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The Range Rover Classic
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eMag May 2012
In This Issue
Page 3.............................................................Committee Contacts Page 4.............................................................Chairman’s Desk Page 6..................................................................Editor’s Desk Page 7……………………………………………………………………….Forthcoming Events Page 8 - 11……………………………………………………………………….Outings – VCCCK Ploughman’s Lunch and VCCCK A.G.M. Page 12 - 15………………………………………International Article – The Range Rover Page 16……………….............Sokoni Page 17 - 18….....’Hapa Kwetu’ – The Dakar Rally Page 19………………………….Chill Out Corner Page 20…………………………Club Page
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Committee Contacts Chairman – Raju Chaggar
Vice Chairman – Nitin Pandit
chairman@vccck.org 020 – 552854 PO Box 18381 – 00500 Nairobi
vicechair@vccck.org 020 – 4440772 PO Box 20497 – 00200 Nairobi
Treasurer – Monte Singh
Membership – John Sawers
treasurer@vccck.org 020 – 555692 PO Box 72283 – 00200 Nairobi
membership@vccck.org 0737 - 030527
Secretary – J.J. Goudsbloem
Editor - James Dyson
secretary@vccck.org 0720 - 389932
editor@vccck.org + 44 7889 125 782 4 Caxton House, Oxted Surrey, RH8 0TE
Merchandise – Brian Nicol
Events – Val D’Souza
merchandise@vccck.org 0729 – 984376 PO Box 15184 – 00509 Nairobi
events@vccck.org 0733 - 246633
Reciprocating Clubs Vintage and Classic Club Of Matabeleland Vintage and Veteran Club
Old Auto Club Border Vintage Club
Club Sponsors Chequered Flag Ltd Nanak Car Parts Ltd Unifilters (K) Ltd Domaine Kenya Ltd Arun’s Auto Ltd
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Davis and Shirtliff Ltd Westlands Secretarial Services Ltd Nimrod (A) Ltd
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Chairman’s desk: Dear Members, It is indeed a great pleasure to become the chairman of this prestigious club, and actually the youngest ever at 36 years of age. Don’t worry, I will not disappoint anyone. While we are discussing age, our Club magazine is also done by a very young person, Karann, who between university, and additional studies at a college, is really doing a good job with getting the magazine prepared. No easy task, as we all know, but one nonetheless done very well. Keep it up karann. With the Thika super highway almost ready, as well as the Nairobi Athi river intersection complete, as well as the regular old Naivasha road, still in good condition, we have now a broader spectrum of areas to venture to with our social outings. As much as will be possible, we are going to try using all the best bit of tarmac. Your bit as a member will be to seriously try and bring your golden old cars out. With this, our next outing is within the Muthaiga area, which means good roads, from whichever way you come….details of which you all should have received via our monthly email newsflash. Every past chairman’s mantra, will also be mine, please give us feedback on how the Club is running, are you happy with the social events calendar, do you wish to see something different, etc…..help this almost younger in age committee improve on what is already a well-established, well attended motoring club. See you all soon at the next Social, and ‘’chunga sana’’ driving in this horrendous weather!
Raju Please be aware that the contents of this magazine reflect the opinions and experiences of members of the Vintage and Classic Car Club of Kenya and are not to be used as legal advice. Whilst we attempt to ensure the enclosed information is as reliable as possible all matters relating to motoring law, or any other legal / official matters should be pursued with the relevant legal authorities. We cannot accept any liability for loss or damage based on of the following advice as it is given in good faith only.
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Editor’s desk: Dear Members, Welcome to the May issue of the VCCCK eMag. First and foremost, my apologies for the 3 month gap in publishing the magazine. Due to University work suddenly increasing, it had become really difficult to publish an issue. Now I’m on holiday, the work has eased up so I’ll hopefully get back on track. In this month’s eMag, there’s the Range Rover Classic, the Ploughman’s Lunch as well as an article on the history of the Dakar Rally. Inside, there is also a write-up and some photos of the A.G.M which took place on the 25th of March at Dr. Pramod Shah’s House. Many thanks to him for allowing us to host the meeting in his garden. Mr Dyson has also recently given the VCCCK website a facelift so please have a look at the Club’s website at www.vccck.org. There’s also a new ‘test yourself’ question so please test your car knowledge and guess the car and model. Congratulations to Mr John Wroe and Mr Michael Tilley for getting last issue’s question. Take care,
Karann karann_kalsey@yahoo.co.uk
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Forthcoming Events Save These dates… Sunday 13th May 2012 – Luncheon at John Sawer’s Residence in Muthaiga Sunday 22nd July 2012 – Chairman’s Breakfast at the Kakuzi Dam Sunday 12th August 2012 – Gymkhana
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Outings The Ploughman’s Lunch The ploughman’s lunch took place at Monte Singh’s house on the 27th of February 2012.
Left and Below Right: Members enjoying some tea and coffee inside the tents after being forced inside because of the rain.
Members started to arrive by around 12 pm for a typical ploughman’s lunch which consisted of various cheeses, breads, biscuits, hams, salamis and chutneys.
Lunch was served at around 1 pm. After lunch, we all then started to enjoy some coffee and tea but were immediately interrupted by the rain! Luckily Raju’s tents were at hand to shelter us all while we enjoyed the coffee, after which members started to leave by around 4:00.
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Left and Below Right: Garry Farrant’s Chevrolet
Above and Right: Robert Poole’s Mercedes Benz SLC
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The VCCCK A.G.M The VCCCK A.G.M was held at Dr. Pramod Shah’s house on the 25th of March 2012. Members started arriving at around 10am and after some tea and coffee, were seated in the tents for the meeting which started at about 11am. The meeting’s agenda consisted largely on the various outings that took place in 2011 and the committee changes that took place. The changes were as follows: Monte Singh stepping down as Chairman to be replaced by Raju Chaggar. Monte Singh is now the treasurer. Nitin Pandit becoming Vice Chairman. Cilla Young stepping down from the committee to be replaced by J.J. Goudsbloem as Club Secretary. Peter Young stepping down from the committee. Brian Nicol is now handling club trophies. John Sawers joining the committee to handle Club Membership. Val D’Souza joining the committee to take care of Club Events. During the meeting, Club prizes were given out to various Committee members and members. The prize winners were: Robert Poole and Linda Telles winning the Katrina Tilley prize John Sawers awarded a prize for getting the VCCCK Annual Run ‘running’ again Diccon Wilcock awarded a prize for continuing as the VCCCK honorary auditor Karann Kalsey awarded the Manjit Singh prize Left: Linda Telles awarded the Katrina Tilley trophy from Raju Chaggar Below: John Sawers awarded his prize from Raju Chaggar
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Left: Diccon Wilcock collects his award from Raju Chaggar Below: After the meeting, as members wait for lunch to be served.
Lunch was served at one and consisted of a delicious 3 course Chinese meal. As a whole, the outing was well attended with around 35 members in attendance. Many thanks to Dr Pramod Shah for allowing us to use his garden and to Mr Diccon Wilcock and Mr Gary Farrant for bringing out their cars.
Above: Gary Farrant’s Chevrolet and Diccon Wilcock’s MG
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The
Classic The Range Rover Classic was a luxury 4x4 SUV series built by British car maker Land Rover from 1970 to 1996 and was the first generation of vehicles produced under the Range Rover name.
Concept and Design Although only intended to be a post-war stopgap, the Rover Company's Land Rover 4x4 launched in 1948 proved to a be a worldwide success; within two years it was vastly outselling the company's usual product of semi-luxury 1970 Range Rover Classic cars. The Land Rover had been designed to be cheap and easy to produce and to suit hard work in tough terrain. It was thus a very simple, basic vehicle with a minimum of concessions to comfort, (on early vehicles the canvas hood, passenger seats and even doors were optional extras). From the beginning Rover realised that a market existed for a Land Rover that was offroad capable but more comfortable and civilised. In 1949 it released the Land Rover Station Wagon with a coachbuilt wood-framed body by Tickford. Whilst a big improvement on the standard vehicle (the Tickford had seven seats, floor carpets, a heater, a one-piece windscreen and other car-like features) its hand-built nature kept prices high and fewer than 700 were sold before sales were stopped in 1951. In 1954 Land Rover launched its second type of Land Rover Station Wagon, this time built by the company itself. The new version was much more successful but was aimed more at the commercial user who needed an off-road people carrier rather than the buyer requiring car like comfort in an off-roader. The Station Wagon was based on the commercial variant of the Land Rover but with seats fitted to the load space and windows cut into the sides. Whilst available with features such as an interior light, heater, door and floor trims and upgraded seats the Station Wagon retained the base
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vehicles tough and capable but firm suspension as well as its mediocre road performance. By the late 1950s Rover remained convinced that a market existed for a vehicle combining the toughness and ability of the Land Rover with the comfort of a Rover saloon car. In 1958 the first of the 'Road Rover' concepts were built. These were a series of development cars built by the engineering department consisting of Land Rover chassis and running gear clothed in a functional but car-like estate car body. The Road Rover was aimed at markets such as Africa and Australia where ordinary motorists faced long journeys on unmade roads where a vehicle with four-wheel drive and tough suspension was a benefit. By the 1960s Rover was becoming aware of the development of the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) in North America. SUVs such as the International Harvester Scout and the Ford Bronco offered a different blend of off- and on-road ability to existing utility 4x4s such as the Land Rover and the Jeep, proving capable of good on-road comfort and speed whilst retaining more than adequate off-road ability for most private users. The Jeep Wagoneer proved the concept further. The final element of what would become the Range Rover concept was provided by the President of Rover's USA operations who, frustrated by the lack of suitable vehicles from Britain to compete with the new crop of SUVs sent Rover a Land Rover Series II 88 fitted with a Buick V8 which offered far greater on-road performance and refinement than any Land Rover currently in production. Rover acknowledged the emergence of this new market for recreational off-roaders and in 1967 began the '100-inch Station Wagon' programme to develop a radical car to compete, with Charles Spencer King in charge. King quickly defined the basic layout of the new vehicle, realising that only long-travel coil springs could provide the required blend of luxury car comfort 1972 Range Rover Classic (2 Door) and Land Rover-like off-road ability (King is said to have been convinced by coil springs when driving a Rover P6 across rough scrubland on part of the Solihull factory site that was being redeveloped). Spencer King was also convinced that a permanent four wheel drive transmission
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was needed to provide both adequate handling and to reliably absorb the power that would be required by the vehicle if it was to be competitive. This required a totally new transmission unit to be developed. The adoption by Rover of the Buick alloy V8 engine had provided the perfect powerplant for the new 4x4, being powerful, light and sturdy. Various modifications were made to the design to suit use in the Range Rover such as fitting different carburetors that maintained fuel supply at extreme angles and making provision for the engine to use a starting handle in emergencies. The final design, launched in 1970 with bodywork styled largely by the engineering team rather than David Bache's styling division, was marketed as 'A Car for All Reasons'. In its original guise the Range Rover was more capable off-road than the Land Rover but was much more comfortable, offered a top speed in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h), a towing capacity of 3.5 tons, spacious accommodation for five people and groundbreaking features such as a fourspeed, dual-range, permanent four-wheel-drive gearbox and hydraulic disc brakes on all wheels. Like other Land Rover vehicles, most of the Range Rover's bodywork skin is constructed from lightweight aluminium, save for the two-section rear tailgate, and the bonnet on all but the earliest models. Apart from minor cosmetic changes, the body design changed very little in its first decade. However, whilst utility Land Rovers had body panels rolled from a single sheet of aluminium, the Range Rover used aluminium panels hung on a steel 'safety frame' (a method pioneered with great success on the Rover P6 saloon). This allowed the bodywork of the Range Rover to carry much greater structural strength via the steel frame whilst retaining the corrosion-resistant and easily repaired aluminium outer panels. One of the first significant changes came in 1981, with the introduction of a four-door body. Until then, Range Rovers only had two doors, making access to the rear seats rather awkward. These doors were also very large and heavy. Several companies offered conversions to four doors in the late 1970s. One by the company Monteverdi was approved for warranty purposes by Land Rover and was closely followed when the company produced its own development. The fourdoor version was received well by the public; its popularity being such that the two-door was
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discontinued in the United Kingdom in 1984, although the two-door continued to be produced to the end, mainly for the French market. Chassis and suspension The Range Rover broke from the Land Rovers of its time by using coil springs instead of the then-common leaf springs. Because of its hefty weight, it also had disc brakes on all four wheels. Originally, it had no power steering, though this was added a few years after its introduction. One problem with the Range Rover chassis was that it suffered considerably from body roll. Because of this, the suspension was lowered by 20 mm (0.8 in) in 1980, and later gained anti-roll bars. Air suspension was introduced in late 1992 for high-end 1993 models. Off-road, and on In June 1970, the Range Rover was introduced to the public, to much critical acclaim. It appeared that Rover had succeeded in their goal of a car equally capable both on and off road – arguably, better than any four-wheel drive vehicle of its era in both environments. Road performance (a top speed of 95 mph (153 km/h) and acceleration from a standstill to 60 mph (97 km/h) in less than 15 seconds) was said to be better than many family saloon cars of its era, and off-road performance was good, owing to its long suspension travel and high ground clearance. The 1995 Classic Range Rovers would reduce the 0-60 mph time to around 11 seconds, and increase the top speed to approximately 110 mph (180 km/h). Notable off-road feats were winning the four-wheel drive class in the first Paris-Dakar Rally in 1979 and 1981, and being two of the first vehicles (along with a Land Rover Series IIA) to traverse both American continents north-to-south through the DariÊn Gap from 1971 to 1972.
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All 4 Range Rover models since its production began
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Sokoni For sale 1) Price: 450,000/= For more details call 0723-6056888 Email: angiekimani@yahoo.com
2) 1967 MGB GT For more details call 0722-513177 or 0733-513177
To advertise for any parts or cars for sale or wanted, please email the product as well as a picture to karann_kalsey@yahoo.co.uk
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‘Hapa Kwetu’ – History of The Rally The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, the 2009 Dakar Rally was run in South America (Argentina, Chile and Peru). It was the first time the race took place outside of Europe and Africa. It has stayed in South America from 2009 to the present (2012). The race is open to amateur and professional entries. Amateurs typically make up about eighty percent of the participants. Despite its name, it is an offroad endurance race, called a rallyraid rather than a conventional rally – the terrain the competitors traverse is much tougher and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than the modified on-road vehicles used in rallies. Most of the competitive special sections are offroad, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres per day.
History The race originated in 1978, a year after racer Thierry Sabine got lost in the desert and decided that it would be a good location for a regular rally. Originally, the rally was from Paris, Countries the rally has France, to Dakar, Senegal, interrupted by a transfer across the been through during its Mediterranean. However, due to politics and other factors, the history (orange countries course, including were only travelled origin and through in the 1992 race to destination, has Cape Town). varied over the years. Dakar has been the destination city on all but four occasions during the period the rally was held in Africa. In 1992, Hubert Auriol won the Dakar in an automobile after having previously won the motorcycle competition on two occasions, making him the first driver to win on both two Stéphane Peterhansel in the Mini All-four racing – The car in which he won the 2011 Dakar
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and four wheels. Twelve years later, StĂŠphane Peterhansel managed the same feat. In 2001, Jutta Kleinschmidt became the first woman to win the Dakar, driving a Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero, with fellow German Andreas Schulz as her co-driver. Until the 2008 terrorist attacks, rallies had been passing through Morocco, Western Sahara, and on to the grasslands and deserts of Mauritania. Segments running through Atar and the sand dunes and canyons of Mauritania's Adrar Region may have been the most challenging in all off-road racing. The Mauritania terrorist attacks spelled the end of North Africa as the rally's host region. The 2008 Dakar Rally was canceled on January 4, 2008, amid fears of terrorist attacks. This caused serious doubts over the future of the rally. Various newspapers in Africa called the cancellation a "death sentence" for the race. Chile and Argentina offered to host the event, along with the Czech Republic, or Hungary in Central Europe. The ASO finally decided to establish the Dakar Series competition, whose first event was the 2008 Central Europe Rally (Hungary-Romania), between April 20 and April 26, 2008. The 2009 event was held in Chile and Argentina, between January 3 and January 18, 2009. The competition has remained in South America ever since. Left: Mitsubishi Pajero Evo in action at the Dakar Rally Below Left: Carlos Sainz in the Volkswagen Touareg
Above: StĂŠphane Peterhansel at the Dakar Rally in 2011. He has won the Dakar 10 times.
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Chill out Corner
A little old lady was driving her VW beetle when she experienced some trouble...it died right there! Well, she managed to get her vehicle out of traffic, got out via the driver's door, proceeded to the front of the car, and raised the "hood". While she stood there looking, another elderly lady pulled up...also in a VW Beetle...and offered some assistance. "What's wrong?" the second lady asked the first. "I seem to have lost my engine!" replied the first lady. "OH! How lucky!! I just happen to have a spare in my trunk!" exclaimed the second lady.
Last month’s answer: MG TC. Last month’s winner: Mr. Michael Tilley.
Guess the car and stand a chance to win a VCCCK Polo Shirt. Answers can be emailed to karann_kalsey@yahoo.co.uk
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Club Page
Item
Kshs
Tee – Shirts Lapel Badges Polo Shirts – White (Small) Polo Shirts – White (Medium) Polo Shirts – Green (Medium) Polo Shirts – Green (Large) Polo Shirts – Green (X Large) Polo Shirts – Green (XX Large) Polo Shirts – Green (XXXL) Shirts – (Green Medium) Baseball Caps Key Rings Pens Engraved Plates Engraved Mugs Car Badges
200/50/300/300/300/300/800/800/800/750/700/100/100/700/700/800/-
New Car Badges arrived!
Ad Size
Price
1/4 Page
4500/-
1/2 Page
9000/-
Full Page
15000/*per annum rates
Please support the club and your business by advertising in the VCCCK magazine.
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