Some 20 years ago, David and Tisha Selway were on holiday in Namibia. At a watering hole in the Etosha National Park, they found themselves parked up near a 1-Ton Land Rover 109” which had been converted into a home from home – and they had a moment of realisation. This was what they wanted to do.

The Selways fell instantly in love with the idea of camping with wildlife. Having lions and hyenas on the doorstep of their home from home seemed a logical dream to have. But as they got talking to the owners of the Land Rover, they realised they would need something bigger, stronger and more reliable.

What they chose was very big, very strong and very reliable. Dating from 1988, it was an ex-Army Bedford MJ which David bought for £4000 in January 2007 with just over 32,000 miles on the clock. ‘It had to be an older vehicle, to be affordable,’ says David. ‘An older truck using more basic last-generation technology was a good option as it would be repairable by the average bush mechanic or ourselves
alongside the road.’

Read the full article in the July issue – 

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202407

For much the last decade, Defender building has shifted its focus from purpose and practicality to looks and lifestyle. As the vehicles’ values went up and up without any sign of ever reaching a ceiling, demand for blinged 90s and 110s appeared unquenchable –
the result being that now the market has adjusted itself to a slightly more sane position, it’s flooded with shiny Land Rovers rocking big alloys and trick paint.

Shiny Land Rovers do look good, if you’re into that. And some of the trucks the bling artists created during that period really
were quite mind-blowing. As that market moves relentlessly upwards, however, and gets more and more formulaic as a result,
individual builds are moving back in the direction of purpose and practicality.

A good Defender is still a pretty valuable thing, however. So we’re not seeing a return to the days when people would cut one up and go bashing it off trees at Tong or Slindon, or CCV-ing its brains out with their local Rover club. Instead, the new zeitgeist in Defender building is to turn a 110 into a long-range camper or expedition vehicle.

Read the full article in the July issue – 

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202407

LOWER CLAERWEN IS ONE OF OUR FAVOURITE GREEN LANES ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY. Running alongside the Afon Claerwen river, between the head of Caban-coch Reservoir and the Claerwen Dam, it’s around two and a half miles long and packs in a variety of rocks, potentially deep water and supreme scenery. Towards its western end, this is dominated by the looming presence of the dam – beneath which, the trail begins or ends with lengthy ford over the confluence of the Claerwen and Afon Arban.

The lane has always been challenging in places; the rocks are tricky, particularly when travelling from the east, and when water in Claerwen Reservoir is overtopping the dam it’s a sure sign that it’ll be over your hubs, too. All this, and the wonderful isolation of the landscape as you pick your way along the valley floor, make it a highlight of any lane run in an area which is not short of classic rights of way.

Over the last year or so, however, the condition of the rock sections has slowly changed and they have become more extreme. This has led to drivers of less well equipped vehicles looking for alternative routes around the obstacles – causing off-piste damage to the adjacent land. As a result, the Green Lane Association has called for restraint in its use, specifically asking drivers not to attempt it in standard vehicles.

Read the full article in the July issue – 

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202407

Ineos Automotive has acted to address an issue in the Grenadier range which saw customers being unable to claim their VAT back on Utility models. The Grenadier Commercial, which starts at a basic £51,931 in the UK, has been modified to comply with regulations on its tax status, also allowing customers to run one as a company vehicle while enjoying the lower income tax rate on benefits in kind.

Built in the same factory as the rest of the Grenadier range, the Commercial is converted ex-works by EDC of Pontypool. The result is a vehicle with aluminium inserts in place of the rear passenger windows, blacked out glazing on the rear doors and permanently disabled chassis mounting points to prevent a second row of seats from being added afterwards.

The truck has a full-length flat floor with a full-height bulkhead behind its two front seats, and can carry a standard 1200mm x 800mm Euro pallet. Its cargo area has a total capacity of more than 2000 litres; as with the rest of the range, you can depend upon a 3500kg towing capacity. Ineos also says that the Commercial has ‘5.5 tonnes of winching power for recovering itself or other vehicles’ when so equipped.

Read the full article in the July issue – 

https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202407

There was a time when Subaru was just about the sexiest car brand in the world. It was a time of Richard
Burns and Colin McRae, of the SVX coupe showing Beemer lads what cool looked like and countless hot Imprezas
showing wide boys in Porsches and Ferraris what fast looked like.

But it was also a time of cool wagons. The Legacy and Forester were born from everyday cars but they had all-wheel drive and, oh God yes, low range. Low range! To know them was to love them. The Legacy spawned the Outback and it also became available, for all too short a time, with a glorious quad-cam turbo engine that turned it into one of the all-time great street sleepers. Subaru was riding the crest of a wave – its cars were so sexy, they even made practicality look cool.

Somewhere along the line, the fun factor disappeared. Subaru is no longer a brand young lads aspire to being seen in. But it still pretty much defined the crossover estate market, which has seen many other names come and go – and to know it is still to love it. The Outback and Forester are hugely popular among country dwellers, and once you’ve owned one you tend never to want anything else.

Read the full article in the June issue of Overlander 4×4 https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202406

What goes ZJ, WG, WK, WK2, WL? That’s a sequence with no apparent rhyme or reason,
to be sure; but if you know your Jeeps, you’ll recognise it as the five generations of Grand Cherokee.

You used to see loads of them on the road, but then the financial crash happened, the market caught a cold over big, traditional 4x4s and though there’s been a whole model cycle since then, the Grand has never recovered its old position as an up-for-it allrounder for the working man, with not much subtlety but swathes of leather, lots of kit
and a price real people could afford.

Cars like that don’t make big margins, and with the numbers taking an inevitable hit there was only one way for the Grand to stay profitable. So upmarket she goes. See also Land Rover Defender, Toyota Land Cruiser and Ineos Grenadier. The Grenadier was going to cost thirty-five grand, they said.

Read the full article in the June issue of Overlander 4×4 https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202406

What comes into your mind when you think of the Cotswolds? A traditional agricultural landscape of rolling hills and authentic villages of honey-coloured local sandstone, perhaps? A much loved escape from the city whose aesthetics border on perfection? A community lain waste by floods of pernicious money from outside? Farmhouses priced far beyond the means of farmers and now occupied, occasionally, by millionaires from London and abroad?

Behold the Range Rover SV Burford Edition which, ‘whether in the city or the idyllic Cotswolds landscape… represents the pinnacle of Range Rover personalisation.’ It’s based on the SV P615 V8 Long Wheelbase model and is limited to just 10 units, all of them offered exclusively in the UK to existing Range Rover Autobiography and SV owners.

Burford was chosen for the vehicle’s name because it’d known as the gateway to the Cotswolds and because it’s ‘synonymous with luxury rural lifestyle’ (and shop workers who have to travel in from Gloucester and Swindon every day to serve said luxury rural lifestyle, most of them presumably not in Range Rovers).

Read the full article in the June issue of Overlander 4×4 https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202406

Get ready for the Defender equivalent of the Range Rover Sport SV. Called Octa, it will go on sale later this year powered by the SV’s twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 and likely to be priced close to £200,000.

‘Original British adventure brand Defender will introduce a new high-performance, all-terrain hero in 2024,’ says
Land Rover. Actually it’s not Land Rover saying it any more, is it, because Land Rover is just a ‘trust mark’ now. But then
Defender isn’t just a car, it’s an ‘adventure brand,’ so that’s alright.

The same engine puts out 625bhp and 590lbf.ft in the Range Rover Sport SV, allowing it to dismantle the 0-62 sprint in a disarmingly cheerful 3.8 seconds. It might be expected to be down-tuned for use in the Defender – though as the two vehicles are now from completely different ‘manufacturers’ within JLR’s still fabulously pompous sounding House of Brands, why should it be?

Read the full article in the June issue of Overlander 4×4 https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202406

Elsewhere in this issue you’ll see that Toyota is moving the Land Cruiser a bit more towards its roots, but away from people who’d like to be able to afford one. The Japanese company is aware it needs to be careful since the heritage goes back to the first 20 Series of the 1950s. And here’s Mercedes making a lot of noise about its latest G-Wagen, which was first produced in 1979, when the Land Cruiser was already about 20 years old.

It’s not the only difference between the two either. Toyota may be going back to basics, but Mercedes is straight out of the box boasting of its ‘transparent bonnet’, digital user experience and electrification. It’s a long way from something for German soldiers to move around in.

Although they weren’t the first military to use the G-Wagen. We know this, he says slightly smugly, because the Argentinian army got them first and had them in 1981. When we captured one, hmmm, can’t remember where now, but it was an island with a lot of penguins.

Read the full article in the June issue of Overlander 4×4 https://shop.assignmentmedia.co.uk/issue/4×4202406