shortly, but I also managed to get our standby recovery Navara stuck because I didn’t check a mound that can usually be driven right over, and which had changed a bit since the last visit to the area. The Nissan’s lack of clearance didn’t help, but I’ll put my hand up for driver error there even if the recovery didn’t take long. Of course, I say this because as we finished the Evoque shoot and prepared to depart, the radio crackled into life and it was my assistant who had managed to get the Nissan properly stuck in a different location, well and truly high centred with all four wheels dangling in the air!
Matt Carson 
The stock headlamps on a Jeep Wrangler are just about good enough, in other words, OK but not great. So when I got a call offering a test of some LED headlights, I was intrigued. Sharp-eyed readers may have spotted these sort of lamps making their way onto bespoke, high end Land Rovers from the likes of Nene Overland and others, but they haven’t hit the mainstream yet.
Ian Seabrook 
As you may recall from last month’s Our 4x4s, my ‘bargain’ Maverick has required a pretty extensive brake rebuild with new discs, pads and calipers at the front and some bleeding and adjusting at the rear. I’d hoped that this would mean healthy brakes and no more problems but within a couple of weeks, the brake pedal had gone very soft and stopping power was very much reduced. The level in the master cylinder had dropped and a glance at the rear soon showed why. A wheel cylinder was leaking and a visible trail of fluid was dropping onto the rear wheel – making a mess of the alloy’s finish as it did so.
Sue Loy 
Spent a very wet Sunday morning at our local Toyota dealer this month. Why? Well, it’s time for a change, or rather more of the same as I have decided to change the RAV4. For what, you may wonder… well, for another RAV4! Having spent the last couple of decades living with the Editor of this magazine, I do get the chance to drive an awful lot of 4x4s, so perhaps you’d think I’m not being very imaginative! It’s easy to imagine being the owner of the sumptuous, effortless, powerful, beautiful Range Rover Sport that I drove recently, and I would love one, but sadly that cannot be on the list.
ŠKODA’s all-conquering Yeti has once again showed just how desirable it is, scooping two trophies at this year’s awards from motoring website HonestJohn.co.uk. The honours are unique in that they aren’t handed out by a panel of judges. Instead, the decision-makers are the best experts of all – the website’s users – who reward models which are most searched for and viewed.
A new range of suspension kits has been announced by 4×4 Autoparts-online for Defender, Discovery 1 and Range Rover Classic. These include standard steel and rubber bush kit; anti-roll bar service kit; suspension nut and bolt kit; front radius arm axle bush kit and rear radius arm bush kit. For more details you should call Peter on 01902 491980, or go online at: 
Laying ourselves, or at least the Editor, open to cries of bias, it was great to receive news of the latest achievements of the Toyota Hilux. The pick-up has just completed a marathon Antarctic journey of over 5900 miles – without a hitch. This adds to the Hilux’s achievements of reaching both the North and South Poles. The vehicles were used in the double trans-continental crossing as part of the Extreme World Races and were powered by standard 3.0-litre D-4D turbo diesel engines and transmissions. Because of the extreme cold, the engines ran on Jet A-1 fuel and in total there were 10 Hilux pick-ups involved in setting up various fuel depots. You have to wonder what Captain Robert Falcon Scott would have thought about that – his fuel depots contained seal blubber and now people are leaving jet fuel there so they can drive about the place without the need for dogs and sledges, and all this change in only 100 years.
China’s Beijing Motor Show was deemed the place for Porsche to unveil the newest model in the successful Cayenne range. The new GTS model has an uprated 4.8-litre V8 engine, with 420bhp, and is based on the Cayenne S power unit, with the eight-speed Tiptronic S gearbox with integrated auto start/stop function. Designed to deliver particularly sporting levels of responsiveness, with the consequence that the Cayenne GTS sprints from a standing start to 62mph in 5.7 seconds, reaching 100mph in 13.3 seconds. The top speed is 162mph and the combined fuel consumption figure is 26.4mpg. The suspension is stiffer, lowered by 24mm (compared to the Cayenne S) and equipped with Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) as standard. Fitted to every Cayenne GTS is a Porsche Vehicle Tracking System (VTS), a sophisticated vehicle security package approved to Thatcham Category 5 standard, and customers will also be to able enjoy a complimentary course at the Porsche Experience Centre, Silverstone. The Cayenne GTS goes on sale in the UK in July 2012, priced from £67,147.
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