The original Range Rover arrived on the scene in 1970 and quickly established the then-new genre of the luxury SUV. The design of the Range Rover was largely developed by the Rover engineers, initially as an aluminium skin to cover the steel body – to make it legal for road testing. The designer loved the…
The Mercedes-Benz Unimog is known for many things, but perhaps its most extraordinary achievement is that it’s won the brutal Paris-Dakar Rally by accident – on more than one occasion. Many teams competing in the event use the Unimog as their support vehicle, meaning that even though it qualifies in the truck class it has…
The story behind the creation of the Jeep is a fascinating one, in fact it’d make an excellent film if we could somehow convince the movie studios to lay off all this vampire nonsense. As the Second World War descended over Europe, the USA began to ramp up its own military capabilities, by 1940 the…
The news that the Land Rover Defender would not be continued for the 2016 model year has left many marque enthusiasts in a state of nervous trepidation about what will follow. The worst case scenario is a soft-roader with no low range and a subsequently limited amount of off road ability, while the best case…
Sadly, 2015 is set to be the end of the road for the Land Rover Defender. Which is almost ironic considering that a road coming to an end has never stopped a Land Rover before. The company does plan a replacement for the Defender and has teased concepts like the DC100, but the uproar it…
This Ford Marmon-Herrington Woodie 4×4 (or more correctly, Ford Marmon-Herrington Super Deluxe Station Wagon) is an exceedingly rare vehicle from the post-WWII era built by Ford and then converted to 4×4 by Marmon-Herrington. These conversions were rare due to the associated cost – it essentially doubled the price of the vehicle and the benefits of…
I’ve always suspected that the Lamborghini LM002 was created in the ’80s by a design team headed by Schwarzenegger and Stallone with additional input on aesthetic direction from Chuck Norris. The fact that it was fitted with the 5.2L V12 from a Lamborghini Countach adds further certainty to this suspicion. Talk to anyone about Lamborghini’s…
The ICON BR Series is a modern take on the first generation Ford Bronco, a vehicle that holds a place near and dear to the hearts of many Americans – and many of us from slightly further afield. The deep sentimentality surrounding the vehicle has the potential to make life rather difficult for those…
The Toyota Land Cruiser BJ40 is a famously tough 4×4 that bears close resemblance to its sibling, the petrol-powered FJ40. These two off-roaders are uncompromising, spartan vehicles designed for use in the harshest environments on Earth, in fact many of them are still in use today across North Africa, Australia and South America. The two countries that…
1985 was just the second year of production for the Land Rover Defender 90 model, it was closely related to the short wheelbase Land Rover Series III but it included a number of small improvements that together would have a major impact on both on and off-road performance. The now antiquated leaf springs had finally…
The Mercedes-Benz Unimog is the German equivalent of the British Land Rover, the American Jeep and the Japanese Land Cruiser – It’s a function-first 4×4 with military, agricultural and leisure uses that’s spawned its own rabidly loyal, global fan club. Much like the Land Rover, the Unimog was developed in the years just after WWII…
The Camel Trophy was an event that included a long list of things I love, from Land Rovers and off-road driving to continent crossing and driving through large, fast moving rivers. Although I’m not entirely sure how much I love that last one. The competition started in 1980 and ran until 2000 when cigarette advertising…
