Here’s a new idea from the team at Direct4x4, and one way of upgrading your Range Rover Sport by fitting these new twin exhaust muffler tips. They fit directly onto the end of the straight exhaust pipes and are then simply bolted into place. They fit all Range Rover Sport models from 2in (51mm) to 3in (76mm) diameter. It’s sometimes surprising just how much of an improvement these sort of things can make to a vehicle’s looks. They are available at £99.99 for two mufflers and that includes delivery. Check out the company’s excellent website on www.direct4x4.co.uk or call them on 01332 601016. But be warned, once you are on the website, it’s difficult to leave without buying something!
KELSEYAdmin
RAV4 PLUSHER STILL
The latest RAV4 from Toyota now benefits from new alloy wheel designs for the XTR and SR models, with both 17 and 18-inch wheels having a dark anthracite finish.
XTR models also now have a keyless smart entry and stop and start system. As we said in our recent 4×4 Of The Year, this certainly moves the RAV4 ‘up the ladder’ in terms of fixtures and fittings, and up also goes the price. It is moving away from the original concept that has proved such a good seller for the company.
BUSH SAW
Something worth carrying in your off-roader’s tool box is a saw, and this is the latest folding version from Devon 4×4. Well produced with Japanese ‘pull cut’ blade (which limits jamming), the handle includes a sensible guard and a tough rubber grim. Good value at £22.95 (inc VAT). If you are looking for this sort of gear, check out the full range at www.devon4x4.com or call 01769 550900.
MITSUBISH’S ASX
The latest crossover 4×4, the ASX, comes from Mitsubishi and is based on the same platform as the Outlander, giving generous passenger space for a vehicle aimed at the family buyer.
It is offered with either petrol of diesel engines; the diesel 1.8-litre has been developed so that it fits in the Band F to E tax band, thus reducing the cost to £115 per annum. Mitsubishi claims that the diesel can now achieve 54.3mpg in the official combined cycle. The petrol version is Mitsubishi’s established 1.6-litre engine. Towing ability is increased for the petrol version, up from 1100kg to 1200kg.
MOKKA ARRIVES FROM VAUXHALL
When you look back over the last 25 years of 4x4s, the Vauxhall Frontera has to be included as a vehicle that did much to establish the ‘lifestyle’ segment of the market. It wasn’t without its faults, the company not perhaps having that great an engine range to support the concept at the time, but it was an honest, affordable, and highly capable 4×4.
It was a shame when it ceased to be produced, and not developed further. For 2012, Vauxhall returns to the 4×4 market with a new model in the, highly competitive, sub-compact SUV B-segment.
MAROC CHALLENGE A SUCCESS
The first ever Maroc Challenge, covering some 2700km across Morocco, was a low-cost ‘rally raid’ event for both two and four-wheel drive vehicles. The actual route differed in places for the 4×4 vehicles, but the rules and regulations prevented ‘expensive’ vehicles from competing.
It was claimed by the organisers that the whole event could have been covered for as little as €1200. Vehicles that entered had to have been registered before 31st December 1995. Covering some of the routes of previous Dakar events, this was obviously an exciting opportunity to be involved in a rally raid. The winning 4×4 was actually a Renault 4 Sinpar (below). This was a special edition of the Renault 4 and entered the Paris-Dakar in 1979 and 1980… when it came home in third place!
Defender Icon
Nene Overland’s growing reputation for enhancing Land Rover Defenders has reached new heights with the launch of its latest, and most significant venture yet, the Defender Icon
Words and Photography: Hils Everitt
Nene Overland, based near Peterborough, has been in operation since 1988 modifying Defenders – and, more recently, Japanese pick-up trucks with camper conversions – tailor-made to customers’ requirements. But its unique ability to perform all the modifications in-house, including all engine, suspension and brake upgrades, enabled company owner Andrew Harrison-Smith to go another step further and launch a whole new brand of bespoke Defenders – the six-model ‘Icon’ range.
“I am a creative person and wanted to develop what we could do even further, and to give the new range a special brand name. What we have here at Nene now, with the Icon, is a mixture of design, performance and engineering all rolled into one. It is a brand that is polished, bespoke and at the top end of the market,” explains Andrew.
JEEP CHEROKEE
Bob Cooke – contributor
It’s always good to take part in one of the All Wheel Drive Club’s drive-arounds. Though the club is more usually engaged in serious competitive events such as trialling and comp safari races, they do occasionally make a stonkingly good off-road area available for less competitive people to have a good off-road blast, with anything from competition specials to ordinary road cars, so the Cherokee was at Broxhead Common, near Bordon in Hampshire, good and early to take advantage of the excellent variety of cross-country conditions available.
It’s actually quite a good area for beginners, because it isn’t all thick mud and deeply-rutted tracks, though there are quite enough of those to please the harder-core participants. One large open central area with a sandy but quite firm surface has a good selection of humps, bumps, holes and gullies that can allow drivers to assess the capability of their cars without the inconvenience of getting them bogged down.
TOYOTA HILUX HL3
Nigel Fryatt – editor
The Toyota’s 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine has never been the quietest around, but the other Monday as I drove up the road, it sounded like a tank. It also sounded that it would be inadvisable to carry on. On stopping to check, it appeared impossible to open the bonnet. It was obviously ‘one of those’ Mondays…
A cautious return down the hill, much of it freewheeling or on a trailing throttle (where the turbo overrun whistle sounded a lot louder than usual), I began to wonder. Hopefully there was a simple solution, something having worked loose, a hose gone astray, something…. well, cheap.
Hils at Large
This month, Hils remarks on the lack of Land Rover presence in the Dakar Rally, the ultimate off-roading competition. Is it too tough for Land Rover?
The baby Range Rover Evoque has taken the motoring world by storm since its official launch, and we were expecting to see a team take this year’s Dakar Rally by storm and provide all the headlines and excite plenty of attention, along with the other new entrants, the Mini All4 Racing (Countryman) team. With the decision by Volkswagen to withdraw from the famous rally this year, after taking all the plaudits from the last two events, all was to play for.
Last September the Excite Rallye Raid team announced it was running three Evoques on the upcoming 2012 rally, specially commissioned from RaBE race cars and driven by Martin Rowe, John Hardy and Andrew Coley. The vehicles were to be based on the Evoque body with a tubular chassis, ZF six-speed transmission and powered by a 3.0-litre BMW engine and held up by BFG desert racing tyres. But they were not there and the statement from business manager David Jones said: ‘We’ve been working on this project for a long time; we haven’t disappeared, but we need to change our approach due to the economic climate’.
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