4x4 Magazine - August 2019

4x4

NEWS • PRODUCTS • TRAIL GUIDES • WORKSHOP • CALENDAR • OFF-ROAD SCENE DRIVEN Subaru Forester 2.0i Lineartronic

THE UK’S ONLY 4X4 AND PICK- UP MAGAZINE

NEW RUBICON MAXED

How does Jeep’s ultimate off-road package prove itself when there’s a 2.0-litre petrol engine turning the wheels?

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The stunning concept pick-up you’ll soon be able to own – exactly like this!

Defender 90 Wolf – is this the best Land Rover of all time?

£4.75

Summer Roadbook on and around the Ridgeway

AUG 2019

Solo travel on the legendary Anne Beadell Highway 4x4 Cover Aug.indd 1

01/07/2019 23:09

Untitled-1 1

30/04/2019 10:38

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2018. 4. 13. ě˜¤í›„ 4:14

August 2019

T H IS M O N T H 34

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Step 15: This

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18

Step 11: The ZERO TRIP When did youy take their field roads serious last see a roa d sign like this ly in Leicestershire.

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50 | NOVEMBER

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SAFETY

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When did you sign like this last see a road at unsurfaced righta junction on an of way?

Stonton W

yville

TOTAL OF F-ROAD

4-5 Contents.indd 4

NAVIGATIO

We’ve deliberate l possible to follo w mixture of instr uc and grid refer ences only include junctio have to make a turn right of way, so just road or take the mo option unless we tel If you’re unfam iliar grid reference s, you’ll using them on the leg map. Our aim is for yo do the route without do recomme nd having

The symbols on the firs the roadbook advise yo suitable it is for your veh are just guide lines, howe warn 1 you 2 of 1 any hazards Field Roa Sla d ston sections, but 214

Glooston allaton the nature o 2 14 lane can chan ge quickly.W can make a huge Your track is Inn differenc opposite the Fox the left obvio conditions unde Turnless two as you appro us of the rfoot, and ach wide open in winter can b enclosed and scratchy in su responsibility is yours!

Our roadbook s are desig be safe to drive in a solo veh R are largely suita ble for stand on road tyres . We do reco m trave lling in to tandem whe for this ford reve If it’s wet enough poss the ible, how It’s not a big ever.The risk have any water over have ford, but actually there’s a , you’ll probably stuck of sharpish drop surface s can be greater into itroad as washed than it ap roundaway in the previou the corner – and if you brea beenyou k now down, havin two by at hand can make the differenc between it bein g inconvenient downright dang erous.

9.55

4 | AUGUST 2019

Total Off-Roa you through th countryside on and unsurface d we use are pub either Byways O or Unclassified C commonly refer r

is a massive prob-ROA lem onD green lanes. In TOTAL OFF partic you must

always stay on the righ of way. Neve r drive off it to play o the verges or surrounding land, ev if you can see that someone else has; doing so is illegal and can be tremendously damaging, both to th land and to 4x4 drivers’ repu tation The fact that you can see whe it’s happened shows how muc re h har it does. It’s no excuse to say you’r just following e where another driver has already been . Most green laners have taken to videoing anyo ne they see behaving like this and passing the evidence to the police, which shows how much ange r there is towa rds the criminal elem ent.

Elsewhere, simp sense and cour le common tesy should be your

4x4 02/07/2019 17:27

80 12 ISSUES OF 4X4 – FOR JUST £12!

This has got to be the best value offer in the history of publishing… subscribe to 4x4 for a year and it’ll only cost a quid an issue!

News 12 14 16 18 20 21 21

Skoda Mountiaq Concept pick-up is bound to get tongues wagging Nissan Navara Facelift brings major technical updates Isuzu D-Max Workman+ edition adds spice to Utility model Renault Koleos New engines, model line-up and more Range Rover New model has 400bhp hybrid powertrain Mitsubishi L200 Range boosted by new Challenger model Coming soon Trucks, SUVs and off-roaders on the way

Tested 28 32 34

Subaru Forester Dated but still a real-world favourite Mercedes GLC Time to bag an end-of-line bargain Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Complete with 2.0-litre petrol power…

Every Month 6 6 8 24 82 96

52

Alan Kidd When the weather gets haggard, 4x4s come into their own Gallery Military Land Rovers doing all the things the army gets up to Destinations The legend that is the Rubicon Trail Products Parts, accessories, tools and much more Roadbook Summer-only laning just off the Ridgeway Next Month Rarities, make-you-want-its and another great lane run

Features 40 44 48 52

USING OUR

Jeep Gravity Stunning show truck any owner could buy and build Arkonik Omega Restored 110 that’s classy but right down to earth Wolf 90 Is the militarised Defender the best Land Rover of all time?

Polaris Ranger Testing the all-new diesel side-by-side

ROADBOOK S

Travel

Total Off-Road’ s roadbooks guide you through the English and Welsh countryside on a mixture of surfaced and unsurface d roads.The tracks we use are publ ic rights of way, either Byways Open to All Traffi or Unclassified c County Road s, all commonly refer red to as gree n lanes.

NAVIGATION

56

watchword.The do-and-don’t list below should always be in your mind, but keep your speed down, be read to pull over for others and make y your aim to show it the world that 4x4 drivers aren ’t the hooligans think we are. they

ANTIS

Anne Beadell Hwy Solo on one of the Outback’s remotest trails

We’ve deliberate Anti-4x4 bigot ly ry does exist possible to follo made it as easy as , but it’s less com w the route, mon than you’d using a mixture of instr think. By and uctions, tulip large, it’s limit diagrams and grid refer ed to organisations ences.We norm who just want ally only include to get the countrysi junctions at whic de all to them h you have to make selves.

These organisat a turning or don’t have right of way, being reasoned ions are beyond so just stay on with, but it’s the main road or take rare to encounter real the most strai hostility even ght-ahead option unless from their rank-and we tell you othe -file members rwise.

If you’re unfam . If you’re friendly towa iliar with six-fi rds the peop grid reference gure le with whom you share s, you’ll find a guide to the countrysi using them on de, the vast majo the legend of rity will respond any OS map. Our aim in kind.

There are alwa is for you to 18 ys bad apples, be able to do the route angton 14 but no more so than without map anywhere else. s, but we do recomme nd having them Likewise, mos t local residents . will accept your presence if you’r SAFETY driving sensibly. e What suspicion The symbols do encounte you on the first page r is likely to be of the roadbook from people worried advise you of that you’re there how suitable it is for steal from them to your vehicle. , so be ready These are just guide to offer a word of reass lines, however. urance. Once We’ll warn you of satisfied that you’re not any hazards or after their quad difficult sections, but their mood will bikes, the nature of 2 14 any green lighten. lane can chan ge quickly.Wet It only takes one vandal to weather can make a huge tarnish a person’s view difference to of all 4x4 drive the conditions unde rs, and once the dam s of the rfoot, and what age is done it wide open in ’s tends to be permanen winter can be t. But if enou tight enclosed and gh of us resolve to be scratchy in summ ly ambassadors, responsibility er.The it might make a differ is yours! ence to the way Our roadbook we’re perceived by s are designed society in gene be safe to drive to ral. in are largely suita a solo vehicle, and DO AND DO ble for stand ard 4x4s on road tyres . We • Keep your speedN’T right down travelling in tand do recommend • Pull over to let walkers, em wherever possible, how bikers and horse riders ever.The risk pass of getting stuck can be greater than • Don’t travel in large conv it appears d – and if you brea oys: into smaller k down, havin groups to avoid split g help at hand can make hassling others the difference between it bein g inconvenient • Leave gates as you and downright dang erous.

• Don’t drop litter found them Don’t go back • to drive the fun RESPONSIBI such as mud bits, LITY or fords Irresponsible driving is a mass • Scrupulously obey all, again ive problem on gree closure and voluntary restr n lanes. In parti aint notices you must alwa cular, ys stay on the • Don’t cause a noise right of way. Neve nuisa nce, particularly after r drive off it to play on the verges or surrounding • Ensure you havedark land, even a right to be if you can see there.We rese that someone arch the rout else has; doing so es on our roadbook is illegal and s very carefully, can be tremendously but the status of damaging, both any route can to the land and to 4x4 change without notic drivers’ repu e tation.

The fact that Be prepared • you can see whe to turn back it’s happened if the route is bloc shows how muc re ked, even illegally h harm it does. It’s no excuse to say • If you find an illega you’re just following l obstruction, notify the local where another authority driver has already been • If someone challenge . Most green laners have taken to s you, be firm but polite. Stay videoing anyo calm and don’ ne they see behaving t get into a slagging like this and match passing the evidence to the • Stick absolutely scrupulo police, which shows how much ange usly to the right r there is towa of way rds the criminal elem ent.

• You have as much of a Elsewhere, simp right to be there as everyone else. sense and cour le common Which of course means tesy should be they have as your much right as you

cestershire. n lane?

56

Our 4x4s 64

48

Skoda Kodiaq Final hurrah is an epic road trip in search of sand

Off-Road Scene 70 71 72 74 76

Surrey reen lane users fight back against irresponsible dri ing Essex Ramblers and 4x4 drivers unite to repair Dunmow byway Water Break Its Neck Iconic Powys lane reopens at long last Hillrally Birchall and Koonja in dominant form Odyssey Challenge Tight and technical going at Weekley Woods

Off-Road Calendar 71 75 78

Pay-and-Play Events Go in as hard as you want UK Convoy Tours Tag-along runs on public rights of way Overland Travel Long-range adventures in your 4x4

The wrecked light aircraft is a famous landmark.

You take a detour off the track – a sign says it’s “10km give or take a couple of sand dunes” NOVEMBER 201

6 | 51

4x4 4-5 Contents.indd 5

AUGUST 2019 | 5

02/07/2019 17:27

Alan Kidd Editor

I

’m sitting here writing this while outside, it’s mid-June and it’s raining like something out of the Bible. Something out of the Bible involving a lot of rain, obviously.You know what I’m on about.

This time last year, we were well on the way to being slowly roasted.

Now here we are dissolving. It’s all very unpredictable, very British and, well, pretty concerning if you belie e the scientific evidence about climate change.

Right now, there’s widespread ash ooding in ales. At this precise moment, I’m not long home from the supermarket and on the way there, I encountered a small lake across a main road. The town where I live has a wide expanse in the middle of it called the ashlands, and by tomorrow morning I suspect it will have disappeared below the River Trent. Even my sons’ school got in on the act, when a at roof turned into a sie e and the kitchen turned into a reservoir.

The bit about the lake across the road, anyway. I love stuff like this. I was behind the wheel of a Nissan X-Trail we’ve got in on test, so not exactly a hardcore off-road wagon. In front of me, I had to sit waiting while a guy in a Mk1 Kia Sorento laboured over a three-point turn and others pulled over on to the pavement to sit wringing their hands for a bit, then finally when my time came I was able to do the bow wave thing and proceed smugly on my way.

Like hell. I was able to put the boot in, send up a pair of mighty roosters and be a complete and utter show-off, all the while cackling like a madman.

The bit about being smug was right, though. It took me back to a similar incident in the summer of 2007, when I came across a much bigger ood co ering an entire road junction somewhere in Leicestershire.

I was in a Qashqai (there’s something about Nissans, obviously) and this time the people turning round ahead of me were in a new-looking Discovery and Range Rover.

As they drew alongside me, one of them rolled his window down and more or less commanded me to accept that I wouldn’t make it. ‘It’s too deep for me, so you’ve no chance,’ that kind of thing.

6 | AU U T 201

4 Edline Aug.indd 4

Owning a 4x4 comes into its own when stuff gets gnarly So I thanked him… and set off straight through, leaning out my window to gauge the depth of the water – which never even came up to the Qashqai’s hubs. I was tempted to back up for another go, and to openly mock the guy at the same time (he’d stayed put, presumably to watch me fail), but even I am not that infantile.

So, water is fun. Flooding is fun, so long as it’s not the kind that turns people’s lives upside down, and green laning on firm trails with big puddles e ery fi e yards is absolutely hilarious. I know of people who, right now, will be getting together for some soaking wet night-time laning. Again, so long as it’s on firm trails that can take it, no harm done. Unless it’s Strata Florida, in which case anyone having a stab at it in these conditions is putting their life in danger. Not funny, Most of us remember what happened eight or nine years ago. here am I going with all this I think the point I set out to make was that when the going gets gnarly, that’s when owning a 4x4 comes into its own. e see it in snow, of course. And we see it when the rain gets bad enough to cause disruption.You look at the forecast and you see all those weather warnings and you think yeah, suckers, well I’ll be able to make it to work.

And then, if you’re that guy in the old orento, your bottle goes at the first sign of trouble. Discretion is the better part of valour, of course, but knowing how to drive off-road is the better part of owning a 4x4.

Yes, and showing off is the better part of making everyone hate you. I get that. Doing roosters in oods is the x e ui alent of a biker doing wheelies at the lights. And maybe you don’t want to be that guy.

But sitting in a Discovery and loftily telling the world you can’t get through water that’s only about six inches deep All the gear and no idea. And you really don’t want to be that guy…

Tel: 01283 553243 Email: enquiries@assignment-media.co.uk Web: www.totaloffroad.co.uk www.4x4i.com Online Shop: www.toronline.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/totaloffroad www.facebook.com/4x4Mag Editor Alan idd Assistant Editor George Dove Art Editor Samantha D’Souza Contributors Mike Trott, Dan Fenn, Paul Looe, Pip Evans, Kazuyoshi Sasazaki, Gary Simpson, Gerard van Vliet, Betty van Breukelen Photographers Vic Peel, Steve Taylor, Nick Hood Group Advertising Manager Ian Argent Tel: 01283 553242 Advertising Manager Colin Ashworth Tel: 01283 553244 Advertising Sales Manager Gary Simpkins Tel: 01283 553245 Advertising and Exhibition Sales Executive Abigail Cooper Tel: 01283 553246 Advertising Production Sarah Lowe Tel: 01283 553242 Subscriptions Manager Catherine Martin Subscriptions Assistants Emma Emery, ay Tunnicliffe, Abi

utton

Publisher and Head of Marketing Sarah Lowe Email: sarah.lowe@assignment-media.co.uk To subscribe to 4x4, or renew a subscription, call 01283 742970. Prices for 12 issues: UK 2 2 issues 6 Europe Airmail RO urface RO Airmail Distributed by Marketforce; www.marketforce.co.uk Every effort is made to ensure the contents of 4x4 are accurate, but Assignment Media accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions nor the consequences of actions made as a result of these. When responding to any advert in 4x4, you should make appropriate enquiries before sending money or entering into a contract. The publishers take reasonable care to ensure advertisers’ probity, but will not be liable for loss or damage incurred from responding to adverts Where a photo credit includes the note ‘CC BY 2.0’ or similar, the image is made available under that Creative Commons licence: details at www.creativecommons.org 4x4 is published by Assignment Media td, Repton ouse 11, Bretby Business ark, Ashby Road, Bretby, Derbyshire DE15 0YZ

Assignment Media td, 201

4x4 01/07/2019 22:58

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GALLERY

In pictures: 4x4s and off-road stories from around the world

Ex-army Land Rovers are popular among military enthusiasts, classic ehicle fans and off-roaders alike. There’s a fine example featured in this issue of 4x4, indeed, so we thought it would be a good time to take a look at them back when they were still in the army.

Like all proper 4x4s, Army Land Rovers get up to all sorts. You might find them on patrol in city centres Beirut and Belfast, here , on Cold ar exercises near the old East German border or launching surveillance drones in Afghanistan. ou might e en find them being hammered around a elsh forest by the Army’s rally team.

But arguably the most striking pictures here are of and Ro ers without dri ers on board. There’s a couple of olfs being deli ered by Chinook, a remote-control 110 carrying ground-penetrating radar on mine clearance duty and an old eries II still in ser ice at the usilier Museum in Bury, ancashire, as a ower bed.

Main pic: Steve Dock, British Army. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. MOD/© Crown copyright 2012 Above right: Army of Lebanon, by James Case @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0 Right: Shane Wilkinson, British Army. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. MOD/© Crown copyright 2014 Below: Land Rover Wolf XD - WRC Wales Rally GB 2009 - Myherin by Bob Bob @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0

8 | AUGUST 2019

2.5pp Gallery + Destinations AUG.indd 8

4x4 02/07/2019 17:35

SPECIALIST 4X4 VEHICLE DISMANTERS JEEP - LAND ROVER AND MOST MAKES AND MODELS QUALITY GUARANTEED USED PARTS SOME OF THE VEHICLES WE HAVE RECENTLY DISMANTLED:

2015 JEEP WRANGLER JK 2.8CRD

2007 DODGE NITRO 2.8CRD

2016 RANGE ROVER EVOQUE 2.0 TD4

Above, descending from top: 2 Lan CC BY A 2.0

over in erman forest

he ro b es, Argy e treet, Be fast, @ flickr.com, CC BY A 2.0 POA (Phot) Dave Husbands, Royal avy. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v .0.

Crown copyright LANDROVER, by Shawn Spencermith @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0

, by as ar C @ flickr.com, orthern re an

0, by as ar C

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4x4 2.5pp Gallery + Destinations AUG.indd 9

AUGUST 2019 | 9

02/07/2019 17:35

DESTINATIONS

The world’s greatest 4x4 travel adventures caught on camera. This month, the literal top of the motoring world…

Rubicon Trail Is the Rubicon Trail the most famous off-road route in the world? Well, good luck finding one that beats it The Rubicon is a 22-mile ‘road’ west of Lake Tahoe in Northern California, surrounded by the absolutely sensational wilderbess scenery of the Eldorado National Forest. This alone is reason not to rush things – not that you can, really.

Still, start early and you could do the whole thing in a day. All 22 miles of it, don’t forget. And 10 of those are smooth gravel that takes no more than about half and hour.

The rest is more or less non-stop rocks. There are vast axle-twisters, deep V-gulleys, sharp side-slopes, rough climbs and hardness-hanging drops much of the time, you’ll be travelling at hours per mile, not the other way round.

The hills really are that steep, the rocks that severe. Few would venture here without big tyres, lifted suspension and at least one diff-lock; there are more extreme trails in America, but not a lot can touch the Rubicon for the blend it offers of adventure, natural landscapes and tricky, technical driving.

The classic image of Rubicon driving would show a Jeep scaling a jagged rock face with sun-dappled mountains in the background, and much of it is indeed like that. But of course you can tackle it in (or on) any make of off-road vehicles, and if you don’t mind feet-deep snow you could always try giving it a bash in winter. ess chance of getting wasted by a bear then, too o

eft: Lake

Left, be o

oris, by im Berger @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0

eft: oyota

bicon rai , by

10 | AUGUST 2019

2.5pp Gallery + Destinations AUG.indd 10

cker

r ck

bicon, by a

asneski

ammerstrom @ flickr.com, CC BY

2.0

4x4 02/07/2019 17:35

The PWD-X5 features an 8-inch subwoofer, amplifier and DSP in a small underseat form.

Wired Remote Control The remote control unit is connected with the DSP amplifier by USB. Use the rotary encoder to select input sources (including Bluetooth audio streaming), sound settings and more.

Bluetooth Audio Streaming

-----

May 19 ads.indd 43

If your original car stereo does not feature Bluetooth audio streaming, the PWD-X5 is yet again a great solution for you. With the included Bluetooth dongle that can be plugged in to one of the USB ports on the DSP amp you can stream music from your smartphone to the PWD-X5.

02/04/2019 22:38

4x4 NEWS

SKODA CONCEPT COULD HINT AT PICK-UP AMBITIONS

I

s Skoda trying to tell us it wants to join the one-tonne market? The Czech company recently presented what must be one of the oddest concepts of its time, in the shape of the Mountiaq – a Kodiaq which has been transformed into a two-door pick-up.

We’ve previously asked Skoda officials whether the company has any designs upon putting its own badge on the Volkswagen

Amarok. The response was a clearly ambiguous ‘we don’t have to do our own version of everything Volkswagen makes,’ which sounds like a clear case of refusing to rule it out.

The Mountiaq, however, is rather different. It was built by 35 apprentices from the Class of 2019 in the Skoda Vocational School, who spent more than 2000 hours isualising, designing and finally building the vehicle.

Alfa Romeo has designed a special livery for a Stelvio Quadrifoglio entered into this year’s Gumball 3000. The charity event, which started in Mykonos and ended in Ibiza, stopped off at the Balocco Proving Ground, where generations of Alfas have earned their spurs

12 | AUGUST 2019

6.5 News Aug AWAITING ISUZU WORKMAN+.indd 12

Starting with a Kodiaq 2.0 TSI 4x4, the team removed its roof and fabricated a whole new rear body – including a pick-up bed, which takes the vehicle’s overall length to 4999mm. Further dimensions include a 2788mm wheelbase and 290mm of ground clearance – up by just under 4” on that of a standard Kodiaq Scout.

The lift is achieved in part by a set of 245/65R17 Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tyres. Should these not

be enough to keep on top of the vehicle’s traction needs, it has a steel front nudge bar incorporating an electric winch. Further off-road kit includes a snorkel (complete with ugly elbow angle, but still) and roof-mounted LED bar.

The Mountiaq’s cabin features orange highlights to match its unmistakeable exterior paint scheme, and in addition to its headlining and embroidery it’s equipped with a fridge and a set

Volkswagen has added a 1.6 TDI engine to its T-Cross range. The 95bhp, 52.9mpg unit is available with manual and auto gearboxes, with prices starting at £21,240 on the road. It’s not, however, offered with four-wheel drive

4x4 02/07/2019 17:31

4x4 NEWS of walkie talkies. There’s a mighty 4000-Watt stereo in there, too, as well as a glowing Skoda logo in the headlining, and further illumination comes in the form of LED mood lights for the engine bay, bed sills and radiator grille.

The Mountiaq is the sixth vehicle built by Skoda students since the idea was introduced in 2014. Unlike most concept cars, its purpose is not to tease a future production

model or test styling ideas with the public, but simply to let the company’s future engineers build a vehicle with their own hands. ‘(It) was a unique opportunity for all of us,’ commented Petr Zemanec, one of this year’s number. ‘We were able to use our theoretical know-how in a practical context. We will never forget the over 2000 hours of work we spent making our unique pick-up.’

S AV E

5%

W IT H

Velo edition turns Skoda Karoq into a self-propelled bike carrier, workshop… and laundrette

Something you might not know about Skoda is that back in the days before it started making cars, its first products were bicycles. And another unusual concept recently unveiled by the Czech manufacturer is the Karoq Velo.

Calling itself ‘the ultimate support car for the cyclist who dreams of the perfect summer ride,’ this is equipped with interior and exterior bike racks and operates as a miniature workshop on wheels, with its own toolkit and LED lighting.

Further equipment you won’t find on other Karoqs includes a built-in pressure washer for cleaning your bike after a muddy ride out. This is fed by an on-board water supply which is also – get this – linked to a fully functioning spin-cycle washing machine for cleaning your kit on the way home.

There’s also a Follow Me drone, which uses sensors and recognition technology to track the cyclist and capture footage of their exploits.

This comes home to land on a special magnetic pad – and once it’s safely docked, you can use the Karoq’s inbuilt Wi-Fi hotspot to upload footage to your all-important social media channels.

Skoda says it polled more than 1500 active cycling enthusiasts before creating the Karoq Velo, asking them for suggestions as to what would make the ideal support vehicle. The Velo ‘remains a one-off concept car for now’ – however if there’s enough interest from customers, who knows?

Hyundai has added a hybrid model to its Kona SUV range. With a 1.6-litre petrol engine, a permanent magnet motor and a 1.56kWh battery, this has a predicted 141bhp and 189lbf.ft. Efficiency figures are 72mpg (NEDC) and 90g/km; UK sales are due to commence in August

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CO D E

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AUGUST 2019 | 13

02/07/2019 17:31

4x4 NEWS

MAJOR TECHNICAL UPDATES FOR NISSAN NAVARA Improvements to engine, transmission, brakes and suspension • New headlamps and alloy wheels

N

issan has announced a raft of changes to the Navara – which gains significant improvements underneath while continuing to look much the same up top.

Styling upgrades are limited to new black bezel inlays for the LED headlights, plus new 17 and

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18” alloy designs. However the engineering takes several major leaps forward – among them the adoption of disc brakes at the back, as well as 4mm bigger rotors up front, and enlarged brake boosters, to deliver a 40% reduction in the force required on the pedal.

That’s good news if you intend to work your Navara hard, or modify

it into an off-road beast with outsize tyres. And so too, if you’re starting with a modest one, is the adoption of a twin-turbo set-up on the 163bhp version of the 2.3 dCi engine. This improves torque output to 313lbf.ft, which is enough to keep more or less anything moving.

E ually significant is the arri al of a new six-speed manual gearbox.

This has longer ratios and a shorter throw, making you won’t need to use it as frequently and that it will be slicker to operate when you do.

Finally, KingCab models will now feature the same multi-link coil-sprung rear

suspension as double-cab models.

Replacing the traditional leaf springs with which they are currently equipped, this sees the rear sitting 25mm higher and the vehicle’s payload climbing by 46kg.

If that’s not enough to be going on with, the Navara’s standard equipment has improved too.

N-Connecta models and above gain an 8.0” touchscreen for the Nissan Connect entertainment system, as well as mobile integration through Apple CarPlay, while all models also get Trailer Sway Assist as standard.

The revised Navara goes on sale from 1 July, with the range kicking off at £21,850 plus VAT for a King Chassis Cab in base-spec Visia form and equipped with the new manual gearbox. At the top end, the N-Guard Double-Cab is priced at £31,125, again plus the dreaded, if you order it in 7-speed auto form.

4x4 02/07/2019 17:31

All Seasons.

All Conditions.

All Terrains.

Davanti has spent years developing this AllTerrain tyre, applying the latest design and manufacturing innovation to develop a tyre as comfortable on the road, on the construction site, in the fields or up in the mountains.

Terratoura is a high performance All-Terrain tyre. Its innovative tread pattern provides exceptional traction across all environments.

All-terrain, all year round.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.DAVANTI-TYRES.COM Untitled-3 1

05/06/2019 11:13

4x4 NEWS

NEW D-MAX MODEL BLENDS WORK AND PREMIUM SPECS Workman+ adds towbar, load-liner, alloys and more to Utility spec • £21,495 CVOTR • On sale now

I

suzu has introduced a new special-edition version of the D-Max. Called Workman+, this is based on the Utility model and gains a range of equipment to make it both prettier and even better suited to working life.

Only available with a manual gearbox, the Workman+ is aimed at ‘farmers and urban trade customers.’ Taking advantage of the D-Max’s 3500kg trailer weight, it comes as standard with a towbar and 13-pin electrics, along with a rear load liner. In the case of the latter, customers can choose between an over-rail or under-rail liner to suit their specific needs.

The vehicle’s spec also includes side steps, as well as alloy wheels – 18” in diameter, as opposed to the more practical 17” steels that are standard on the Utility model. You do get a full-size spare, however, as well as locking wheel nuts. The tyres wrapped around the rims are 255/60R18 in size, which allows for a reasonable choice of like-for-like all-terrain replacements.

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Additionally to these features, the Workman+ gains DAB radio as an upgrade over the standard Utility spec. Further electronic tech comes in the shape of a rear-view camera, which is mounted under the back bumper and displays its image in a window within the rear-view mirror.

Thus you have a work truck that looks and feels that bit more premium. Isuzu has even extended its normal paint option structure to emphasise the fact; Cosmic Black and Sapphire Blue mice, as pictured here, are normally only available on premium models, but are among a palette of fi e options offered here.

The others

are Splash White, Titanium Silver metallic and Obsidian Grey mica.

If you were to add together the price of all these options, you’d stick a lot more than £700 on the price of a standard D-Max Utility.

However that’s the premium on a Workman+, which is priced at £21,495 plus VAT on the road. As with the rest of the range, you get a fi e-year, 1 0,000-mile warranty,

along with fi e years’ Europe-wide breakdown assistance.

The Workman+ is part of Isuzu’s strategy of offering a new specialedition model every quarter. Thus it won’t be around forever – indeed the company says only 125 units will be available. Thus if you like the look of it, the order book is open and deliveries are already underway – so there’s no time to waste.

4x4 02/07/2019 17:31

GET TO YOUR DESTINATION

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Suspension kits built for Comfort - Performance - Constant Load

The ultimate upgrade with the most robust design suitable for all conditions

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WC Off Road 1xSP 290319.indd 1

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71 Gorsey Lane, Banks, Southport, PR98ED

29/3/19 9:30 am

4x4 NEWS

MAJOR REVISIONS ANNOUNCED FOR RENAULT KOLEOS

R

enault is about to make major revisions to the Koleos range, with new engines at the heart of an updated range due this autumn.

Based on the same platform as the Nissan X-Trail, the Koleos gains more safety and tech equipment as well as additional soft-touch cabin material in a bid to strengthen perceived quality. It will be offered in two trims, named Iconic and GTLine, with LED headlights, adaptive cruise control, hands-free parking and a reversing camera as standard across the range.

The range remains exclusively diesel-engined but will now offer a choice of 1.8 and 2.0-litre engines, developing 150bhp and 251lbf.ft and 190bhp and 280lbf.ft respectively. In each case, they’re mated as standard to an X-Tronic CVT automatic gearbox; the 1.8 dCi engine drives the front wheels only, while the 2.0 dCi comes with the All-Mode 4x4-i system that will already be familiar to Renault and Nissan SUV drivers.

Renault is yet to confirm fuel

consumption figures for the new engines, however their emissions are 143 and 150g/km respectively.

Further updates include the addition of LED headlamps, between which is a redesigned grille. There’s a new look for the chrome trim, too, as well as larger from and rear skid plates, and the rear lights are revised with a 3D effect and, higher up, a larger third brake lamp.

Further updates include the addition of Pure Vision LED headlamps as standard. Between them, the grille has been redesigned, and there’s a new look for the chrome trim as well as larger front and rear skid plates. At the back, the high-level brake light has grown in size and 3D-effect Edge Light tail lights have been adopted.

Rounding off the exterior are new two-

Land Rover and Jaguar have teamed up with BMW to collaborate on research, development and production in the field of electric propulsion. The companies will share know-how on future EVs as well as working together to improve autonomous driving safety

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tone alloy wheels and a metallic Vintage Red paint finish.

Inside, the cabin gains more widespread soft-touch materials and revised trim details. The rear seats are improved by the use of two-stage reclining, while the R-Link infotainment system adopts Apple CarPlay as standard on 7.0 and 8.7” versions alike.

Safety features now include pedestrian detection for the Active Emergency Braking System. This

comes on top of the adaptive cruise control that was added to the Koleos’ armoury last year.

The first right-hand dri e examples of the revised Koleos are due to be delivered to their owners in October. We don’t yet know how much said owners will have had to pay for the privilege, however this is due to be confirmed in uly any increases will surely be modest, so a range of around £28-32,000 is likely.

rders are now open for the Mercedes-AM LC 6 and 6 S. The high-performance SUVs boast up to 510bhp and can hit 62mph in as little as .8 seconds; prices start at 74,599 and climb to 88,655

4x4 02/07/2019 17:31

PERFORMS EXCEPTIONALLY ON ALL-TERRAINS The Grabber AT3 combines superior on-road performance, with exceptional off-road capabilities. It’s a tyre developed to enhance the potential of your 4x4 driving experience.

Features an aggressive pattern to work on multiple surfaces with enhanced grip.

Provides a robust compound for improved tread life on rugged terrain.

Designed for a smoother, confident and quieter drive Safe handling in all-seasons, indicated by the M+S mark and the snowflake symbol.

General Tire. A brand of Continental.

GRABBER 3 AT

YOUR ACCESS TO ANY ADVENTURE

Visit our website for further technical information and details of your nearest 4X4 stockist

WWW.4SITE4X4TYRES.CO.UK | 0870 112 9401 221117-LRO.indd 1

23/11/2017 11:15

4x4 NEWS

NEW PETROL ENGINE FOR RANGE ROVER P400 3.0-litre straight six • 400bhp, 406.bf.ft • 25.1-26.7mpg, 212g/km • From £90,010 to £109,485

L

and Rover has extended the Range Rover line-up with the addition of a new 3.0-litre straight six petrol engine. Already available in the Range Rover Sport, this now brings its 400bhp output to the full-fat model at the top of the range.

Part of a mild hybrid system, the P400 Ingenium engine is boosted by a traditional twin-scroll supercharger working alongside a second electric unit which spools up in half a second at engine speeds of up to 6500rpm. Between them, they help achie e a tor ue figure of 06lbf.ft – which translates into a 0-60 time of just 5.9 seconds.

With a stop-start system working alongside Continuous Variable Valve Lift, which helps the engine breathe with maximum efficiency, and a - olt battery

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charged by harvested energy, the Range Rover manages to claim returns of 25.1-26.7mpg (WLTP combined) and 212g/km (NEDC).

Safe to say Greta Thunberg won’t be pestering her dad to buy one, but considering the size, weight and performance of the vehicle we’re talking about, these are still pretty extraordinary figures compared to what we’d have been looking at not many years ago.

As well as the new engine, the Range Rover gains a couple of paint colours – Eiger Grey and Portofino Red – as well as a new 22” gloss black alloy wheel option. The Smartphone Pack also becomes standard across all models in the range, adding both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Further new standard features include Sign Post Dimming on both

Matrix and Pixel LED systems. This mutes the output of specific E s in the array to pre ent them from re ecting against road signs and causing glare.

There’s also a new Tourist Mode feature on the Pixel system, which allows you to adjust the lights’

pattern to suit driving on the right or left side of the road.

The newly revised Range Ro er line-up starts at ,6 , with the new P400 petrol engine coming in at £90,010. That places it abo e both the V6 and V diesels in the range. The engine can be ordered in Vogue, Vogue SE or Autobiography trim, with the latter two increasing the base price to 6,610 and 10 , respecti ely.

4x4 02/07/2019 17:32

4x4 NEWS NEW CHALLENGER MODEL TO AID L200 RANGE RUN-OUT

W

ith a new-look Mitsubishi L200 on the way soon, the company has launched a new Challenger model to try and keep the current version moving. Based on the arrior, and therefore fitted with full-time four-wheel drive as standard, this gains 17” black alloys, a black leather interior and a choice of white, grey or, you guessed it, black paint finishes.

The exterior treatment also includes black front grille and bumper accents, fog lamps surrounds, wheelarch extensions, side steps, door mirrors, door handles and

rear bumper. Inside, the seats are heated and, on the driver’s side, electrically operated.

Elsewhere, you get hill start and trailer stability assist, LED DRLs, auto wipers, lane departure warning, a reversing camera and a 7” infotainment system running Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as DAB radio.

The L200 Challenger is on sale now, and Mitsubishi expects it to remain so until some time after the revised model arrives in showrooms this autumn. It’s priced at £27,705 with a manual gearbox or £29,105 with the auto, in each case plus VAT.

Big revisions on the way for ASX

Mitsubishi has unveiled a new-look version of the ASX. With all-new sheet metal from the A-posts forwards, this is more than just a bumpers-and-alloys job (though it gets those too).

Of particular interest is the reintroduction of four-wheel drive to the ASX range. There’s a new 2.0-litre petrol engine with 150bhp and 14 lbf.ft, and this can be had with either a five-speed manual box or CVT auto – the latter driving all four wheels as standard.

The vehicle also gains enhanced safety equipment as well as better cabin trim and tech. There’ll be a three-strong range with two spec levels; sales kick off in September, with prices still to be announced.

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C O M IN G S O O N Forthcoming 4x4s due later this year and beyond Aiways U5 Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Aston Martin DBX Audi SQ2 Audi Q4 Bentley Bentayga Hybrid BMW X7 Bollinger B1 Bollinger B2 DS3 Crossback DS 7 Crossback E-Tense Ford Ranger facelift Ford Ranger Raptor Ford Ranger Hyundai Hyundai Kona Hybrid INEOS Grenadier nfiniti 50 Isuzu D-Max XTR Jeep Jeep Cherokee Desert Hawk Jeep Gladiator Jeep Grand Commander Jeep Wagoneer Land Rover Defender Land Rover Discovery SVX Maserati Mercedes EQB Mercedes GLB Mercedes GLE Mercedes GLS Mercedes G-Class Mercedes-AMG G-Class Mitsubishi ASX Mitsubishi L200 Mitsubishi Shogun Sport SVP Nissan Juke Renault Alaskan Renault Koleos Rivian R1T Rivian R1s Seat Ateca X-Perience Skoda Kamiq Skoda Kodiaq Coupe Ssangyong XAVL Ssangyong Korando Subaru XV e-Boxer Subaru Forester e-Boxer Suzuki Vitara facelift Tesla Model Y Volkswagen T-Roc R Volkswagen Tarok Volkswagen Amarok

Electric SUV Small SUV Large SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Coupe SUV Luxury SUV Large SUV Electric off-roader Electric pick-up Small SUV Medium SUV Pick-up Pick-up Pick-up Fuel-call SUV Small SUV Off-roader Large SUV Pick-up Small SUV Performance Off-Roader Pick-up Large SUV Luxury SUV Off-roader Large SUV Medium SUV Electric SUV Small SUV Large SUV Luxury SUV Off-roader Performance off-roader Small SUV Pick-up Off-Roader Small SUV Pick-up Medium SUV Electric pick-up Electric large SUV Medium SUV Crossover Medium SUV Medium SUV Small SUV Small SUV Medium SUV Small SUV Medium SUV Performance SUV Pick-up Pick-up

2020 2019 2019 Late 2019 Spring 2019 2019 2019 Spring 2019 2020 2021 2019 Spring 2019 Mid-2019 Mid-2019 2022 2019 August 2019 2020 2019 July 2019 2021 Spring 2020 Spring 2020 2020 2021 2019 2019 2019/20 2019 Late 2019 Spring 2019 Autumn 2019 Early 2019 Early 2019 September 2019 August 2019 Late 2019 Summer 2019 2019 October 2019 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 2019 Mid-2019 Spring 2019 2019 Summer 2019 Autumn 2019 Autumn 2019 Spring 2019 Autumn 2020 Autumn 2019 2020 2022

AUGUST 2019 | 21

02/07/2019 17:32

PRODUCTS

FRONT RUNNER ROOF RACK FOR SUZUKI JIMNY NOW AVAILABLE FROM MAVERICK 4X4

MAVERICK 4X4 HAS INTRODUCED this Front Runner Slimline II roof rack for the new Suzuki Jimny. This is made up of the Slimline II tray and wind de ector, as well as six guttermount legs for securing it to the ehicle, and is easy to instal with no drilling re uired.

The rack illustrated here is a full-size unit, measuring 1 mm wide by 1 60mm long, howe er other options are also a ailable. ou can ha e a slightly shorter 11 6mm three- uarters length ersion of the same design, or a taller

one offering under-rack stowage opportunities for at items like camping tables.

Either way, as is the case with all Front Runner roof rack kits it will be supplied complete with installation instructions as well as all the components you need to mount it to your truck. Prices are 0 for the shorter-length rack and 6 . for the full-size ob - you’ll find them at www. o erlandgear.uk.

IRONMAN ADDS UPGRADED CONTROL ARMS FOR 2012- ON FORD RANGER IRONMAN’S RANGE OF PRO-FORGE CONTROL ARMS for pick-ups has ust gained a ery significant new addition. That’s because you can now get them for the current ord Ranger which is far and away the most popular double-cab among British off-roaders. itted with OEM-compatible ball oints and rubber bushes, these independent suspension arms are intended to optimise wheel alignment on ehicles with a raised ride height Ironman says you can easily achie e four degrees or more of castor correction by using them.

Their design adds further lift, too, helping add further clearance for larger tyres.

The arms fit directly on to the ehicle, with no modifications re uired, and in addition to enhancing whate er lift you’ e gi en it they promise high strength and durability thanks to their drop-forged alloy construction. They come with a sil er anodised finish, too, which protects them from corrosion e en when they’re first in the firing line e ery time you spank your truck into a sea of grimy mud.

The arms’ wheel alignment settings are designed to centre around a 0mm gain in ride height. That’s basically two inches in old money, though with extra modification work you can go an inch beyond that and they’ll still do the ob. They’re sold with a three-year warranty, and you can get hold of a set ia Ironman’s U importer, West Coast Off-Road Centre, by checking in at www. westcoast offroad. co.uk.

22 | AUGUST 2019

3pp Products Aug.indd 22

4x4 02/07/2019 18:03

10% off for 4x4 customers Use discount code 4x4RAM Deal Expires 06/09/2019

The world’s leading manufacturer of rugged and versatile mounting systems for phones, tablets, GPS units, cameras, laptops and other mobile devices.

RAM Mount. Fit Any Device. Fit Anywhere.

UK distributor mudstuff.co.uk

MUD-UK Unit 4B Craggs Country Business Park, Cragg Vale, Hebden Bridge HX7 5TT

+44 (0)1422 881951

mud@mudstuff.co.uk

PRODUCTS

COOPER ADDS NEW ALL-TERRAIN TYRE TO DISCOVERER RANGE LOADS OF OFF-ROAD DRIVERS now use Cooper’s brilliant isco erer TT mud-terrain tyre on their ehicles. But the prolific American tyre maker has got your back if you want a set of rubber for a work truck or more occasional off-road tool, too, in the shape of the new Discoverer ATT. The latest tread in the Discoverer range offers a 60/40 balance between on and off-road performance. Pretty close to being all things to all men, then, so long as none of them have any sort of no-compromise vibe going on.

The tyre’s all-terrain tread pattern is designed to offer quiet performance on the roads, thanks to with Whisper Grooves that block out the tyre noise. Whisper Grooves, yes. Sounds like a name Tony Blackburn might have come up with to describe the latest sound from Earth Wind and Fire, but it’s here, it’s now and it’s a 4x4 thing.

The tyre’s body is designed with the robustness it needs to cope with the demands of off-road driving, and the compound has a high silica content – giving it a resistance to being chipped and cut when you’re doing stuff like ploughing through ruts with stones and roots sticking out of their walls.

The tyre is H rated, meaning it’s good for up to 130mph. Not in ruts with stones and roots sticking out of their walls, obviously. It’s available in a range of sizes; you’ll be able to check them off against your own vehicle by visiting coopertire.co.uk.

land rover defender upgrades & accessories

Head Linings for Defender 90 Comes as a 5-piece kit with sun visor covers & all fittings and fixings.

Available in black, light grey & dark grey.

Head Linings for Defender 110 Comes as a 4-piece kit with sun visor covers & all fittings & fixings.

Available in black, light grey & dark grey.

24 | AUGUST 2019

3pp Products Aug.indd 24

/masai4x4

Internal Window Trims TD5

Replacement Seat Covers TD5

4-piece kit, sides and rear quarter panels.

Available in black and grey. For Defenders 1987 to 2005 (TD5).

Available for the front seats, middle seat & both types of middle row (60/40 or 3 seats) Many designs on our website!

Internal Window Trims for Puma 4-piece kit, sides & rear quarter panels.

Available in black & grey. For TDCi/Puma with or without side windows (Van Type).

Replacement Seat Covers for Puma Available for the front seats, middle row (60/40) & rear foldable seats.

Many designs on our website!

TD5 Inward Seat Covers Can go over the top of your old inward seats. Fits tightly, and comes in a variety of designs. Buy in PAIRS.

Lockable Sporting Boxes / Storage Neatly store, protect and lock away items that you regularly or permanently keep in your vehicle.

4x4 02/07/2019 18:03

PRODUCTS

HEAVY- DUTY FLOOR MATS TO HELP STOP YOUR NEW WRANGLER FROM LOOKING OLD

Est. 1981

IF YOU’VE GOT a Jeep Wrangler JL, or more likely have got one on order, good news for the long-term state of its interior is that Rugged Ridge has a new All-Terrain loor iner to fit three and fi e-door models alike.

These liners mean business, being in ection-molded for a precise fit as well as exceptional performance and durability. Their shape gi es them a high wall, meaning they contain mud and water that would otherwise get loose and wreck your eep’s carpets.

On top of that, the liners have a chevron-patterned tread to channel away moisture a design which Rugged Ridge says was specifically de eloped with the off-roader and outdoorsman in mind. They come with a limited lifetime warranty, which is rather impressive, so they should still be protecting your eep and helping keep its alue high long after the pain of the initial purchase. ain Or not, actually. Rugged Ridge’s prices start at . 6 for ust a front liner and climb to a scarcely less modest 222.0 for the full front, rear and boot combo to go in a fi edoor JL Unlimited, so the words ‘no brainer’ come to mind – even by the time you’ve got them to the UK and turned that dollar sign into pound notes. To find out more, go to www.ruggedridge.com.

MILNER

www.milneroffroad.com TEL: 01629 734411

EST. 1981

M.O.T & Service Parts Suspension Lift Kits Snorkels & Winches Wheels &Tyres Air Suspension Skid Plates Roll Bars Heavy Duty Clutches

** GENUINE & NON-GENUINE PARTS ** Mon-Fri: 8am - 5:30pm Sat: 8am - 12:30pm Old Road, Darley Dale, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 2ER

4x4 3pp Products Aug.indd 25

AUGUST 2019 | 25

02/07/2019 18:03

PRODUCTS

ENHANCE ENHANCE

THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR 4X4 YOUR ISUZU D-MAX

Pedders TrakRyder Suspension Lift Kit makes the workhorse D-Max

into a more refined passenger vehicle.

• Does your 4x4 pickup struggle with the demands you place on it?

• Enhanced ride quality in laden & unladen • Not coping well with that largesituations. trailer?

• Improved off road ability via raised ride height.

• Sagging with the load in the back?

• Maintains load capacity.

Then Pedders haveto the solution for you.

• Heavy duty kits also available ability tosuspension cope with loads.

www.pedders.co.uk

NEW MMC WELDING KIT FROM CLARKE IS PERFECT FOR AMATEUR USERS IF YOU’RE THE kind of 4x4 driver who welds stuff, but you’re not a pro, Clarke’s new range of MMA/ARC welders may be up your street. These play on one of the strengths of stick-welding, which is that because of its simplicity and versatility, it doesn’t require as much skill as other methods.

Stick-welding uses a coated consumable electrode to lay the weld, which means additional equipment is not required. The arc melts the core of the electrode to produce drops of molten metal (weld pool) which cool to create the welded joint. It’s used primarily to weld iron and steel, including stainless; nickel and copped can also be welded using this method, but obviously in the context of the off-road way of life steel is very much the big one.

Clarke’s new welders run off the mains and can put out between 20 and 200A. The range starts at £142.80 with the VAT and you can find them at www.machinemart.co.uk.

Specialising in Suspension solutions since 1950 For further information go to www.pedders.co.uk 01296 711044 or please contact your local Pedders experts.

For further information go to www.pedders.co.uk or please contact your local Pedders experts.

info@pedders.co.uk

01296 711 044 info@pedders.co.uk

DO THE CAN - CAN. OR JUST THE CAN… JERRY CANS ARE USED for many things. Fuel, water, beer, making your 4x4 look like a cool old army truck… the list is long.

Your truck will look less cool, however, if your jerry cans are things that come tumbling out and land on the ground with a loud crash every time you open

26 | AUGUST 2019

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its back door. What you need to avoid this embarrassing scenario is a way of keeping it in place and mounted upright.

Something like these extremely businesslike looking jerry can holders from Tembo 4x4, for example. Smartly machined and finished in your choice of black or white powder-coat, these offer you the choice of holding either one or two jerry cans safely in place.

Good looking and functional.

A winning combination, we think you’ll agree. To get hold of one, pay a visit to www. tembo4x4.com.

4x4 02/07/2019 18:03

PRODUCTS

STRIKER RANGE OF LIGHTFORCE LEDS NOW IN STOCK AT 4X4 OBSESSION 4X4 OBSESSION IS NOW stocking the Striker range of LED lighting products from Lightforce. These put out 1 lux at a range of 754 metres, which sounds good, and come with labelled wiring to ensure a simple and easy installation, which sounds really good.

The lights are supplied with the necessary adaptor and can easily be set to function as your truck’s main beam. They’re sealed against dust and water ingress to to IP68 and IP69k, so they ought to take everything you can throw at them and keep coming back for more, even if your wading antics are on the moronic side. And let’s face it, they are.

Whether or not you’re a moron, Lightforce is a name to be reckoned with and the triker range definitely sounds like a bright idea. To read more without having to put up with our crap puns in the process, visit Tyres cheap. Not cheap tyres!!

4x4obsession.co.uk.

RLG Tyres OFFICIAL STOCKIST

SEALEY INTRODUCES MOT-APPROVED TOWING SOCKET TESTER SOME VEHICLES WILL TELL YOU if your trailer lights aren’t working.

But then there’s the other kind. And then there’s the other other kind, which won’t even tell you if its own trailer plug is working.

Thus Sealey’s TST22 Towing Socket Tester is a worthwhile bit of diagnostic kit. It has been MOT approved for use in testing stations, which seems pretty promising, and Sealey says it’s simple to use, which is every bit as promising.

The unit comes with a 4.9-metre cable, meaning it can be used from the cabin (no need to go looking for a long stick to try and prod the brake pedal with while you stand there like a complete loser), and it works with both 7-pin and 13-pin electrics. Running off the vehicle’s own 12-volt supply, it even has a self-test function, and it can also be used to test reversing lights and permanent live feeds.

The Towing Socket Tester is currently priced at £68.34 on Sealey’s own website. Where’s that? Why, it’s at www.sealey.co.uk.

M a in s u p p lie r o f a n d a l l m a j o r 4x4 t y r e s

Groundcare • Car • ATV • Tubes • Mobile Tyre Fitting Puncture Equipment & Repairs • Four Wheel Alignment Durrants Farm, Rushlake Green, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 9QB

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DRIVEN

SUBARU FORESTER

Medium-sized SUV is due for replacement very soon. Should you wait for the new one, or does the current model still have something to offer?

ON TEST Forester 2.0i XE Premium Lineartronic

T

he Subaru Forester is soon to be replaced by a new model boasting a more modern platform and hybrid engines. Until it arrives, however, how strong a case does the current version make for itself?

Build quality has long been one of Subaru’s strengths, and the Forester feels very well put together throughout. That’s in spite of the dash design being a bit dull, presenting you with a lot of dark plastic which in places feels hard and even brittle to touch.

Overall, the impression you get is of a thoroughly worthy cabin but not one that’s going to wow you.

The controls all work well and feel convincingly stout, but the media screen is on the small side and

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has rather a last-generation vibe to it, with average graphics and smartphone pairing that’s miles off the standard set by the best in the game.

Similarly, the leather trim on the seats and steering wheel looks and feels qute hard and slippy. There’s nothing much wrong with it, but it’s not particularly plush and even though the seats are well sculpted they don’t grip you very well.

There’s plenty of room in the cabin, however, with stacks of space above your head even when the ehicle is fitted with a panoramic roof (as ours was), and the controls are all easy to see and reach from the driver’s seat. The waistline is quite low, too, so even though the cabin materials are dark

there’s plenty of light coming in to illuminate them.

Rear-seat passengers are well looked after for space, too. The seat-backs are recessed and soft, so it’s no problem if your knees press into them a bit – and unless you’re at least a six-footer and you’re sat behind someone just as big as you, they won’t even touch.

If you’re that tall, your head will just brush the vehicle’s roof lining in the back. That’s with a panoramic roof, too. It might not be the car you’d choose for a four-up journey to the other side of Europe, but it’s certainly very well above average for an SUV of its size.

The boot is a decent size with the seats up, however it has a hard oor which is ery useful if you’re

lobbing wet sports gear or grubby dogs on board. It does, however, mean that if you’ve just loaded up with half a dozen bags of shopping from Tesco, their contents will be up against the tailgate in a jumbled heap by the time you’ve made it to the end of your parking space.

For bigger cargo, the rear seats fold down at the touch of a switch on the wall of the boot. They don’t go completely at, but they get close enough and, though there’s a moderate step to slide things o er, the capacity you get is fine.

The tailgate is nice and big, and it’s electric powered, though we found it pretty baf ing to operate as it didn’t seem to do anything half the time whether we used the key fob or the button on the tailgate itself.

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There’s nothing much wrong with the Forester’s cabin, apart from that it’s not very exciting. Build quality is excellent, but the materials are more durable than they are plush and the multimedia system feels distinctly last-generation.

Oddment stowage is competent rather than generous, but it’s well enough equipped and you get a good view of the road (or landscape) around you

The other kind of stowage is taken care of by a deep cubby, a decent glovebox and adequate door pockets. It does the job, though not with any surprise or delight.

Actually, there is one surprise, which is the location of two USB slots in the front of the cubby – these are located so far down that you can’t see them, and in order to plug anything in you need to twist your wrist painfully back on itself, making them an absolute trial to get at.

And while we’re on the subject of painful things, let’s address the CVT auto that’s now standard on all Foresters. The 2.0-litre petrol engine is lovely and smooth, with plenty of get-up-and-go to it, but the box needs an enormous amount of winding up. Pulling away from low speeds, you have to give it an absolute bootfull of revs – which provokes a shrill, building commotion of noise from under the bonnet and precious little else.

Yes, the vehicle has paddles with which to harness the gearbox, and they do have some effect. But an auto box that can’t be left in auto without driving you nuts is a very good argument for getting a manual instead. Or a better auto, which Subaru will be doing when the next-gen Forester comes along, but for now this alone would stop us from buying the current one.

Even when you’re easing away from stationary, especially up a slight hill, you need a lot of throttle to get the thing moving – which it does with a sharp and more or less completely unpredictable jerk.

There’s no end of rising and falling from the engine at speed, too, which does nothing for the vehicle’s cruising refinement. It does ride very smoothly, however – though you do hear a fair bit of noise from the suspension, even if you rarely feel any upsets coming through.

This might make it sound as if the orester is a din-filled ehicle

in which to travel, which would be an exaggeration. It’s certainly not the most hushed thing you can get for the money, but it’s very stable at speed and holds its line impeccably on the motorway. In real life, you’ll have the stereo on and this will knock out most of the background noise – and even if you don’t, normal conversation won’t be a problem.

In between times, on the kind of roads where you can have fun, the Forester is one of the most agile SUVs around. It grips very well and stays at in corners, with excellent body control allowing you to push it hard and enjoy the feel and response you get through the steering. It turns in predictably and corners with a real evenness that allows you to make very sprightly time on A and B-roads – and, more to the point, enjoy the experience. The engine has 150bhp and 146lbf.ft, but it feels livelier than these figures suggest and is

capable of keeping up a good pace on winding roads.

It’ll use 32.2mpg over the piece, according to the (normally very reliable T figures, which isn’t great in a medium-sized family car but does at least give Subaru plenty of scope for improvement when the new Forester comes out. One thing we certainly hope they improve is the stop-start system: this kicks in way too eagerly, killing the engine the moment you come to a halt, so that if all you’re doing is pausing for a split-second to check for traffic at a junction, the revs will be gone before you can react. We lost the chance to dive into gaps several times during our week with the vehicle – yes, there’s a button to disable the stop-start function, but actually you don’t want to be doing that, do you?

Off-road, the Forester continues to demonstrate that Subaru knows exactly what it’s doing. There’s a dramatic looking ‘X-Mode’ button

Both rows of seats are spacious enough to take tall adults – you could put four six-footers in it without any of them getting uncomfortable too early. The rears fold down to create a very usable cargo bay, however the rear part of the boot floor has a hard surface across which your shopping will go sliding at the first sign of trouble

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The Forester’s 2.0-litre petrol engine is smooth and very revvy, and with 150bhp and 146lbf.ft it’s capable of shifting the vehicle with enough zest to pass muster. What lets it down is the CVT automatic gearbox bolted to the back of it, which needs a ridiculous amount of winding up. Just pulling away from stationary is a chore, especially when you’re facing uphill, and putting your foot down to overtake mainly just provokes a gale of shrill revving noise.

The transmission does have a manual over-ride using paddles behind the steering wheel – but when you have to use these by default, it’s not the sign of a box that wants to be your friend

on the oor console, which engages a traction management system designed to send tor ue where it’s needed to keep the ehicle mo ing o er rough ground. It does this using the brakes, which is nothing new, but the results are pretty effecti e, which is an impro ement on some such systems. ou’d choose a diesel engine for this kind of work, and you certainly wouldn’t choose a CVT gearbox, but e en in the form tested here it plods along capably enough.

A sensibly sized set of tyres helps here, too. The orester we tested was on 22 60R1 s, which ha e enough sidewall height to be able to find traction where others would fail, and their proportions look in keeping with the ehicle’s styling. No doubt you can get bigger alloys on to its hubs, but we think

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a lower-profile tyre would look wrong on it as well as doing nothing for its ride and tractability.

The orester is priced at 2, 1 as tested, which isn’t that much for such a well made car but does sound on the steep side when you consider its age. The model that replaces it will be altogether more sophisticated, with a new platform and more modern dri etrains, and it’ll be safer too other ubarus already using the company’s new architecture ha e posted worldleading safety scores.

As it is, the ehicle tested here lacks a number of the intelligent safety assists which buyers are now starting to take for granted, including the big one, autonomous emergency braking. It does ha e ubaru’s Eye ight system, which uses stereoscopic cameras to scan

for hazards, and while we find this a little trigger-happy at times it certainly plays a part in making the orester a car you’d trust with your family’s safety. The new one will be more trustworthy still, howe er.

Based on what we’ e seen with ubaru’s current V, which uses the new platform, the next-gen orester will be a lot more modern, better on the road, safer and, no small matter, ust as capable offroad. It’s likely to be priced higher, but that will be offset by lower running costs. It can be expected to carry the same

excellent fi e-year, 100,000-mile warranty as this one, too.

The orester remains an UV that does many things ery well.

But it’s feeling its age now. Its CVT gearbox would single-handedly remo e any chance of ubaru getting its hands on our money, but e en lea ing that to one side there are better options out there. aiting for the new orester to arri e might ust turn out to be the best of the lot.

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DRIVEN

MERCEDES-BENZ GLC

Merc’s first medium-sized SUV looks very car like but can walk the walk off-road. It’s about to be replaced – so now is an excellent time to score a deal on what’s still a very good 4x4 ON TEST GLC 250 d Sport

M

ercedes was one of the first premium brands to enter the British UV market, but ironically it was one of the last to introduce a mid-sized x to go with its bigger ehicles. That happened because the old wasn’t engineered for right-hand dri e so while Audi, BM and and Ro er were making hay with the , and reelander, Merc was posted missing. a ing been caught out by the boom in small UVs’ popularity back then, Merc certainly wasn’t going to make the same mistake with the ’s replacement. And that’s good news if you like sua e, elegant x s with beautiful interiors and enough e uipment to make your head spin.

That’s the C in a nutshell. hereas most manufacturers aim to make their UVs look as rugged as possible, you might mistake

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Merc’s for a large hatchback but unlike some of its more selfconsciously butch ri als it comes with four-wheel dri e as standard.

And while it’s not in any way trucklike, it’s capable enough on une en terrain to hold its own. e should stress at the outset that yes, we know the C is about to be replaced by a new model. The reason it’s worth looking at now is that for this ery reason, remaining stock of the current model is a ailable for ery tempting money.

Money, let’s talk about that. At the top of the range, where AM models are to be found lurking, the C can be an enormously costly thing. But the model we ha e here, a mid-range 2 0 d port, is actually uite affordable. Its list price is 0,6 0 ust o er a grand more than when we took these photos, but the point is that when you look at what other mid-size UVs cost now, it’s not off the scale.

Under the bonnet, the 2 0d has a 2.1-litre diesel with 20 bhp and 6 lbf.ft, the latter from a ery promising 1600rpm. These figures translate into a .6-second 0-62 time and 6. mpg combined.

It’s not exactly going to be news that the ehicle feels uick. hat matters is how strongly it pulls all the way through the mid range, and in particular the uiet smoothness with which its power is deli ered.

There’s a complete absence of ibration from the dri etrain, and bumps in the road are smoothed away masterfully it feels light on its feet, without feeling at all light in terms of substance.

The C is agile on the road, too, with plenty of steering feel and a tautness to its suspension that allows it to change direction without rolling or wallowing.

Naturally, there’s no shortage of grip if you want to push the limits which of course means that the

rest of the time, it’s ust ery secure and drama-free in exactly the way you want an UV to be.

Around town, the effects of Britain’s awful roads are as well damped out as you could reasonably hope for the bumps come though, sometimes fairly hea ily, but the edge is taken off them so they’re ne er harsh. Mo e to the motorway, meanwhile, and it cruises ery uietly indeed, with not a lot more than ust a muted swoosh from the road you certainly don’t need to turn the stereo up ery loud to block it out.

Talking of the stereo, this is part of an array of e uipment that makes the C ery pleasing indeed to be in. It’s not ust the presence of lots of fancy kit that makes it what it is, though it’s the elegance with which it’s presented. This is the hallmark of a proper premium ehicles, and they don’t come much more premium than Merc.

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The cabin is beautifully designed and carried off with real panache using extremely good quality materials. It’s practical enough in the back, if hardly anything special you’ll find that the machining has left a sharp edge.

That’s one of the only imperfections we could find in the GLC’s cabin. There’s a certain amount of creaking from the dash when it’s leant on, and we always prefer to see a media screen mounted in the dash rather than on it, but o erall the fit, finish and presentation are top-quality.

The seats are excellent, too, mixing sportscar-style support with exec-style comfort, and they offer enormous adjustability in all directions much more than you’ll need, unless you have the legs of a pro basketball player. As a result, although rear-seat accommodation is pinched with the front seat fully back, one six-footer can still sit behind another in total comfort.

The back seats don’t slide or recline, but they don’t need to a high waistline does eat into your view a little, but even with twin glass sunroofs there’s no shortage of headroom.

For carrying cargo, the seat-backs simply drop down on to their bases.

There aren’t any clever techniques

for getting them to lie 100 at, and as a result they don’t, but they’re close enough not to cause any serious angst and the lip at the bottom is good and low, even if the aperture is rather arched at the top.

None of it screams off-roading, to be fair. Perhaps that’s a result of the vehicle’s design, but it’s definitely too nice to get messy inside. Don’t let that make you think it’s just a pavement princess,

though you can specify tailored drive mode settings as a no-cost option, and augmenting this with raised suspension, underbody protection and better-suited wheels and tyres only adds on top which compares well with some of what a Merc dealer will try to sell you. Don’t be duped by the GLC’s car-like image in typical Merc fashion, its elegance is based on ery firm underpinnings indeed.

HHHHI

VERDICT

Overall, the cabin design has a stylish grace to it that feels effortless, and the materials in which it’s finished are lo ely to look at and touch. The dash has a soft-touch covering with a hard substrate which feels rock solid, and the same can be said of the oor console which, among other things, is home to the joystick-style controller for Merc’s excellent infotainment set-up.

While this does operate a wide range of functions, there’s still a good number of buttons on the dash. These have a superb feeling of quality to them, along with a wonderful polished sil er finish.

We don’t normally make a point of banging on about shiny metal knobs in this magazine, but it seems rele ant in this case it really is that well presented.

Something else we don’t tend to talk about is loudspeaker grilles, but those in the GLC’s doors are an absolute work of art, with a vastly complex pattern pressed out of a steel fillet. It looks sublime so much so you want to run your finger across it, though if you do

Mercedes-Benz GLC 250 d Sport Very car-like to look at, but a classy and surprisingly practical family SUV The GLC is more capable than you’re likely to assume – in the unlikely event that you want to risk getting it dirty. It looks very car-like and its cabin is beautiful, but it can walk the walk too.

Its natural environment is still the road, however, where its smooth performance and blend of agility and refinement make it a very pleasing SUV indeed. With a new one coming and strong deals on offer, it looks like a stonking buy.

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DRIVEN

JEEP WRANGLER RUBICON

Long-wheelbase version of Jeep’s new halo vehicle has an unfamiliar engine but delivers the ultimate in off-road intent ON TEST Wrangler 2.0 GME 5-door Rubicon

W

hen eep first brought the Rubicon model to Britain, it was at the start of the ’s glorious reign back in 200 . ou could only get it with a petrol engine and automatic gearbox, howe er, which didn’t do its sales any good because e eryone kept saying it would be the perfect off-roader if only they’d do a diesel ersion. eep did introduce a diesel later in the ’s life, but they didn’t bring

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it to Britain. By this time, we were starting to feel like we were being picked on, but then last year they brought out the new model and finally, there was a full range a ailable with the right spec and the excellent new 2.2 Multi et II engine. owe er there’s also a Rubicon a ailable with another engine. If someone had told you two years ago that eep was going to bring in a petrol model, you would most likely ha e pictured a hefty V6 with loads of lazy tor ue, but in fact

what we ha e here is a 1 cc turbo whose peak output figures of 2 2bhp and 2 lbf.ft come at a distinctly breathless sounding 2 0 and 000rpm respecti ely.

Now, that’s plenty of power and a good bit of sho e. But there’s no shortage of re s there, either. ounds like this is an engine that needs to be worked hard not least because e en though the is usefully lighter than the that came before it, in the fi e-door form tested here the engine still

has more than two tonnes of metal to shift. omething else it has weighing upon it is a , 0 price tag. ou can argue all day long about whether the original s were under-priced a Rubicon, albeit with only three doors, cost less than half as much back then or this new one is ust plain greedy, but either way we’re not many options away from the 0k mark here.

Talking of options, our test ehicle looked a million dollars

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The combination of an upright dash, big buttons and switches, a tough, rubberised media screen surround and a deliberately bolted-together image makes the Wrangler’s dash feel at once old-school and completely modern. The materials it’s made from are stout and durable, if not the most tactile in every case in its Hellayella clearcoat. Jeep definitely knows how to name its paint colours. till, with that box ticked we’re now within hundreds, not thousands, of being aboard fifty grand’s worth of rangler.

CABIN AND PRACTICALITY Inside, it certainly does feel special.

Not premium-car sumptuous by any means, but the cabin is well e uipped and there’s a definite sense of occasion to it. If you like proper, traditional x s, the

rangler is what a modern offroader should be.

There’s a truck-like uprightness to the dash, with big, chunky switches and a bolted-together image that manages to feel at once retro and up to date. ome of the controls are situated uite low down, in the murky depths ahead of the gear selector, but it’s big enough that you won’t struggle to see what you’re looking at.

The off-road controls are at the ery bottom of the facia, too, which sounds wrong but makes sense. hen you do need to operate things like the locking diffs and sway-bar disconnect, after all, you’re

likely to be doing it in extremis but if you’re not tra elling ery slowly indeed at the time, you don’t know what you’re doing.

There’s a certain amount of creaking from the dash, but the materials it’s made from feel good and strong. This doesn’t mean they feel premium the upper portion has a leather finish, but lower surfaces are hard and scratchy and o erall there’s a definite wipe-clean ibe to it.

Nonetheless, the whole cabin has the demeanour of something that was made to last, with a uality to its build that goes with the percei ed durability in its design.

It has a proper handbrake and transmission le er, too. ou do ha e to make do with an on-off button for actually starting the thing, but two out of three ain’t bad.

Ain’t bad’ would be a good erdict for the oddment stowage aboard the rangler, too. There’s a decent cubby and a usably sized glo ebox, and though you only get nets instead of door pockets they’re full-length and surprisingly useful. o too is the deep stowage bin you’ll find on top of the dash.

As the lack of door pockets suggests, elbow room is limited. egroom is fine, howe er though there’s nowhere to put your left

Above: As you can see here, the side and centre of the space between the speedo and rev counter are in the same time zone. Note also the rather shattering a erage figure Right: Headroom is enormous in both rows of seats, though elbow room is tighter. There’s enough legroom for one six-footer to sit behind another so long as neither is greedy

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foot, which in an automatic feels like an oversight. Headroom is huge, as you’d expect, and visibility is excellent all round, even with what is quite a shallow windscreen.

The bonnet’s shape means you can’t see the edges of the vehicle, something that’s exacerbated by the ridiculous length of the standard-fit front bumper. The A-posts are thick

but quite well shaped not to get in the way of your view around corners, and even without relying on parking sensors and reversing cameras the squared-off nature of the Wrangler’s back body means you can see enough in the mirrors to be able to cope when parking. ou’ll definitely fall back on whatever electronic aids you’ve got, though, as the space between the C and D posts as you look over your shoulder is cluttered mainly by the roll cage.

Talking of electronics, the upper part of the dash is dominated by a big, almost square multimedia screen with a tough, rubberised surround. This is great, and operating the system is no problem, but we did find it ery easy to reset the radio by accident as the tuning dial (an actual, physical thing) is perfectly positioned to catch a passing finger when you’re steering and indicating at the same time.

We variously found our choice of listening suddenly turning into a Bollywood station, some sort of radio evangelism and so on.

Further equipment includes cruise control, dual-zone climate and heated seats and steering wheel. Said seats are leather clad, which may or may not take your

fancy in an off-roader but doesn’t detract from the way they hold you in place. The leather itself feels suitable, too – not like an offcut from a vinyl showroom, but also not so soft that you’ll damage it first time you climb aboard.

In the back, a stadium seating arrangement means one six-footer should be able to fit in behind another without anyone losing their sense of humour. The front seatbacks are hard but well sculpted, and with just a little movement from the driver a tall adult will be able to fit in ery comfortably, in particular because headroom is as good as it is in the front.

For carrying things rather than people, the seats fold as good as at to create what is an enormous

The Wrangler’s rear body is basically a big box, and this is put to good use in a cargo space that makes the most of all the width, length and height available. It’s good and big with the back seat in place; this then folds down to leave just a oderate slope and no lip to get your cargo across he rear floor also folds up to re eal a ery generously si ed hidden compartment – there’s more than enough room in here to keep your laptop or power tools out of sight

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1995cc petrol engine is powerful enough at 272bhp but needs a lot of revs to do its best work. It’s very smooth, but a lazier delivery would be much better suited to the Wrangler’s nature

cargo bay. This is accessed through a traditional Jeep tailgate featuring a side-hinged lower half-door and top-hinged upper glazed area, leaving a mighty great aperture for loading large and bulky items.

Basically, the rear end of a Wrangler is just a huge square box on wheels, and that shape is put to good use for creating a usable space for carrying cargo.

It’s handy for the other kind of luggage, too. Beneath the rear oor is a big, hidden stowage compartment that would be ideal for ferreting away things like laptops, tablets and so on.

non-stop, and the new Suzuki Jimny has been widely reviewed with a similar level of ineptitude.

If you expect the Wrangler to drive like a performance SUV, or in fact any kind of SUV, you’re going to be disappointed. It has the high-set stance of a truck and the cheerfully wafty body movements of a vehicle designed to ex its way o er rough

terrain, and it you know your offroaders you’ll love it.

Naturally, its steering isn’t very sharp and its ride is heavy. It’s perfectly controllable, though, and even on heavy-duty live axles it shudders, not crashes, when you hit pot holes. Its turning circle is absolutely brilliant for such a big, long vehicle, too.

We don’t think the 2.0-litre petrol engine suits its character, though. There’s a lot of power there, as we said earlier, and it comes with a lot of revs, and that’s not well suited to the Wrangler’s relaxed steering and chilled-out body control. You’ll stun a few people from a standing start when the lights turn green, but the engine

DRIVING The Wrangler has received some absolutely ridiculous criticism from the mainstream motoring press, seemingly based on the fact that they can’t accept that there’s any difference between a BMW X5 or Porsche Macan and a something designed to go off-road. Not that there’s anything new there – the Land Rover Defender copped it

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wants you to press on and the rest of the vehicle doesn’t.

Having said that, even on the BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain tyres that come as standard on the Rubicon, the rangler has an almost baf ing amount of grip. You can select fourwheel drive for the road if you want it, the way you used to be able to on the (very) old Cherokee, and it’ll become remarkably composed, but even in two-wheel drive and on wet

roads it’s not easy to make the back end break away. The engine might be a bit of a culture shock if you don’t like revs, but the drivetrain is extraordinarily forgiving.

It’s not geared for a exible midrange, however. There’s loads of pull around town (though the gearbox can get jerkily confused by hard acceleration from near-standstill), and a lot less noise than we were expecting at motorway speeds, but

planting your right foot in the 40-60 zone doesn’t have a lot of effect.

This is where, if you hadn’t already, you need to accept the Wrangler’s road manners and settle down to take it easy – whereupon, unless of course you’re reviewing it for one of the adolescent car mags, you might finally figure out what it is you’re driving.

All the same, a less racy performance around town and

more exibility on A and B-roads would be far preferable. If only they did a diesel. Oh, they do…

There’s another reason for investing a few extra quid on the diesel Wrangler, too. In a week of varied driving, including school runs around town, motorway work, A and B-road sessions and a good bit of green laning, we got 22.9mpg out of it. That translates into two things – big fuel bills and, by Wrangler

The Rubicon model tested here is the focused off-roader in the Wrangler range. It’s equipped with locking front and rear diffs and a detachable front anti-roll bar, and comes as standard on 255/75R17 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains (opposite page, top). The multimedia screen is mounted in a rubberised shroud like the ones you get to make your iPad childproof, which isn’t really necessary on a dashboard but is a very easy image to roll with

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OFF-ROAD You’re expecting us to say we’d far sooner be driving a diesel here, too. But in fact, with the Wrangler’s transfer case dropped in to low range, it gains a exibility that defies its high-re ing tor ue figure.

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therefore to the reputation your way of life enjoys/endures among everyday people.

Once again, manoeuvrability is outstanding for such a big truck.

The Wrangler is very easy to drive slowly, to place on the terrain and to keep under control as its weight shifts. With its revvy, squirty engine, you can very easily lapse into driving it like a jerk, but there’s no

need for that. Whether on rocks, mud or wet grass, it gives you a combination of grip, balance and control that’s enough to turn a rank beginner into an off-road pro.

There’s not a lot of restraint to its styling, far less its colour as tested here – but if you can show some in the way you drive, the reward will be a performance so sure-footed it makes you feel like a driving god.

HHHHI

Jeep Wrangler 2.0 5dr Rubicon

VERDICT

standards, equally big depreciation.

We said above that it feels the way that a modern off-roader should – but in its fuel consumption, it’s what an old, gas-guzzling off-road monster was.

You can drive almost anywhere on a thread of gas, and power delivery remains beautifully smooth when the ground gets rougher, making it very easy to crawl steadily across the obstacles.

Again, the spread of gears helps here. And so too does the rangler’s exible suspension, aided if you want it to be by a button on the dash which frees up the front anti-roll bar to allow greater wheel travel.

That feature is exclusive to the Rubicon, and so too are the locking front and rear diffs which mean there’s almost nothing you can’t tackle without needing to spin your wheels. In this way, vehicles with lockers are unsung heroes of the 4x4 world, because if driven responsibly they can take life at a crawl – meaning they do little or no damage to the ground, and

Brilliant at what it does, but let down by an engine that doesn’t suit it The Wrangler’s styling is all about its roughneck brashness, and that might not appeal to you. But everything about the way it drives is defined by a sober focus on being the best in the business at off-roading, and that certainly should. If you love what it’s about, you’ll happily accept, even enjoy, the way it is on the road, and you’ll delight in its brilliance on all kinds of terrain. Few vehicles are more readily suited to being modified into still better off-roaders – yet, certainly in Rubicon form, precisely no vehicles are already as good straight from the showroom.

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IT COULD BE YOURS…

Stunning Gravity concept shows how the new Jeep Gladiator pick-up can be made to look WORDS: KAZUYOSHI SASAZAKI PICTURES: JEEP

T

he 4x4 world continues to wait with baited breath for the arrival of the new Jeep Gladiator.

A double-cab pick-up based on the current Wrangler, this promises to bring a long list of exciting new features to the UK pick-up

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market – including live beam axles all-round, the opportunity for full soft-top motoring and, in Rubicon form, an extreme level of off-road specification including lower-ratio transfer gears, locking front and rear diffs and a disconnecting front anti-roll bar.

While the Gladiator has been designed to be able to put in as good a shift as anything else in its day job as a work truck, there’s little doubt as to the appeal it holds for enthusiasts. You might be after a look-at-me street machine or a heroic off-road battle wagon –

either way, eep definitely plans to grab your attention.

The Gladiator Gravity concept is proof of that. Unveiled at this year’s Easter Safari in Moab, Utah, it’s a Rubicon model that absolutely drips with soft-top attitude. And in a coat of the oddly named but definitely

4x4 01/07/2019 23:06

with the addition of some Mopar magic

Gladiator. And better still, every one of the parts used to build this stunning truck is available now as an approved Jeep accessory.

This is the work of Jeep’s famous Mopar division, in particular the Jeep Performance Parts arm which specialises in fun stuff. The result is ‘a ready-to-order expression of how Jeep Performance Parts can help enhance the all-new pickup’s capability and versatility.’

Of course, the Gladiator hasn’t been launched in the UK. Yet. But we’re reliably informed that it will be here by this time next year – and, while the difference between US and UK markets is always going to add a certain amount of grief (and expense) to the process, the point is that if you’ve got deep enough pockets, you’ll soon be able to smoke around in a truck exactly like this one.

This being Britain, obviously you might not be able to strip off your Jeep’s hood and doors, drop its

windscreen and enjoy the full-on glory of ies in your teeth and gritty pollution in your lungs very often. But when the sun does put its hat on, boom – instant coolest car in town.

And the Gravity concept makes the most of that, thanks to its 2” diameter steel tube doors from Jeep Performance Parts and a set of tie-down straps that secure the windscreen when it’s lowered.

There’s a mesh sunbonnet up top, too, which provides some cover without losing the all-important open-top image.

So this is a very good vehicle in which to be seen. And it’s even better thanks to a 2” suspension lift, also from Jeep Performance Parts, which makes way for a set of 35” mud-terrain tyres on 17” alloy rims. The sills are replaced by rock rails which are thicker and wider as well as being finished in high-grip bedlining material, and up front there’s a high-gloss grille

eye-catching Punk’N metallic orange, it’s all about drawing attention to yourself.

If you like the way it looks, the good news is that Punk’N is available to order in Jeep’s colour palette for the Wrangler – and will, presumably, also be for the

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plus a combination of 7” and 5” LED lights on the bumper bar and A-posts respectively.

Thus the Gravity’s off-road spec is only mildly enhanced. But being a Rubicon in the first place, it was built with the sort of ability that would ualify as extreme prep on almost anything else. ince when was there anything mild about tyres, after all Not that the Gravity’s notional owner is into off-roading as his or her primary passion. That’s because there’s a cargo system in the back of the truck which is used to carry a full set of rockclimbing gear. ook in it, and you’ll find ropes, carabiners, helmets and shoes though what you might actually be looking at is the uni ue

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Mopar dual-drawer set-up which provides a pair of lockable cargo compartments while still allowing for storage on top in the bed area.

The rock-climbing thing might be

a bit fanciful, but if you’re looking at the ladiator as an expedition truck you’ll already have pricked up your ears over this. urther enhancements, again a ailable through Mopar, include a cold-air intake and cat-back exhaust system to enhance the engine’s horsepower and tor ue. ou might reasonably consider that it already has plenty of both, but you might also consider, e ually reasonably, that you can’t get too much of a good thing.

In a similar ein, the cabin gains very classy looking Katzkin leather seats featuring a stitched Jeep grille logo, which is also seen stamped

on the Mopar grab handles. Fancy but unnecessary ou decide, but there’s no arguing with the Modular ightweight oad-carrying E uipment MO E stowage bags and all-weather oor mats in the ehicle, the latter featuring a plug system which allows for direct draining of water and debris.

So is it a heroic off-road battle wagon you see here, or a lookat-me street machine ou can take your choice, but you don’t really need to – because the Jeep ladiator ra ity is both. It’s big, it’s cool and, albeit for a similarly big and cool pot of cash, you’ll soon be able to own one ust like it.

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JeepChryslerParts.co.uk is an independent distributor and is not affiliated with FCA USLLC. Jeep® and Chrysler® are registered trademarks of FCA USLLC.

fit for purpose

The restorations that come out of Arkonik’s Somerset workshop are aimed at wealthy clients in North America. They tend to be pretty luxurious as a result – but that hasn’t stopped the Omega 110 from looking ready for work on a set of heavy-duty steel wheels WORDS: DAN FENN PICTURES: ARKONIK

L

ast month, we featured a very cool Land Rover Defender 110 which had been restored by Arkonik for export to North America. Like all the company’s builds, it was a big-budget affair – but unlike a lot of bigbudget affairs, as well as being a heirloom street machine it was built to do a proper job off-road.

Now here’s a very cool Land Rover Defender 110 which has been restored by Arkonik for export to North America… and which, as well as being a heirloom street machine, was built to do a proper job off-road. Do you see a pattern forming at all?

There’s more to it than just cutting and pasting, though. Every Arkonik build is unique: even though both these 110s have the same intent, not to mention the same colour, they’re subtly different. This one, for example, is in Fungus Green.

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Diavia air-con? Check. Alpine stereo? Check. Evander wood-rimmed steering wheel? Check. Ruskin retrim in vintage leather? Check. This is a Defender that ticks all the luxury boxes – but without turning itself into a mere trinket A reference to Fungus the Bogeyman? We earnestly hope so.

Called the Omega 110, the vehicle bears no resemblance whatsoever to the other kind of four-wheeled Omega (an old executive barge from Vauxhall). But what it does bear a resemblance to is a traditional Defender, in one ery specific way. ell, that’s four ery specific ways, actually.

Because this here 110 runs on steel wheels.

In the rest of the car market, steels mean boggo-spec and nothing more. In the world of proper 4x4s, they speak of authenticity, and they do it loud and clear.

It’s a couple of decades or so now since Land Rover suddenly started doing 90s and 110s with bizarre new options like metallic paint and alloy rims. You could trace the current state of the Defender market back to that era, for better or worse. Anyway, the point is that up to then,

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a Defender was a thing that came in ready-forwork form and nothing else. The posh version had cloth seats and a rear wash-wipe. Steel wheels are what you want for a life of hard work in tough conditions, and so that’s what the Defender had.

The Omega 110 definitely has more in the way of luxury than any of those old Defenders.

Actually, it has more in the way of luxury than pretty much any other Defender, thanks to kit like Cavalier Brown vintage leather seats (including a premium high-back second row), alloy gear knobs, black suede headlining, matching leather door cards and gear gaiters and a 15” Evander wood-rimmed steering wheel.

It’s still built to put in a shift of work, though.

Those 16” black steels are dressed in a set of BFGoodrich KO2 All-Terrains, and the bumper is home to a Warn Zeon 12-S winch. There’s a Front Runner Slimline II roof rack up top, a NAS

rear step with 2” square hitch receiver and a Raptor-coated black steering guard. Suspension is by Arkonik’s Cellular Dynamic system, and in addition to a set of Fire and Ice Ebony side steps the way ahead is illuminated by a variety of frontfacing LEDs. The latter includes driving lamps on the roof rack and DRLs in the bumper, as well as Duo-Lux headlamps in place of the Land Rover originals. It all goes together to create a 110 that’s beautifully understated – but which anyone who knows what they’re looking at will instantly recognise as being classy as hell.

Classy, and authentic too. When Land Rover started lobbing alloys and lairy paint at factory Defenders in the second half of the 1990s, who knows what they might have done instead if they had been able to look into the future and see this vehicle. Because the Omega 110 is resolutely fit for purpose and ust fit, too.

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46 | AUGUST 2019

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4x4 02/07/2019 14:01

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Astwood 4x4 Ltd LAND ROVER SPECIALISTS

We are a business that cares about your Landy and about the customers’ needs, a company who understands what the Landy is all about.

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Refurbishment/Restoration Specialist, Land Rover Servicing, MOTs, Mechanical, Diagnostics, SKYTAG Agent, Galvanized Chassis, Body Repair/Paint Shop Works Astwood Bank, Astwood Business Park, Astwood Lane, Redditch. B96 6HH Tel : +44(0)1527 892 377 Mobile : +44(0)7974075932 Email: info@astwood4x4.co.uk www.facebook.com/Astwood4x4 www.twitter.com/Astwood4x4

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TOR Folios and classifieds.indd 51

02/07/2019 14:16

DEMOB HA

hat’s the best vehicle and over ever made It’s a classic campfire question, and if you ask ten Landy enthusiasts you’ll get about twenty different answers. The military-spec Defender 90 Wolf, however, has a particularly strong claim to the title – because it ticks all the boxes for classic collectors and off-roaders alike WORDS AND PICTURES: MIKE TROTT 48 | AUGUST 2019

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4x4 01/07/2019 23:07

APPY

T

here are people who love anything with a Land Rover badge. There are others who used to love anything with a Land Rover badge, and who as a consequence now hate everything with a Land Rover badge that’s been made since early 2016.

And there are others, too. Those who aren’t part of the whole tribal thing – but to whom the charm and simple honesty of an old-school Land Rover engenders a fondness no other vehicle can match.

There’s no doubting the fact that more Land Rovers than ever before deserve to be seen as classics. But paradoxically, those are exactly the ones that and are still at their best when you’re using them off-road. Land Rover enthusiasts never wanted their vehicles to turn into valuable classics – but the mechanical rawness and wonderful lack of frills that once saw them turn from working tools into treasured toys also gave them an emotional appeal that has long since started turning them from treasured toys into part of Britain’s heritage.

What this means is that their owners need to shoulder the responsibility of preserving them. If you owned a Picasso, you wouldn’t take it out of its frame and brighten up your garden by glueing the canvas to the side of your shed, would you?

Similarly, the days when people would cut up Series trucks and Mk1 Range Rovers to create DIY hybrids because they couldn’t afford a 90 are long gone.

Which is ironic, because these days 90s and 110s are probably less affordable than they’ve ever been before. Even those without any great

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history to them are worth a small fortune – and the rare and special ones, while they might not command quite the same money as a Picasso, now ha e a firmly established foothold on the classic car beanstalk.

These include an increasing number of the vehicles that left Solihull destined for the British Army. Another irony here is that these and Rovers are often the most sought-after for their off-road prowess and there’s no better example than the olf.

At this point, let’s introduce ayne ood. e left the forces in 2010, having previously served for 20 years in the Territorial Army. Military and Ro ers ha e always en oyed their own following, often from ex-servicemen and women to whom they’re a reminder of happy times – and sure enough, ayne remembers them being commonplace around the barracks.

The Wolf Wayne owns is an ex-Cyprus XD olf 0 , also known as a TU . This stands for Truck Utility ight’ a TUM’ designation says the ehicle is a 110, with the ight’ exchanged for Medium’.

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By no means was this his first foray into and Ro er ownership. But it was certainly a ery special one.

Although I’ e had and Ro ers for years,’ says ayne, before I bought this I had been without one for a while and found myself wanting to get another. I was looking around and had narrowed it down to a short-wheelbase efender, but most of the ones I was looking at in my price range were basket cases.

‘There were some ex-military ones around, though, so I started to look at them as an option. I spotted an ad ert for a olf 0 and went to ha e a look. It was low on mileage and had spent its entire working life in Cyprus, so it was going to be about as good as you could get rust-wise.’ ollowing a brief test dri e on which ayne effecti ely confirmed to himself that he’d be lea ing with the olf, the only obstacle was the asking price. This was a little more than he wanted to pay but the ehicle’s condition and exclusi ity were such that ayne figured it was worth the in estment.

Only a limited number of and Ro ers were built under the olf programme. They had a raft of enhancements over the civilian equivalents, which has helped them earn the reputation among many enthusiasts of being the best and Ro ers e er made. ayne certainly belie es so. The chassis is stronger and uses thicker steel, the axles were upgraded and use a 24-spline shaft, plus there’s other areas that ha e been significantly beefed up like the wheels and suspension,’ he explains. a ing a 00Tdi engine is a bonus. es, there are limitations, like a Td unit is more tuneable but I like it.

My olf is by far the most reliable and Ro er I’ e e er owned, too,’ he adds. Other than having to change the power steering pump and renewing the exhaust with a stainless steel one, the rest has ust been wear parts like the brakes and tyres.’

Wayne’s Wolf has also received a respray, and its owner was adamant about keeping the original pattern. Not that ayne considers himself to be an owner in the traditional sense.

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‘I see myself as a guardian of the vehicle rather than an owner,’ he says. ‘I think it’s the same philosophy that runs throughout the club I’m in (the Ex-Military Land Rover Association). It’s our job to preserve them and their history.’

If you look at the history of this particular olf, you’ll find it was used by the Military Training Wing on the Sovereign Base Area, situated in the North East of Cyprus. ‘It will have been used around the training grounds, much like you get on Salisbury Plain,’ says Wayne. ‘It’s a place where the Army can provide a broad range of military training and it will have given troops a hot environment in which to acclimatise for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

‘Lots of guys would stop off there before and after, with the latter being something they call “decompression” – allowing soldiers back from operations the chance to wind down before returning to a civilian environment by taking advantage of the local sports and adventure training amenities.’

When you consider what some of these Land Rovers have been through, and what they have enabled our fellow countrymen and women to do, it seems the least they deserve is to be well looked after. Used properly, for sure, but cared for too.

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And Wayne is exactly the type of guardian this Wolf deserves, because it’s his only vehicle – which means he has no choice but to look after it. ‘If I need to go to the shops, I take this.

If I need to do a bit of gardening work and load up a vehicle, it’s this. I’m careful where I park, of course, as any Defender owner is these days. But I really use it.

‘In my earlier career I used more HGVs. But as I moved up through the ranks, I was given my own Defender to run about in. I used regular Defenders for training and the Wolfs during operations.

I finished ser ice in 2010 and bought the vehicle in 2012.

I’ve always liked Land Rovers; the functionality of them.

But the military versions go that step further. I’d say I’m big into them now, and more so now I’m out the military.

Walking around the base, you’d pass one and wouldn’t think

anything of it. Now I’m in the club, I’m more aware of their history.’

There was a time when this 90 would almost certainly ha e been hea ily modified by some off-roader or other the moment it left the Army.

But in Wayne’s hands, it has remained true to its time in Cyprus.

‘There are no other plans for the vehicle.

Everything I wanted to do, like the respray, was done in the first couple of years of ownership.

Other than that, I just want to keep driving it – and looking after it.’

01/07/2019 23:08

AT HOME ON THE RANGER

Polaris has relaunched the Ranger Diesel – complete with everything from a new chassis and engine to greater ground clearance and better in-cab ergonomics. And it promises to be more of a farmer’s friend than ever…

WORDS: MIKE TROTT PICTURES: POLARIS 52 | AUGUST 2019

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I

t’s April Fools’ Day and I’m travelling up to the picturesque setting of Lake Windermere.

Happily, I’m on anything but a fool’s errand.

I’ve been summoned to this wonderful part of the world by the news of a fresh Polaris vehicle breaking cover.

While I don’t usually need an excuse to visit the Lake District, this seems as good a reason as any.

The vehicle in question is Polaris’ new Ranger Diesel, a sideby-side off-roader that aims to be the ultimate partner for farmers and those in need of an agricultural workhorse.

I happen to be making tracks up to Cumbria in a pick-up truck. And as my speed reduces and the roads increase in bendiness, my eyes can’t ignore the very obvious fact that there are more ways for a farmer to cross his or her land than ever before. one are the days when fields would only be marked by the footprints of a Series Land Rover or its successor, the Defender. Pick-ups have become much more prevalent in recent times, as have a whole array of 4x4s, ATVs and UTVs. In the last two decades, the Polaris Ranger has become a stellar performer in the UTV sector, with more than a million sold globally by the end of 2017. The Ranger has become such a success that there are now seemingly endless configurations a ailable for prospecti e buyers – including for some years a diesel, for which this new model is the replacement.

It has an all-new engine, which is clearly the headline act. But it’s supported by the small matter of a new chassis, and comes with an increase in payload and towing capacity, more ground clearance, better in-cab ergonomics and longer intervals between those all-important services. That’s a great deal to digest and,

certainly on paper, a lot for Polaris to have achieved.

But if one place can show just how good (or not) the Ranger Diesel is, that place would be the Graythwaite Estate in the Lakes. The terrain and conditions here are just like any other rural backdrop (except with better views) and will give the new machine a thorough examination.

First, though, some housekeeping. The new Ranger Diesel starts from £12,999 excluding VAT, and for that you won’t have a roof or any doors on your wagon. There’s a Tractor model, which starts from £13,499, again plus the dreaded, though it you’re in the market you’re surely going to be claiming it back.

There’s a wide range of accessories on the list of optionals. But you can’t treat this like you would the specification of a pick-up, for example.

With the Ranger Diesel, you have the opportunity to build your ideal UTV, right down to the style of the aforementioned doors and roof. For instance, base models are equipped simply with side netting, but you can opt for proper doors either with an opaque bottom or a clear lower half that could prove useful for visibility when off-roading.

So there are lots of derivatives to choose from, but some things are set in stone. The new engine, for instance, is a three-cylinder 898cc

Previous-generation diesel engine has been replaced with a 898cc Kubota unit developing 24.8bhp and 40.8lbf.ft

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Kubota diesel developing 24.8hp and a crucial 40.8lbf.ft of torque. When the engine is idling, there are a number of vibrations coming through into the cabin, although these dissipate once you’re up and running. This is designed to be a very utilitarian vehicle, however, so you have to consider where it will be used.

Around a farmyard, the engine will work just fine. Its top speed may only be 0mph, but it’s the highest in its class and it will do that speed across virtually any terrain. Only on the steepest inclines would the Diesel’s momentum start to waver, but otherwise just point, squirt and watch as it clambers to your destination regardless of obstacles in its way.

Besides, with the new, larger 43.5-litre fuel tank and improved intervals between services now standing at 200 hours – twice as long as before – Polaris is making sure you can keep going for longer.

And the Ranger Diesel will keep going, because it’s a robust and extremely capable machine. It uses a heavy-duty one-piece chassis, combined with equally tough bushes, bearings and steering rack, while the drivelines are all sealed for maximum protection.

There’s further protection in the way of a fulllength skid plate running underneath the vehicle’s body, along with a huge new front bumper that now features an integrated winch mount.

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Thanks to the harness and wiring already being assembled, it’s more plug-and-play than ever. ilters like the new onaldson air filter ha e been moved ahead of the cabin out of the way of debris. The new automatic transmission has a 55% larger belt and gearing that’s 26% lower than on the most closely comparable model, resulting in a machine that seemingly never gets ustered by what lies ahead.

When you’re in the rough, it’s not just the gearing that aids your progress. The 27” Maxxis tyres find traction anywhere, while the cm

of ground clearance and 27.9cm of travel really come into action when hobbling over ruts and other obstructions. Perhaps the only downside to the driving experience is that the accelerator pedal is positioned deep into the footwell, which can make full-throttle inputs – a necessity most of the time difficult to achie e without paying considerable attention to your foot placement.

Despite this, however, the Ranger Diesel never feels anything other than stable while on the mo e. Its low centre of gra ity and adept suspension keep it nice and level, leaving the

4x4 01/07/2019 22:59

Tipping rear box has a capacity of 435kg – part of a total payload of 720kg. The new diesel-engined version of the Ranger can also tow a trailer of up to 1134kg in weight

wheels and travel to do the hard work while you can stay relaxed in the improved cabin.

Practicality is at the forefront of the cabin’s design but, even so, Polaris has taken the liberty of enlarging the ingress by 13cm and providing an extra 2.5cm of padding for your wary behind on the seat. The latter ips up on the passenger’s side to make room for extra storage, or even a four-legged friend. Everywhere you look, you’ll find useful pockets of storage, from the two gloveboxes to the six (six!) cupholders dotted about the vehicle.

The loadspace at the back tips up and every part of the box can be accessed, no matter which angle you’re reaching in from. The capacity of the box stands at 435kg and the vehicle’s

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payload now totals 720kg. If you need to tow something behind you, meanwhile, you can haul up to 1134kg.

Back inside, you now have a height adjustable steering wheel and a digital readout to keep an eye on your speed and selected driving mode. There are three to choose from in total, consisting of the one-wheel drive Turf Mode, a two-wheel drive setting propelling just the rears and an on-demand all-wheel drive mode that delivers more torque to the front when required.

The Polaris Engine Braking System also works with the Active Descent Control to provide maximum control on the way down, and there’s further technology at the front with the Polaris Pulse electrical system located under the bonnet.

Essentially this is made up of a selection of ports which can be used for various accessories you may need to attach, from light bars to snow ploughs or even a fridge. There are more than 200 accessories available, all designed for perfect integration with the Ranger.

Thus the Ranger is now better than ever – and with its new diesel engine, it’s more exible.

Cheaper, too, especially if you’re in a position to load its tank with red and are thus able to run it without paying tax on your fuel.

It’s a brilliant off-roader, able to keep going through mud, sand, water and anything else in its way; it’s a truly practical and versatile machine which, if you have the need for such a thing, will perfectly integrate itself into your work life.

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YOU TAKE THE HIGH WAY…

The Anne Beadell Highway is an 823-mile Outback trail passing the site of an atom bomb

WORDS AND PICTURES: BET TY VAN BREUKELEN AND GERARD VAN VLIET

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b

test – and very little else…

D

uring his life, celebrated Australian explorer, artist, author and surveyor Len Beadell was responsible for building some 3700 miles of unsealed roads in the Outback. Almost a quarter of this distance is accounted for by the first road he started work on – the Anne Beadell Highway.

Named by Beadell after his wife, this isn’t a ‘highway’ in the traditional sense. In fact, it’s said that he used the word, here and elsewhere, with the humour for which he was to become known.

Built in fi e stages between 1 and 1 62, the road is an unsealed ribbon of sand, stone and, often, corrugations which stretches some 2 miles across the reat Victoria Desert from Coober Pedy to Laverton.

The road was originally commissioned in the post-war years to provide access to Emu

ield which had been identified as a suitable location for British atomic bomb tests. It skirts round to the north of the Woomera military reserve and passes through Aboriginal lands and restricted conservation areas, and it’s cut by both rabbit and dog fences.

Thus you need a lot of permits to drive the Anne Beadell. And even then, it’s apt to be closed when Woomera is in use. But given the right paperwork, and favourable conditions, it can be done in something like fi e days.

That’s what we set out to do as part of a much bigger expedition around Australia aboard our 100- eries Toyota and Cruiser.

And sure enough, our departure was delayed by military operations in oomera. omeone in Coober edy told us the U A was testing a new ersion of the tealth bomber, which obviously wasn’t

op hoe er wrote this sign definitely doesn t want you to go into the desert without nowing what you re letting yourself in for agine ondon to dinburgh and bac without ser ices fuel shops nothing and on a rough green lane hat s nne eadell s legacy to the world elow he utbac is a dry arid place the sign abo e e en points out that this is one of the ost waterless regions of ustralia o turn up and what happens t rains ob iously

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Two very different messages from the same corner of the Outback. The original Ground Zero was the site of a British nuclear test in 1953 which was the original reason for the Anne Beadell Highway being built. At the track’s intersection with the Connie Sue Highway, a visitor’s book left by Connie Sue herself, Len and Anne Beadell’s daughter, greets travellers on the roads her father built stealthy enough to go unnoticed by Aussie bushmen.

Not to worry, Coober Pedy is a pretty interesting place to hang out – even when it’s raining. This doesn’t happen very often, but it did while we were there. Driving out of town (which doesn’t feel much like a town, because it has less then 2000 inhabitants and a good bit of it is built underground to keep out of the sun , the road was ooded and muddy in places. Add the bizarre landscape, which is pock-marked by thousands of spoil heaps from the opal mining industry which brought people here in the first place, and it doesn’t feel as if you’re about to spend a week in the wilderness.

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We allowed ten days for the journey, but by the time we made camp at the end of day one we suspected we wouldn’t need them all. Our Land Cruiser was purring as we passed through a dog fence and into the Tallaringa Conservation Park before kicking back and enjoying the intense desert silence while tucking into rib-eye steaks done on the campfire.

The next morning was similarly idyllic… until we got underway.

The going was smooth to start with, but then the corrugations started.

And they were savage, violent, throwing us up and down over big, rough waves as we struggled to get above 10mph.

Meeting some drivers coming the other way, we were relieved to hear that though it would get worse before it got better, they had only taken six days to drive from Laverton. To keep up a pace like that in the sort of conditions we were enduring at the time would be impossible, which means the road would improve further on for certain. A relief!

We stopped for lunch at the Tallaringa Well Plaque, which celebrates Len Beadell’s pioneering work to open up the Outback.

Beyond this, too, we approached Ground Zero – the exact point where the British nuclear test was carried out.

We read that the heat of the detonation turned the desert sand into glass – and also that there would still be radioactive contamination lingering on the ground. Exciting. But we were reassured to think that it couldn’t be really serious, otherwise no way would anyone be allowed anywhere near the place.

We camped about an hour from the test site, relaxing around the fire in the windless warmth whereupon it started raining again.

Just softly, but it clearly wasn’t going to let up so eventually we retreated into our Land Cruiser’s pop-up tent and fell asleep to the sound of raindrops on the canvas.

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Overlanders tend to be pretty assiduous about keeping their vehicles clean. It’s your home, after all, and you depend on it not to break down for the want of a regular hose-off underneath. But then something like this comes along…

A feature of the sandy terrain here is that when it rains, the road surface is smoothed off.

Not enough to get rid of those corrugations, sadly, but it does allow you to see whether you’re the first to pass that day which, the following morning, we were. It was dry now, though still grey, but this little part of Anne Beadell was untouched. It was our Toyota that got to draw the first beautiful tyre tracks upon the surface, gi ing us a moment of satisfaction which was soon shattered as we got closer to Ground Zero and the state of the ground became worse than e er.

The Atomic ite is a ast, barren plain. The map tells you all sorts of interesting things, but in reality there’s nothing to see. It feels exciting nonetheless, but in a chilling sort of way.

There are two obelisks to mark the site, but mainly there are signs telling you not to settle there

to li e, nor to kill and eat any kangaroos you happen to see in the icinity. Today’s signs are gi en in pictorial form, too because the Aboriginal tribespeople who li ed here, and still do, might not be able to read. It made us realise that at the time of the tests, indigenous Australians may ha e been roaming in the area, knowing nothing of the nuclear danger that had been brought into their midst.

Further on, nature’s beauty took back o er. The corrugations started to subside and the blooms of egetation started to take o er the land desert oaks, acacias and greygreen mulga trees, as well as acre after acre of spinifex. It’s like dri ing through a formal garden. Long, red sand dunes started to spring up around us, too, clustered with egetation and pro iding another layer of softness to the barren landscape. The trail was much more pleasant again now, meandering

in and out of the cur es of the landscape no longer did it feel like an effort but just a journey to enjoy.

It got better still, too, when we picked up a set of tyre tracks.

We had noticed by now that whereas we were content just to pitch up and camp where er we fancied, Aussie tra ellers prefer to search out clear locations with more space around them so we guessed that ha ing spent the night at Emu Junction (we knew that much, because it’s where the tracks started), they’d be heading for a night at Vokes Hill Corner. ure enough, when we arri ed at Vokes ill, which is ust a T- unction on the Anne Beadell ighway, there it stood a 0- eries and Cruiser pulling a strong o erlanding trailer behind it. e spent the e ening chatting together around the campfire they had already made, until the rain came back at around ten o’clock to

chase us off to bed. Again. But the following morning, praise be, the sun emerged in all its glory! We had almost forgotten how wonderful that is and from now on, the landscape was lit up beautifully.

The part of the reat Victoria Desert we were cruising through is marked as woodland’ on the map.

It’s no a dense forest by any means, but with the ariety of black desert oaks, many kinds of shrubs and a mixture of spiky spherical pollen and gently welcoming ring spinifex bushes, it does feel surprisingly lush.

All was well with the world… until the corrugations came back, and soon the going had gone from easy to exhausting. e reached a -mile stretch of road through a ‘culturally sensiti e’ region in which camping is forbidden. Our friends from last night, with whom we had been dri ing in con oy this morning, decided to stop here for lunch,

Right: Corrugations. These are the bad guys, and there are sections on the Anne Beadell with enough of them to drive you nuts Below: Just in case you fancied moving in to a featureless, irradiated wasteland next to one of the most desolate roads in the entire world… sorry, but you can’t

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op left

utbac wifi has really co e on in the last few years

bo e left

ou ll see ca els strolling around this landscape as fre uently as you ll see deer in

ritain

bo e right he wrec of a light aircraft is one of the pri ary attractions as you tra el along the nne eadell t loo s ore li e a hea y landing than a full on crash what s nown is that it happened in anuary and all those on board sur i ed he plane re ained intact for a while but in the ti e that s passed so eone has had its engines away and it s been shot se eral ti es ecause who wouldn t tra el all that way ust to shoot at a wrec ed plane he site is a few iles fro the highway itself accessed by a trac so eone created a couple of years after the crash but we wanted to press on so we said our goodbyes and headed for the border with Western Australia.

Here, a billboard announced that we were just under a hundred miles from Ilkurlka – the only roadhouse on the Anne Beadell, and our one chance for a shower en route!

For now, though, we continued to do it on our own. Amid beautiful dune pans, we found a great spot to camp, eat, sleep and check over our truck. If anything was ready to work loose, all that bumping would certainly find it but no, the Toyota had endured yet again.

We gathered wood, cooked and warmed oursel es by the fire. hen the sun disappears in the desert, it cools quickly. The sky was clear for the first time in many, many nights.

The moon had not yet risen, and above us was a dome of stars. Life was perfect.

So too was Anne Beadell’s mood from here on. The corrugations had now given way to soft , easily

driven sand with just the occasional washboard – though even these could be skipped over at a good 25mph or so.

Having paused to let a family of camels reunite after being panicked by our arrival and ended up on opposite sides of the track, we upped our pace still further for a section of the track whose surface could best be described as giga waves. Take them fast or take them slow, there’s no middle ground – and we were trying to reach Ilkurlka for lunch, so taking them slow wasn’t really an option.

Again, the Land Cruiser was unperturbed by all this punishment.

And so we rolled in to Ilkurlka unperturbed – to be met by Graham, the manager, his two dogs and precisely no other people.

To be fair, this remarkably sleek, modern building has been called the most remote roadhouse in Australia, so perhaps that’s no great surprise. Having said that, a

week earlier we’d have made the acquaintance of about a hundred Aborigines from the Spinifex Tribe, who camped there on the way to a tribal gathering.

We bought a few odds and ends and paid for our water, showers and wifi. ossibly the most remote wifi in the world Either way, how on earth did Len Beadell manage to built this road without it By now we were more than halfway to Laverton, and close to reaching one of the most famous landmarks on the Anne Beadell – the wreck of a light aircraft. You take a detour off the track – a sign says it’s ’10km give or take a couple of sand dunes’ and there it is. A crash An emergency landing Either way, it’s not taking off again any time soon.

Having explored the wreckage of the old plane from the oldfields Air Service, we camped next to it and enjoyed another star dome from horizon to horizon. We were

up early the next morning, cruising smoothly along a beautifully at section of the highway – through a landscape which had clearly seen a brush fire in recent times We reached the junction with the Connie Sue Highway, another of Len Beadell’s creations, which is named after his daughter. Connie Sue Beadell continues to run an Outback tour company to this day, and she had written the preface in the guest book we found at the intersection. There can’t be many people with a highway named after them who didn’t have to pay for the privilege one way of the other…

The Anne Beadell shows signs of more frequent use from here on, but it’s still very quiet. We paused at a memorial plate for Anne herself, who died in 2009 (some fourteen years after Len), then took a detour to Yeo Lake Nature Reserve.

Along the track on the way here, a magnificent rock mesa called Bishop Riley’s ulpit rises up out

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of the desert oor. The Toyota got co ered in salt and clay mud here, which we weren’t o er oyed about she’s our home, and we put a lot of effort into keeping her clean , and then we found the remnants of eo arm now a camp site, where a solo tra eller in yet another Toyota came wandering o er for a chat and then, a little later, we made friends with another family of camels.

A no trespassing’ sign in the Cosmo Newberry Aboriginal Reser e, which warned of an acti e search for minerals in the area, held us up for a while. In fact, it con inced us to camp right next to it and sit basking in the e ening sun with a drink in one hand and a book in another. hucks.

After that, it felt less and less like being in the wilderness. A fibre optic cable was being laid next

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to the road, and the search for minerals was indeed up and running.

As were we, cruising the last part of the Anne Beadell ighway until finally we rolled into a erton. hat is there to do in a erton o to eonora, mainly. a erton itself has a museum dedicated to the great explorers of the western Outback, and a deli’ where it would probably ha e appeared rude not to order a burger, but it’s a sleepy old place. Especially on undays, we disco ered. o ha ing spent so much time getting there, we were soon motoring on. eonora has proper facilities and was therefore ideal for a few days’ on-the-spot rest as well of course as ehicle maintenance, which in this case meant remo ing the steering guard for a full inspection of what lay

behind it, as we’d been hearing the occasional noise from down there. e took a walk through the illage or at least, the 00-metre main road along which it’s huddled. ere’s a fascinating fact prior to becoming resident of the U A, erbert oo er li ed and worked in eonora. o ine itably there’s a hite ouse otel, and oo er’s former home has become the oo er B B. A beer in the hite ouse bar was ery, ery welcome, as you can imagine. Afterwards, we strolled back to spent the night aboard our trusty Toyota.

After a week in the empty, silent company of Anne Beadell, sleeping with street lights around us and road trains rumbling by through the night was something we weren’t used to. And yet, it was too familiar.

Turn back the way we had ust come It was tempting.

No to worry, though, the next part of our itinerary around Australia was already planned. rom here, we would be heading towards arwin which meant tra ersing the infamous Canning tock Route.

Our time with Anne Beadell was done but already, the desert was calling us back

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OUR 4X4S: SKODA KODIAQ

One season in four days

A year on from the Beast from the East, we set out to test our long-term Kodiaq Scout with a long-distance battle through all weathers. What we got instead was a cross-Channel jaunt that was more like going off-roading in northern Africa… WORDS AND PICTURES: DAN FENN

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The old days of sticking bits of plastic to your headlights when driving in Europe are in the past. There’s a vehicle settings menu for that instead now. Being asked for AdBlue has been a regular feature of our year with the Kodiaq, though it’s a small price to pay (literally) for better fuel consumption and a cleaner diesel engine. The trip computer (an optional extra, and at £90 one which you’d be mad not to choose) also informed us halfway through France that we needed to top up on engine oil, which was a bit of a surprise. Nice to know your car’s looking out for stuff like that, though

W

hen we first started talking to koda about sending us a odia cout on long-term test, we didn’t think they’d ask for us to ha e it for a whole year. But their rationale for doing so was ery sound it’s a family x built to do all things in all weathers, so we should be able to report on using it through all four seasons. e weren’t going to argue with that. o ha ing en oyed endured a particularly blistering summer, we found oursel es looking forward to making the most of the odia ’s undoubted tractability in some really nasty winter weather.

It was due to go back to koda at the end of ebruary. o for its final hurrah, we decided to organise a long-range trip that would see us off-roading it on ery non-British trails in a sand-co ered landscape in the foothills of the yrenees but battling through snow, ice and storms to get there. ou might remember an old Crowded ouse song called our easons in One ay this was going to last more than one day, obiously, but the idea was indeed to take a trip that would feature four seasons’ worth of weather. ind, rain, snow, warm sunshine and a complete spectrum of roads and trails this was going to be exactly what the odia is all about.

o here we are en route to o er. It’s the middle of ebruary and what’s this arm sunshine This time last year, we were approximately one week away from being struck by the Beast from the East, and here we are on shirt slee e order.

Not to worry, when the alarm goes at 2. 0am and we stagger out into the cold of the night to embark on an early morning ferry, it’s going to be back to normal for sure.

The less said about a 2. 0am alarm the better.

But, after a surprisingly decent fry-up on board as we sailed out across the Channel, we were feeling ready for the ourney ahead as we pointed the odia ’s nose into the gathering light of a northern rench morning. It was going to be a long one, too all the way from Calais to ust short of the panish border, which our sat-na ad ised us would take around ten hours. Bring it on A note on the sub ect of light. The days of getting stickers to put on your headlamps for dri ing on the wrong side of the road appear to be receding. In the odia , we simply brought up a ehicle settings menu on the media screen and swapped it o er. Things you ne er thought you’d find yourself doing while sat waiting to embark on a entish uayside. o, here we are. rance is a big country and there’s plenty of scope for e ually big changes in

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OUR 4X4S: SKODA KODIAQ

One of the good things about having a thermometer in your car is that you can see what the temperature actually is. In the mornings, we felt like it was practically freezing but would have thought that was only our imaginations… just as in the middle of the day, we’d never have believed it was actually as hot as thirty degrees, even though we were coming home with sunburn. But there you are – sat here three months later with the heating on and rain coming down, read it and weep…

the weather, so we weren’t unduly worried by the complete lack of anything challenging as we set off south. All there was to do was enjoy the view… or at least, there would have been, but for about the first fifty miles there’s absolutely nothing worth looking at. So instead we played a game of see-who-can-be-first-to-spot-a-car-that’s-notBritish, which isn’t what you’d call a classic in the making though it was remarkable how far we had to travel before seeing anything on French plates.

And take a guess at what it was? A Skoda Kodiaq, that’s what.

Feeling quite at home now, we settled into the familiar continental road-trip pattern. Toll booths, fuel stops, mar elling at how many different avours of Yop you can get… actually, the impressive

economy of the Kodiaq’s 2.0 TDI 150 engine means fuel stops were less frequent, though it did ask for oil a couple of hundred miles into the journey. We’d already topped it up with AdBlue before setting off (a surprisingly frequent task, though at least the stuff is cheap), but that one came as a bit of a surprise.

What we didn’t have was any change at all in the weather. It was warm and sunny, then warm and sunny some more. Ridiculously settled, all the way. Literally the only remarkable thing that happened, the whole way from Calais to our southern base in Moliets-et-Maa, was that Skoda’s sat-nav took us via Paris, so we had some chewy traffic to get through. It ne er uite ground to a halt, but the steady 85mph cruise you can safely

en oy most e erywhere else in the country definitely dropped right off.

A curiosity here is that the autoroute north of the city has several bridges passing under Charles de Gaulle airport, so you can be driving along and all of a sudden your entire windscreen will be filled with the iew of a umbo taxiing o er the top of you. The people on board might be travelling to somewhere more exotic and my word, Paris is an ugly, ugly place when viewed from the autoroute but e en in first class they won’t be doing it in more comfort.

They won’t get to enjoy being served by the world’s grumpiest woman, either. It was clearly our own fault for being all Brit Abroad and going into a Burger ing, but there was too much to fit

Home of the Whopper… and of a very stout telling off if you try to pick up a tray without prior authorisation. We blame ourselves for venturing into a burger chain when we were travelling in a land with one of the world’s most celebrated national cuisines, but sometimes only cheap meat will do…

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on one tray so I picked up another and Madame went potty at me. Being laughed at didn’t help her mood, which in turn made us laugh more and so the circle continued. Quite happy with that, especially as she had already brought our food out by now so she never had the chance to spit in it.

Shortly afterwards, we passed a sign to a place called Biganus. It really is not going to be possible to get through this paragraph without coming over all infantile, is it?

Anyway, our feast of cheap meat was dinner, and it followed a sandwich stop for lunch at a cafe just off the autoroute – and both were taken while sitting outside and soaking up the sun’s rays. Which is to say that in our mission to battle our way across the country through rain, sleet, snow, brimstone and treacle, we failed. We didn’t just fail a bit, we failed completely. Utterly and completely. We failed in a save-the-dodo, Miliband-for-Prime-Minister, get-Swindon-Townback-to-the-Premier-League kind of way.

So far, so rubbish. Not that lovely unseasonal weather is rubbish as such, but as a test for the Kodiaq’s fortitude it scored zero on a scale of one to, well, anything. So long as the scale didn’t start at zero. That’s how pointless the whole exercise had been up to now, unless you count the fact that a year on, it proved yet again that this is a motorway cruiser of the highest order.

Not that we weren’t without a Plan B. Even if it was actually Plan A, part B. Our target was a part of Europe where the trails are more like those you find in sub- aharan Africa no mud, e en when it’s wet, just lots of sand. Deep sand, too, in places, with big dug-out tyre marks to demonstrate the fact that taking it for granted is not smart. The Kodiaq was going to have to work for its living after all.

There was another similarity to desert environments here, too. Which was that while it was hot during the day, by night it got properly cold. The Kodiaq’s media screen read just 2.5 degrees one morning – but a few hours later that had climbed to 30. We even had to scrape ice off the screen a couple of times – before coming home later the same day with sunburn.

Naturally, the Kodiaq was impervious to these things. How would it respond to ploughing through deep sand, though? The magic Off-Road button that trims its electronic control systems to perform best away from tarmac is capable of making a difference, but sand is funny stuff. Still, if you’ve driven on it with mud-terrain tyres you’ll know that a wide, road-going pattern is by far preferable – and that’s how it proved.

We started with some faster forest trails composed of a scruffy, sandy surface on top of hard, stony ground. The sort of thing you can take

with a bit of panache, but where things can go badly wrong at a moment’s notice. This is the kind of terrain that makes up much of the off-roading people do the in the real world, and it’s actually not as well suited to traditional off-road vehicles as it is to newer SUVs like the Kodiaq.

The reason for this is that independent suspension is far better at responding to small undulations in the surface. Combine this with the lighter weight of a monocoque SUV and you’ve got something that handles well and, so long as the traction is there, shouldn’t be upset by whatever the ground throws at it.

So far, so good. You can hack it along these tracks with real confidence the body remains well controlled as the wheels hammer up and down across the ground, and there’s rarely any sign of it going in to a slide. The steering gets a little light, so you find yourself braking extra early for corners, but that’s no bad thing – you don’t want to go getting complacent, after all, and nor do you want to start thinking you’re on the Dakar Rally.

We’re talking about 20-25mph tracks here, but if you know your overlanding you’ll know there’s a big difference between that and the sort of speed you get down to on serious terrain.

Serious like the deeper sand we encountered closer to the coast. Now the Kodiaq’s traction control was having to work for its living, and once

“Even with shoals of sand getting kicked up from its tyres, the vehicle never bogged down. All it asked for was a bit more throttle” 4x4 5pp Our 4x4s Kodiaq July.indd 67

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OUR 4X4S: SKODA KODIAQ or twice we thought the shovel we’d brought along for safety might have to put in a shift too.

It says something that even with shoals of sand getting kicked up from its tyres, the vehicle never bogged down – and even when we looked ahead and wondered if this might be the bit that defeats it, all it asked for was a bit more throttle.

On that subject, with Off-Road mode engaged the gas pedal is very easy to control, so you never need to give it too much. If you do leave the boot in, it doesn’t do that annoying thing older traction control systems used to be guilty of and kill all the power while you’re frantically trying to spin your way through, which is just as well as we’d certainly have been reaching for the shovel had we been dri ing, say, a first-generation Touareg.

You’d certainly choose the Kodiaq out of these two for scaling the sort of sand dunes that are a

feature of the Atlantic coast round here. Either way, though, you’d soon be making a trip to the local gendarmerie, because these are fragile landscapes which quite rightly aren’t to be used as a 4x4 playground, but it’s hard not to look at them and try to figure out in your head how you would, if you could…

As it is, anyway, the legal rights of way in this area are more than enough to put a vehicle to the test – and inject a real sense of adventure into the business of exploring.

What would it have been like in more typical winter weather? Much the same, but not as nice.

Few surfaces have better all-weather properties than sand – even tarmac, which is far more prone to losing its tractability in sub-zero conditions.

Talking of tarmac, the journey back home was more of the same – glorious sunshine and hour after hour of steady cruising at 85mph, interrupted only by (very) occasional fuel stops and a session of grinding through Paris wondering how on

earth somewhere so depressing to look at can be considered the most romantic city in the world.

So we didn’t get to take on that heroic cross-country battle through snow, sleet or at least lots of rain. Even then, though, arriving home felt like putting in to port after a long ocean voyage, simply because we’d done so many miles in such a short period. It would have been much tougher had the Skoda not been so resolutely competent every step of the way, but heavy-duty cross-continent work does put demands on a car – and our Kodiaq dealt with them without breaking sweat.

It certainly did break the surface, though, when it sent all those shoals of sand ying around in the forests of south-western France. And, had we still been harbouring any preconceived notions about its off-tarmac abilities, it would have broken those too. erious sand is hard to find in the U , which sounds like a fabulously lame excuse for taking a trip like this, but what the hell?

We went looking for Four Seasons in One Day, and we ended up with pretty much exactly the opposite. Expect the unexpected, always. And if you’ve got a Kodiaq on your side, we’ve found, expect to be able to take it in your stride.

Quite a few other 4x4s in the queue for the ferry back home to Britain. So hands up everyone else who's used theirs off-road while they were on the continent, then…?

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SURREY LANE USERS FIGHT BACK AGAINST VANDALS WITH MULTI-AGENCY DAY OF ACTION

MEMBERS OF THE Green Lane Association recently took part in a Day of Action on a prominent Surrey byway. Illegal off-roading by a small number of bikers and 4x4 drivers has long been a problem in the county, and the GLASS volunteers were joined by representatives of the Trail Riders Fellowship, the Forestry Commission and the Mole Valley Rural Crime Unit as well as National Trust rangers, Surrey County Highways and Rights of Way Officers and police on both trail bikes and horseback.

They were also joined by a barbecue, allowing them to hand out more than seventy bacon

70 | AUGUST 2019

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sandwiches during the course of the day. Evidence that the way to a green laner’s heart is indeed through his stomach…

The event, which started as an idea suggested by GLASS Surrey Rep Stuart Boreham at a local access committee meeting, gained traction when it was taken up by Surrey’s Rural Crimes policing unit as part of its county-wide ‘Dragnet’ operation. In the end, three full teams spent the day stationed on sites that were expected to have some of the hea iest motor ehicle traffic.

These were Frensham Common, Sheepwalk Lane and Wolverns Lane.

The idea was to try and engage

positively with the lanes’ various user groups, rather than dishing out the nanny-state behaviour many of us have encountered. Readers who use public rights of way well may have ‘enjoyed’ the experience of being treated with suspicion, or indeed as downright criminals, by

police officers on this kind of spotcheck duty.

It would be fantastic to report that as a result of the day’s activities, a group of irresponsible 4x4 users was caught red-handed and the book was thrown at them in a very public manner – or even

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better if they had happened along, stopped for a chat and ended up crossing over to the law-abiding side of the laning community.

However, in a rather graphic illustration of how little use even the busiest green lanes actually get, the three locations saw a sum total of zero 4x4s all day.

There was a great deal of interest at the Frensham site, hosted by Gareth Jex, where several walkers and horse riders stopped to chat.

Stuart himself hosted the group at Wolverns Lane, where they met mainly mountain bikers and trail riders – however here, too, they didn’t see a single 4x4 user.

The group stationed at Sheepwalk Lane, meanwhile, found it more or less completely deserted all day. This was something of a surprise, as it’s a popular route for more than just motor vehicle users, but it does illustrate the difficulty in nailing down the few criminals who abuse lanes by straying off the rights of way and treating adjacent woodlands and verges like playday sites. Having driven Wolverns and

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Sheepwalk Lane ourselves many times, we can confirm that they certainly have had a problem with illegal use – so while a highly visible day of action might not be the most effective way to get the jump on andals, it was certainly ustified as a way of showing to Surrey’s public that x users are firmly on the side of the law.

‘Overall,’ reports Stuart, ‘I am confident of the following results.

Relationships between the various user groups strengthened and developed.

Very high ranking police officers on site for some or all of the day with resolutions to support byway use and put rural crime issues on the agenda. Great PR opportunities generated for each

group present and across the media.

Good numbers of bikers of all types engaged and byway use discussed, similarly large numbers of walkers.

Plans made for further events including night-time sessions to actively pursue the off-roaders who cause damage on a regular basis.’

Plans are already in place for another event next year, this time

with just two locations and possibly on a Saturday afternoon rather than a Sunday morning. Nonetheless, says Stuart, ‘we all left with positive vibes and lots of goodwill between us.

Best of all, (we have) the assurance that the authorities are behind us in the cause of promoting great green lane use – and they know we all mean business.’

Laners, ramblers and more pull together to repair Essex lane The Ramblers Association isn’t known for seeing eye to eye with motor vehicles users. However on 11 May, political differences were set aside as members of the Green Lane Association, Essex Ramblers, Essex Land Rover Club, the Land Rover Series II Club and others got together to form a working party to repair a byway near Dunmow which has suffered badly at the hands of illegal off-roaders.

Along with volunteers from All Terrain UK, the Trail Riders Fellowship, Friends of Flitch Way and local residents, the group set about blocking the off-piste areas which have been created by criminal abuse. They were supported by Flitch Park Rangers, who loaned tools for the job, as well as RMR Contracting, who thanks to a contact through GLASS member Joe Butcher provided a dumper and digger at rock-bottom cost.

Following the day’s work, GLASS rep Robert Tongue joined with Essex County Council to inspect repairs which had previously been done to the lane itself and identified areas where the council’s contractor would need to be brought back for some more remedial work. This means the lane will remain closed for slightly longer than was initially hoped – however it will soon be open again in a form which will make it usable by all, thanks in great part to this shining example of different user groups pulling together for the common good.

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MAJOR VICTORY FOR GREEN LANE ASSOCIATION AS WATER BREAK ITS NECK REOPENS AT LAST

AFTER A SEEMINGLY ENDLESS period of closure, one of Wales’ most scenic green lanes is at last open again. Water Break Its Neck, near New Radnor in Powys, was the subject of a long and tortuous campaign by the Green Lane Association to save it from permanent closure – and following a lengthy and extensive programme of ground works, the Traffic Regulation Order banning motor ehicles from using it was finally lifted towards the end of May. The lane, which stretches northsouth for between fi e and six miles (and links up with Old Hall, another byway, at its north end to create a through route of around eight

72 | AUGUST 2019

Scene Aug.indd 72

miles with almost no tarmac), is largely firm-surfaced but has some sections along its length which have in the past been prone to rutting.

By and large the lane is now easy to drive, though some ruts do remain – with the most awkward set being close to a large drop-off, making it a scary business to negotiate.

In addition, there are some areas where users drive on unmarked grass. These have been signposted to show the route of the right of way – which it is of course imperative to stick to.

While GLASS is rightly celebrating the lane’s reopening, the organisation cautions that over-use would be likely to see the

lane closed again. In particular, you should avoid it in wet conditions, as further repairs are still planned and until these are done it will remain very sensitive.

These repairs to Water Break Its Neck follow similar works on Giants Grave, Black Yatt and Golf Links, opening up a whole series of long and beautiful lanes in this part of Powys. The county’s relationship

with motor vehicle users is an excellent example to others, with positive engagement on both sides – at present, indeed, volunteers from the Green Lane Association are helping instal waymarking on its rights of way, and the county has stated its aim of classifying Moelfre City, another cause celebre which has long been illegally obstructed, as a public highway.

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BIRCHALL DOMINATES AT 2019 WELSH HILLRALLY

Words and pictures: Gary Simpson / Songasport

JUSTIN BIRCHALL AND JONATHAN KOONJA led from start to finish to claim a dominant ictory at the 201 elsh ill Rally at alters Arena.

The result saw first place go to a traditional off-road race car though in a sign of the times, Birchall and oon a were pursued to the finishing line by no less than three UTV-based ehicles.

The e ent, organised by That’s Motorsport imited, was sponsored

by Voxcloud, taffordshire igns, Britpart, ar omes, Bowler, ynne illiams roperties, Birchall oodser ice, Nicky rist.com, amber, A Offroad, Commercial Colours and Alldri e Classic x .

The action started on the riday e ening with two short stages.

Birchall got off to a ying start in his ofthouse reelander, heading the leader board by 21 seconds from last year’s winner aul Rowlands in his olaris.

Ant ackson’s arrior was third at this stage. A couple of crews had problems early on, howe er, with on prackling losing dri e in his Bowler Bulldog and Chloe ones damaging the steering on her T an issue which was still being fixed late into riday e ening.

A marathon day of action on the aturday saw no less than ten

stages being completed. Birchall continued to set a blistering pace and was fastest on e ery single one of them, with Rowlands maintaining second place. Mark ac ues in his ofthouse was third at the end of the day, with ackson ha ing dropped down the leader board after a stage maximum following a broken propshaft.

ackson was to encounter more problems on the unday, when his steering broke. e and na igator eter iddop did battle on to finish the e ent, albeit only in 1 th place. aturday’s stages were causing problems for other competitors, too. Alan Thomas stopped on tage with suspected differential issues on his alker-Adams

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OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

UK Convoy Tours Revolution, Cameron Crow rolled his Tomcat and Chloe Jones’ troubles continued with a misfire followed by a broken fuel pump. She managed to continue, though, after fellow competitor Dale Gilbertson lent her a spare.

Up ahead, meanwhile, there was no let up in Birchall’s pace. Just as he had done on the Saturday, he posted the fastest time on every one of Sunday’s stages, stretching his lead into a winning margin of almost eight minutes.

‘It’s been a fantastic event,’ said Birchall. ’The stages were great. It’s all gone really well – I think Lady Luck was on our side as we’ve not really had any problems, other than a smoking relay which we sorted.

‘I’ve been trying to win a hillrally for ten years so it’s nice to finally achieve it! The car has been spot on, although it’s taken a hammering. It’ll definitely need a good check o er before round two of the BXCC!” aul Rowlands finished in second place – and with Mark Jacques retiring on Sunday, it was Rowlands’ son Jason who took third in his Can-Am X3.

Ian Gregg and Adam Evans made it three UTVs in the top four aboard their Polaris. Gregg commented: ‘It’s been a good weekend, a bit dusty but the stages were excellent. We had a bit of a front diff mishap which meant we

4x4 Scene Aug.indd 75

had to do all of Sunday’s stages in two-wheel drive. This wasn’t ideal for our times, but it certainly put a smile on our faces!’

In fifth place was the AT x Indy Challenger of Rob Bool and Victoria Vaughan. ‘It’s been hard graft but we made it to the finish,’ said Bool.

‘It’s a tough event and we had a few problems, including a broken driveshaft and CV boot. The wheel bearing was on its way out on the final stages, so we were glad to get to the end.’

George Bryson and Wallace McKay said before the start that they were hoping for a finish and a good event, and they achieved their aim with 10th place overall and second in class. Phill Bayliss left his usual Land Rover 90 TD5 at home and did the event in a new car – and despite a couple of issues, he finished 12th and first in class.

Ian Linford also won his class in his Freelander – although he found the terrain a little rougher than his last event, which was on the closed public roads of Essex! ohn ickering finished 22nd in his production-spec Land Rover Discovery, despite an oil leak resulting in a couple of stage maximums. Pickering was awarded the Spirit of the Rally trophy after helping a fellow competitor get back on the road after putting their car on its side.

13 July

4 August

Tracks and Trails Tyne Valley

Tracks and Trails Durham

13-14 July

5-6 August

4x4 Adventure Tours North Devon

UK Landrover Events Eden/Tynedale

14 July

7 August

Tracks and Trails Northumberland

UK Landrover Events Yorkshire Dales

18-19 July

10-11 August

UK Landrover Events Cumbria/Yorkshire

UK Landrover Events Wiltshire

20 July

17 August

UK Landrover Events North York Moors

UK Landrover Events Tyne and Wear

20-21 July

18 August

4x4 Adventure Tours South Wales

UK Landrover Events Dales and Eden

21 July

26-27 August

UK Landrover Events North York Moors

UK Landrover Events Cumbria/Yorkshire

3 August

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3-4 August

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AUGUST 2019 | 75

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TIGHT AND TECHNICAL AS ODYSSEY CHALLENGE RETURNS TO HOME GROUND

Words: Pip Evans Pictures: Nick Hood

FOLLOWING ON FROM the first round of the 201 Odyssey Challenge, which was first e er to be held at Tixo er, the Viking x Club returned to familiar ground for Round 2. eekley oods, near ettering, is one of the long-running winch series’ home enues, so this time the competitors knew what to expect.

76 | AUGUST 2019

Scene Aug.indd 76

As we reported in a pre ious issue of x , Round 1 had been abandoned early on after an incident in which one of the competitors was seriously in ured.

This left the organisers with an unclaimed prize pot so the club was grateful to Round 1 sponsor oodwinch for allowing them to be carried o er. The competitors were

grateful, too, because oodwinch products are always in demand by challenge teams.

This is the thirteenth year of the Odyssey series, and trucks’ capabilities ha e ad anced considerably during that time. Thus obstacles that would ha e been extreme a few years ago seem fairly tame these days which gi es organisers a problem, because the terrain they’re using stays the same Viking x ’s answer was to use miles of cordon tape, forcing competitors to access the punches ia the most difficult route. There were 0 punches to collect, all of them concentrated into a fairly small area of woodland, so that if anyone got into difficulty there would likely be

others close by who could step in to assist.

Tight and technical was the order of the day, so huge engine power was of little use but winch power was much in demand. In addition, communication between dri ers and winchmen was key as the tight nature of the sections re uired some imaginati e rigging techni ues to get the trucks to their ob ecti es.

As per usual, there were se eral roll o ers, but these were gentle and easily reco erable by using the trucks’ own winches with no need for outside assistance. As is the extreme nature of the game, howe er, breakdowns are part and parcel of challenge e ent competitions and sure enough, se eral competitors

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OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

Pay-and-play events

were back in the pits for repairs within the first hour. ome were fixable, howe er others were not.

The main source of problems seemed to be steering issues. Tom Britten, for example, was ery happy with the performance of his recently fitted T engine, but its steering pump was pushing out too much pressure for his older steering box to cope with, resulting in a set of blown seals. ak ambrauskas was ha ing issues here, too. is full hydraulic system was not playing ball but more worrying was the fact that the fault was not traceable, putting him out uite early in the day. There were a couple of issues with tyres coming off rims, too, but these were remedied by nothing more onerous than throwing on the spare wheel.

One remarkable aspect of this e ent, howe er, was someone who didn’t break down. Alan e onport has had a catalogue of issues o er the years and can usually be relied upon to be sitting in the paddock fixing things with an hour of the start howe er much to e eryone’s amazement, on this occasion he ust kept going and going A challenge is set up in the hope that collecting 0 punches is ust about achie able by the top crews, with only the ery best completing their whole card and being gi en a second. On this occasion, howe er, six teams managed to do this, so the organisers concluded that maybe the e ent wasn’t uite tough enough. Or perhaps the top trucks’ capabilities ha e mo ed on yet again ith ust three ehicles running in Class 1, ak ambrauskas and

4x4 Scene Aug.indd 77

Mark ohnson got the bronze medal place despite their early retirement. econd went to Richard ott and eb arkes on 2 01 points, but Rhys utchinson and an Mann were on another le el with an astounding 6 . This was the 6th highest score o erall, and higher than any truck in Class 2.

The organisers held their hands up to an error with the scores in Class 2, as Tom harp and Tom olliffe had mistakenly been placed in Class . They had in fact taken top spot in Class 2 with 626 points, but this was only disco ered after the awards had been handed out. ohnny ohnson and Tracey tafford, who had been awarded the top spot, were in fact 2nd with 0 points, while rd were Vinnie arper and Colin Masters on 0 .

Class traditionally has the highest number of competitors, and this e ent was no exception leading to a fierce battle for the honours, with some ery close scores. Missing out on a podium place by only 6 points were imon ard and Austin ames, but in the end rd went to Russell Bedford and ames Burgess on 10, points. Ahead of them were te e rant and oe ood, on 11,0 points, while the top spot went to uke akerlen and Rupert enne on 11, 2.

The competitor who was in ured in Round 1 continues to make good progress in his reco ery, and the Odyssey Challenge progresses too.

Round will ha e happened by the time you read this, howe er with half the season still to come there’s still a whole lot of winching to do ou’ll find more information at www. iking x club.com.

13 July

4 August

Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire

Frickley 4x4

14 July

Muddy Bottom

4x4 Without a Club

Parkwood 4x4

Harbour Hill,West Berkshire

Tong, Bradford

Avalanche Adventure Sibbertoft, Northamptonshire

Picadilly Wood Bolney,West Sussex

Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire

11 August

Devil’s Pit

4x4 Without a Club

Frickley, South Yorkshire Minstead, Hampshire

Barton-le-Clay, Bedfordshire

Harbour Hill,West Berkshire

Essex, Rochford and District 4x4 Club

Essex, Rochford and District 4x4 Club

Rayleigh, Essex

Rayleigh, Essex

Hilll N Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

Hilll N Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

Protrax

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Tixover, Northamptonshire

Tixover, Northamptonshire

Slindon Safari

Slindon Safari

Fontwell,West Sussex

Fontwell,West Sussex

21 July

18 August

Explore Off Road Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent

Frickley 4x4 Frickley, South Yorkshire

Muddy Bottom Minstead, Hampshire

Mud Monsters East Grinstead,West Sussex

Thames Valley 4x4 Brick Kiln Farm, Hampshire

27 July Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

28 July Cowm Leisure Whitworth, Lancashire Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

Slindon Valley Slindon,West Sussex

Explore Off Road Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent

Frickley 4x4 Frickley, South Yorkshire

Muddy Bottom Minstead, Hampshire

Mud Monsters East Grinstead,West Sussex

24 August Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

25 August Cowm Leisure Whitworth, Lancashire Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

Protrax Tixover, Northamptonshire

Slindon Valley Fontwell,West Sussex

AUGUST 2019 | 77

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Overland Travel

OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

18 July – 1 August

1-15 September

October

15-19 November

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Ardent Adventure Pyrenees

Venture 4x4 Iceland

7P Overland Utah

22 July

7-15 September

12-26 October

7-30 November

Peru Safari Peru

UK Landrover Events Pyrenees

Low-Range Adventure Moroccan Sahara

Onelife Adventure Algeria

26 July – 9 August

11-25 September

12-27 October

15 November

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Protrax Pyrenees

4x4 Adventure Tours Morocco

Peru Safari Northern Peru

1-15 August

15-29 September

13-31 October

3 December

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Tracks and Trails Pyrenees

Protrax Morocco

Peru Safari Peru

3-17 August

16-21 September

19 Oct – 3 Nov

7-9 Feb 2020

Atlas Overland Italy

7P Overland Utah and Colorado

Ardent Adventure Morocco

7P Overland Utah

10 August

16-27 September

22-30 September

24 March – 6 April 2020

Peru Safari Peru

Low-Range Adventure Portugal

Trails and Tracks Pyrenees

Trailmasters Morocco Marrakesh Classic

10-18 August

16-29 September

29 Sept – 17 Oct

4-16 April 2020

Ardent Adventure Alps

Trailmasters Morocco Marrakesh Classic

Protrax Morocco

Atlas Overland Morocco Classic

12-23 August

17 September

3-16 October

16-30 May 2020

Low-Range Adventure Pyrenees Coast to Coast

Peru Safari Peru

Trailmasters Morocco Atlantic Sahara

Atlas Overland Portugal

16-30 August

22-28 September

11 October

20 May –2 June 2020

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Tracks and Trails Pyrenees

Peru Safari Peru

Trailmasters Morocco (extreme expedition)

24 August – 4 Sept

29 Sept – 17 Oct

25 Oct – 8 Nov

22 June – 7 July 2020

Trailmasters Morocco

Protrax Morocco

Trailmasters Morocco Draa Valley

Atlas Overland Corsica

24 August – 7 September

30 Sept – 13 Oct

3-19 November

1-15 August 2020

Atlas Overland Portugal

Atlas Overland Morocco

7P Overland Baja Mexico

Atlas Overland Italian Alps

78 | AUGUST 2019

Scene Aug.indd 78

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ROADBOOK

CENTRAL WILTSHIRE

A wide variety of trails in an ancient landscape Wiltshire probably has more green lanes per square mile than any other county. It also has a landscape that’s been shaped by its status as the cradle of British civilisation, with a wide sprinkling of ancient monuments to go with the historic roadways which survive to this day. This route explores a variety of trails around the globally renowned Avebury heritage site; this is Ridgeway territory, but with the grand old road currently closed until summer 2020 we’ve sewn together some of the many other farm tracks and hillside trails in the area to create a day’s laning which is mainly gentle and scenic but also contains the occasional rough patch or set of ruts. It’s therefore not one to be trying without a backup plan, and you should also note that as many of the rights of way we’ve used are subject to seasonal closures, the route is only usable between 1 May and 39 September each year.

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ROUTE GUIDE

IS IT SUITABLE?

NB Due to seasonal closures, this route can only be used between 1 May and 30 September START Worton (SN 974 574) FINISH Marlborough (SU 186 688) HOW LONG? 47.2 miles / 4-5 hours TERRAIN Gently rolling chalk downland HAZARDS Farm vehicles; Wet and rutted sections; ast road traffic One extreme drop-off Other users some ery popular lanes OS MAPS Landranger 173 (Swindon and Devizes)

TYRES

4x4 12pp Roadbook August.indd 83

WEATHER LOW BOX SOFT-ROADERS SCRATCHING DRIVING DAMAGE

Tall profile and all-terrain pattern re uired in places Do not drive when very wet You’ll struggle without it Unsuitable due to ground clearance issues in ruts Very occasional mild risk iscipline re uired in ruts and when passing other users No need for it to happen

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01/07/2019 22:56

1

0.0

SN 974 574

Start in Worton, outside the Rose and Crown on High Street. Zero your trip with the pub on your left and set off heading east

2

6

2.5

7

0.5

3.0

Fire rigade otterns

3

SN 994 584

Caution – you’re crossing a main road here

1.6

8

3.5

C

LL L

4

9

5

10

1.9

2.1

Caution – this is a fast, busy road

4.1

4.7

ha

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chil ton

4x4 01/07/2019 22:56

USING OUR ROADBOOKS Our roadbooks guide you through the countryside on a mixture of surfaced and unsurfaced roads.The tracks we use are public rights of way, either Byways Open to All Traffic or Unclassified County Roads, all commonly referred to as green lanes.

NAVIGATION

11 5.8

Coate

12

SAFETY

6.7

13 6.8

We’ve deliberately made it as easy as possible to follow the route, using a mixture of instructions, tulip diagrams and grid references.We normally only include junctions at which you have to make a turning or don’t have right of way, so just stay on the main road or take the most straight-ahead option unless we tell you otherwise.

If you’re unfamiliar with six-figure grid references, you’ll find a guide to using them on the legend of any OS map. Our aim is for you to be able to do the route without maps, but we do recommend having them.

SU 039 616

This is just after you pass the New Inn on the right

14 7.55

The notes on the first page of the roadbook advise you of how suitable it is for your vehicle.These are just guidelines, however.We’ll warn you of any hazards or difficult sections, but the nature of any green lane can change quickly.Wet weather can make a huge difference to the conditions underfoot, and what’s wide open in winter can be tightly enclosed and scratchy in summer.The responsibility is yours!

Our roadbooks are designed to be safe to drive in a solo vehicle, and are largely suitable for standard 4x4s on road tyres. We do recommend travelling in tandem wherever possible, however.The risk of getting stuck can be greater than it appears – and if you break down, having help at hand can make the difference between it being inconvenient and downright dangerous.

RESPONSIBILITY

15

There’s a mild risk of scratching as you drop down the hill

8.0

16 8.05

4x4 12pp Roadbook August.indd 85

ZERO TRIP

Irresponsible driving is a massive problem on green lanes. In particular, you must always stay on the right of way. Never drive off it to ‘play’ on the verges or surrounding land, even if you can see that someone else has; doing so is illegal and can be tremendously damaging, both to the land and to 4x4 drivers’ reputation.

The fact that you can see where it’s happened shows how much harm it does. It’s no excuse to say you’re just following where another driver has already been. Most green laners have taken to videoing anyone they see behaving like this and passing the evidence to the police.

Elsewhere, simple common sense and courtesy should be your watchword.The do-and-don’t list

below should always be in your mind, but keep your speed down, be ready to pull over for others and show the world that 4x4 drivers aren’t the hooligans some of them think we are.

ANTIS

Anti-4x4 bigotry does exist, but it’s less common than you’d think. By and large, it’s limited to organisations who just want to get the countryside all to themselves.

These organisations are beyond being reasoned with, but it’s rare to encounter real hostility even from their rank-and-file members. If you’re friendly towards the people with whom you share the countryside, the vast majority will respond in kind.

There are always bad apples, but no more so than anywhere else.

Likewise, most local residents will accept your presence if you’re driving sensibly.What suspicion you do encounter is likely to be from farmers worried that you’re there to steal from them, so be ready to offer a word of reassurance. Once satisfied that you’re not after their quad bikes, their mood will lighten.

It only takes one vandal to tarnish a person’s view of all 4x4 drivers, and once the damage is done it tends to be permanent. But if enough of us resolve to be ambassadors, it might make a difference to the way we’re perceived by society in general.

DO AND DON’T

• Keep your speed right down • Pull over to let walkers, bikers and

horse riders pass • Don’t go in large convoys: split into small groups to avoid hassling others • Leave gates as you found them • Don’t drop litter. Do carry a bin bag and a pair of stout gloves so you can pick up other people’s, though • Don’t go back to drive the fun bits, such as mud or fords, again • Scrupulously obey all closure and voluntary restraint notices • Don’t cause a noise nuisance, particularly after dark • Ensure you have a right to be there.We research the routes on our roadbooks very carefully, but the status of any route can change without notice • Be prepared to turn back if the route is blocked, even illegally • If you find an illegal obstruction, notify the local authority • If someone challenges you, be firm but polite. Stay calm and don’t let them turn it into a fight • Stick absolutely scrupulously to the right of way • You have as much of a right to be there as everyone else.Which means they have as much right as you

AUGUST 2019 | 85

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17

19

0.45

0.6

W

F LL R

S R R

18

20

0.5

1.2

SU 014 632

As the main road swings hard left, continue ahead on to a smaller one with a no through road sign

evi es 1 Garden nd st

21

Fork right where you see the sign for Leipzig Plantation

22

Watch out for walkers as you pass the car park, where the road becomes a track

1.6

1.85

23 3.05

24 3.45

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Turn left then immediately right on to another track – caution, it’s a main road that you’re crossing.

A short way further on, follow the main track as it kinks right, ignoring the gated one directly ahead

4x4 01/07/2019 22:56

25

After another track comes in from the right, the one you’re following ahead becomes a little grassier

5.6

3.75

26 5.05

4x4 12pp Roadbook August.indd 87

27

Turn left on the track through a galvanised double gate which heads towards a clump of trees in the distance.You’ll see the one ahead of you becomes much less well defined here. Don’t turn too early – there’s another track on the left with a ‘private farm road’ sign some way before the one you need to take

28

Take the track dead ahead up the hill – it’ll be tricky in the wet, but do your level best to avoid wheelspin

6.3

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Step 33: The turning is hard to spot as you approach – look out or the s all ooded area in hich you ll find it

29 7.3

30 7.8

31 7.9

88 | AUGUST 2019

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The shallow ruts you’ve been in get deeper and wetter for a couple of car lengths as you reach the road junction and turn left. Caution here – it’s a fast A-road on which o ertaking traffic could be coming at you on the wrong side. Watch out for a steel gate and bollards, used for closing the lane in the winter, which are partially hidden by undergrowth

SU 082 687

Turn left at the end of the gallops you can see as you approach. This lane has been illegally obstructed in the recent past – if it is, continue on and take the first exit at the roundabout ahead. About 0. miles on from there, zero your trip at the end of a lane on the left with a byway sign opposite it – you’ll now be continuing from tep 2 Caution over the crossroads with another track

32

ZERO TRIP

8.0

33 0.7

SU 071 697

It’s hard to spot until you’re on it the unction is in a small wooded area, soo look out for that in advance and start indicating early as this is a fast, busy road and traffic coming up behind you won’t know what you’re doing

34 1.2

4x4 01/07/2019 22:56

35

38

36

39

4.85

2.2

2.25

SU 092 754

5.7

C L

37 2.55

4x4 12pp Roadbook August.indd 89

SU 064 719

40 6.15

The going becomes rougher and more enclosed for a short spell as you pass through a clump of trees.

The main thing to watch out for here is a huge unprotected ditch to the right of the track

AUGUST 2019 | 89

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Step 51: Follow the main track straight ahead through Yatesbury House Farm, then keep to the left of the gate at the end of the Little London driveway

41

46

6.65

42 7.35

43

3.6

Caution – this is a main road

ZERO TRIP

47 4.25

48

SU 100 733

2.15

5.0

er ic assett

44

49

2.25

45 2.75

ZERO TRIP

5.85

hat was a ery rough road finally gi es way to a properly unsurfaced track after the field entrance on the right

50

SU 666 715

0.35

S R

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4x4 01/07/2019 22:57

51 0.45

After the Yatesbury House Farm signpost, the road becomes a track and runs to the left of the driveway into Little London. Watch out for children and animals as you pass through

52 0.75

55 1.7

56

As the main track swings right through a double-gate, drop down on to the sunken lane ahead

57

Keep your noise and your speed right down

2.6

y ay to Wind ill ill

53

The lane’s character changes from a firm, smooth track to grassy, bumpy and mildly rutted

1.0

54 1.45

2.65

The going gets wetter and more rutted at the top of the hill, and continues to worsen as you approach Step 55. Drive very gently so as not to cause damage to the surface – and don’t risk it without a back-up plan for if things go wrong

58

Caution – this is a main road

2.95

Step 56: Where the main track swings right through the double gates, fork slightly left and drop into the sunken lane

4x4 12pp Roadbook August.indd 91

AUGUST 2019 | 91

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Step 65: As you reach the end of the village, fork right into East Kennett Manor Farm

64 0.2

ast ennett

59 4.15

SU 102 699

This is in the centre of Avebury and is likely to be busy with tourists, dogs, children and, at certain times, pagan worshippers…

65 1.05

60

66

61

67

62

68

1.25

4.35

4.7

3.05

6.3

92 | AUGUST 2019

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As the road swings gently left, fork out to the right for East Kennett Manor Farm

As the farm track starts to swing round to the right, dog-leg left following the small byway sign stuck on a wooden post. This track gets quite rutted in places

The final section of the track takes you uphill on quite soft ground. The ruts aren’t as bad as they look, but take it as easy as you can

Watch out for walkers as you emerge – the junction is opposite a car park

3.25

5.8

63

SU 120 671

ZERO TRIP

69 5.15

SU 132 663

The start of the track is like a sea of gravel. Beyond it, there’s quite a lengthy climb over the next half mile or so

4x4 01/07/2019 22:57

70 6.35

The surface gets a touch sloppy at the bottom of the dip, and there’s a somewhat uneven climb up the other side

73 9.85

Marl orough 4

74

71

11.55

7.35

72 9.55

4x4 12pp Roadbook August.indd 93

Continue ahead for Marlborough

75

Arrive in Marlborough High Street for end of route

11.65

AUGUST 2019 | 93

01/07/2019 22:57

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02/07/2019 13:04

NEXT MONTH IN 4x4 A standard Land Rover 90 that’s not like any other Land Rover 90 you’ve ever seen…

On test: New Jeep Compass Trailhawk, plus Volkswagen’s latest range-topping Amarok The triumphant end of a 51-day, nine-country, 15-time-zone overland journey home

ON SALE: 9th August Step 15: This

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Step 11: Th ZERO TRIP ey When did you take their field roads seriou last see a roa d sign like this sly in Leicestershire.

11.85 on a green lane?

13

7

9.95

Roadbook: Beautiful summertime rights of way in the heart of England 5.05

19

14

8

10.2

7.9

15

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11.5

9

8.0

16

10

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11.8

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SP 717 972

20 3.35

21 5.75

11.6

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22 6.45

Fill in your name and address and give this form to your1newsagent 1

9.2 every month Please order 4x4 Magazine and reserve/deliver me a copy 2016 50 | NOVEMBER

12

9.55

TAL OFF-R OA D Newsagent This magazine is available to your wholesaler through Comag Magazine Marketing, Tavistock Rd, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. Tel: 01895 444055 Fax: 01895 433602 TO

96 | AUGUST 2019

96 Next Month Aug REDO - LOW-RES PIC.indd 96

SAFETY

The symbols on the first the roadboo k advise you suitable it is for your vehi are just guidelin es, howev warn you of 112 any hazards o Field Road Sla ston sections, but 214 n Glooston allato the nature of 2 14 lane can chan ge quickly.We can make a hug e difference Your track is Inn opposite the Fox the left obvi conditions und Turnless two as you appr ous of the erfoot, and w oach wide open in winter can be enclosed and scratchy in sum responsibility is yours!

Our roadboo ks are design be safe to driv e in a solo veh R are largely suit able for standa on road tyre s. We do reco mm trav elling in tand em wherever h for this ford to If it’s wet enoug pos the sible, how It’s not a big ever.The risk have any water over have ford actual therlye’s ae, you’ll probably stuc of g sharpish drop , but surfac usk can be greater than into itroad previo the in as d daway it app roun the corner washe – and if you brea beenyou k down, having two by now at hand can mak e the differenc e between it bein g inconvenient a downright dan gerous.

RESPONSIB

When did you sign like this last see a road at unsurfaced righ a junction on an t of way?

Name Address

NAVIGATIO

We’ve delibera tely possible to follo wt mixture of inst ructi and grid refe rences. only include junction have to make a turni right of way, so just s road or take the mos option unless we tell If you’re unfa miliar grid referenc es, you’ll using them on the lege map. Our aim is for yo do the route without m do recommend having t

Stonton Wy

ville

ILITY

Irresponsible driving is a mas sive pro

blem ADgreen lane -ROon TOTAL OFF s. In particu you mus

t always stay on the right of way. Never drive off it to play o the verges or surrounding land, eve if you can see that someon e else has; doing so is illegal and can be tremendously dam land and to 4x4 aging, both to the drivers’ repu tation.

The fact that you can see whe it’s happened shows how muc re h harm it does. It’s no excuse to say you’re just following where another driver has already bee n. Most green laners have taken to videoing anyo ne they see behaving like this and passing the evidence to the police, which shows how much ange r there is tow ards the criminal elem ent.

Elsewhere, simp le common sense and cou rtesy should be your

4x4 02/07/2019 09:12

FOR ENQUIRIES OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER CALL:

4X4 Pick Up FP August Iss 2019-OL.indd 1

01274 864457

01/07/2019 13:00

ARRIVING THIS SUMMER AT YOUR LOCAL ISUZU DEALERSHIP

CAPABLE IN THE XTREME

CALL 03303 335126 OR VISIT ISUZU.CO.UK/XTR TO FIND OUT MORE #Over 40 MPG figure applies to manual transmission models. MPG figures are official EU test figures for comparative purposes and may not reflect real driving results. Official fuel figures for the Isuzu D-Max range in MPG (l/100km): Urban 30.4 - 38.7 (9.3 - 7.3). Extra Urban 40.9 - 50.4 (6.9 - 5.6). Combined 36.2 - 45.6 (7.8 - 6.2). CO2 emissions 163 - 205g/km. For full details please contact your local Isuzu dealer or visit isuzu.co.uk Features and specification may vary in appearance and/or availability. *3.5 tonne towing applies to all 4x4 models. **125,000 mile/5 year (whichever comes first) warranty applies to all new Isuzu D-Max models. Terms and conditions apply. Visit isuzu.co.uk

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