August 2012 Issue of 4×4 Magazine

It’s been a case of from the sublime to the ridiculous this month. One highlight was sitting on the top of an exposed Kent hillside, in a 4×4 ATV, sans windscreen, doors or roof, in freezing rain, wondering if we should cancel our group test. Thankfully, the weather god’s humour improved and we had an excellent day driving these amazing little 4x4s, in proper farming conditions, culminating in an extremely rapid blast in the Can Am Commander; unnecessary perhaps, but great for the soul and reminding you why you love the world of 4×4.

And that was a fact reinforced when I got a brief off-road drive in the amazing Unimog U500 SWB. You know it’s going to be an experience when you have to climb ‘up’ into something. At a cool £115,000 it had all the bells, whistles, horns and klaxons you could want, and many you hadn’t even thought about yet. Obviously 4×4, with portal axles, three diff-locks, magical hydraulic systems and a staggering 856lb ft of torque. It had a transmission system that had gears for road use, gears for ‘working’ and then it had low down in the basement crawler gears, all driven by a 6.3-litre turbo diesel engine. Oh, and while you were climbing, descending, pulling or pushing it has a stereo CD player and Bluetooth connectivity. And this was the ‘baby’ Unimog of the fleet. My sincere thanks go to Mercedes-Benz for letting me loose with this majestic 4×4 monster. A further request… Can I have another go, please?

Unimogs make a second appearance this month as we report on the Croatia Trophy and would you believe that competing with all the hi tech Land Rover, Toyota and bespoke rock-crawling buggies was a 1957 Unimog? And wait for it, the little beast is still using its original 55-year old engine! Actually, having now experienced the latest Unimog, we can indeed believe that. The one I drove has every chance of still going strong in 55 years time… whether there’s any diesel left in the world is another story.

Here’s hoping that you enjoy the issue. Give me a shout if you think we are missing something as we try to cover all the bases, from diminutive ATVs to outstanding Unimogs! Cheers.

Nigel Fryatt, Editor

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July 2012 Issue of 4×4 Magazine

Given the dreadful weather that we had been having throughout April, it was very pleasing to wake up in the ARB roof tent to realise two things; one, I’d had a great night’s sleep in what is a very comfortable space, and two, it wasn’t raining and the sun was shining! Rapidly dismounting from the heights of Arbil’s excellent mobile shop Ford Ranger, it was a case of ensuring photographer Ros Woodham was awake and able to get snapping.

The results of our camping feature can be seen in this issue, together with our feature getting stuck in with Ian Woolley’s Mudrut gang – an intriguing cast of characters dedicated to the 4×4 game. Ian spends a lot of time in the frozen north chasing the Northern Lights, but we caught him at home in Worcestershire for a great weekend. Many thanks to him and landowner Tony Symonds for being so obliging and great hosts. Tony is a great Toyota Hilux fan, and has a great truck in the UK and an even better pick-up ‘Down Under’ for off-roading in Australia. More of which will be reported in a future issue.

While it remained dry, thankfully, for our camping feature, it was still ridiculously cold overnight. All of which made my quick sojourn over to Portugal to test some new Goodyear 4×4 tyres all the more welcome. The sun came out and we learned that off-roading in Portugal is the second most supported sport in the country after football! Amazing, and the fact that it is possible to drive many hundreds of fantastic tracks across the hills, only makes you very jealous.

June 2012 Issue of 4×4 Magazine

This month, I drove what could prove to be the most significant vehicle that I will ever drive in my motoring career. Astonishing new off-roader? Hardly. It certainly broke no boundaries technologically. There was little that was unique and if truth be told, it wasn’t that great a driving experience. It was functional, perhaps surprisingly well-built and it was unsurprisingly very cheap. So, was it the exotic venue for the drive that made it special? Not quite, and that’s no offence to Leamington Spa. What made it special was that it was a Chinese 4×4, the first mass market model to be imported into the UK. And it will probably be the first of many.

Back in 1966, a few hundred strange, small Japanese sports cars were landed at the UK docks. Cute, but with buzzy high revving engines, these Honda S600s were the first Japanese imports, and they had the motoring sages of the time grunting and muttering ‘they’ll never sell’. Fast forward and we now build Japanese vehicles on these very shores, they are an integral part of this magazine’s monthly content. They dominate our roads. There are two Japanese 4x4s on my drive.

So it would take a foolish man to say that the entry of the Great Wall Steed will be a flash in the pan. More likely, it is the start of a phase of imports from China (both 4×4 and ordinary saloons) that will become commonplace. Is it something to fear, or to be excited about, that’s the question?

May 2012 Issue of 4×4 Magazine

Not usually one for the ‘name-dropping’ lark, I just have to tell you that this month I’ve been off-road in Russia, no less! Never been before and it more than lived up to expectations. I had been invited to St Petersburg by a major tyre company to test a new winter tyre that will be available in the UK later this year. I cannot tell you much about it at the moment as all the details are still embargoed, and anyway, you won’t be thinking about winter now we’ve just got spring appearing over the horizon. All I can say is if you thought about a winter tyre this year, but didn’t quite take the plunge, stick with 4×4 Magazine and we will tell you later in the year about a new product to the UK market that is very impressive indeed; take it from one who has just driven a Range Rover Evoque up a ski slope, and then back down again, that we were very impressed with this new rubber.

Interestingly, in St Petersburg, they still have a large number of cars on studded tyres… yet, while the river remains frozen for six months of the year, the city roads are clear of snow and ice a lot of the time. The studded tyres are therefore sand-papering the roads and creating a fine dust that when it rains or snows (and that’s most days, there are two seasons in St Petersburg; winter and July) covers everything in a dirty black sludge. You can actually taste the dust, which is quite unpleasant. More pleasant was that the roads are full of the latest 4x4s. Every model you can think of is thrashing about the place, even the Great Wall Wingle pick-up. That’s a Chinese copy of a Japanese pick-up driving around St Petersburg – you wonder what the proletariat demonstrators that stormed the Winter Palace during the Russian Revolution would think of that…

April 2012 Issue of 4×4 Magazine

Here’s hoping that I’m not about to put the mockers on it, but it seems we are finally dragging ourselves out of the winter season. As this is being written, the temperature has just notched up a few degrees, the snow is thawing slowly, and milder weather is forecast. For me, once you get over the grim month of February, spring is here. The month of March may well be wet and windy, and of course it can still snow, but there’s a much more positive air to get out there and have some fun! And no more so than with your 4×4.

What are you going to do this year? Perhaps for the first time try a Pay and Play site, or maybe join a club, maybe try some greenlaning? Planning that off-roading camping holiday? Perhaps it’s just the plan to add some interesting accessories to your off-roader for no other reason than you can… And why not? And we make no excuses for trying to encourage this and this month we make some suggestions of what you can do with your 4×4 – at the last count there were 173, probably more! But it’s not all about spending a great pile of cash, either. Not everything needs to cost that much and we have tried to cover all budgets, and all tastes. As ever, we would really love to hear from you, and so tell us what you have done, send in some words and pictures to the usual address.