4x4 Magazine - May 2019

4x4

NEWS • PRODUCTS • TRAIL GUIDES • WORKSHOP • CALENDAR • OFF-ROAD SCENE DRIVEN SsangYong’s no-nonsense Musso EX

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

THE LONG STORY

Is the long-wheelbase Range Rover the definitive example of the breed, or too much of a good thing?

Building a Hilux that really stands out from the crowd…

£4.75

SUV-friendly lanes on our North West Norfolk Roadbook

MAY 2019

720bhp Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk: is it more fun than a standard Suzuki Jimny?

4x4 Cover May AKSK.indd 1

02/04/2019 21:05

FORD RANGER 50MM LIFT KIT FROM

£1129.78

MITSUBISHI L200 25MM LIFT KIT FROM

£1127.00

TOYOTA HILUX 40MM LIFT KIT FROM

£1129.78

4x4 Pickup suspension for all ride types available in Medium, Heavy-Duty and Super-Heavy Duty kits for your L200, Hilux or Ranger trucks.

Available from:

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02/04/2019 13:59 03/04/2019 09:21

FLOOR MATS GI200

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This gives their dog guards an attractive and ultra-tough finish which is extremely resistant to scratches and knocks.

They are recognised throughout the world for their strength, dependability, ruggedness and reliability, whether on or off the road. So, if you’re looking for a guard that’s just as tough, and as well-designed, as the Land Rover itself, you’ve found it.

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A DV E RT I S I N G F E AT U R E

NISSAN NAVARA OFF - ROADER BY NAME, OFF - ROADER BY NATURE

N

issan’s Navara is a capable pick-up truck.

But the Off-Roader AT32 is on another level. That’s what tends to happen when you collaborate with someone like Arctic Trucks. Bolstered by an upgraded suspension with a 20mm lift and 32-inch tyres, along with uprated underbody guards and heavy duty

2 | MAY 2019

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sidesteps, the AT32 wears its OffRoader moniker very appropriately.

So much so, that we awarded it the title of ‘Best Off-Road’ in our recent Pick-Up of the Year awards, and it actually formed the basis for a rather extraordinary build, too.

You may remember the Navara Dark Sky concept that was announced last September at the

Hannover Motor Show. The build looked at utilising the off-road capabilities of the AT32 as means of transporting state of the art equipment to tough to reach, ‘dark sky’ locations for the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Dark Sky, which has since been donated to the ESA, was designed to help the organisation in mapping

stars with an unrivalled precision, using the Gaia satellite. To do this, the truck has to be able to reach locations that are remote, incredibly dark and far enough from light pollution that the observatory-level telescope – mounted on the trailer – can work its magic.

Obviously, to avoid the dreaded light pollution and to get somewhere

4x4 02/04/2019 22:23

A DV E RT I S I N G F E AT U R E

OFF-ROADER AT32 that is really, really dark, you’ve got to head out into the middle of nowhere. In doing this, you don’t often come across well-paved, smooth roads.You’re more likely to encounter rocks, marshes and terrain that can’t be conquered by just any vehicle. That’s why the AT32 is perfect, with an improved approach angle of 35º and a new breakover angle of 24º, making the Off-Roader even more capable than a standard Navara.

But when you get to these remote locations in the pitch black, you can’t use any old telescope.

That’s why the trailer plays home to an ultrahigh-power PlaneWaves telescope. This is top-level, specialist equipment, which is why the trailer was specifically designed to not only protect it from crashes and bangs across tough ground thanks to a bespoke suspension system, but it is also refrigerated to just the right temperature, ensuring that all of the elements to it are kept in prime condition. Both the trailer and the Navara have onboard ancillary batteries to power the high-tech

equipment. The same sort that Nissan have used and developed for the LEAF electric vehicle.

At this point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the AT32 is an unforgiving steed that will get you wherever you need to be – but at the cost of all comfort. But there, you’d be wrong.

The interior makes roughing it easy. The zero gravity heated leather seats remain comfortable hour upon hour, and with NissanConnect, the AT32 is as accommodating as it is all-encompassing.

Further civilised with the inclusion of Nissan Intelligent Mobility, the AT32 remains useable in all situations. Features such as Hill Start Assist, Hill Descent Control and Active Brake Limited Slip control all help keep the Off-Roader on the right track, be it a hillside or a highway. There’s also a 360º Around View Monitor, so when you’re edging through tight scenarios, or simply parking at the supermarket, the driver is afforded a full view of the vehicle’s surroundings – it’s also useful when hitching a trailer,

telescope or not. This software was upgraded, in the case of the Dark Sky, to account for the trailer, too.

But, most crucially if you’re going to take it off road, is the rear differential locker, which if combined with the optional front equivalent, will be as important as any other accessory when the going gets tough.

But, obviously, the number of drivers who tow equipment into the darkness of the night on behalf of space agencies is very slim. What

the trucks are more likely to do is take on extreme terrains just for fun. For this clientele a snorkel is much more fitting an accessory than a telescope. This increases wading depth massively, in conjunction with the boosted ride height, from 600 up to 800mm. Plus, fitted to the A-pillar, it looks awesome.

Whether your escapades take you into town or down the road less travelled, the Nissan Navara OffRoader AT32 was built for adventure.

*Connecting to a mobile phone to use NissanConnect should only be done when the car is parked safely. Use of the system should always be in accordance with the rules of the Highway Code. Drivers should only use the system when it is safe to do so. Users should be aware of the potential for hands-free technology to distract attention from the road, which could impact on having full control of the vehicle. For compatible devices, please visit nissan.co.uk/ownership/nissan-infotainment-system/nissanconnect

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02/04/2019 22:24

May 2019

T H IS M O N T H 48

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02/04/2019 21:57

54 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 14 15 16 17 18 20

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Mitsubishi L200 Hardcore concept breaks cover in Bangkok Coming Soon Trucks and SUVs worth waiting for SsangYong Korando Classy looking high-value SUV on the way Ineos Grenadier BMW power for forthcoming off-roader Subaru e-Boxer engine adds hybrid power to XV and Forester Jaguar New additions to F-Pace range

Tested 30 34

SsangYong Musso EX Entry-level version of hot new double-cab Range Rover LWB model is a masterpiece on a massive scale

Every Month 6 8 10 12 23 82 96

Alan Kidd What’s the most fun you’ve ever had in a car…?

Gallery Off-road epicness on the trails of Tibet Destinations Moab, Utah… aka four-wheel paradise What Jeep Did Next… Quicksand: off-roader meets hot rod…

Products Whataver you drive, there’s something you need Roadbook A gentle day out on the lanes of North-West Norfolk Next Month Could the Disco 1 still become the new Defender?

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Features 42 48 56

Jimny v Trackhawk Which end of the spectrum is most fun?

Mean Green Wrangler A stunning new look for a hardcore JK Big-Time Hilux Bling meets brawn in a truck to be seen in

Travel 60 64

Home From Home Dropping in on a Columbian Land Rover show The Longest Ford Crossing the sea en route to Nourmoutier

80

Our 4x4s 70

Skoda Kodiaq Which of the options did we choose wisely?

Off-Road Scene 74 77

Lake District Important consultation on green lane management Slindon Valley New playday centre opens in Sussex

Off-Road Calendar 75 77 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

“I could feel the massive force trying to push us sideways. And that was just from the fast-moving water pushing against our wheels: if it came up to our sills, we’d be in serious trouble” 4x4 4-5 Contents AWAITING SUBS OFFER INFO.indd 5

MAY 2019 | 5

02/04/2019 21:57

Alan Kidd Editor

I

n last month’s issue, I used this here column to talk about some of the questions I’ve become used to being asked during my quarter of a century and counting as a bloke wot writes about cars.

Well, today (literally, the morning I sat down to write these words), I was asked a new one. I’ve currently got a decorator turning my kitchen back into a thing that doesn’t look like the last person to paint it was me (brown gloss, what in God’s name was I thinking), and he’s a car nut. His question, which says something about his own taste in motors, was ‘what’s the most powerful car you’ve ever driven?’

If he had asked ‘what’s the car with the biggest power-to-weight ratio you’ve ever driven,’ I’d have had some thinking to do.

Either a Corvette or an early Lotus Exige, I’m guessing, since you asked (yes I know, but you were going to). But the car with the most power? Easy. It’s in this issue.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is the first with truly supercar- aiting performance.You might have read our road test on it in last month’s issue – it’s the Jeep with 710bhp, a 3.7-second 0-60 time and a top speed of 180mph. It’s mental.

But what if matey wasn’t quite so interested in power? What if his question had been ‘what’s the most fun you’ve ever had in a car?’

Oh, behave.

Obviously, power and fun go hand in hand. But as we all know, in the world of off-roading you can experience max adrenaline at about 3mph. That’s why we took the ridiculous step of putting the rac haw together with a u u i imny to see which was most fun. Ridiculous, but hilarious, and that is the point. omething else that s the point, e en i most of us don’t want to admit it, is the fact that ‘fun’ is often a euphemism for ‘showing off.’ Now, there’s nothing wrong with showing off. We’re all guilty of it, and mankind’s (should that be blokedom’s) constant need to aunt it has een at the heart of many great movements in the wide world o car culture. treet cruising, lowriders, custom cars, monster trucks… love ‘em or hate ‘em, each has brought

6 | MAY 2019

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What’s the most fun you’ve ever had in a car…? forth some incredible works of engineering and presentation. But at the heart of each is a teenage boy who just wants to get laid.

We might as well admit, every single one of us, that we are that teenage boy. Even if bedding impressionable girls is no longer the aim, we all want our cars to look cool.

Even when we’re building a rugged offroad machine for the serious business of hardcore laning or winning our club’s trials championship, we want it to look cool.

The Raptor-coated Jeep Wrangler you’ll find in this issue is a case in point. t s owned by a family man who takes his kids off-roading in it – but he quite obviously still wanted it to look as trick, in its own way, as the customised ocus s and Corsas you see young lads cruising in. The desire to be noticed never goes away – I’d think the chap who built the Hilux in this issue would agree with that, too… but so will anyone who’s ever left the weekend’s mud on their truck for the journey to work on Monday, or taken delight at being checked out while parked up alongside hal a do en other chun y loo ing modded trucks on the way to an event.

Another point. That Trackhawk was indeed fun. One of the most fun things about it was playing the exhausts like a musical instrument when there were pedestrians around. The small child in us all just loves being noticed, whether he bids us run around in a muddy off-roader, a boyedup hatch or a mighty supercar.

The difference is that in an off-roader, those onlookers are more likely to be laughing with you, not at you. I remember driving through the streets of Croydon one morning in a tottery old Mahindra covered in so much mud I could barely see out. But what I could see was girls smiling at me. Out of pity, perhaps, but when I was driving that Corvette they all made a point of looking away. Most fun you can have in a car? You’ve come to the right place…

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 Kidd Assistant Editor George Dove Art Editor amantha ou a Contributors Mike Trott, Paul Looe, Dan Fenn, Jenny Bright, Gavin Lowrie, Peter Andrew, Gary Noskill, Photographers arry amm, ic Peel, te e aylor Group Advertising Manager Ian Argent Tel: 01283 553242 Advertising Manager Colin Ashworth Tel: 01283 553244 Advertising Sales Manager ary imp ins Tel: 01283 553245 Advertising and Exhibition Sales Executive Abigail Cooper Tel: 01283 553246 Advertising Production arah owe Tel: 01283 553242 Subscriptions Manager Catherine Martin Subscriptions Assistants Emma Emery, Kay Tunnicliffe, Abi Dutton Publisher and Head of Marketing arah owe Email: sarah.lowe@assignment-media.co.uk To subscribe to 4x4, or renew a subscription, call 0 8 0. Prices or issues £42 (24 issues £76); Europe Airmail/ROW ur ace Airmail 8 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 Ltd, Repton House G11, Bretby Business Park, Ashby Road, Bretby, Derbyshire DE15 0YZ

© Assignment Media Ltd, 2019

4x4 02/04/2019 17:34

XS Lynx Auxiliary Lights > > > > >

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Check out our video showing them in action.

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Wider Arches

Defender +30mm Wheel Arches DA1979 - Front Pair

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Wheel arches shown here with 285 75/R16 tyres on a ZU rim with an 11mm + VE offset

Designed to keep your vehicles legal when fitting wider tyre and wheel combinations whilst maintaining an appearance closer to the standard arch than other wide arches. Using similar material to the OE arches they fix to the vehicle using the normal style clips - supplied.

GALLERY

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

Last month, this feature was all about the Toyota Land Cruiser. This month, we decided to focus on 4x4s in Tibet… which means it threatens to be all about the Toyota Landcruiser again.

You know the drill. Where there’s a harsh landscape, you reach for tools you can trust. And that means you reach for a Landcruiser. They’re phenomenal vehicles, of course: unbustable, unstoppable, uncrashable… oh. Oh oops. As you can see in the picture to the left, though, someone has already turned up to offer help. Or see if the owner’s still on board so they can ask how much he wants for his axles. t s not all andcruisers in i et, though. ot that we d find any e idence o eep herokees being used in the high Himalayas, but there you are. Though the truth is that for a lot of people, even here, owning a 4x4 means tooling around the streets in a new Tiguan. t also seems to mean fighting o the ad ances o interested mon eys. hey re monkeys with good taste in trucks, though. We’re sure you’ll be able to tell from the interior trim that this is a… yes, you guessed it. A 150-Series Toyota Landcruiser.

Main picture: Jeep, by Momo @ flickr.com CC BY 2.0 Above left: melanie_ko @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0 Left: Road in Tibet, north of Bingzhongluo, by Michael Woodhead @ flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0 Below left: Tibet, by Jack L @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0 Below: Namtso Holy Lake Guest House, Tibet, by Richard Mortel @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0

8 | MAY 2019

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4x4 02/04/2019 21:03

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

DESTINATIONS

The world’s greatest 4x4 travel adventures caught on camera. This month, a truly iconic landform populated almost exclusively by Landcruisers

Moab Moab, Utah is much like any other smalltown in the arid Midwest. But it’s surrounded by a world-class network of trails which are famous the world over. Set amid a stunning landscape of incised red sandstone, these are rated to arying degrees o di ficulty. omething that will seem incredi le to British off-roaders is that 4x4s are positively welcomed by the local tourist authority, which provides guides and advice to all. By and large, the Moab trails are classed as public land and can be driven by anyone. Anyone in a suitable 4x4, that is. You can rent one in the town or join a guided Jeep tour.

A few Brits have even taken their own vehicles out there – adding a whole new dimension to the adventure.

Top: owhusku @ flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0 Above: Welcome to Moab,

tah, by en Lund @ flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0

Above right: Hole n the Rock Jeep, by flickr.com, CC BY 2.0 Right: CC BY 2.0

avid Smith A

Willys Jeep CJ- B, by Sicnag @ flickr.com.

Below: Robb Hannawacker

4x4 3pp Gallery etc May.indd 10

02/04/2019 21:04

Untitled-6 1

26/02/2019 14:11

WHAT JEEP DID NEXT…

Historical highlights of the concept vehicles Jeep builds every year for the Moab Easter Safari. This month: perhaps the most outrageous Jeep ever

2017: Quicksand Running a 6.4-litre V8 with retro-styled velocity stacks and polished straight-through exhausts, 2017’s Quicksand concept is all about loud, proud, in-your-face fun. Its bonnet and front wings are cut away as far as possible so everyone can see its engine – complete with retro velocity stacks and polished straight-through exhausts, which exit behind the front wheels in homage to the old-school dragstrip gassers o the fi ties and si ties.

Those exhausts are engaged using a toggle switch in the cabin, with two positions: ‘loud’ and ‘obnoxious.’ Wonderful.

Based on an extended wheelbase, the Quicksand started out as a Wrangler JK. Its body was trimmed to give it a particularly extreme take on the wheelat-each-corner stance, and its roof was chopped too – and left open, treating you to the full symphony of noise in your ears and wind in your face.

The big V8 is mated to a six-speed Getrag manual gearbox – operated by a polished, double-curved shifter whose resin knob contains a toy Jeep.

Because why the hell not?

Down below, BFG Mud-Terrain tyres measure 32” up front and 37” at the back for the authentic street machine look. They’re mounted on 18” alloys with hub spinners and old-school kidney-bean styling, and in addition to a similarly vintage interior treatment there’s a Warn winch up front – hidden away in a chromed Moon fuel tank, in another wonderful nod to gasser culture.

Further cute touches include a recovery rope mounted in the style of a drag racing ‘chute, and the windscreen is top-hinged in the classic rodder style. It’s not a traditional 4x4 in any sense – but admit it, you can’t help but love this thing.

12 | MAY 2019

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4x4 02/04/2019 21:04

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4x4 NEWS

BANGKOK CONCEPT HINTS AT HARDCORE L200 Triton Absolute concept • +50mm springs, mud tryres, skid plates • Production model a possibility

W

ith a revised Mitsubishi L200 on the way this summer, the Japanese manufacturer has created a steroid-packed concept version of the new-look double-cab. Called the Triton Absolute, this was unveiled at the Bangkok International Motor Show – Thailand being the country in which the vehicle is built.

Although the vehicle is at present no more than a concept, it could certainly be interpreted as a statement of Mitsubishi’s intent not to be cowed by the imminent global roll-out of the Ford Ranger Raptor. It’s bolstered by protective body panelling, additional lighting and more defined styling, all o which help it live up to the strapline

14 | MAY 2019

5pp News May AWAITING ADS.indd 14

Mitsubishi has come up with for it: ‘Absolutely Beyond Tough’.

The vehicle also has front and rear skid plates and a redesigned tailgate. Its suspension has been uprated, lifting its ride height by 50mm and giving it more articulation, and it runs on off-road biased wheels and tyres which deliver a wider track and more aggressive stance.

Mitsubishi won’t have been blind to the reception the Raptor has received from pick-up fans. Other manufacturers are planning ripostes of their own, too – and with the Jeep Gladiator also on the way, the Triton Absolute is further evidence of a shift in the pick-up battleground towards the more extreme end of the market.

If response to the concept is positive, it’s probable that Mitsubishi will aim to seize the initiative with a production model. And with Thailand being a RHD market, a major barrier to UK imports would already be out of the way – meaning this pumped-up L200 could be coming to the market much sooner than you might expect.

4x4 02/04/2019 22:08

4x4 NEWS

C O M IN G S O O N Forthcoming 4x4s due later this year and beyond 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 INEOS Grenadier Infiniti QX50 Jeep Jeep Cherokee Desert Hawk Jeep Gladiator Jeep Grand Commander Jeep Wagoneer Land Rover Defender Land Rover Discovery SVX Maserati Mercedes EQB Mercedes GLC facelift Mercedes GLC Coupe facelift Mercedes GLE Mercedes G-Class Mercedes-AMG G-Class Mitsubishi L200 Nissan Juke Porsche Cayenne Coupe Renault Alaskan Rivian R1T Rivian R1s Seat Ateca X-Perience Seat Tarraco Skoda Kamiq Skoda Kodiaq Coupe Ssangyong XAVL Ssangyong Korando Subaru XV e-Boxer Subaru Forester e-Boxer Suzuki Vitara facelift Tesla Model Y Toyota RAV4 Volkswagen T-Roc R Volkswagen Tarok Volkswagen Amarok

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

2019 2019 Late 2019 Early 2019 2019 2019 Spring 2019 2020 2021 2019 Spring 2019 Mid-2019 Mid-2019 2022 2019 2020 2019 2021 Spring 2020 Spring 2020 2020 2021 2019 2019 2019/20 2019 Mid-2019 Mid-2019 Spring 2019 Early 2019 Early 2019 August 2019 Summer 2019 May 2019 2019 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 2019 Early 2019 Mid-2019 Spring 2019 2019 Summer 2019 Autumn 2019 Autumn 2019 Spring 2019 Autumn 2020 Spring 2019 Autumn 2019 2020 2022

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02/04/2019 22:08

4x4 NEWS

NEW KORANDO SET TO BE A SMALL-SCALE REXTON

New Qashqai-sized SUV • 2000kg towing limit • 7-year, 150,000-mile warranty • On sale late summer

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sangYong blew us away when it launched the current Rexton, its big off-road wagon which appeared in the UK in 2017. And

the Korean 4x4 specialist has just unveiled an all-new Korando that looks set to do the same thing again – this time in the high-volume small SUV market.

Volvo has revised its XC90 SUV, with the addition of a brake-by-wire system featuring energy recovery for a 15% improvement in emissions an e e fi ien g in e ean i e get a i re t e First deliveries are due by the end of June

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Due to arrive in the UK by the end of summer, the Korando adopts SsangYong’s latest design language, giving it a less quirky and more modern appearance then the previous model. Like the Rexton, its interior styling is vastly improved, too, and the modern technology on board has been brought right up to date.

SsangYong also promises ‘classleading interior space’ in the vehicle, which is equipped at launch with a choice of 1.5-litre petrol and 1.6-litre diesel engines. Each will be available with six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes, and four-wheel drive will be available – SsangYong says these models will have a strong level of off-road ability for the class.

The diesel-engined Korando will be rated to tow 2000kg, with the

petrol model capable of hauling 00 g. his latter figure will also apply to the fully electric version which SsangYong says will follow at a later date.

The Korando is longer and wider than the previous model, as well as having a longer wheelbase – which SsangYong has utilised to create more legroom than before as well as 1248 litres of cargo space with the rear seats folded. Headroom is also improved, despite the vehicle’s overall height having decreased.

Despite the cleanly contemporary image the cabin styling presents, SsangYong says the Korando will appeal to ‘those requiring a car that can handle the rough and tumble of family life.’

Equipment lists are predictably long, with safety kit in particular taking a major step up. compared to

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a a intr e a ne 2 0 SI etr engine t t e ar an ia r ing 190 it e it a 7-speed auto and four-wheel drive as standard; Karoq ri e tart at 1 20 i e it 120 r t e ia

4x4 02/04/2019 22:08

4x4 NEWS

the old model. Standard equipment for European markets includes hill descent control, autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning, main eam assist, tra fic sign recognition and driver attention alert, as well as dual front and side airbags should all that not prevent the worst from happening.

In terms of tech, convenience and luxury, you’ll get cruise, climate, 17” alloys, Bluetooth and USB input. Exact UK specs are still to e confirmed, ut urther standard or optional kit will include bigger alloys, leather, heated seats, parking aids, LED lights, on-board mains power, wireless phone charging and a 10.25” media system with CarPlay and Android Audio.

Something else the Korando will include is the 7-year, 150,000-mile warranty SsangYong introduced last year across all its models.

The company also promises that the vehicle will offer ‘competitive pricing from launch’; the exact numbers are yet to be announced, however the range is likely to start under £20,000 and climb to a little less than £10,000 more than that.

This new Korando is further proof of the quantum change in direction that SsangYong has embarked on,’ said company CEO Johng-sik Choi. ‘We believe (it) will compete head-on with anything currently available in the mainstream SUV C-segment, yet will beat them all on value!’

Ine nfir engine deal for new off-road vehicle Ine t ti e a nfir e t at it r e t rena ier inne a a irit a e r t t e e ani a Lan er e en er i use engines provided by BMW. The company has signed an agreement it t e er an giant r t e t r arge etr an diesel engines for the forthcoming off-road vehicle.

Ine i i n it t e rena ier i t i a ern i e ie t e irit a i a t e i ee an 0 Lan Cruiser. The company’s owner, Jim Ratcliffe, is a lifelong fan of the Defender in its traditional form and, not long after that vehicle went t r ti n ann n e i a a i an t i ere it left off. ir ei ann Ine t ti e ai i te n g artner i i a er ignifi ant i e t ne r r e t rena ier e are e ig te r i engine r r ne r a er It re tati n a a a er e tre e re ia e ig er r an e engine t at er t ta ra i it e fi ien an a it i e n t n ne Si t it i t e e t engine in t e r r ing it r i an t er a r te r ar in en ring e e i er n r i i nt i an n r i ing it t e ti ate in engineering integrity.’

Tesla has announced the Model Y, its second SUV, which is predicted to go on sale in autumn 2020. With seven seats as standard, the vehicle will be available with twin electric motors delivering four-wheel drive. Despite being smaller than the model X, it will offer 1900 litres of cargo capacity

4x4 5pp News May AWAITING ADS.indd 17

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02/04/2019 22:08

4x4 NEWS

DISCOVERY FLEET SET FOR HIGHWAY PATROL DUTIES

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ighways England has taken delivery of the first ehicles in a eet of 70 Land Rover isco erys which will see ser ice patrolling the country s motorways and A-roads. he li eried ehicles are fitted with roo -mounted light arrays and programma le rear oard, and their rear load areas are rein orced to help them support the 00 g o e uipment carried y tra fic o ficers. he isco erys are .0 d models. ach will e in ser ice with ighways ngland or around our years and will e e pected to co er around 0,000 miles during its working life.

Subaru SUVs set to gain hybrid power later this year Subaru is set to enter the hybrid age later this year, with the launch of a new e-Boxer engine for the XV and Forester. This is a mild-hybrid set-up whose electric motor kicks in under load and harvests energy to recharge a rear-mounted lithium-ion battery when coasting.

Based on Subaru’s existing 2.0-litre diesel unit, the e-Boxer incorporates an electric motor in its powertrain to assist the Lineartronic auto gearbox, i r ing e e n 11 an ering a V ri ing e r ita e n iti n In a iti n t etter e fi ient t i a etter a e er ation response as well as quieter running.

Despite the added weight of the motor and battery pack alike, the new models tip the scales at just 25kg more than the standard XV and re ter S ar a ri e a it i n i ini e an a ing ri en t e e er range r e e at an e i e re ie ear ier t i ear r fir t impressions of the XV and Forester alike is that they are indeed every bit as composed.

Equally important to typical Subaru customers is the fact that the vehicles’ luggage capacities remain unchanged. So too does their safety performance, with Subaru’s EyeSight system featuring on both models.

For off-road use, the new e-Boxer models also feature the X-Mode that has become familiar across Subaru’s range over the last few years. Our preview included an element of off-road driving, in which the hybrid powertrain was as impressive as it was on the road. For towing, meanwhile, the vehicle’s limits drop by a relatively slight 130kg to 1270kg.

Explaining the use of a mild hybrid system, Subaru says customer research showed a lack of appetite for a full hybrid system. The company’s longterm strategy is therefore to miss this out altogether by going straight from mild-hybrid to full-electric vehicles.

For now, the e-Boxer engine is expected to be added to Subaru’s UK range in the late summer, with prices and specs set to be announced when the order books open. yundai has launched a new ine ersion o the ucson the first time the orean company s dynamic trim le el has een applied to one o its . he new model, which gains a ariety o sports-in uenced styling twea s inside and out, has modified suspension or li elier road handling and comes with a choice o petrol and hy rid diesel engines deli ering rom to 8 hp. o mar the arri al o the new model, yundai commissioned erman artist Andreas Preis to decorate a new ucson ine with a design eaturing elements o the company s motorsport li ery along with re erences to items li e corners, chicanes, cur s and che uered ags.

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4x4 02/04/2019 22:08

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02/04/2019 13:48

4x4 NEWS

NEW EDITIONS ADD SPORTS APPEAL TO F-PACE RANGE 300 Sport and Chequered Flag models • From £53,980 and £46,995 respectively • On sale now

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aguar has added two new special editions to its F-Pace line-up. These add further standard equipment to the spec of the models on which they’re based – as well as more in the way of the sporting appeal you expect from a Jag. First comes the 300 Sport edition – named after its power output o , yes, 00 hp. hat figures holds true for both the available engine options, a 2.0-litre petrol with 295lbf.ft or a 3.0-litre V6 diesel with 516lbf.ft. Both come with four-wheel drive as standard; the .0-litre petrol fires the -Pace to 60mph in 5.8 seconds, while the 3.0-litre diesel takes 6.2. Top speeds, for what it’s worth, are 145 and 150mph respectively.

Whichever engine you choose, the 300 Sport rolls on 22” grey alloys and features dark satin grey exterior detailing, including the grille surround, side vents, mirror caps and rear valance. Its grille and tailgate are adorned with 300 Sport badges and the bodywork is exclusively available in Yulong White, Indus Silver and Santorini Black.

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The interior, meanwhile, gets yellow stitching to the instrument panel, centre console and seats – which are also heated and 14-way adjustable in the front. The 300 Sport emblem is embossed on to the treadplates, oor mats, steering wheel and front headrests.

Infotainment comes in the form of Jaguar’s Touch Pro Navigation system, which now includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard on all F-Pace models. It also enefits rom ha ing a . dri er information display, Meridian sound system and panoramic roof.

Joining the 300 Sport in the newcomers’ parade is the Chequered ag edition, which is guaranteed a high spec as it’s based on the R-Sport model. The front bumper and black gloss exterior detailing give it a unique road presence, and it rides on 20” alloys as standard with the option of upgrading to 22s.

The colours available are Yulong White, Santorini Black and the newly introduced Eiger Grey.

Leather and aluminium adorn the interior, which has all the same gadgets as the 300 Sport. Where

the Chequered Flag differs is under the bonnet, where there are three options – including a 250bhp 2.0-litre petrol unit with a 6.6-second 0-60 time and a top speed of 135mph.

For diesel fans, you have a choice of 180 or 240bhp lumps also

displacing 2.0 litres. Stick with the lower-powered option and you get a return of up to 41.9mpg.

Both of the new F-Type models are on sale now. The Chequered Flag edition is priced from £46,995, while the more powerful 300 Sport starts at £53,980.

Land Rover wins court battle against Chinese Evoque rip-off Land Rover has won a court battle against Chinese manufacturer Landwind, whose X7 SUV was widely seen as a rip-off of the Evoque.

The X7 was launched at the 2015 Guangzhou Motor Show r ing r a ng Lan er fi ia ere at t e a e time, in the very next hall, trying to introduce a locally assembled version of the Evoque. Landwind sold the vehicle for the local equivalent of £14,000 – but the recent court ruling means the company must now stop producing it.

Commenting on the verdict, Jaguar Land Rover’s legal boss Keith en a in ai it enefit t e an an it t er a i e – as well as restoring the brand’s faith in the Chinese market.

‘We welcome this decision of the Beijing court, which further trengt en r nfi en e in in e ting in ina an in t e airne the intellectual property adjudication in the Chinese courts.

‘This ruling is a clear sign of the law being implemented appropriately to protect consumers and uphold their rights so that they are not confused or misled, while protecting business investment in design and innovation.’

4x4 02/04/2019 22:08

OVERLOADING IS COMMON

YOUR INSURANCE COULD BE INVALID IF YOU’RE OVERLOADED

– What would your thoughts be if you were told your vehicle, trailer and everything carried on it and in it were not insured?

Scary thought isn’t it, but of all the vehicles stopped and checked by DVSA (2015-2016), over 80% were found to be overloaded and/or exceeding the driver’s licence entitlement.

When was the last time you checked your vehicle weights?

If you knew there was an inexpensive option to avoid your overloading problems, would you be interested?

For over 20 years, SvTech have covered GVW rerating on vehicles, from small sub 3.5t vehicles all the way up to 150t Special Types vehicles.

SvTech can uprate the GVW of most 4x4’s and in some cases also increase the towing allowances. e.g. Toyota Hilux, Isuzu D-Max – GVW increase to 3500kg + GTW of 3500kg (7000kg combined) A GVW uprate can increase your payload allowance thus reducing the size and number of vehicles involved for transporting your goods.

Try using SvTech’s free Load Distribution Analysis program to check your weights. www.svtech.co.uk/lda

GVW AND TOWING ALLOWANCES AFFECTED

HAVE YOU WEIGHED YOUR VEHICLE? DO IT NOW BEFORE THE DVSA DO!

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4x4 02/04/2019 14:34

PRODUCTS

METHOD RANGE OF HARDCORE 4X4 WHEELS GAINS NEW DESIGNS AND FITMENTS METHOD RACE WHEELS has introduced several new fitments or 0 . he company, whose competition products are a common sight on race truc s on the other side o the Atlantic, is increasingly drawing on its motorsport now-how when designing street rims with the result that these com ine light weight with high strength in a way you re unli ely to ha e seen e ore. eading the charge is the new 0 , which oins the e isting 0 in ethod s rail eries range. hese wheels eature the company s ead rip system, which engages the tyre s inner and outer ead seats. his mimics the e ect o a ull eadloc , allowing the tyre to e run at much lower pressures or o -road use with less ris o it ecoming unseated. he rims design also incorporates an nner a ety ump. orrowed directly rom race wheel technology, this wor s urther to hold the ead securely in place, ma ing it e en less li ely to ail under the e treme duress o hardcore o -road wor . ith a rein orced inner lip design, these wheels use a onepiece construction in heat-treated aluminium to let them run load ratings o up to 0l 0 g. he new 0 o ers fitments or fi e and si -stud hu patterns, adding a new options on top o the si es pre iously o ered y the popular 0 . etween them, these wheels are a aila le with a choice o matt lac and ron e finishes, and in each case their designs ha e een e hausti ely salt spray tested to ensure their dura ility in harsh en ironments.

Also new are three additional designs in ethod s treet eries

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Cross-section shows the Bead Grip and Safety Hump systems on Method’s Trail Series rims. These mimic the effect of a beadlock to keep the tyre seated in extreme situations and at low pressures.

New 314 (below left) is styled on Dakar race rims; 302 (below) is a heavy-duty trail rim with a 17” diameter range o wheels. nspired y competition rims, these are made rom heat-treated cast aluminium and o er applications designed or e erything rom stoc truc s to hea ily modified o -road rigs. hese include the , a onepiece aluminium design whose ow- orm construction is intended to eep weight as low as possi le without sacrificing strength. t eatures arrel strengthening ri s or greater rigidity, as well

as poc ets machined out o its spo e windows or urther weight sa ings. eing a street tyre doesn t mean the is short o o -road credi ility, either. ith a 0l load rating, it s a aila le in a si e to fit fi e and si -stud hu s and eatures a nurled ead seat to eep the tyre seated under e treme orces. e t up is the , which is a -spo e one-piece alloy whose design was inspired y the classic a ar ally rim loo . t s a aila le in and 8 si es with fi e and si -stud patterns and a 0l load rating, and there s also an eight-stud option rated to 0l . he , meanwhile, is a roadlegal ersion o ethod s 0

eadloc race wheel. Again, this has a one-piece construction in heattreated aluminium it s only a aila le in a si e, ut li e the can e ordered or fi e, si and eight-spo e hu s. Again, load ratings or these are 0l and 0l respecti ely. hese are not cheap alloys, howe er the com ination they o er o strength and light weight has made them e tremely popular among o -road competitors and hardcore trail riders ali e, as well as e eryday truc owners with a taste or standing out in a crowd. hey re rought to the y , which can e ound y isiting s .parts.

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PRODUCTS

NEW ACCESSORY SWITCH POD FROM MUD-UK FOR PUMA-ERA DEFENDERS IF YOU’VE GOT a Puma-era Land Rover Defender and you’re looking to add accessories like lights, winches or lockers, Mud-UK’s Puma Pod 2 is for you. Designed specifically or the later dci-engined model, this sits on top of the dashboard and provides room for six additional switches to control your kit. he Pod accepts actory-style and o er switches, meaning your truck retains its OE appearance. hese snap into place within the unit, so fitting it is a ree e.

Installing the Pod itself is easy, too, as it’s ust a uic and simple two-screw fi ing into the top of the dash. Once in place, it’s only just over 60mm in height, so it won’t restrict your view ahead.

Mud’s Puma Pod 2 is available in two finishes matt lac finish to match the factory dashboard, and gloss black to go with the other popular upgrades that are available for Puma interiors. Either way, it’ll cost £40 and you can get it at www.mudstuff.co.uk.

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4x4 02/04/2019 22:19

PRODUCTS

RUGGED RIDGE LAUNCHES HEAVY- DUTY SPARE WHEEL CARRIER FOR NEW WRANGLER RUGGED RIDGE HAS introduced its new Spartacus Heavy Duty Tire Carrier for the Jeep Wrangler JL. Using the same mounting locations as the factory hinges, this promises ‘incredible strength’ – ideal if your spare is going to be much bigger than the original.

Talking of original, the unit has a satin lac powder-coated finish which complements the factory trim as well as fighting o the worst mother nature can throw at it, and its simple design means it’s compatible with most aftermarket bumpers – as well, of course, as the originals, should your build plans somehow include those.

The apparatus is available in various forms, including just the hinge casting and also a wheel mount – which is designed to work with all factory high-mount brake light and reverse camera equipment. As always with ugged idge, you get a fi eyear limited warranty to find out more, go to www.ruggedridge.com.

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MAY 2019 | 25

02/04/2019 22:19

PRODUCTS

TAILGATE ASSIST FROM ARB TAKES THE WEIGHT OUT OF OWNING A DOUBLE-CAB EVERYBODY LOVES DOUBLE-CABS, but not everybody thinks so much of managing the weight of a tailgate.

This is particularly true if you also use your truck as a family car, as so many people do now.

The new ARB Tailgate Assist promises to make things easier.

Using a pair of struts, this reduces the effort required when both opening and closing you’re truck’s business end.

First, the passenger’s-side strut lowers the tailgate gently and under control. Then on the way back up, and this is the really clever bit, the strut on the driver’s-side helps when raising it.

The struts themselves were developed in association with specialist company Stabilus, while ARB designed a mounting system to keep them healthy in the long term. ‘Tailgates vibrate a lot and tubs move when you’re driving in

rough conditions,’ explained ARB, ‘so we’ve put these struts through rigorous tests. e re confident in the product and know all the components are going to last.’

The struts are available for current versions of the Ford Ranger, Isuzu D-Max, Nissan Navara, Mitsubishi L200 and Volkswagen Amarok, with the Toyota Hilux set to e added soon. o find out more, visit www.arb.com.au.

HERE’S ANOTHER NEW product from ARB. The company is known for many things – though torches are not necessarily among them. With this new Pure View Flashlight, though, perhaps they should be.

You’ve probably experienced the anguish of dropping your tent pegs all over the place when you’ve been driving all day and only arrived at your campsite an hour after darkness fell. Well, the Pure View Flashlight has 800 lumens’ worth of LED brightness to help you fin t e again It a an i re i e ea i tan e of 300 metres and four different modes of light, including a strobe feature that’s sure to be popular with your kids, as well as a dedicated hidden USB charge port to recharge the battery – which in turn has a service life of 50,000 hours. Sounds like a bright idea to us.

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4x4 02/04/2019 22:19

PRODUCTS

12- STRAND SOFT SHACKLES ADDED TO IRONMAN RANGE

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RECOVERY ROPE has long been an accepted part of the off-road scene – indeed, it has come to replace steel cable as the norm on prepped 4x4s.

But soft shackles are much less of a common sight.

These new units from Ironman might help change that. Made from high-strength, low-friction 12-strand rope, they’re 500mm long and come encased in protective sleeving, and they have an easy-release design which allows them to decompress after a recovery.

There are two weights of shackle available, rated to 14,000 and 17,500kg respectively. The lighter unit has a single-splice design and diamond knot, while the latter is dual-spliced – and, just like the recovery rope you’ve come to now and lo e, oth will oat i you drop them in water or deep, wet mud.

These aren’t the only soft shackles in the world, but they’re longer than most and, being the work of Ironman, they come with one of the most trusted names on the market. The Aussie company comes to the UK courtesy of West Coast Off-Road who you ll find at www. westcoastoffroad.co.uk.

• Also new from Ironman is a 9500kg Kinetic Snatch Rope. Designed to stretch up to 30%, this is made from high-strength nylon 66 and has a double-braid cover and abrasion-resistant core. It comes with a polyester protective sleeve and has reinforced eyelets, so it’s made to last. Once again, www.westcoastoffroad.co.uk is the place to go.

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MAY 2019 | 27

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PRODUCTS

TURN YOUR WORKSHOP INTO A KITCHEN…

THIS IS THE Men’s Kitchen.

There are men and women alike who’ll react to the name with anything from hilarity to outrage – but whether you’re a bloke who knows what he’s at in a read kitchen, or a woman who can bash spanners with the best of them, don’t be distracted. What you’re looking at here is workshop kit to dream of.

Made by a German company called Matador, the Men’s Kitchen describes itself as ‘the smart, modular, pre-configured tool o solution.’ Basically, it’s a range of self-contained workshops in various sizes that go together to let you start small and build big.

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If big is what you already need, obviously, you can pitch in straight at the top. So long as you’ve got a out fi teen eet in which to fit it.

The Men’s Kitchen is available in fi e di erent si es, allowing you to create ‘a well-considered and complete workshop arrangement without spending much time planning or having to assemble the units when they arrive.’

The idea is that whatever size you need, you can e pand your set-up to suit. Options include 45kg capacity drawers with foamlined trays and ball-bearing rollers, overhead lockers with gas struts and a e i le com ination o cup oards and storage o es.

It’s all made to a solid, highcapacity standard and comes with a dura le powder-coated finish.

The whole lot is free-standing, too, so there’s no need for support or wall-mounting. he fi e units in the range are: Piccolo (1276mm x 1980mm): Comes with an adjustable threedrawer cabinet, seven drawer cabinet, beech wood or stainless worktop and perforated back panel for accessory mounting Compact (1956mm x 1980mm): Adds a further perforated panel space at the back, a much wider workbench area, another overhead cabinet and a further cupboard with adjustable shelves Medium (2817mm x 1980mm): Adds a 861mm seven-drawer tool chest, a 2215mm worktop and yet another overhead cabinet Mobilo: Identical to the Medium, but with a mobile tool chest on wheels Grande (4089mm x 1980mm): The biggest option in the range, with all

the features of the other units plus a worktop area big enough for a whole team of technicians Despite its name, this kit is no joke. It’s designed to provide safe, well organised tool storage and a clear, uncluttered environment in which you can just get on with the job – and with several main dealers back home in Germany having already installed them, you can be pretty sure that it does just that.

You can also be sure that this means it’s pro-quality kit, which in turn means it’ll cost more than the other kind. Prices start at £1395 plus VAT for the Piccolo, indeed – which means you’re looking at a strong investment here that’ll keep on repaying you for years to come.

The Men’s Kitchen is brought to the UK by Damar International, a company whose range of tools and equipment is enough to make your head spin. ant to find out more You know you do. Go to www. damar.biz and it’ll happen.

4x4 02/04/2019 22:20

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26/02/2019 14:09

DRIVEN

SSANGYONG MUSSO EX

High-value double-cab has a massive kit list in high-spec form – but even the entry-level model packs a punch to reckon with DRIVEN Musso 2,2 EX

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aunched in the middle of 2018, the SsangYong Musso is a benchmark for value in the pick-up market. The Korean double-cab starts at £20,690 plus VAT and comes as standard with a 7-year, 150,000-mile warranty – and however you look at it, that’s a lot of truck for your money.

We’ve previously tested the Musso in range-topping Saracen form, but the version you see here is the EX. It’s the one you get for the aforementioned £20,690 plus VAT; it actually started off at a grand less than that when it was initially launched , which is rather a bucket of cold water when it comes to value, but despite this chunky and very early price rise it still manages to give you a great deal for your money. In every sense.

Without giving you a blow by blow account of the vehicle’s spec sheet, the equipment you get includes air-con, DAB, Bluetooth,

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17” alloys, rain-sensing wipers, dusk-sensing headlights and hill descent control. You need to move higher up the range to add things like cruise, leather, sat-nav, CarPlay and heated/cooled seats, but it’s not a bad set of toys to be going on with.

On a less tangible level, the Musso is based on the latest Rexton, which stormed to victory in our 2018 4x4 of the Year awards.

This means it’s perhaps the most SUV-like of all pick-ups inside – the Rexton is an excellent truck at a sensational price, and its qualities haven’t been lost in the transformation into a commercial vehicle.

That said, while it manages to create a genuinely premium image in SUV form, the pick-up doesn’t quite feel as effortlessly classy as the best of its rivals.

Nonetheless, it’s a monumental step forward from the previousgeneration Musso. The new model

pro ects sang ong firmly into the one-tonne mainstream – it’s still perceived as a budget brand by most people in the UK, but the Musso absolutely deserves to be considered as a credible alternative to the likes of the Isuzu D-Max and Toyota Hilux.

The question here is whether the EX stacks up successfully against the entry-level versions of its peers.

Most double-cab customers are after tax-busting lifestyle models with all the toys, but the likes of

the Hilux Active, D-Max Utility and Mitsubishi L200 4Life provide stern opposition. Beat them on more than just price, and the Musso will e ying.

CABIN AND PRACTICALITY he first thing to note a out the Musso is that never, in our entire experience of doing this job, have

4x4 02/04/2019 20:52

Aside from a rather plasticky steering wheel, the Musso’s interior is very well put together using quality materials. Both rows have plenty of headroom, though knee room in the back is a little tight, and even though this EX model is the only one in the range without leather the seats’ fabric trim is stout, long-lasting and very comfortable to sit on so many people climbed into a vehicle we’ve been testing and immediately remarked on how comfortable its seats were. That’s not the be-all and end-all, because in our experience the more com orta le a seat eels or the first hour, the less comfortable it is for the rest of the journey, however we had no complaints at all in this area.

Some pick-ups, even top-spec ones, do themselves no favours with the leather they use, and with its budget background you’d expect SsangYong to be the worst culprit here. But instead, the Rexton’s surprisingly classy materials come into play – and this is one of the reasons why the Musso feels so SUV-like. The EX, meanwhile, is the

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only model in the range with cloth trim – yet it, too, feels in no way cheap. The fabric is tough and stout, it feels nice to the touch and the seats themsel es are oth firm and pliable, providing plenty of support both for those riding in the front and the back.

Legroom for those in the rear is limited i you find yoursel riding behind a tall driver, which isn’t great as the seat-back ahead of you is hard and bluff without any sculpting for your knees. Loading up with a full crew of hefty six-footers requires a bit of compromise as a result, but no-one will need to sit with their knees round their ears – and headroom in the back is way better than average.

Up front, you’re seated in a good driving position with an excellent view all-round – including over your shoulder, which is good as the EX doesn’t have any kind of reversing aid. There’s plenty of leg, head and elbow room, and something that’s very apparent is the quality with which the cabin is put together.

The dash is pretty much completely creak-free, and the controls are well laid out and pleasing to operate.

Material quality is generally very good, though the steering wheel feels a bit plasticky. Again, it’s a carryover from the Musso’s Rexton underpinnings – as a consequence of which, we can say with some confidence that this is the only entry-le el pic -up you ll find that

has a leather feature panel running the whole width of the dashboard.

You might actually consider that a bad thing if all you want is a pigshifter with a wipe-clean interior.

But either way, you’ll appreciate the big, usable glovebox, cubby and door pockets that make it easy to stow your odds and ends. The rear seat doesn’t have any clever folding tricks, but the pick-up bed is easily accessed and well shaped, if a touch shorter than some of its rivals’.

DRIVING The EX comes with a manual gearbox (there’s no auto option at this level), which works well

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enough without setting any new standards. The clutch takes a bit of getting used to, though, as it’s pretty fierce e en a ter ten days with the Musso, we found that barely a journey went by without us stalling. ne concern we ha e here is that the ehicle has a push- utton start, and it s disa led unless you e got your foot on the brake. So if you stall while pulling out at a junction, you can’t hurry things along y firing it ac up with the

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ehicle still rolling you e got to ring it to a complete halt first. t re used to let us ump-start it a ter a stall, too. ot ery good i you re already part-way into the tra fic when the stall happens we ound oursel es stranded in the middle o a roundabout at one point, which is ne er a good loo .

Another reason to choose a ersion o the usso with an automatic gearbox is that it allows you to tow 3500kg. The manual will

still haul 00 g, howe er, which is enough or most people and it has a ery slightly higher payload, at 1095kg (as opposed to 1085kg for the auto).

As tested, at any rate, the . -litre engine pulls strongly throughout the whole o its re range. t s seldom noisy, only ma ing its presence felt a little if you hang on to a gear for too long under hea y acceleration at which point it becomes somewhat gruff. There’s an o ious answer to that, anyway. t calms right down once you’re up to speed, too, fading into the ac ground to be replaced by a constant background road tumble coupled with wind noise from around the door mirrors and A-pillars.

This is hard to ignore if the stereo’s off, though at the same time it’s not so loud that you can’t drown it out with a few

well chosen tunes at a olume that doesn’t need to hurt. he ehicle we tested had a partial load of builder’s sand distri uted airly e enly throughout its bed, which helped draw the sting rom the ine ita le impacts we get to enjoy so many of in Britain. As it is, ased on pre ious e periences of the Musso we don’t think there’s anything wrong with the way it rides, e en unladen. ou eel the bumps from behind you, but they’re well controlled and distant enough not to be upsetting, and the truck steers and handles with as much agility as you e a right to e pect rom any one-tonner.

We need to note, here, though, that the Musso in this test is a model rom e ore sang ong GB introduced an upgrade to the ehicle s rear suspension. e ll e testing the re ised set-up in a forthcoming issue, but as it stands we didn’t see much wrong with the original ersion. t does wander a little on the motorway, howe er, with constant steering adjustments being required to keep it on line. This, coupled with the aforementioned wind noise, means it’s not the most relaxing of cruisers, and ride quality doesn’t completely settle down here either, howe er it s y no means ad ust not as good as

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A rotary dial operates a traditional part-time 4x4 system.

You don’t get a locking rear diff, even on the options list, but you do get hill descent control –even if, in a vehicle with low range and a manual box, you shouldn’t need it

OFF-ROAD The Musso is very agile over rough ground, and its 235/70R17 tyres are well suited to finding traction where there’s not a lot of it about. heir higher profile ma es this the best model in the range for off-road wor , though all ha e low- o as standard – plus the hill descent control we mentioned earlier, should you somehow consider this necessary in a vehicle that already has the equipment to let it be driven properly.

A feature of the Musso, whose rear a le is coil-sprung as standard, is that it articulates very well over really uneven ground. This means it maintains contact for as long as

4pp Musso EX.indd 33

possible – which is good because unli e most o its ri als, it s not a aila le with a loc ing rear di . e can’t put our hands on our hearts and say we found a situation we couldn t tac le without a loc er, however – bearing in mind that we were stic ing to suita le terrain or the Musso’s road-biased standard tyres, it did e erything we as ed o it with no more than the gentlest chirrup of wheelspin here and there.

If you do come up against serious hills, from what we’ve found the Musso will crawl down them the way a proper truc should. hat is, without any electronics coming along to stic their oar in. t clim s well, too – the engine maintains a good, steady delivery of torque and power in low o , dragging itsel ac up on to the cam i you let its revs drop and, happily, no longer seeming interested in stalling.

★★★★✩

VERDICT

the best in the sector. Whether the aforementioned revisions will improve this, time will tell.

SsangYong Musso EX A strong all-rounder that’s much more than just a budget option At last, SsangYong is offering something that’s not just a cheap truck. The Musso is still great value, but now it leads on quality rather than price. Top-of-the-range versions give you a whole stack of equipment for your money, but even this entry-level EX model is very SUV-like – as well as being an absolutely rock-solid workhorse. With a monumental warranty behind it, this is a huge amount of truck for your money – but more to the point, it’s just a huge amount of truck.

02/04/2019 20:52

DRIVEN

RANGE ROVER LWB

Reigning champion in the Luxury SUV class goes after the chauffeur market with a stretched wheelbase and greater rear legroom – but remains every inch a Range Rover DRIVEN SDV8 Autobiography LWB

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little more than a quarter of a century ago, when the original Range Rover was entering the last-knockings phase of its long and for the most part glorious life, Land Rover hit on

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the idea of doing a long-wheelbase version. Its chassis was stretched from 100” to 112”, its live axles were fitted with new- angled air springs and its bonnet concealed the biggest engine that had ever een fitted to a olihull product

a 4.2-litre version of the legendary Rover V8. hus e uipped, the ogue put out 200bhp, accelerated from 0-60 in 9.9 seconds and averaged fuel consumption in the midteens. Words like ‘ouch’ come to mind. But it was a lovely big old barge of a thing that carried the original Rangey into its dotage with enormous class and presence, and these days it’s considered an absolute classic among classics.

What we have here is the inheritor o the ogue s mantle.

The Autobiography LWB is a Range Rover for people who employ chau eurs and who, as tested,

have the ability to spend just shy o 0,000 on a ehicle. he cost £39,950 when it was new, which equates to around £80,000 now, so you’re looking at around twice the rate o in ation there though it doesn t ta e long to see that that’s not in any way comparing like for like. ust loo at the figures or e idence o that. he .

8 engine is actually bigger, but now it’s a diesel; power has increased to 339bhp (with 545lbf.ft for good measure, which is about three times what the old could dish up and at half the revs) and that 0-60 time is now 6.5 seconds.

4x4 02/04/2019 18:03

The Range Rover’s cabin is beautifully designed and executed, feeling every inch like a luxury product. Build quality is higher than it’s ever been before, and the equipment you get is overwhelming – it takes a while to learn your way into the controls, but doing so is very well worth it. Optional on this vehicle, and absolutely worth the five grand it costs, is the premium seating package: this includes 24-way adjustable, heated and cooled front seats with Hot Stone massage function, and Executive Class Comfort-Plus rears, which have all the same functions as those ahead as well as a semireclined position with powered footrests. They also give you a power-operated cubby which drops down at the touch of a button like something from a Bond villain’s toy chest Land Rover has moved to a different world since the LSE’s days. For better or worse, you’ll inevitably be expecting us to add and there you are, we did it… but the point is that in an era of Bentley and Rolls-Royce SUVs, a £112,900 list price isn’t actually all that much. Especially as the Range Rover still has an innate ability to make even these illustrious names look like pretenders to its luxury SUV crown.

These days, the Autobiography LWB is part of a huge range which includes hybrids, a choice of diesels

and high-performance petrol V8s.

It’s not even at the top of the Range Rover tree anymore, either, thanks to the ultra-rare SV Coupe and its ability to separate people from a quarter of a million pounds.

But in terms of elegance, both outside and in, this is a vehicle which perhaps defines what a modern Range Rover is. No longer just elevated on and off-road transport for sir, but a luxury brand whose reputation goes before it.

So is the Autobiography LWB building on that reputation or (something Land Rover has been

getting accused of, sometimes unfairly, since the days of the LSE) merely trading on it?

CABIN AND PRACTICALITY ot to put too fine a point on it, the Range Rover is just lovely inside. It feels very, very special, from its design to its materials, and the breadth and depth of equipment you get with it is little short of breathtaking.

In particular, the seats are astonishing. They’re heated and cooled, they give you a massage and you can adjust them in every direction you can imagine and some you probably can’t.

That’s not just in the front, either.

Instead of a conventional secondrow bench, the LWB has two chairs with all the same functions as those ahead of them – as well as footrests which raise electrically as the backs recline to drop you into a position of repose.

Also electric-powered is a gigantic armrest console which

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drops down at the push of a button like something from a Bond villain’s toybox. You’ve even got buttons to adjust the seat in front of you, though these are disabled if there’s someone sitting in it. Spoilsports.

The bad news is that this dreamlike seating arrangement is an optional extra. At £5130, there’s even the suggestion of it costing quite a lot – though if you’re already able to spring for £112,900 in the first place, it s hardly li ely to trou le you. a e to say we find it unimaginable that a person could

want a long-wheelbase Range Rover without these seats – if you’re buying one, speccing them will be the est fi e grand you e e er spent. And you’ll have spent many.

Either way, if you’re driving yourself (or you’re the chauffeur), the position up front is superb, giving you a glorious view of the road ahead and all around. With so much adjustability, getting comfortable can actually take a bit of doing, but once you’re there it’s sublime. And in the depths of winter, the Hot Stone massage

function is especially soothing.

We’re not making this up, you know.

Headroom is epic, even with a panoramic sunroof, and the waistline eels low, filling the ca in with light through the big windows that gi e you such a fine iew. he dashboard is laid out around two large touch-screens whose graphics are sensationally crisp; one operates in-car functions like climate control, while the upper one is given over to a predictably comprehensive (and complex) multimedia system.

There’s also a DVD player in the

upper glovebox linked to individual TV screens for the rear occupants.

All of this is housed in a dashboard whose construction feels stronger than that of earlier examples we’ve driven of the current Range Rover. There’s little creaking or movement when it’s manhandled, and the leather in

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The dash features twin touch-screens, for the infotainment functions and climate/seating controls, whose clarity and definition are absolutely top drawer. he rear seats provide sensational acco odation, and there s plenty o space behind the when they re up, but olding the down or cargo carrying is largely pointless as they leave such a huge, pronouced slope

which the whole lot is trimmed feels as if it’s covering something really substantial. elow it, the oor console is absolutely rock solid. Sometimes we like to say it feels like part of the chassis, but it’s so enormous you might reasonably think it feels more as if the chassis is part of it. As well

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as controls for the vehicle’s various off-road functions, it holds a pair of cupholders and not one but two stowage boxes – one huge cubby for the front seats and, behind it, a second for the rears. You might need quite a big reach to get at it, though, because legroom in the back is vast.

Further back still, the boot is enormous. It has the traditional clamshell tailgate for which Range Rovers have been known since day one, and the cargo area behind the back seats is both huge and very usably shaped, with vertical sides squaring it off for easy loading. It’s tall, too, making the most of the high roof that’s part of the Range Rover’s design, and the suspension can be commanded to squat down for easier loading.

If you want to carry long loads, however, despite its promising looking wheelbase this isn’t the Range Rover for you. That’s because the big, bulky rear seats only fold part of the way down, leaving a slope so steep you might as well not have bothered. That’s a practicality failing, perhaps, but one which is as understandable as it is forgivable on a vehicle whose rear seats are such a specific part o its overall design.

02/04/2019 18:03

The 4.4-litre SDV8 engine is gorgeous, delivering ample power with smooth, quiet refine ent. o bined uel consumption is quoted at 33.6mpg, however, and as you can see above we didn t get near to that over the course o a test ade up ainly o averagely paced motorway cruising

DRIVING It’s built for the country (supposedly, at least), but the Range Rover is a very good way of getting about in town – even in this larger-than-ever form. The sublime driving position helps, giving you a masterful view all around, and the suspension does a ery fine o o isolating you from the awfulness of ritain s agged, ro en roads.

It’s not completely silent; the diesel engine isn’t harsh, or intrusive, but it is present and you do hear it rising and falling with gearchanges at lower speeds. efinement is e ery it as good as you’ve a right to expect, though,

with no harshness at all from the road e en on a standard-fit tyre, pot-holes and disintegrating speed bumps are smoothed away.

It’s the same on the motorway, which is a chauffeur-orientated ange o er s other most li ely habitat. The engine note dies away to almost nothing, the body remains utterly stable and the steering requires absolutely nothing in the way o micro-ad ustments to eep you on line. It doesn’t wallow or fidget, it ust glides and it does so with ample power forever in reser e. efinement is s y-high.

That should be the least surprising thing you’ve ever heard. But what you might not

be expecting is that on twisting country roads, the Range Rover remar a ly willing to e hustled along at speed. Its steering, which is so forgiving on the motorway, shows a new found sharpness, with plenty of feel and response as you push it into corners – and somehow, its huge-high body remains controlled as you chuc it from side to side. Grip is titanic, of course, but beyond that the level of control you eel is remar a le.

Selectable drive modes help with all this, naturally. However even without dialling them up, the Range Rover still shows an agility far beyond what seems possible – and on a whole different planet to what

the old ogue used to e li e.

Perhaps it’s not as fast from A to as something li e a ange o er Sport SVR would be in the hands o a dri er with the s ill and guts to ma e the most o its monstrous power, but for normal human beings it s not ust uic , it s uic without being intimidating. Pressing on is easy in this vehicle, and doing so feels natural, not ragged or frantic.

That’s on small C-class roads, too, where you’re constantly going etween the throttle and ra es.

On a faster but smoother A or B-road, the Range Rover remains nicely composed – whether or not you’re trying to have a blast. Just ma ing progress is a pleasure.

With its air springs at their ull height, the ange over has ore than enough ground clearance or its wheelbase not to be an obstacle. ts body is well shaped to avoid damage ro ground contact, and despite their low profile its tyres can find traction where you d e pect all hope to be lost

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We’ve already mentioned the 21” tyres on our test vehicle, and that immediately says it’s made for elegance on the tarmac, not traction in the mud. However with low range selected and the suspension raised up high, the Range Rover remains capable of knocking your socks off across rough terrain.

Naturally, a very long wheelbase is going to mean less of a breakover angle. But Land Rover knows plenty about designing vehicles so they won’t damage themselves in rough terrain, and we wrestled it over a series of large, axle-twisting hillocks without any sign of grounding out.

It didn’t even seem interested in breaking traction, with Solihull’s vast electronic know-how stepping in to make a mockery of everything you think you know about short-stroke independent suspension and lowprofile tyres. omething that was very obvious to us, too, was that unlike in the early days of traction control, the trickery does its stuff without making a song and dance about it.

Something else that was obvious, as we slid backwards down a wet, grassy slope halfway through a

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three-point turn on a single-track road just before sunset, was that we were stuck. We’d reversed too far on to the verge, the ground had dropped away and now here we were marooned.

Cue a walk-round to establish any hazards (and search, rather desperately, for any signs of hope), followed by a last-resort bootful of revs. We weren’t expecting to move at all, but after a bit of sawing at the wheel the Range Rover started to slide sideways… then forward a little… then more sideways… then, at last, further forward, and further, until it had hauled itself back up on to the tarmac. The relief was exceeded only by the level of newfound respect we now had for a 4x4 which had already won us over.

Land Rover gets more than its share of brickbats for having abandoned the traditional off-road engineering that made it what it is. We’re among its critics on that score, too. But praise where it’s due: having taken the wheel of most of the SUVs British buyers have been offered over the last couple of decades, this altogether humbling experience said to us that the current Range Rover remains a world-leader in what it can do over terrain that would defeat almost anything else.

★★★★★

VERDICT

OFF-ROAD

Range Rover Autobiography LWB A modern Range Rover taken to its logical conclusion – with outstanding results The best-ever Range Rover? That would be a massive claim to make, but given the nature of what it is these days it would certainly be fair to suggest that the SDV8 Autobiography LWB is the efiniti e e a e t e ree i i r ea e ia i e e e e tra engt a a t 000 t t e ri e t e tan ar er i n ti it at re in t e ar et r n t in at that – and nor should you, because this version t e ange er e it t er e ti n

02/04/2019 18:03

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29/3/19 9:30 am

A standard Suzuki Jimny and a 707bhp Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk: that’s two very different ways of having fun behind the wheel of a 4x4. But which of these immensely desirable new vehicles manages to be most fun most of the time?

WORDS AND PICTURES: DAN FENN

n the face of it, the two 4x4s we have here couldn’t be more different. Aside from both being new to the market, they’re at the opposite end of pretty much every scale there is.

We have live axles and a ladder chassis versus an all-independent unibody. We have 1462cc versus 6166cc and 100bhp versus 707bhp. We have £17,999 versus £89,999. Yes, 707bhp.

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These are the stark facts of the Suzuki Jimny and Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. The former picks up where the old Jimny left off, adding a dose of retro charm and a lot more modernity to the mix, while the latter is the ultimate version of a vehicle that’s been here for several years. Ultimate in terms of performance, at least.

In an era of seriously fast SUVs, the Trackhawk takes the horsepower crown. The output from

its supercharged 6.2-litre V8 towers above anything the likes of Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley and Merc-AMG can come up with. It has, Jeep likes to say, more horsepower per pound than any other performance SUV on the market.

The Trackhawk is only scheduled to be here until the end of 2019, and Jeep expects to sell precisely 120 of them in that time. It’s possible, even with Aston Martin still to join the SUV fray

4x4 02/04/2019 18:04

and Land Rover pouring more power into the Range Rover Sport SVR with each passing year, that it will never be surpassed for sheer grunt.

Talking of grunt, 645lbf.ft is quite a lot of torque. The Jimny has 95. The Jimny’s top speed is 90mph: the Trackhawk’s is exactly double that at 180mph, and on the way there it can wipe out the 0-62 sprint in 3.5 seconds. That gives it the beating of any Lamborghini Countach or Diablo.

4x4 5pp Jimny v Trackhawk.indd 43

So, what the hell are we doing comparing these two completely different vehicles?

Obviously, this isn’t a back-to-back test in the traditional sense – so is it in any sense at all?

The answer is that these are two vehicles with a single purpose: Having fun.

The Trackhawk is outrageous, a muscle machine on a massive scale which Jeep says can be used as luxury transport, a trackday weapon

or an off-road workhorse. ‘It’s the supercar you can use to tow your other supercar,’ to quote, and a braked trailer weight of 3266kg (750kg more than a fi e-door rangler ears that out.

The Jimny, meanwhile, is one of the last s le t ying the ag or traditional o -road engineering. And it does so with a massive dollop of retro styling that puts a smile on the face of almost everyone who sees it.

MAY 2019 | 43

02/04/2019 18:04

he rac haw is absolutely defined by its engine, a . litre supercharged whose bhp and lb . t are delivered along with a soundtrac so oyous it a es you laugh out loud. eep says it deliberately le t o any plastic covers so you can open the bonnet and get an eye ul whenever you want. he i ny gives you an eye ul even with its bonnet shut, on the other hand, especially in inetic ellow paint it definitely stands out in a crowd, though you d better not par it in any uaint otswold villages i you don t want to beco e the sub ect o a social edia ca paign. ts . litre engine a es do without any ind o orced induction but, while it s not on the sa e page or indeed chapter as the rac haw or pace, let alone sheer theatre, its output o bhp and lb . t is enough to shi t the little u u i around ar ore entertainingly than you d ever e pect

The Jimny’s looks have been compared to those of the Land Rover 90, Merc G-Wagen and Suzuki LJ and SJ. We prefer to say it looks like the new Suzuki Jimny. It’s retro, but it’s modern too, not wallowing in its past but building on it with e ident confidence to present an image that wins hearts wherever it goes. Especially in the Kinetic Yellow colour scheme of our test vehicle, there’s absolutely nothing about it that’s shy and retiring.

The Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is by no means shy and retiring, either. Yet if you were to see it in your rear-view mirror, you wouldn’t identify it as a vehicle with supercar pace. It exudes menace, sure, but so do a good many other SUVs. Fact is, even on 20” rims with an open spoke design making a spectacle of brake discs

44 | MAY 2019

5pp Jimny v Trackhawk.indd 44

big enough to create their own gravity, the rac haw loo s at first glance li e a rand Cherokee. A Grand Cherokee with something going on, maybe, but you could almost – almost – call it a sleeper.

If the Jimny wins your heart via your eyes, though, the Trackhawk wins it via your ears. Oh my word, does it sound good. The guys from Jeep at the launch event we attended said it had spent the previous few days drawing people in from all around e ery time they fired it up in the car park, but in fact we were left a little cold by its note when the throttle went down in neutral. nder load, though ya eauty. ormally, you d fight o er the eys o a car li e this. ut the thing we’ll remember for longest is the experience of standing behind it when someone

else put the boot in. The four tailpipes, each looking wide enough to take your arm, produce this overwhelming, guttural bellow that feels like it’s going to crush your chest cavity. It’s fearsome, ludicrous and so, so wonderful. Even once we were done taking photographs, we put the camera down and waved at the driver to go round for a couple more fast passes just so we could listen to the full glory of a huge V8 thundering away at full chat.

Ah, so many cliches, so little time. ut honestly, you’ve got to hear it to believe it. It’s just a brutal, total, full frontal assault of noise and we love it. ot all people are petrol heads, though. he Jimny makes everyone who sees it look at you and smile: the Trackhawk will make plenty of

4x4 02/04/2019 18:05

Above: The Trackhawk in its natural habitat, tearing things up on tarmac. Actually, it would far sooner be on a proper racetrack than a pulic road – speed limits don’t sit at all well with its unbridled horsepower elow O road is definitely the i ny s natural habitat. ut it ll put a s ile on your ace on the blac top, too cut loose in it almost non-stop without a care in the world people turn and look at you, but a good number of them will be scowling. That’s the thing with cars that say ‘I’m fast, I’m powerful, I’m richer that you and I want you to know it.’ It might not be what you’re trying to say, but it sure as hell is what they’re hearing. They can choose to take delight in the delicious madness of it, or to cluck and tut like Mary Whitehouse getting in a huff at the sight of somebody’s knee on television.

You’ll have noticed that everything we’ve said so far is about how much fun these vehicles are from the outside. And that’s no small thing,

because image counts for a lot. You’ll feel conspicuous aboard either, and you want to at least hope that most of the people noticing you don’t think you’re a prat.

As we’ve suggested, you’ve a better chance of carrying that off in the Jimny. It’s small, jolly and unthreatening; it doesn’t look like it takes itself too seriously, and people like that. If you get noticed in the Trackhawk, on the other hand, most likely it’s because people have heard the din from the exhausts and are assuming the worst about your driving.

you can

And the thing is, they may be right. The Grand hero ee is ne er less than magnificent to sit in, with huge seats and so much equipment it looks like it’ll never end, and in Trackhawk form this is taken to extremes. But, no surprise, it’s that engine that defines it and it s almost impossi le to do anything fun in it without speeding. Badly.

We found the experience similar to that of dri ing the ange o er port anging the gas produces a rollicking din and whoa-wahlairy acceleration that just goes on and on and on, and if you’re in the happy position of having somewhere to cut loose the potential for hilarious fun is almost limitless.

What that means on the road, however, is that the potential for frustration is similarly without end. It takes almost nothing to reach the speed limit in act, ust one little listen to that amazing exhaust note can easily be enough to punt the speedo into three figures. o you either get your reckless on, and on and on and on, and before long you’re either dead, banned or in prison, or you’re forever backing down, reigning it in and generally not having fun. Which kind of defeats the point.

MAY 2019 | 45

5pp Jimny v Trackhawk.indd 45

02/04/2019 18:05

Here’s the Trackhawk in another of its natural habitats.

Not that anybody who can afford to buy one would be capable of caring less, but 11.1mpg around town is quite something in this day and age In off-road terms, people often say that driving a lifted 90 on huge Simexes and locking diffs is less fun than doing it in something more standard, because it’s just too damn easy. The Trackhawk puts that problem on to every B-road you’ve ever loved – you can go far beyond the speed limit and it’ll still be so well within its abilities that you risk coming home feeling de ated. here s the un in constantly li ing li e at a quarter throttle?

The Jimny, by contrast, can be driven more or less at out most o the time. our right oot feels directly connected to the wheels, especially around town, and on the open road the rawness of the experience puts you right in the mix.

There’s none of the detachment you can feel in a big, luxurious SUV with huge reserves of power and an auto box doing all the work. It feels light and incredibly nimble, but you have to drive it – every bump through the beam axles, every squirm of the tyres, every bit of body roll, it’s all right there, all absolutely immediate, demanding to be listened to and dealt with. And it all makes the thing an absolute hoot to drive.

The cabin is, of course, a world apart from the Grand’s. Like the driving experience, it’s just right there for you – simple, frill-free, shorn of complexity and none the worse for it. It’s much less spacious, of course, and the noise you hear under acceleration is whining from the transmission rather than joyous bellowing from the exhausts – yet even then there’s something beguiling about it. hich would we choose or a long motorway journey? The Grand, obviously (though at 16.8mpg combined, we wouldn’t want to be the ones paying for the petrol), though by no means is the Jimny bad here. You can have a normal conversation at an indicated 80mph and, while it could definitely do with a si th gear to calm things down, all models come with cruise control to hold you steady at this kind of speed.

46 | MAY 2019

5pp Jimny v Trackhawk.indd 46

But that’s not the point. The point is which of these 4x4s is more fun.

Normally, of course, if we want to have fun we go off-road, and here it’s no contest.

The Grand can do stu , ut its -profile tyres and low ground clearance tell a tale of tuning for something altogether smoother, and the overwhelming power from its mammoth V8 makes it tricky to manoeuvre with the sort of precision you look for on low-speed terrain.

As an off-roader, you’d pick any other Grand Cherokee ahead of it.

The Jimny, meanwhile, is in its element. Its light weight and square, upright stance are ideal for rough ground, and its beam axles give it loads of articulation. e d li e to see a loc ing di in the rear axle, but the aftermarket will soon see to that it s not going to e long e ore the first modded Jimnys start appearing, and what a tool it promises to be with a bit of suspension and so on to help it on its way.

You wouldn’t dream of modifying the Trackhawk in this way, of course. Though to be honest people stopped doing that with Grand Cherokees in general a dozen or so years ago when they went independent at the front. The point is, it already has een modified, y eep, into a vehicle that might be able to go off-road but whose interests lie entirely elsewhere. This is a 4x4 for the track – and anywhere else, even in fast road use, it’s not entirely comfortable in its own skin.

The Jimny is happy anywhere. It’s in its element off-road, but it’s far, far better on the road than the many rather sniffy reviews you may have read in the mainstream motoring press would lead you to believe. It’s nothing like as fast, of course,

but it’s so much more manageable that even for all its rawness, it’s a more relaxing vehicle in which to generally smoke around.

Saying that, we need to acknowledge that both these 4x4s were built for something other than road use – and praise their manufacturers for resisting the urge to compromise the heart and soul out of them. The Trackhawk, in particular, is a proper trackday weapon rather than just another performance SUV. And for its sheer sense of occasion, the Trackhawk takes some beating. For putting a smile on your face, on the other hand, the Jimny is your champ. If full-on hilarity is the ultimate gauge of fun, the thing that comes over you when you nail the Trackhawk’s throttle is, absolutely, without equal. But it’s an all-or-nothing kind of fun – while we absolutely acknowledge Jeep’s towering achievement in creating such a vehicle, you spend too much time in it not having fun – and, by extension, wishing you were.

That doesn’t happen in the Jimny. It’s not refined ut it s not e hausting, either and you can rant around in it non-stop without having to worry about reigning it in. It’s a different kind of fun, less full-on than when you cut loose in the Trackhawk but it’s there all the time. Cliche alert: in the Jimny, the fun never stops.

You might cackle less, but you’ll smile more.

Innocent entertainment all the time: the Trackhawk can max the fun, but it’s the Jimny that’s fun to the max.

4x4 02/04/2019 18:05

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MAY 2019 | 43

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the big bright green pleasure machine J

ust o er two years ago, in the ďŹ nal issue of Total Off-Road magazine before it merged with 4x4, we ran a feature a out an e tremely tidy long-wheel ase eep rangler which had een uilt y P ustoms. ell, that same cropped up again earlier this year as one o the star attractions in the o -road show circuit ha ing een treated to a ground- rea ing application o ull- ody aptor coating.

4x4 5pp PB Wrangler.indd 48

02/04/2019 15:52

When Chris Coyle decided to create an off-road toy his whole family could enjoy, it had to be a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. And it had to be in Jeep’s iconic Rescue Green colour. But little did he know that a few years later, vehicle builder PB Customs would give it an application of Raptor coating that made it brighter and greener than ever – and turned it into a total show-stopper WORDS: PAUL LOOE PICTURES: HARRY HAMM

Made in the UK, Raptor is a hard-wearing product similar in nature to spray-on bedliners.

It’s had a lot of press in the last few years; most people are happy just to use it for protecting the e tremities o their ehicles, or high-tra fic areas such as pick-up truck beds that are prone to damage, but plenty have cottoned on to the possibilities it offers for nose-to-tail protection.

It offers some pretty exciting opportunities for making a cool truck cooler, too. Because

4x4 5pp PB Wrangler.indd 49

Raptor is tintable, meaning you can use it to create whatever colour scheme you fancy. And with new techniques developed by PB Customs as part of this project, it can now be very effectively signwritten, too.

Paul Brown, owner of the Cambridgeshire company, says the vehicle regularly fools people into thinking it’s wearing stickers. Such is the crispness of the artwork, whose edges look like they were finished o with a ruler.

In a manner of speaking, of course, they were.

You just don’t do this kind of thing freehand.

Paul’s technique uses templates – we don’t think we’re giving away any trade secrets by saying that, however the details of what he does to get it looking so sharp are for him to know and you to wonder.

Actually, no. You’re not supposed to wonder.

You’re supposed to want it, and to pay him for the knowledge he built up through a long

MAY 2019 | 49

02/04/2019 15:52

You might almost expect the base vehicle for a build like this to be a Rubicon-spec Wrangler, but you’re looking at a standard one. Standard but for the uprated halfshafts, internal tubes and C-gussets adding strength to the front Dana , o course, and the ir oc ers in both it and the ana at the bac . ubicon would have actory fit e loc ers, which is good as they mean you don’t need to take the aftermarket route but bad in that as a result, you don’t get to go the whole hog and fit the gold standard that s represent process of trialling and prototyping. That’s how this stuff works, right?

Of course, in the off-road world you’re never far away from someone who thinks he could do a better (read ‘cheaper’) job himself. For that guy, Raptor is available in DIY application packs.

But if you want it done to the highest standard

by a professional who knows exactly what he’s looking at, this is a clear case of spend it once, spend it right.

To be fair, that philosophy has informed the whole build from beginning to end. The Wrangler’s owner, Chris Coyle, bought it in 2015 after getting back into off-roading following a

years-long break caused by the pressures of working hard and bringing up a young family, and it wasn’t long before he was heading Paul’s way.

‘When we got it,’ says Chris, ‘the JK had a winch umper already fitted, along with a winch, and also a set of 33” tyres. But other than that it was standard. It wasn’t going to be a daily

‘If you want Raptor coating done to the highest standard by a professional who knows exactly what he’s looking at, this is a clear case of spend it once, spend it right’

5pp PB Wrangler.indd 50

02/04/2019 15:52

From truck-bed protector to fashion item: the rise and rise of Raptor

Full-body Raptor has become very popular since the concept was first discovered, but conventional wisdom has it that you can’t apply stickers to the stuff. Conventional wisdo has a point, but would you believe what you’re looking at here is actually painted on? his is a benefit o using the pros aptor is available or application, but as with everything it’s all about the skill of the person doing the job. Paul at PB Customs says he developed the technique for doing this through an exhaustive progra e o trial and error, and you ve got to hand it to his tea or the fin ish they’ve learned to achieve – the edges really are as crisp as they look here.

The ‘Green Meany’ motif is also notable for the fact that it glows in the dark once again, aul developed a techni ue or this by e peri enting with the paint he was mixing in to the tintable Raptor solution

driver, so I decided to really push things and go for a big lift, big tyres and Air-Lockers, plus of course things like new bumpers and so on.’

Work was still busy, and so was family life, so rather than bashing the spanners himself he decided to turn to the pros – and having asked fellow members of the Jeep Owners Club for recommendations, he was left in no doubt as to who he should call. ’I knew from the minute I started to speak with Paul that he knew his stuff. And with a couple of vehicles already in his workshop for overland preparation, I could see immediately that the quality of his work was second to none.

4x4 5pp PB Wrangler.indd 51

‘So we came up with a plan based on what I wanted out of the Jeep and what use it would be put to. Paul made some suggestions and recommendations then simply got on with the job of making my Jeep what it is today. I couldn’t have asked for a better standard of service – he’s now very much a favourite among club members wanting the job done right on their Jeeps.’

Testament to that is that fact that once the initial build was complete, Chris kept on bringing the Wrangler back to PB Customs for maintenance and repair work – as well of course as further mods. All of which led to the day when the idea of a full Raptor body treatment came up.

Northamptonshire-based U-Pol is a true British success story. Established in 1948, the company makes a wide range of ating fi er a e i e ea ant an polishes, exporting them all around the world from its home in Wellingborough.

It a t r e er t at U i et known for among off-roaders. This was rigina n ei e a a e iner r i tr t it en r e i i it a een it e r ta t e er in e i e r te ti n r e an t in n it t e a ent a t r inta e it can be applied in any colour you want – opening up a world of possibilities for 4x4 owners wanting to create trucks that are eye-catching… and hard as nails. a t ri at a r t i gi e the substrate a polyurethane coating that’s ater r e i e an tr ng re i tant to cuts and abrasions. It resists attack by chemical substances like fuels, hydraulic i a t ater an e en ani a rine t an t e e tra eig t it a an a e a useful sound-deadening effect. e ne er g a ar a t a a r t a e r e i e ete rat r t a ing een t i t in a ti n we’d say it’s as close as you can get. And as the Jeep in this article demonstrates, it a a e a ing e i e t e absolute business, too.

You can get Raptor for DIY applications from outlets like Britpart and Milner Offa an it er g a e r ne I ant t e rt fini ee n t e e age e er a ing a r e i na tfit like PB Customs to apply it for you will be money well spent. Either way, you can learn more about Raptor at www.u-pol.com.

MAY 2019 | 51

02/04/2019 15:52

Above left: You’ll know about Bestop’s canvas products, but the company also makes bumpers. Very serious bumpers at that. This one is home to a Warn Tabor 10-5 winch, which was installed complete with a correctly rated wiring loom – that’s the sort of thing that only happens when you get a proper 4x4 specialist to build your truck for you Above right: Bestop takes care of things at the back, too. This time, the item mounted on the bumper is a swing-away wheel carrier with enough capacity to cope with a 37” spare. Like the front bumper, it’s Raptor coated to protect it from knocks and scratches Paul clearly relished the chance to develop new techniques for pushing the boundaries of what aptor can do in terms o its finish. is signwriting work has changed more than one person’s view of what can be done using a textured material, to the extent that the Jeep was winning him more commissions on its very first show, and he was e en a le to put in a little calling card of his own by creating a glow-in-thedark effect for the ‘Green Meany’ logos on the

5pp PB Wrangler.indd 52

onnet. reen eany is the title hris daughter came up with for the Jeep… and, since its family duties extend to taking both his children away on club weekends, it’s appropriate that she should ha e naming rights. n the tyre supplement you ll find included with this issue of 4x4, we make the point that while everyone talks a great game about their reasons for needing this or that size and pattern of rubber, mainly it comes down to what they

thin will ma e them loo the coolest. ost would swear blind that they’d never think like that, ut it s o ay to ha e guilty pleasures.

And here is a Jeep which proves that hardcore off-road vehicles can be ice-cold street rides too. ull-house aptor coating might e a ery practical way of protecting your vehicle – but it’s also a brilliant way of attracting attention to yoursel . And we all now how much that really matters…

02/04/2019 15:52

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Win Forza Horizon 4, Dirt Rally 2.0 and Tickets to The London Motor Show

Must Play May is a month-long in-store and online promotion, highlighting the biggest and best games on the market, bringing fun for all the whole family regardless of their age! In celebration we are giving away copies of Forza Horizon 4 and Dirt Rally 2.0 along with a pair of tickets to the highly anticipated London Motor Show. The Must Play May initiative was designed to bring family and friends closer together over the bank holidays and half term!

The London Motor & Tech Show is back for 2019. Bigger, Better & Faster.

This year’s show is taking place from the 16th to 19th May 2019 at London ExCel and will comprise 3 huge halls including a Live Arena, Live Stage and over 20,000 sqm of expo space. The Arena will host astonishing stunts, displays and demonstration, plus a host of motoring legends and celebrities who will also present on the Live Stage and walk the floor meeting visitors.

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02/04/2019 22:38

in.your.face.

After owning a long line of beaten-up Toyota Hiluxes, Mitch ewis finally got the chance to buy one from new nd he was determined to turn it into something very special Safe to say he achieved that with room to spare…

WORDS: GARY NOSKILL PICTURES: STEVE TAYLOR 56 | MAY 2019

4pp Lewis Hilux.indd 56

4x4 02/04/2019 20:54

B

ack in 1980, the Toyota Hilux was barely into its teenage years. But even then, it had already developed a reputation for being the truck you turn to if you want something that won’t break.

That’s why Mitch Lewis decided to invest in one way back then. He’d owned a variety of Land Rovers, you see, and had a variety of problems with them, and he very much felt that it was time for less variety. And less problems. is first ilu was e actly the sort o ehicle we’re forever telling people to avoid if they want their truck to have a long and trouble-free life.

‘It was a builder’s truck,’ he recalls. ‘It had been working on a site for four years, was covered in concrete and had never seen a hosepipe. But it stood me in good stead and was far more reliable than the Land Rovers I’d had previously.’

Those were the days before double-cabs, of course. But the simple pick-up shape was perfect for Mitch, because as well as needing a utility vehicle for his work as an electrician, he also required a truck capable of regularly transporting his quad bike to races.

Safe to say he was impressed by the Hilux’s dependability. Because over the following years, he became a serial owner. One Hilux after another passed through his hands, each of them in what he describes as ‘dilapidated but fullyfunctioning condition.’

Although he had only to perform the occasional oil change, fit a new filter and replace the odd rusty bolt in order to keep these vehicles going, Mitch still fantasised about the hassle-free pleasure of owning a brand new model. n April 00 , he finally ulfilled his dream – and, after paying eighteen grand at a local dealership, drove home in a shiny, untouched model kitted out in mid-range GX form.

This came complete with a very healthy amount of modern equipment, though it omitted the alloys, wheelarch ares and leather interior of the top-grade VX. These weren’t in keeping with Mitch’s very clear ideas on styling, however, and neither was the rather peculiar fact that the VX was only available in either two-tone or

silver paintwork. So it made clear sense to stick at GX level.

Mitch specced his truck with black paintwork.

And black it is, very lustrously so. But a whole lot about it changed in the years after it rolled off the forecourt and into his life.

Having always been a fan of pick-ups rather than cars, itch was particularly in uenced y the huge visual impact of monster trucks. Not just real ones, though – in addition, he loved the image of the small-scale remote-control variety.

‘I liked the idea of having a big wheel with a low-profile tyre, he says. emote-control cars always have wheels that in real life would just be too large to fit. As ar as possi le, wanted to recreate that look in a full-sized vehicle.’

Most of the vehicle’s lift comes from spacers, but there’s greater height on the suspension too. The result of this, in combination with 325/50R20 tyres, is a level of ride quality that Mitch describes as ‘very hard and not at all forgiving’. You’ve got to suffer for your art…

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MAY 2019 | 57

02/04/2019 20:55

Mitch would only have been able to get leather seats as standard by buying a Hilux in top-spec VX, trim, but this wasn’t available in black. So he paid less or the truc and instead co issioned a bespo e tri ing ob as his first odification. ater additions have included dia eter stainless steel side steps and a heavy-duty TJM front bumper, also stainless, which is home to a winch that’s there mainly for show

So he had a plan, then? Er, no, not really.

He admits that the vehicle gained its highly distinctive looks through a series of modifications ut that these were made o er a long period and in a pretty ad hoc manner. Still, it wor ed out. ost o the ehicle uilds you read a out in these pages start o with a suspension li t or o -road tyres, ut itch set the all rolling y getting the seats and door cards trimmed in leather. Actually, he should pro a ly ha e chosen naugahyde i he wanted to create a truly authentic monster truc eel, ut each to their own. Anyway, ne t up was something more amiliar, in the shape o the iggest wheels a aila le or a standard suspension. hese were 0. 0 s, which is igger ut not e actly show-stopping. till, the pro ect was

58 | MAY 2019

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now underway, and the tyres were ollowed y a chrome ront A- ar, three-inch diameter roll ar and stainless steel tu ular side steps. his all ga e the ilu more in the way o isual impact, ut itch still wasn t completely satisfied. wanted something ery special, he admits. ut was unsure whether to li t or lower the suspension. h, cringe. his could ha e ended up going ery adly wrong. ortunately, he chose the righteous path. r may e the righteous path ust loo ed easier entually, decided to gi e it a li t, ecause elt that lowering it, it would e ery aw ward to get it e actly how wanted. oing the wor himsel on his dri eway, itch fitted a set o . spacers he had ought as a it, along with a set o . torsion ars. he result was the ind o image that would gi e most oy

racers nightmares and not eing one to hide his truc s light under a ushel, he enhanced its loo s still urther y replacing the standard umper with a polished alloy o rom . his was designed to ra e a winch, so he fitted one ust a 00l unit, so not what you d call hea yduty, ut it was ust or show really so no need to go o er oard.

‘The vehicle stays on tarmac 99% of the time, confirms itch. rass erges and at green fields are the limit o its re uirements in this department. hose o you with attered playday animals par ed on your dri eway can sneer all you want, ut when you e ust spent the thic end o 000 on accessories or a rand new ehicle, a it o caution is completely understanda le. o ten tell people that would ha e ought an old anger i ust wanted to tear

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‘Less wheel and more tyre’ is a mantra we’re forever chanting, but Mitch had different ideas. These 325/50R20s only stand about 33” tall, but with their low profile they loo uch bigger

up and down hills,’ adds Mitch. We bet it would still have been a Hilux, though…

With far more of an emphasis on attractive off-road looks than off-road ability, on went four overhead spotlights and a set of KCA covers.

These probably date the build quite a lot – all this was happening around a decade ago, and i you were to iew it through the filter o modern-day tastes you’d almost certainly be putting an LED bar up there instead.

Not to worry, though. Mitch had created the attention-grabbing monster-look Hilux he dreamed of, and people’s attention was being well and truly grabbed. ‘Even when you’re at the local garage and you’re coming out after paying or uel, it s not unusual to find someone with the phone out taking photos. I think it’s very nice.

I don’t tend to ignore them if I can help it, I’ll often go over and have a chat.’

Talking of fuel, at the back there’s a modification designed to ma e the ilu more aerodynamic. Yes, really. Aft of the loadbay, which is protected by an Aero liner, the tailgate has been replaced with a net, doing away with a massi e impediment to the ow o air across the vehicle’s body.

Also in the back is an aluminium toolbox, which had to e fitted ac wards due to the positioning of the styling bar. Risky? You’d think,

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but if anyone were to break into it they’d be disappointed. Unless what they were looking for was two deckchairs and a large umbrella, obviously. ‘You never know when you’ll want to just sit out and chill,’ explains Mitch, and we can all agree with that.

Not that there’s anything very chilled about driving the Hilux. Mitch says it’s ‘like a go-kart or giant Mini… its ride is very hard and not at all forgiving.’

That’s the price you pay for driving a work of automotive art. Though unlike Michelangelo when he finally downed tools on the istine Chapel, or Rodin when every last sinew in Le Penseur’s body was at last sculpted to perfection, this artist didn’t regard his Hilux, as seen in these pictures, as a finished piece o wor . 0 wheels are easy to get, ut ept finding 0 0s that I really wanted – only to be informed that they weren’t available. After about three months, I ended up with these ones, but somehow how I still don’t feel I’ve got what I wanted.’

After all this, it might surprise you to learn that Mitch’s initial plan for the Hilux was to own it for three years then trade it in. What won’t come as such a surprise is that he knocked that idea on the head simply because he was too attached to the truck he had created. He never fancied the notion of going again on a newer

model, either don t really li e this -li e image that all pick-ups are starting to adopt. To me, they’re all starting to look a little too much the same.’

Whether or not this truck is to your personal taste, you certainly won’t accuse it of looking the same as… well, anything. With a touch of inspiration from monster trucks and some more from radio-controlled models,’ it’s a personal vision on a grand scale. And it’s a homage to the Hilux like no other.

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A HAPPY HOMECOMING

For two a Brits travelling the world in a Land Rover, showing up to a Columbian club meet WORDS AND PICTURES: JENNY BRIGHT AND GAVIN LOWRIE

A

t times, expedition travel can be quite similar to any other kind of tourism. That’s nothing to be afraid of: just because a place is popular with coach tours or backpackers doesn’t mean it’s not worth visiting.

But when you’re done with the national parks and famous ancient monuments, pointing your truck at the wilderness and striking out on your own is what makes overlanding so special. So special and, perhaps at times, so fraught.

But mainly special.

For Jenny Bright and Gavin Lowrie, whose world trip started with them shipping Ruby, their Land Rover 110, to Colombia, there was plenty of tourism to be done. But

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along with it came experiences only a Land Rover could deliver.

That’s not us bashing a brandspecific drum when we ought to be bigging up 4x4s of every make, either. Though to start with, as they set off towards Sogamoso after taking their place in the touristy throng on route to Ciudad Perdida, any Patrol or Landcruiser would have done just as well.

‘This was the best drive of the trip so far,’ recalls Gav. ‘The road ran out a ter a out fi ty miles, and we then used tracks through the mountains and villages. The views were brilliant and the track was exciting, with sheer drops as we climbed.

‘As we climbed higher and dropped over a mountain, the

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Ostrich Wing is an awning that means business

means instant celebrity status

You see more soft-tops at a Columbian Land Rover club meet, but that apart it doesn’t look much different to the way they are in Britain. Most of all, that familiar sense of community you get in 4x4 circles is as strong as ever – which can be a very handy thing when you’re an overlander whose engine has just gone bang…

terrain changed dramatically as we drove through the Páramo. This is a rare glacier-formed tropical ecosystem existing between 3000 and 5000 metres in the mountains.

It’s characterised by lakes, rich plains with peat bogs and wet grasslands, mashed with shrublands and patches of forest – and it only exists in a few countries in the world, with a large portion of it in Colombia.’

Now, this is the kind of thing that makes an expedition special. If you truly value your place in the big, wide world, being one of the very few ever to experience a remote and little-known landscape of alpine tundra known locally as ‘the land of the condor’ is worth any number of ancient remains with gift shops.

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And so too is what happened in Villa de Leyva. Many people travel to South America and elsewhere to take part in local festivals, carnivals and jamborees (think Mardi Gras in Brazil, Hogmanay in Edinburgh or the World Cup more or less anywhere), and that’s great, but imagine being the star of the show. That’s what happened to Jen and Gav when they rocked up aboard Ruby at the annual get-together of the Land Rover Club Columbia.

Yes, there’s a Land Rover Club Columbia. Check it out on Facebook if you don’t believe us.

That’s what Jen and Gav did, and having made contact while planning their trip they found themselves being invited to join in the fun.

And what fun it was. They were driving around town looking for the venue when they spotted some other Land Rovers – and ten-four good buddy, it looks like we got us a convoy…

Their new friends escorted them to the campsite. And instantly, everyone wanted to talk to these crazy Brits who’d come all the way from the land of the Landy to be part of their scene. ‘We were the only Land Rover from outside of Colombia,’ says Jen. ‘Which meant that we were inundated with interest from the moment we arrived to the moment we left a couple of days later ‘We had a constant crowd of people around Ruby, inside Ruby, on top of Ruby and even underneath Ruby! Gavin and I had to go and sit outside the toilet block every now and again to get fi e minutes of peace!’

A ter the inspections had finished it was time for the fun to begin, starting with a procession of over 200 Landies. Naturally, it was a bit on the stop-start side. ‘The Land Rover parade through Villa de Leyva and into the mountains was hilarious, with Land Rovers getting lost, windows and doors falling off and, of course, plenty breaking down!’ laughs Jen. ‘People were just incredible, with offers of places to stay and offers of help when we broke down. This was a unique weekend and our favourite

IF YOU’VE EVER spent time a fing a t tr ing t rt t a ig t eig t a ning i e t e e en an t e a ri a t i i r i e rting a ning i n n a t e tri ing an it a r en it it It a e in S t ri a an i rte t t e U e e iti n e ia i t re t at t e t ing It ni e e n t it t it r e a e it een e er a e t er ea t ateria i i t e Serie e an it eat re i r e ent er er er i n e ateria i ea t i e green ri an a er an a ini ra e e ra e i a e in a tr e ign an i t n n n e it er t g e a ning an e r e t ne er n n t eir n n t e an it in e t an t irt e n i i nt a t ti e in i t get r ing en it e e t e tri ing er e e en are etre a e r er Li e t i it an an e in e rain n ate er t i it get rea in r t ere i ea rain t e an a t rer gge t t a t e integrate r n ta i i er e an e t e tie n int n a t e ar an e en a i e a t t e a ning t t rn it int an en e e ter ri e tart at 12 5 an t at a t t e t gran ar a ing a i e a it t t ere are t er ti n in et een t r i ea e i i it a nee fin t re i it t tre

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experience in Colombia.’ Which is saying something, because the couple seemed to love pretty much everything about the place.

The good news is that their friendship with the country’s Land Rover club was to become a lasting and fruitful one. The bad news is that this was for the inevitable reason. ut first, ha ing en oyed the party, they headed for Columbia’s capital, Bogotá.

‘We both loved Bogotá,’ says Gav. ‘It is a huge, sprawling, gritty, noisy place and there was far more evidence here of social problems, in particular homelessness. That made it feel far more real than some of the more touristy places that we had been to so far. It always felt very safe, though, and the people were as friendly as everywhere else in Colombia.’

a ing een on a gra fiti tour of the city, they moved on to Valle de Cocora and had another uniquely Columbian experience: ‘We played the traditional olom ian game o e o, which involves throwing stones at targets containing gunpowder!’ See, these are the things you won’t read about in the guidebooks.

‘In total we spent nearly eleven weeks in Colombia,’ recalls Jen. ‘There are so many memories – and little things you remember too, like music always being on very loud, sellers congregating at speed bumps, street entertainers per orming at tra fic lights or a few pence, awful sausages, and much more! The incredible people and the beauty and diversity of the landscape meant it was a hard country to leave.’

It turned out to be hard to leave for another reason, too. Ruby didn’t seem to want to go to Ecuador – because on the way there, a loud detonation announced that an engine core plug had blown itself to bits.

One of the things people always say about expeditions is that there’s no AA to call out when things go wrong. Actually, in this part of Columbia there was a rapid response mechanic who was able to help, though he cracked the Land Rover’s header tank in the process so it wasn’t exactly all good. Cue a bush repair with gaffer tape, followed by regular stops to check the water level.

‘We didn’t plan to return to ogota so soon, o es en. ut we realised that before we pushed on to Ecuador, we would need to get it replaced. We’d met a great mechanic, Ale andro, at the andy show and had already visited him in Bogota, so we decided to travel the 0 miles or so ac so he could fit a replacement expansion tank.’

Departure from Bogotá, take two.

Jen and Gav took Ruby to visit the Tatacoa Desert on the way to the Ecuador border, heading through the Purace National Natural Park,

Paramo… and many dirt tracks riddled with potholes.

And after the potholes came the clunking, which got progressively worse. Unable to diagnose the issue themselves, Jen and Gav had to turn north yet again. Following a recommendation from their new friends in the Land Rover Club, they paid a visit to Cali to meet ‘Land Rover Roy’ – and after some head scratching, away they came with a new oint and rear dri e member plus a freshly tightened set of bushes. And, they were relieved to find, no more clon ing hich meant that finally, it was time to say a very fond farewell to olom ia. e finally crossed our first order into cuador, and it was all very simple,’ says Gav. ‘In fact, all borders are pretty straightforward in South America. You don`t need a carnet or the car, ust a temporary import permit which they issue at each border.’

Explorers have been exploring for thousands of years, but something they’ve only started doing very recently is talking to other explorers online. That’s part of life now, for better or worse, and in the town of Ibarra Jen and Gav met up with various other overland

you thin gra fiti and vandalis are the sa e thing, you need to get yoursel on a street art tour o ogot . e d de y even the crustiest o nay sayers to insist that gra fiti is a bad thing a ter seeing the colour it has brought to the olu bian capital

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Solar charging on the go

Some things are slower than an old 110, even if you have to travel all the way to the alapagos to find the . arine guanas are definitely not slow, however these little guys beca e a ous when avid ttenborough fil ed the outrunning a horde o shar s. ut wherever you go in your e ender, loo s li e you can t escape from tired seals… travellers who they’d already befriended on Facebook prior to spending a week or so exploring the region’s lakes and volcanoes.

That was just the warm-up, though. From here they travelled to Quito – before boarding a plane to the legendary Galapagos Islands, where they embarked on an eightday boat cruise.

Jen takes up the story: ‘The Galapagos are volcanic islands. They are like nowhere else on Earth and at times you think you have landed on another planet when wandering around the landscape. The islands are famous for their huge number of endemic species and were studied by Charles Darwin. His observations and collections here contributed towards the theory of evolution by natural selection.’

Many of the islands in the Galapagos archipelago are at least eight million years old, with some possibly formed as much as 90 million years ago. ‘We swam with sharks, seals, penguins, marine iguanas, huge turtles and loads of fish, says en. ery day and e ery island we landed on was different and we loved it. This was by far our best experience of the trip so far and we would highly recommend it to anyone.’

Back on the Ecuadorian mainland, and behind the wheel once again, the team headed for Mitad del Mundo – literally, ‘Middle of the Earth.’ It all sounds very Tolkein, but really it’s just the equator – there’s a monument to show where you’re crossing the line, and it’s physically impossible to go past it without

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stopping to take a photo. Shame the o ficial e uator is actually a out yards south of the actual one, but they didn’t have GPS back then and asking them to take the monument down and rebuild it in the right place might seem a little churlish.

Overall, which of Columbia and Ecuador left the greater impression?

‘Ecuador was a lot smaller than Colombia,’ says Gav. ‘We experienced higher mountains and more volcanoes here. It’s more developed than Colombia, with a better road system and very cheap uel ust p per litre hile it also had friendly people, it could not match, in our experience, the warmth of the Colombians.’ What it needs is a Land Rover club.

Something very good about Ecuador, at any rate, was that Ruby was finally behaving herself.

Not only was she no longer leaking, exploding or shaking herself to bits, she was starting every time and shaking off the Andean altitude sickness where others

couldn’t. And that was with a regular diet of dirt roads, too.

‘We were really getting into the driving and living in Ruby,’ says Jen. ‘We loved driving her through different countries and landscapes; being able to stop whenever we wanted to; waiting until all the tourists had gone and then putting up the roof tent and having the most beautiful places all to ourselves. We felt completely in charge of our own trip, without relying on buses, schedules or anyone else’s itinerary.’

Columbia was vibrant; Ecuador was beautiful. But the big question on an expedition is always what lies.

Whatever Peru was going to have in store, Jen, Gav and Ruby would be finding out on their own terms.

WE’RE ALL SO used to just plugging in our electronic devices to recharge. But sometimes that really isn’t an option. Like when you’re halfway across the Gobi Desert. Or when the FBI is after you and you need to stay off the grid.

At such times, you need to be self-reliant. And then is when you need the services of Mobile Solar Chargers. The company specialises in portable power, and can sell you the kit so you can recharge from a vehicle, from the mains or from solar energy.

The kit is small and portable and could make all the difference when your battery g e at i e re ee in the Gobi. Fold out the solar panel charger and you’ll soon be able to… get on your mobile and moan to the dealer who sold you the duff battery.

You can charge up pretty much any electronic device, from a phone to a tablet, from a GoPro to a GPS system. Or, it says here, your e-cigarettes, meaning you can puff away desperately while waiting for help to arrive.

The problem is of course that if you’re stuck in the Gobi Desert, the dealer who sold you that duff battery is not in the best of positions to do anything about it. So the good news is that Mobile Solar Chargers says it can also sell you a portable combined power bank with the power to start a 6.0-litre diesel engine.

That’s quite an impressive boast, as is the fact that the company’s kit has also been used on expeditions to the North Pole, K2 and, indeed, the Gobi Desert. efinite rt n ing about, this stuff. To check it out for yourself, visit www. mobilesolarchargers.co.uk.

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TAKING THE PLUNGE

How a holiday on the far side of the Channel became an adventure to remember in the

WORDS AND PICTURES: PETER ANDREW

O

verland travel doesn’t always need to mean spending months living out of your truck. Sometimes, adventure is only a day or two away – and when it is, as often or not the adventure becomes the expedition.

Most of us have been to France.

Many will have driven there, even off-roaded there. But when you go out to explore this big, very varied nation, you soon discover that it offers adventures the likes of which everyday tourists never hear about.

Adventures like Le Passage du Gois, for instance. A three-mile tidal causeway across the at sand between the Ile de Nourmoutier and France’s Atlantic coast, this

is used daily by throngs of daytrippers, holidaying families and a small army of wizened local oyster harvesters. Until 1971, when they built a bridge to the island, it was the only way of reaching Noirmoutier from the mainland.

If you go there in a 4x4, you could say that in a manner of speaking, it still is. Because as the tide comes in, it disappears beneath the waves – leaving behind one of life’s truly great 4x4 experiences.

Because every day, for a few minutes a ter the first fingers o water lap across the concrete road, Le Gois becomes what must surely be the world’s longest ford.

Of course, there’s a roadway beneath the water. But try telling

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Top-end GPS systems help keep your 4x4 on track throughout Europe and Morocco

world’s longest ford

Noirmoutier is more than just an island on the end of a huge ford. It’s a holiday destination, too, and a working landscape full of oyster and mussel beds – which are served by a network of unsurfaced rights of way, making it a great place to explore in any kind of 4x4 or SUV

yourself that when there’s six inches of rising tide tugging at your wheels – especially when each side of the thin ribbon of concrete is an ed y treacherous sand ats interspersed with roc s. a e no mista e, this is an o -road experience and a half: one that throws the difference between a car and a 4x4 into the sharpest possi le ocus. et s not ool oursel es, though. his is not sensi le. e re tal ing about driving through three miles o rising water. And it s salty. en i you don’t suffer the sort of calamity that ends up as a iral ideo, the underside of your vehicle is not going to than you hough i you re dri ing an old gas-gu ler o an

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rom a decade and a hal ago, you might not mind that so much. a ing said that, the ol swagen Touareg we drove across Le Gois is not the sort of vehicle you treat li e you hate it. en a ouareg rom the first year o production can still e a slic lu ury motor, e en i it feels dated these days – and the good thing is that with low range as standard, models rom ac then are nailed-on capa le o turning a short cross- hannel rea into an o -road ad enture. o this isn t so much a story o overland travel as one of a mere holiday – but with a purpose that turned it into more than just a mere holiday, i you get what mean. t would e li e going on a road trip to ord app or trying to follow Route 66 from end to end the ourney, or at least part o it, ecomes the destination. ot that some good stuff can’t happen on the way, o course. you cross the hannel on a erry to e a re, the good stu starts pretty uic ly. ou ll soon e crossing the eine on the Pont de ormandie, a glorious suspension ridge that soars through the s y a o e the endless mud ats elow it, and straight away you ll e in the eauti ul port town o on eur. his is a place where, when was a out si years old, learned a ery aluia le lesson. t happened while my mum was in a shop buying patisseries, lea ing dad and hanging around y the sea wall.

A dredger was operating in the harbour; from it led a huge steel pipe, which or some reason ran right ashore and along the pa ement where dad and were standing. ery large signs a out

e ery fi e yards along it said e ense de oucher in ig, angry letters. ad didn t spea much rench, ut he new a o not touch sign when he saw one so, needless to say, resol ed to find out what would happen i did e actly the opposite.

You’ll have to believe me when tell you only touched it ery gently. ut at the precise moment that did so m tal ing a out the absolute split second at which my si -year-old finger made contact with the pipe the dredger suc ed up an une ploded om . t didn t stay une ploded or long, can tell you. he whole town shoo and the pipe practically li ted rom the ground. ad and legged it and ound mum emerging wideeyed rom the shop, wondering what in od s name had ust happened.

A ter a rapid de rie , we scarpered ac to dad s old imca 0 , which was now sitting about six inches to the le t o where he d par ed it, and made a sharp e it. didn t thin d recognise the place a ter all this time, ut on the uai de la uarantaine, surrounded by beautiful old buildings and the screaming cries o seagulls, it was ust as remem ered it. t s an a solutely super har our setting, cool and chic without eing upyours rich the way they can get. couldn t find my mum s patisserie, though. did as around, but someone mentioned that a load o uildings had to e noc ed down after their foundations were loosened y some sort o incident. ac in , they said. ime to mo e on. hunning the main roads, we were ust south o imoutiers

THE GLOBE IS full of global positioning systems. Which is just as well when you’re breezily planning a trip to Morocco but still get caught out by the new car park down the road at Tesco Local.

Wherever your navigational needs take you, GPS Globe promises to have the answer.

The company, which hails from France, makes what it says are the very latest and most advanced and practical GPS mapping and tracking systems.

Its products include tablets, smartphones and a lot more, and all of them come installed with GPS software for mapping and tracking your way across Europe and Morocco. They’re widely available in the UK, but to go to the source for info on which is right for you, head for www. gps-globe.com.

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Sometimes, parking your car can feel like a giant game of chicken. Not that the many local oyster-pickers seemed to think there was anything wrong with this. Check the signs on the roads approaching Le Gois, however, and you’ll be left in no doubt that taking liberties with Mother Nature here is not what you want to be doing

when we spotted a modest little white road sign pointing towards Camembert. A village, or a hitherto undiscovered source of cheese? We decided to follow our noses (hell, but I’m funny) and, after a certain amount of wondering where on earth we were going, ended up in a tiny little village with about one house and two visitor centres.

We gave both a try and turned out to be to be the only visitors in either, so now I should be a world authority on Camembert.

Well, there was a monk involved: I remember that much.

We stayed that night in Saumur, a gorgeous town on the south bank of the Loire where we got talking in a bar with an English bloke who said he’d take us out the following day in his estfield. t might ha e been a Caterham, actually… by then, we were doing rather too well on Pauwel Kwak, a Belgian beer that comes in a glass with a wooden frame and tastes so normal you orget it s a out fi teen percent proof. Ahem.

Having paused en route to visit what may be the world’s only mushroom museum (it’s in a complex of caves dug into the cliffs between Saumur and Gennes), we found our way more or less accidentally into the middle of Nantes. The city looks like absolutely nothing as you approach it, but once you get into the middle

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it’s all mediaeval buildings, trendy boutiques and chilledout café society.

Chatting to some locals, we learned that Noirmoutier is not considered cool among the urban sophisticates of LoireAtlantique. If you rocked up to a trendy bar in Fulham or Chelsea and started telling people you were going to Bognor tomorrow, that’s the sort of response we got. We tried explaining that we were going there mainly to drive across three miles of sea, but the blank looks that came back suggested that Le Gois is less famous locally than it deserves to be.

Still, Nantes is a great city. There are so many hidden gems in France and this is one of them, right up there with places like Reims, Bayonne and Besancon.

It’s not so easy to get out of, though. Next morning we set off, following the big, clear signs to Noirmoutier – which promptly disappeared, leaving us going round and round a roundabout while being eyed suspiciously by a gendarme in a Peugeot. hen we finally ound where we were meant to be going, our route took us past what was clearly the very best thing ever in the history of the world – a museum proudly boasting an exhibition of piano-throwing machines.

Seriously. This is a thing. Apparently, machines de spectacle were quite the rage in the early twenties, and anything designed to chuck a piano across a town square in front of a crowd of onlookers will always get my vote. Believe me when I tell you was heart ro en to find it shut.

It’s probably just as well, though, or we’d never have made it to Le Gois. Heading south-west away from Nantes, we sampled a few green lanes running parallel to the main road on the Ile de Bouin, enjoying the sensation of eating up rough, stony, dusty tracks after what, let’s face it, had been way too many miles on tarmac. Further on, in Beauvoir-sur-Mer, a multi-lingual info board tells you the tide times and warns you that le passage du Gois is only practicable for half an hour after low tide. Of course, there’s a huge margin of error built into that, but better safe than sorry. ur first iew o the causeway as we crossed towards the Ile de Noirmoutier was a thin ribbon of concrete with sand ats stretching into the distance on both sides.

Cars were parked everywhere, kids

played all around and the people working oyster nets in the bay were tiny dots on the horizon. It certainly didn’t look like a ford.

So we carried on across and explored the island itself, getting off the beaten track wherever possible by using the stone and gravel tracks that winds in and out between the oyster and mussel beds. Many of these had ‘no vehicles’ signs, but there were enough accessible trails to make it feel like having fourwheel drive was worth it.

The town of Noirmoutier is in many ways quite normal, but at the same time something about it is just a little strange. The houses are predominantly white stucco, the land is scrubby and you keep seeing palm trees; it’s as if someone has taken an archetypal Mediterranean village and transplanted it here to the edge of the Atlantic.

Beyond the town, the road passes through the Bois de la

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Digging power for baked or frozen ground

Before and after: If you’re in any doubt that messing with Le Gois is asking for trouble, this should put a chill in your bones. That water comes in fast – and when even just a few inches of it are almost enough to sweep you off your feet, you can only imagine what it would do to your truck once it’s deep enough to be pushing against its sills and doors ThroughTheSea left and loodedRoad right , by Ruben Holthui sen @ flickr.com, CC BY 2.0

Chaise, a typical coastal forest in which, to the left and right, stony, sandy tracks lead off through the trees, all of them public roads.

Ahead, the tarmac runs out at Plage des Dames, from where a summertime ferry brings holiday trade from the mainland.

But who needs a ferry when you’ve got Le Gois? Once again, various warning signs heralded our approach to the slip road that leads down to the sand. But where was the water? It was now some hours after low tide, but still there was nothing to see except that vast expanse of sand with people far out in the bay, apparently unconcerned that this whole area was overdue for a delivery of several trillion tons of salt water.

Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. We drove out into the middle of the bay, parked on the sand and waited. After a while, we got bored and started reading. And then we looked up and, beyond the road, the sand was gone. Minutes ago, there was no water to be seen: now, it

was right in our faces, its seething currents gushing this way and that as the tide raced towards us.

Now, suddenly, there were puddles on the surface of Le Gois.

As we watched, they grew, spreading, joining together as more and more of the tarmac disappeared. Behind us, the same was happening, the water approaching almost as if it were creeping up on us. Before long, it would meet the evergathering swell covering more and more of the road. At which point, I started to wonder, even when it’s only a few inches deep, how easy would it be to see where the road actually was?

I got out to take some photos.

And was almost swept off my feet.

Only an inch or two of water can tug at your ankles with amazing force when it’s carried by such a powerful tide. And it was the same in our Touareg; back at the wheel, I could feel the massive weight of pressure trying to force us sideways. And that was just from the fast-moving water against our

wheels: if it came up to our sills and doors, we’d be in serious trouble.

Enough. Down went the throttle, up went the revs and we started to surge through the water, huge roosters erupting from either side.

You can’t compare the experience to driving a ford, even a long one.

It just went on and on, our tyres slicing through the water as gallons of the stuff rained back down on us, our windscreen wipers thrashing frantically back and forth to let us see our way to the sanctuary of the mainland slipway.

Afterwards, all that was left was an afternoon’s very hard work with a jet hose – time spent pondering on the slightly sad fact that no-one is likely to build anything like Le Gois ever again.

Whatever 4x4 you drive, Le Gois is a must in this part of France. In fact, something like this makes it worth going there for its own sake.

Because sometimes, adventure is only a day or two away – and when it is, remember, as often or not the adventure becomes the expedition.

White stucco houses are the norm on Noirmoutier, as are palm trees and semi-arid vegetation. Yet it’s only 250 miles south of London – it’s a hidden gem, this place

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PICTURE THE SCENE. You’re overlanding in Africa, and you’ve struck out on your own to see the wildlife in the Rift Valley or Masai Mara.

Like all good overlanders you take care what you’re doing in your truck, but like everyone who drives a 4x4 you’re not invulnerable… and sure enough, you get stuck.

You’ve got a winch, of course. But its rop won’t reach the nearest tree, and you don’t have a ground anchor. Only thing for it is to bury your spare wheel and use that.

So you get your shovel out and… clang. The ground is baked dry, so hard you’re getting nowhere. That’s when you hear the sound of lions coming your way.

At times like these, you need a shovel with attitude. The Krazy Beaver Super Shovel, for instance. With a head that’s near 9 i e an fitte it sharp reinforced teeth, this is the shovel for when the ground is dried hard, full of clay or compacted with ice and snow – essentially the most stubborn ground thinkable. The head is made of heavy-duty 13-gauge steel, and there’s a lightweight handle with a D-grip which you can get a gloved hand into, so this should be a really practical piece of kit.

Even when the local wildlife isn’t coming to get you, this shovel would still be worth carrying for those times when geography (or a really bad a fire rr get t e etter of you.

The Krazy Beaver Super Shovel costs £79.99 plus VAT from Matt Savage 4x4, and you can also et a protective guard for those jagged looking teeth for another £12.00, again plus the dreaded. Ideal for anyone with wanderlust, or a penchant for mud. Dig it out at www.mattsavage.co.uk.

MAY 2019 | 67

02/04/2019 18:07

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01/04/2019 11:02

OUR 4X4S: SKODA KODIAQ

Weighing up the options

We went a bit crazy with the options list when we specced our long-term Kodiaq Scout. A year down the line, which of them have turned out to be worth it?

WORDS: ALAN KIDD PICTURES: ALAN KIDD AND VIC PEEL

W

ith its year on our eet almost up, the odia cele rated y ua fing yet more Ad lue it s ecome a recurring theme, though the stu costs sweeties so no pro lem there and as ing us to chec its oil le el. t did this once e ore, so clearly it s using at least some, ut its on oard in o centre is yet to start the countdown to a ser ice.

As we re now on the countdown to it going home, howe er, we thought it would e a good time to ta e a loo at the options we specced when we ordered the ehicle in the first place

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and consider how much we d actually used them. ts list price at the time was , 0 it s a odia cout .0 0 and we managed to ump that to ,8 y loading it up or oth amily and o -road li e money well spent, or toy o delirium irst o , we did on metallic paint. you want to e a le to sell your ehicle again a terwards, this is pretty much a prere uisite, so not so much a purchase as an in estment and while we had uite a it o de ate a out which colour to choose, the slic sil er hue we ended up with loo ed a solutely spot-on.

Also ery well worth the e tra, not least ecause it only added 0 to the ill, was oda s olour ulti unction rip omputer. his is one o those accessories you don t e en notice until you e not got it it s a . display in the middle o the dash which shows you stu li e your uel consumption, a erage speed and remaining range, as well as the outside temperature and any ehicle status warnings gi e me more Ad lue, mainly . ou can configure it as a sla e screen or the sat-na or stereo, too. oing without it might not uite e li e losing a lim , ut certainly a finger. on t e temped to gi e this a miss.

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Fold-out trays for the second-row passengers sound like a cool addition for kids, but in our experience they’re most likely to get played with than used properly. When the vehicle’s stopped, you don’t really need a tray; when it’s moving, things will slide straight off. The Children’s Pack includes remote safety lock for the rear doors, which could certainly give you peace of mind, though we’ve never needed to use them

Further options we haven’t noticed are the rear side airbags and crew protection assist, which is good as it means we haven’t had a crash. There was a point where it came chillingly close, however, thanks to an HGV driver who was a lot more interested in getting on his horn than his brakes.

At times like those, you want every last bit of safety kit you can get your hands on, and of course the point is that however careful a driver you are yourself, you never know when they’re going to crop up. So while we think car manu acturers should fit this stu as standard on everything they make, not least because of what happens in the second-hand market, we wouldn’t think twice about paying £500 for these items.

We’re less convinced about spending £910 on Lane Assist and Blind Spot Detection, however. We specced these on our Kodiaq because it’s a family wagon and we don’t want to be the guy who scrimps out of even a penny when it comes to keeping our kids our of harm.

But truth to tell, we can’t think of even one occasion when these functions have come to our aid or we’ve gone looking for them to fall back on – and we’ve done a lot of motorway miles in this vehicle.

We’ve never used the £105 space-saver spare wheel under the odia s oot oor, either.

As with the airbags, of course, this is there for when things go wrong, so you could argue that in terms of the peace of mind it provides, we use it every time we drive the car, but you know what we mean. We wouldn’t think twice about this one, especially in a vehicle whose regular tyres get a harder than normal life thanks to our penchant for exploring unsurfaced roads and trails.

Similarly, while £305 for a heated windscreen might sound extravagant, it’s money well spent.

Being able to press a button and tiny electric elements in the screen clear it in double-quick time is a pleasure you don’t fully appreciate until you’ve scraped the ice off the inside of the near-

opaque sheet of glass in front of you with a credit card while shivering uncontrollably and trying to drive up your street by memory at about 2mph.

Whether we’d have spent another £35 on heated washer nozzles is another matter, but then this has been a kitten-weak winter for extreme cold so don’t let’s rule them out, especially at roundof-drinks money.

Perhaps more surprisingly – it certainly came as a surprise to us – was the fact that having specced Park Assist as a £670 option, it was basically money down the drain. We’ve used it all of once, on the night the Kodiaq was delivered, and of course on that occasion it was to demonstrate it to ourselves.

It worked perfectly, we should add. And maybe we’re just a bunch of old Luddites. But we do a lot of parallel and perpendicular parking in the Kodiaq, and even having had that early lesson in the simply pleasure of letting the car do it itself, it has never even occurred to any of us to use the feature in anger.

Maybe that’s because another option, the £385 Rear-View Camera, is so good. It’s crisp, clear and displayed on an excellent large media screen, and it gives us all the assistance we need when parking. The screen itself deserves praise, too, whether it’s displaying a moving map, vehicle function pages or an Apple CarPlay hook-up; it looks like it’s meant to be there, it responds instantly to

The Multifunction Trip Computer only added £90 to the cost of the vehicle, and it’s money very well spent. As well as alerting you when the AdBlue tank is getting low or the oil level wants topping up, it’ll keep you aware of your range, average fuel consumption and all sorts of other stuff. You can set it up as a remote screen for the stereo or sat-nav, too – it’s a very, very handy bit of kit and a total no-brainer at the money

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OUR 4X4S: SKODA KODIAQ

The Kodiaq is a sensational luggage-carrier, and its electric tailgate makes life a lot easier – albeit not always as quick. hese things sounded li e a gi ic when they first ca e out, but they re very well worth having and, unli e on so e vehicles, the odia s doesn t rebound dra atically when it eets an obstacle, eaning it s still possible to strong ar it shut when one o those end o the world tip runs or ea load ups pushes the boundaries o its load space

commands and it provides a graphic picture that’s never less than pin-sharp.

One of the things it displays, though, is the drive mode palette available thanks to the £990 ynamic hassis ontrol option we specified.

This is a tricky one to comment on without sounding mixed up, because it really makes a difference – and some of our most invigorating moments behind the wheel of the Kodiaq have come on twisting B-roads with Sport Mode engaged. It gets noticeably more comfortable in Comfort mode, too.

The problem is that we had just as many invigorating moments on twisting B-roads with the Mode button left alone. The Kodiaq is comfortable in Sport, and it handles and steers sharply in Comfort. The mode buttons enhance things, but it was already good anyway and, to be completely honest, you need to be a far more committed driver than any of us for your £990 to make a

genuine difference to the driving experience. You won’t turn it into a Lotus Elise at one end of the scale, or a Merc S-Class at the other – but the space in the middle that’s occupied by the Skoda Kodiaq, plain and simple, is a very good space, and we don’t think it needs a grand’s worth of improvement because it’s damn good just the way it is.

We might not bother with £405 to upgrade the stereo to a premium Canton system, either.

This has ten speakers and 550 Watts of power, and it certainly does sound good. Is it better than the odia s standard to a su ficient degree to justify that extra money, though? Well, the last time we drove a Volkswagen Group product whose stereo didn’t knock our socks off, it was air-cooled…

There are various smaller boxes we doubt we’d tick again, too. We specced folding tables on the backs of the front seats for £130, and they have

rarely been used as anything more than a curiosity or small oys to fiddle with. you re ha ing a picnic when stationary, you don’t really need tables; when you’re moving, they’re no use as stuff slides straight off them.

The rear seat backrest release option didn’t really add anything for us, either, though at £95 it doesn’t add much in the other sense either. And, while child safety is never an area in which we’d compromise, the £180 Children’s Pack, which consists of roller window blinds and electric safety locks with remote buttons in the driver’s-door armrest, is not something we’ve ever needed to use. The children in question don’t even know they’ve got window blinds, which is probably just as well as they’d simply join the seat-back trays in ecoming toys to e fiddled with.

Back in the world of grown-up toys, the electrically powered tailgate has proved very well worth the £185 it added. Being able to have the

Our odia is used regularly or carrying a very precious cargo, so we specced every last bit o sa ety it in the options list. n reality, we thin car anu acturers should include every available airbag and accident avoidance easure as standard across their ranges, because options become lost in the white noise of the second-hand market and that s where ost a ilies buy cars, but while every bit o it eant peace o ind not all o it ever got used or real. Still, the enormous legroom in the second row made or two very happy boys and what you can t see here, because they didn t want their pictures ta en, is that there were two teenagers tuc ed up in the seats behind the .

Welcome to the Tardis…

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4x4 02/04/2019 20:53

The Off-Road button is standard on the Scout, as you’d probably feel it should be, and it helps make the most of what the vehicle’s got on surprisingly rough terrain. The drive mode button, on the other hand, comes as part of a £990 Dynamic Chassis Control package. We’re not sure we can justify this for the money – not because it doesn’t work (it does, very well) but because the Kodiaq is already so very good without it. Comfort mode makes it ride more comfortably and Sport mode makes it handle more sharply, but it’s already very comfy and extremely agile as standard so unless you ta e your ewis a ilton fi ation a little too seriously, the Kodiaq will tick every box without needing any extra help

boot open and waiting for you makes loading a whole lot easier – this is one of those inventions that starts off sounding like a gimmick but ends up providing itself to be indispensable, as opposed to the other way round. We’ve found that sometimes the button on the key fob seems to be ignoring us, but a big positive is that if you’re trying to use the tailgate as a device with which to cram stuff into the boot, it’ll just beep at you when it meets the obstruction, rather than backing away – allowing you to take over by hand. As we said, we’re not Luddites, honest…

So, we’ve learned a lesson with these options – which is that while it’s easy to over-spec, you

might be surprised at the areas in which you’re most likely to do it. We reckon we chose something in the region of £3000 in options that we wouldn’t bother with if we were doing it all again (far less if it were our own money). That would ring the final price down to around ,000 and for that we’d still have got a supremely well equipped SUV with all the virtues we came to love, no omissions we’d expect to grumble about and, still, a totally honourable degree of off-roading ability.

That remains a pretty penny for a medium-sized SUV, of course. And if you don’t need as much kit, you can spend about £10k less and still get a

Kodiaq with the same engine and gearbox as ours, as well as seven seats and four-wheel drive – and right there, you have one of the most commanding bits of value for money the car market has ever seen.

And you know what? It’ll see you right. We went high with our order and got ourselves a Scout model with loads of extra kit, and don’t get us wrong – it’s a brilliant, brilliant SUV. But you could go much lower and still get a brilliant, brilliant SUV. It might not be as pumped-up as ours, but it’ll be a Kodiaq – and what the last year has proved is that ultimately, that’s what makes it so very good.

“We got a Scout model with loads of extra kit, but what the last year has proved is that ultimately, what makes it so very good is simply that it’s a Kodiaq”

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OFF-ROAD SCENE

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LAKE DISTRICT AUTHORITY SEEKS USERS’ VIEWS ON GREEN LANE MANAGEMENT Intelligent view sought as anti-vehicle fanatics push for closure on Tilberthwaite and High Oxen Fell

THE LAKE DISTRICT National Park Authority has launched a major project aimed at identifying a suitable management plan for two well known and much loved green lanes. Tilberthwaite Road and High Oxen Fell are

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located north of Consiton, in a part of the Lakes whose concentration of high-quality vehicular rights of way makes it popular with 4x4 drivers, and both have been targeted by campaigners seeking to have them closed.

Tilberthwaite has recently been in the news following a resurfacing programme which has seen £50,000 of public money spent on ‘repairs’ to its natural character. Previously famous for its uneven, rocky surface, which was enjoyed by users of all kinds, it is now a smooth gravel track drivable in almost any vehicle. This work, which almost nobody wanted to be done, was completed early in 2019.

The background to this is a campaign by Friends of the Lake District, an organisation which seeks to create fear and distrust

towards motor vehicles among other user groups. The campaign, called Save Langdale Green Lanes, seeks a total ban on all recreational vehicle use in the area.

On 9 November last year, when Tilberthwaite was closed to 4x4s and motorbikes for the above work, the organisation released a statement saying ‘the temporary closure to motorised vehicles of the route between Little Langdale and Tilberthwaite offers a unique and tranquil experience that contrasts strikingly with the normal experience in recent years due the

4x4 02/04/2019 21:02

OFF-ROAD SCENE

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OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

Pay-and-play events 14 April 4x4 Without a Club Harbour Hill,West Berkshire

Essex, Rochford and District 4x4 Club Rayleigh, Essex

Frickley 4x4 Frickley, South Yorkshire

Slindon Safari Fontwell,West Sussex

21 April

increased use of motorised vehicles.

It’s a good idea to take a walk on this route – while its (sic) quiet.’

Data collected by logging devices installed on Tilberthwaite by the National Park Authority shows that the lane is used by an average of 37 recreational 4x4s per week, and 20 motorbikes. That’s one 4x4 every four and a half hours – and far fewer in reality, as most will have been travelling in some sort of convoy. In any case, as every walker who has ever encountered a 4x4 on Tilberthwaite knows very well, noise disturbance from slow-

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moving recreational vehicles on moorland lanes is practically zero.

Similarly, given that motorbike users almost always travel in groups, the numbers recorded equate to around one pass per day. Any walkers visiting the area to enjoy the ‘unique and tranquil experience’ of a vehicle-free environment might ha e een surprised to find that it was just the same as on any other day – except perhaps for the presence of contractors using noisy hydraulic equipment to smash the exposed bedrock while stripping the route of its natural character.

Tong, Bradford Picadilly Wood Bolney,West Sussex Thames Valley 4x4 Bordon, Hampshire

6 May Hilll N Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

12 May

Explore Off Road Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent

4x4 Without a Club

Muddy Bottom

Devil’s Pit

Harbour Hill,West Berkshire

Minstead, Hampshire

Barton-le-Clay, Bedfordshire

Protrax Tixover, Northamptonshire

Essex, Rochford and District 4x4 Club

22 April

Frickley 4x4

Hilll N Ditch Mouldsworth, Cheshire

Tilberthwaite as it was prior to the ‘repairs’ which saw its natural rock surface smashed to pieces by industrial plant and replaced by at, s ooth gravel. rec ing the lane s character in this way is likely to lead to an increase both in tra fic and the speed at which vehicles travel on it both factors which could play into the hands of the anti-4x4 hate groups that want to see it closed

Parkwood 4x4

Rayleigh, Essex Frickley, South Yorkshire

Slindon Safari

27 April

Fontwell,West Sussex

Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire

19 May

Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

Explore Off Road Silverdale, Stoke-on-Trent

Muddy Bottom

28 April

Minstead, Hampshire

Burnham Off-Roaders Tring, Hertfordshire

Protrax

Cowm Leisure Whitworth, Lancashire

26 May

Frickley 4x4

Cowm Leisure Whitworth, Lancashire

Frickley, South Yorkshire Kirton Off Road Centre Kirton Lindsey, North Lincs

Protrax Tixover, Northamptonshire

Tixover, Northamptonshire

Frickley 4x4 Frickley, South Yorkshire

Slindon Valley Fontwell,West Sussex

Slindon Valley Slindon,West Sussex

5 May Muddy Bottom Minstead, Hampshire

MAY 2019 | 75

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OFF-ROAD SCENE

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One of the 26 vehicles which travel along High Oxen Fell in the average week. The charge is that this level of usage damages the surface of the trail, makes farming impossible, stops walkers from enjoying the 3.7% of the rights of way to which vehicles have access (possibly forcing them on to the 128,000 acres of open land to which they also have access) and, obviously quite unlike the brightly coloured anoraks worn by swarms of walkers covering the entire Lake District, has a negative impact on the area’s natural beauty Ironically, now the lane has been ‘repaired’ and can be driven more easily and at much higher speeds, the number of vehicles using it, and the noise coming from them, is likely to increase. And the volume of tra fic on these lanes is ey to the National Park Authority’s concerns, as laid out in a background statement on its current project: ‘The roads were originally well-built stone roads that served agricultural and quarrying activities

and, as such, form part of the historic heritage of the area. During the past 20 years or so, motor vehicular usage of both these roads has increased. At the same time, minor maintenance of the surface and drainage appears to have declined, and there have been at least three severe weather incidents (2005, 2009, 2015).

‘The combination of all this has led to a deterioration in the surface of the Tilberthwaite road

in particular, to a degree where some agricultural tra fic was ha ing di ficulties in accessing the land or farming purposes.

‘In 2017 we initiated a project to look at the future management options for these two unsealed roads. We are delivering this project in conjunction with Cumbria County Council and the National Trust (who own the farms and surrounding land), and are on target to report to our Rights of Way

Committee in October 2019. The Committee will decide whether we should loo to pursue a ra fic Regulation Order or a different management measure.’

The project, which is currently running, involves asking people who have used these rights of way to fill in online uestionnaires a out their experiences. The authority has also run a series of drop-in events in the local area; these are much more likely to have gathered an

Walkers have access to 2039 miles of rights of way in the Lake District, as well as extensive permitted routes and 127,973 acres of open access land.

By contrast, motor vehicle users have access to 74.9 miles of rights of way, full stop 76 | MAY 2019

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OFF-ROAD SCENE

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Slindon at the double as Morgan 4x4 opens new site

JOHN MORGAN 4X4 DRIVING has opened a new off-road playday site near the village of Slindon in West Sussex.

Morgan, whose Slindon Safari site is already well established as a centre tuition and corporate events as well as regular playdays, recently came across the new venue – and, thanks in part to his established contacts with the local community, was able to secure its use. unrepresentative balance of views, as motor vehicle users tend to travel from some distance away to enjoy the lanes and would therefore be less likely to attend a drop-in meeting than local residents or campaigners with a personal agenda against 4x4s and motorbikes.

Naturally, anti-4x4 organisations have encouraged their members to use the consultation as an opportunity to create a hostile environment towards motor vehicle users. However the authority, which is famous for its even-handed approach, warns that it will not listen to general anti-vehicle hate, saying that such responses to its questionnaire will be ignored.

In addition, the authority points out that walkers have access to 3282 kilometres (2039 miles) of rights of way in the Lake District, as well as extensive permitted routes and 51,789 hectares (127,973 acres) of open access land. By contrast, motor vehicle users have access to 120.6 kilometres (74.9 miles) of rights o way a figure which has come down dramatically during the last 20 years due to the closure of various lanes, particularly in the wake of the 2006 NERC Act. The authority also notes that the combined length of Tilberthwaite and High Oxen Fell accounts for approximately 0.1% of the ‘unsealed

4x4 5pp Scene May.indd 77

Called Slindon Valley, the new site will be open on the fourth Sunday of every month. Slindon Safari, which has recently been used twice every fortnight, reverts back to being open on the second Sunday of each month.

The new site is due to open on 28 April, 26 May, 23 June, 28 July, 25 August, 22 September, 27 October, 24 November, and 22 December. For more info, visit www.4x4driving.co.uk. linear network’ in the Lake District. Its job is to remain neutral (something which certainly other national park authorities would do well to remember), but you can almost hear a sigh of exasperation when reading these words in its background notes.

With anti-4x4 groups determined to use their sheer weight of numbers as a bullying force, however, it’s important for motor vehicle users – and indeed anyone who supports the simple principles of honesty and freedom to get in ol ed and fill in the questionnaires. Evidence has to come from all sides.

Do note that the LDNPA is only seeking responses from people with specific e perience o dri ing on these two lanes, as this is a consultation on their management and not on the wider green lane debate. The questionnaires are at www.surveymonkey. co.uk/r/tilberthwaite or www. surveymonkey.co.uk/r/highoxenfell, and each starts with a link to the extremely informative background riefing notes on the pro ect. here is, quite clearly, no case whatsoever for closures on these routes – but in the face of so much hate and dishonesty, it’s up to everyone who has driven them to speak up and make as much clear.

OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

UK Convoy Tours 12-14 April

5 May

4x4 Adventure Tours Extreme Wales

UK Landrover Events Tynedale

Low Range Adventure Mid-Wales

6 May

13-14 April

UK Landrover Events North York Moors

Protrax Wales

10-12 May

14 April

Low Range Adventure Lake District

UK Landrover Events Eden District

11-12 May

15 April

Protrax Wales

UK Landrover Events Yorkshire Dales

Tracks and Trails North of England

20 April

UK Landrover Events Wiltshire

UK Landrover Events Lincoln and Belvoir

12 May

20-21 April Trailmasters Wales

26-28 April

4x4 Adventure Tours Salisbury Plain

18-19 May 4x4 Adventure Tours Lake District

Tracks and Trails North Wales

25 May

29-30 April

Tracks and Trails North Pennines

UK Landrover Events Eden/Tynedale

25-26 May

4 May

Protrax

UK Landrover Events Northumberland

4-5 May

Wiltshire

26 May Tracks and Trails Durham

Atlas Overland Wessex

MAY 2019 | 77

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OFF-ROAD SCENE

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Overland Travel

OFF-ROAD CALENDAR

April

26 May

12-26 July

24 August – 7 September

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Peru Safari Northern Peru

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Atlas Overland Portugal

9-22 April

27 May

18 July – 1 August

1-15 September

Atlas Overland Morocco

Low-Range Adventure Portugal

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Ardent Adventure Pyrenees

19 April – 3 May

1-16 June

22 July

7-15 September

Trailmasters Morocco Marrakesh Classic

Ardent Adventure Pyrenees (1 or 2 week)

Peru Safari Peru

UK Landrover Events Pyrenees

20 April

3-13 June

26 July – 9 August

11-25 September

Peru Safari Peru

Atlas Overland Corsica

Venture 4x4 Iceland

Protrax Pyrenees

1 April – 13 May

5-19 June

1-15 August

15-29 September

Onelife Adventure Namibia / Botswana / South Africa

Protrax Pyrenees

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ROADBOOK

NORTH WEST NORFOLK Easy-going laning in a gentle landscape

If you bought an SUV as your family car because you loved the idea of being able to explore the countryside when you’re not doing the school run, this roadbook is ideally suited to you. It won’t get you muddy, scratch up your paintwork or have you shuttling in and out of low box all day long (or wishing you had it) – but it certainly is an adventure, tying together a wide variety of well surfaced farm tracks and quiet, narrow lanes in a gently scenic corner of rural East Anglia

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ROUTE GUIDE

IS IT SUITABLE?

START FINISH HOW LONG? TERRAIN HAZARDS

TYRES

OS MAPS

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 83

rancaster 8 r ing s ynn 0 . miles - hours ently rolling armland al ers, cyclists and horse riders ast-mo ing road tra fic arm ehicles andranger orth est or ol

WEATHER LOW BOX SOFT-ROADERS SCRATCHING DRIVING DAMAGE

ery low-profile tyres might not li e stony trac s ri ea le in all weathers, ut e sensi le when ery wet ot necessary deally suited inimal ris asy, ut needs good na igation o o ious ris unless dri en without care

A

0

| 83

02/04/2019 18:01

1

0.0

2

0.05

TF 774 438

Start outside The Ship, a very nice pub on the main A149 through Brancaster. It’s not the cheapest, but would make a perfect place to stay the night before. Zero your trip with the pub to your left, or as you turn left out of the car park, and set off heading west

Turn left for Docking on the B1153 then immediately to the right on Choseley Road, a tiny lane between the houses

6

Turn right then follow ahead between the hedges

1.05

7

1.45

CHOSELEY ROAD

3

TF 772 437

0.2

2.3

4

9

0.35

5

0.7

8

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Keep it slow past the house on your left

10

ZERO TRIP

5.0

King’s Lynn Hunstanton A149

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21 5

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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 yways pen to All ra fic or nclassified ounty oads, all commonly referred to as green lanes.

NAVIGATION

You don’t need to be driving a hardcore modified off-road vehicle to enjoy this route – the tracks in this part of Norfolk are wide, firm and well surfaced, and ideal for family SUVs

11 1.9

TF 708 431

The turning is shortly after you’ve entered Holme next the Sea

CHALK

12 2.0

13 2.15

LA E

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. youre un amiliar with si -figure grid re erences, 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.

SAFETY

he notes on the first page o the roadbook advise you of how suitable it is for your vehicle.These are just guidelines, however.We’ll warn you o any ha ards or di ficult 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

14 2.35

15 2.55

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 85

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 ran -and-file mem ers. youre 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 o reassurance. nce 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 • you find an illegal o struction, notify the local authority • someone challenges you, e 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

MAY 2019 | 85

02/04/2019 18:01

16

19

3.3

17 3.4

18 4.2

4.5

TF 724 421

Look out for the wooden byway sign

20

TF 732 406

4.65

21 4.85

22 5.2

23

ZERO TRIP

5.45

L a o

86 | MAY 2019

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Step 25: Safe to say not many of the people who pull up to this T-junction realise it’s actually a cross-roads. Take care as you emerge – the road you’re crossing is actually quite busy

24 1.35

25 2.2

TF 747 371

It’s a very slight dog-leg right as you cross the road (caution – it’s busier than you expect) then continue ahead on a grassy track between the fields

Step 29: The turning is immediately after the bridge with brick parapets. It’s quite tight, and in wet conditions there’s likely to be a small ford straight after it

26 2.7

At the end o the fields, carry on ahead on a gravel track between the trees. The track crossing your path here may not last forever – when we set out the route, it was ust a strip mown into the grass

28 4.1

S

27 3.2

29 4.85

g o

2

TF 727 356

Immediately after a tiny bridge with ric parapets, turn le t o er your shoulder on the Peddars Way. In wet conditions, there may e a tiny ord ust a ter the unction

30 5.4

31 5.6

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 87

MAY 2019 | 87

02/04/2019 18:01

Step 40: Take great care past Bircham Windmill – watch out for children and dogs in the road

32

37

33

38

5.75

8.8

6.4

34

9.6

TF 722 325

7.1

40

8.35

8.4

88 | MAY 2019

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39 0.6

35 36

ZERO TRIP

0.75

A wooden sign says this is a public bridleway, but it’s not one – it’s a road. At the time of writing, you’ll also see closure signs on the track ahead of you at this junction, which is currently subject to a TRO

41

Take it easy past Bircham Windmill – watch out for people on foot, especially kids and dogs, as you pass the car park

TF 761 324

0.95

4x4 02/04/2019 18:01

42 1.15

43 1.35

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 89

Emerge from between the hedges and carry on ahead along the ďŹ eld edge, stay out of the crops

44 2.6

45 3.45

SEPTEMBER 2018 | 87

02/04/2019 18:01

46

50

47

51

3.75

6.4

4.55

1

4

48 5.5

TF 754 293

53

Turn right for Massingham then immediately right again on a smaller road

8.5

Cast

12pp Roadbook.indd 90

Turn left on the main road then immediately get into the lane for turning right

11 24

5.85

90 | MAY 2019

52 8.45

an ast i a 115

49

Caution past the house

8.3

An

to

Watch out for obstructions – the entrance to this lane has been deliberately blocked in the past by a tree trunk laid across it

a s A

ay 9

4

assing a

212

4x4 02/04/2019 18:01

54 8.65

55

Follow the road hard left in front of the Dogotel kennels building, then ahead towards a large concrete apron

Cross the apron and follow ahead on to a track

8.7

56

11.0

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 91

3.2

TF 735 225

The junction is hard to spot – it’s the first crossroads with a trac after you’ve passed Washpit Cottage on the right

59 3.65

TF 779 234

10.05

57

58

60

Caution over a much bigger farm track

4.0

ZERO TRIP

61 4.15

MAY 2019 | 91

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62

66

4.8

5.65

Cong a i ston

1 2

67

63

7.85

4.95

ott Ro

114

68

64

8.9

5.0

CHA EL ROAD

65 5.2

Caution - this is a major road

69 9.05

TF 703 219

Caution all the way along here – it’s very straight past lots of houses, so take care not to go too fast

CL

92 | MAY 2019

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EE

HO E ROAD

4x4 02/04/2019 18:01

74 11.9

75 12.4

76

Eyes left as the track runs past a fascinating old ruined church

12.6

77 Step 76: The ruins of the Church of St James make for an interesting diversion a little way from the track

12.9

Step 79 (below right): Arrive at the Sandboy pub for the end of the route

70 9.85

71

At the end of the tarmac, where the main track goes off to the left, bear right on to a smaller track over a tiny bridge. It might look more like a driveway to start with

Dead slow past the farm

11.4

72

78 13.2

79

Arrive at the Sandboy pub for the end of the route

13.6

TF 664 221

11.6

73 11.8

4x4 12pp Roadbook.indd 93

MAY 2019 | 93

02/04/2019 18:01

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96 Next Month May.indd 96

1 1 12 C ano Langton n14 214 oosto

SAFETY

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RESPONSIB

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Name Address

ton

SP 717 972

5.75

11.6

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1.85

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 you re un ami liar grid re erences, you ll using them on the lege map. Our aim is for yo do the route without m do recommend having t

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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 30/03/2019 22:16

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

2 | 4x4 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

2-3 Contents.indd 2

01/04/2019 00:18

4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

T

yres are something you need to have. Period. That is at least if you own anything that moves around on four wheels. And with 4x4s in particular, having the right tyre on your truck can mean the difference between reaching your destination and sitting wishing you had well, fitted the right tyres.

It’s often worth reminding people that the tyres are the only point of contact between their vehicle and the road (or whatever else they’re driving on). So choose poorly and you could end up with a nasty ride and terrible driving experience.

Choose wisely and you could transform your vehicle into a driving sensation, especially away rom the confines o tarmac. er the ne t ew pages you ll find an exhaustive guide to the 4x4 tyres currently on sale in the UK. It’s as comprehensive list as we were a le to find, complete with the best prices we were quoted on each tyre; naturally, a few might have slipped under our radar, ut we thin you ll find plenty in here to think about.

Our listings incorporate everything from performance SUV tyres and winter compounds right through to the most extreme mud-terrain rubber. We’ve taken the liberty of narrowing down the price range you should expect to pay on each tyre, too.

As always, these days it’s reasonable to say that there are no bad tyres – just ad tyre choice. you fit something more extreme than you need, you’ll regret it for many reasons – your vehicle will be noisy, ride badly, cost more in fuel, brake and handle worse and wear out its tyres way faster than it would have if only you’d had your sensible head on when you went shopping for tyres.

On the other hand, the last thing you want to do is fit a tyre that won t e grippy enough or strong enough for the usage you’ve got in mind. If your truck is all about playdays and rides around on a trailer, you might as well go as extreme as they come.

If it’s a green laner, on the other hand, very aggressive tyres will make a nightmare out of every tarmac mile you cover in between the trails. And, no small matter, they’ll probably be offensive to use on sensitive public rights of way.

So choosing the right tyre is not a fi e-minute o . ith our listing o options, a guide to what you should consider and a raft of manufacturers showcasing their products, your next set of big rubber boots is almost certainly in here. All you have to do is work out which one it is…

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

Rapid igital Tyre In ator from Ring gets you aired up in a hurry

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ing Automotive make great gear for just about every situation, so it’s a good idea to keep up to date with what they’re doing. Their latest gadget, the RTC1000 Rapid igital yre n ator does what it says on the tin.

From zero PSI, also known as proper panca e le els o atnesss, to 35 PSI takes the RTC1000 just two minutes. It isn’t just the act of in ation that it s speedy at, either, as the digital screen makes it easy

to command and the quickset dial means you can begin the process with speed and not stress.

An LED light makes night in ations easy, too, and the 3.5-metre cable means that regardless of the vehicle’s size it can remain plugged into the car’s 12v socket whilst you sort out all four of the tyres. When you e finished you simply pick the dust caps up rom the in uilt holder on the in ator, pack the cables and airline into the integrated storage and carry on with your day.

The kit includes a storage case with a three-piece adaptor kit, spare valve caps and even a pair of latex gloves. The RTC1000 Rapid Digital yre n ator is a aila le nationwide

now, with what sounds like a wholly reasonable suggested retail price of £49.99. Head to ringautomotive. com for more information, should you need any further convincing.

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

Get a Grip!

There’s no such thing as a bad tyre these days. And with such a variety on offer, there’s no need to choose the wrong one. You just need to know your own mind when you buy them – because there IS still such a thing as bad tyre choice…

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hether you want your 4x4 to be a daily driver, green laner, playday toy, expedition truck or pose machine, there’s a tyre to suit. The variety of treads and sizes on the market is almost never-ending – and that’s good, because while it makes life a bit confusing, it means you’ll never have to roll on the wrong rubber.

Your choice depends on a wide variety of factors. Do you spend more time on the road than off it?

Are your off-road trips crucial, or just fun? What kind of terrain are your tyres most likely to spend the majority of their time tackling? Do you need a set of tyres that will be very hard-wearing?

The problem is that there’s no such thing as a perfect tyre for all conditions. What works in deep mud will be pretty poor in deep sand, for example. It might not be much cop in shallow mud, either; though a tyre that’s ideal in shallow mud might turn out to be worse still in sand. A good sand tyre, meanwhile, might do a fine job on tarmac, but just try getting it anywhere near wet grass…

What this points up is that your choice of tyres is always going to be about making a compromise.

And the good news is that since the off-road conditions we face in Britain are almost always defined by the fact that it rains a lot, the kind of tyres normally referred to as ‘mud terrains’ tend to make that compromise very well. They do a decent job on wet grass, in mud that’s not absurdly deep and over the sort of moderate rocks found in parts of the UK. Modern manufacturing technology means they last a great deal better than they once did, too.

If wear rate is higher on your list of priorities, and you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of off-road ability to achieve it, the range of tyres known as ‘all terrains’ is likely to be perfect. These tyres are frequently found on work trucks,

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE There’s a lot to learn about tyres from this picture, even though you can hardly see them. First, note how even in this extreme situation, the very aggressive tread is still self-cleaning effectively, allowing the tyre’s shoulder lugs to keep on biting.

Second, though, note how wide the tyres are. On a light vehicle, this makes it di ficult or the to bite down into the ground and gain traction. With very soft, deep mud below the surface, on the other hand, this much width gives the tyres a chance o oating over the ground – though that’s easier said than done when the vehicle is also trying to push several tons of water ahead of it… and they’re very popular with overland travellers.

If your truck is just a playday weapon, on the other hand, you’re likely to be well served by something more aggressive. There’s a wide variety of extreme mud tyres, some of which definitely push the boundaries of what counts as a compromise – use these, and your vehicle will have shocking road manners. They wear very fast, too, and the way they dig into the ground makes them irresponsible to use on green lanes.

Beyond this you have pure offroad tyres which aren’t legal on the public highway. If you have a playday toy which you cart around on a trailer, these no-compromise tyres may well suit you, but otherwise they’re off the scale.

Talking of scale, fitting taller tyres gives your ground clearance an instant shot in the arm. You may need to lift your suspension to make them fit… but then this will boost your truck’s clearance too, so it’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Within reason, taller is better.

You’ll have to think of the knockon effects on your gearing, brakes and steering, but the principle is right. In terms of width, however, things are a lot less clear-cut.

Tall, skinny tyres are excellent at cutting down through the top layer of mud to bite into the grippier stuff beneath. But in bottomless mud, marshland or peat bogs, they simply dig their way in; here, a wider tyre will float over the top by exerting less ground pressure.

Take it back to terrain with a more slippery top layer, however, and that same lack of ground pressure will have your vehicle slithering around all over the place.

Your vehicle’s weight has a bearing on the size of tyre that’ll be most effective, too. The heavier it is, the more effective it will be at pushing the tyre’s tread into the ground to gain traction. Thus a light vehicle on over-wide tyres will sit on top of the ground and struggle to get anywhere because it can’t bite in; a heavy vehicle on a very skinny tyre, on the other hand, could quite feasibly start sinking into soft ground while it’s parked up.

One thing you can be sure of is that if your tyres’ tread is clogged with mud or clay, you might as well be trying to drive on wooden wheels. As we’ve already said, it’s always going to be a compromise, but there’s no shame in that.

Where you do need to run and

hide is when you’ve gone and bought the wrong sort of tyres because you thought they’d look cool, or you didn’t want your mates to think you’re a small-timer because your tread pattern doesn’t look as neanderthal as theirs.

Unless you plan to go down the competition road, being competitive about tyres will get you nowhere.

If you want the ultimate in traction and can honestly say to yourself that nothing else will do, choose accordingly – but it’s imperative not to ignore just how bad a really aggressive tyre will be on the road.

On a compromise tyre like a mud-terrain, the centre section of the tread is what gives you control on tarmac, while the outer ‘shoulders’ are shaped to provide grip and expel mud. Note how these tend to get bigger in relation to the centre blocks on the more aggressive tyres; on agricultural and dumper tyres, which you can’t use on the road, the centre section disappears altogether.

As well as wearing at a terrifying rate when used a lot on road, this kind of tyre will make a tremendous din at anything above a few miles an hour. You’ll have precious little in the way of brakes and steering, too – and

when the road is wet, next to no grip. Extreme tyres are just that: extreme. They’re very, very effective, but approach with caution or they’ll turn your vehicle into something it’s not.

Don’t be seduced by their hardas-nails appearance, either. A tyre that looks like it’ll rip lumps out of the tarmac will get lots of admiring glances, but those will turn to smirks at anything above about one mile per hour if they’ve turned your 4x4 passion wagon into something that’s barely drivable.

That’s more important than it sounds. Or than you want to admit. Because most of the people reading this guide will have one overarching question to ask: which tyres will make my truck look cool? We’re not being cynical, there – we speak to loads of tyre suppliers, and most of them agree that that’s the question a punter is likeliest to ask.

If that’s the case with you, well, fine. But do at least try to think about whether looking cool is going to give you a cold. Some of the best all-round tyres on the market are also the smartest looking, so there’s no need to make yourself suffer. All you need to do is get a grip…

Most tyres supplier agree that the question a punter is most likely to ask is: “will they make my truck look cool?”

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4x4 2018 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

Terratoura: the all-terrain tyre that’s not a compromise

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hen nowhere is off-limits to you and your truck, you need a tyre with real bite that doesn’t compromise on ride comfort and reliability. A tyre like the Davanti Terratoura, for example.

Davanti has spent years researching, developing and testing Terratoura to ensure its debut in the all-terrain market produced a perfectly balanced off-road/highway tyre capable of delivering premium performance and value for money.

Extensive testing in extreme environments, from the Arctic Circle to dusty, arid desert conditions, have established Terratoura’s adaptability and capability across the full spectrum of terrain types.

‘We are incredibly proud of the Terratoura,’ says Davanti Product Manager Gary Cross.

‘Myself and the team set out to design something without compromise. We wanted to create a tyre that was equally effective in the sub-zero tundra of the Arctic Circle, rocky, sandy deserts like the Atacama and boggy hillsides in the Scottish Highlands.

‘Once we handed it over to independent testing organisation Tread, the feedback we got was that we really had created something special.’

Ideal for critical applications in agriculture, emergency rescue, construction, energy and more, the

Terratoura’s robust design means only the most extreme off-roading will push its to its limits. Its enhanced compound, meanwhile, provides predictable handling in wet and dry on-road conditions.

The Terratoura also boasts the hree-Pea ountain now a e P certification, a sym ol of winter excellence which means its performance in snow and ice has been found to meet stringent industry-wide conditions.

‘Our paddock testing showed that thanks to Terratoura’s wider uniform contact patch it offers greater traction in a pasture setting, even in the wet while pulling a heavy load, rather than cutting deep into the surface,’ explained Gary.

‘Its side channels also expel mud and debris much more quickly so when Terratoura goes from paddock to surfaced road you almost instantly have unobstructed rubber-toroad braking performance.

‘Going on to achieve 3PMSF was a key milestone for Terratoura, too. Having that allows drivers using Terratoura for professional applications to keep it on all-year-round, even in countries where winter tyres are compulsory.

‘When winter closes in, Terratoura will keep on working, helping move teams around safely and in comfort whatever the weather or terrain.’

Davanti’s development work saw the Terratoura tested at three of Europe’s most challenging independent test facilities – IDIADA in Spain, Test World in Finland and Millbrook in the UK. Impressive results at IDIADA showed the tyres’ exceptional on-road performance, while at Test World they were put through their paces in the most demanding Arctic conditions.

It was here that the Terratoura earned its P certification, putting it in an exclusive club o all-terrain tyres certified or sub-zero conditions.

Finally the product was taken to Millbrook in the spring of 2018

to complete further testing of its mud, sand traction, gravel braking and grass traction capabilities.

‘All-terrain tyres are being utilised in ever-wider applications across a range of leisure and industrial applications,’ concludes Gary. ‘For that reason they need to be capable, reliable and costeffective. With Davanti’s Terratoura, that’s precisely what you get. No frills –just a tyre that does the job and will keep going in any environment.’

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Davanti has spent years developing this All-Terrain 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.

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4x4 2018 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE

Third-generation Mud-Terrain keeps the BFGoodrich legend alive

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ud-terrains come and mud-terrains go, but for almost four decades BFGoodrich has been the name behind the Mud-Terrain. Last year the company launched its new Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 – the third-generation version of a tyre which has become a ‘Hoover’ brand in the world of off-roading.

With the arrival of the KM3, BFG says it has ‘introduced technologies that further improve climbing, traction and toughness in the mud and over rock.’ The company promises a fi e percent impro ement in traction on soft ground compared to the old KM2, thanks to ‘mud-phobic’ bars on the tyre’s shoulders which aid self-cleaning by ejecting compacted material.

They’re aided in this by the ‘Terrain-Attack’ tread pattern that helps give the tyre its name, whose large blocks are designed to grip

on to hard ground, or bite into softer surfaces, whatever the angle of approach. BFGoodrich says the tyre’s revised compound makes it eight percent more effective than the KM2 over rocks, incorporating as it does a ‘Linear Flex Zone’ designed to wrap around hard surfaces when running at low pressures.

Performance over muddy and rocky surfaces alike is aided by aggressively shaped notches in the tyre s shoulders, which ow down into a rather impressively named ‘Traction-Armor Sidewall Sculpture’.

This has a reinforced structure which helps prevent damage to the most vulnerable part of the carcass during harsh off-road manoeuvres on unforgiving terrain.

The sidewalls themselves are now an astonishing 27% tougher than the previous model’s, thanks to BFGoodrich’s CoreGard Max technology – as used on its latest

Baja T/A KR3 desert-racing tyres – which helps prevent splitting or puncturing, with increased thickness to protect the ‘critical sidewall failure zone.’

BFGoodrich says the KM3 ‘was designed to conquer the toughest off-road challenges with extreme sidewall protection, pinch shock resistance and chip-and-tear resistance on gravel.’ But just as importantly, the tyre also offers ‘solid street performance and

acceptable on-road noise levels for drives to and from the trail.’ Given the tyre’s popularity among British off-roaders for use on their daily drivers, this too is a big deal.

‘The KM3 tyre is designed for extreme toughness and traction and is essential equipment for serious off-road enthusiasts,’ says BFGoodrich general manager Harold Phillips. ‘Whether simply driving for off-road fun, or the extreme capability to access outdoor activities, this tyre was made to take drivers anywhere they want to go.’

The KM3 was initiated through a phased launch, which ultimately was finalised with a total o si es being made available, 21 of them being new to the market.

Not all versions are available here in ritain. ut you can find out which BFGoodrich tyres suit your vehicle by heading to the company’s UK website – it’s at www.bfgoodrich.co.uk.

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It doesn’t matter when – or where.

Earn the title ‘Driver Enough’ when you drive on our tyres. #DriverEnough BFGoodrich.co.uk

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

£85-£120 £65-£95 £75-£120 £55-£160 £70-£142 £80-£140 £100-£140 £50-£95 £50-£90 £70-£220 £50-£80 £90 £100-£140 £65-£120 £70-£120 £60-£160 £95-£120 £55-£130 £75 0 00 00 £115-£180 £55-£145 £120-£145 £60-£155 £80-£145 £80-£105 £60-£80 £85-£150 £60-£140 £70-£125 £50-£150 £100-£170 80- 00 £80-£120 £60-£75 £65-£85 £80-£100 £70-£90 £85-£160 £65-£85.00 £70-£130 £65-£110 £65 £80-£90 £50-£65 £55-£85 £45-£130 £60-£65 £70-£170 £75-£90 £55-£95 £45-£130 £90-£100

Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV oad oad oad Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV oad Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV

Notes

Part 1: New Tyres SUV tyres Atturo BFGoodrich BFGoodrich Bridgestone Continental Continental Continental Continental Continental Continental Continental Continental Cooper Cooper Cooper Davanti Davanti Dunlop Dunlop unlop unlop unlop Dunlop Dunlop Dunlop Falken Falken Federal Federal Firestone General Tire Goodyear Goodyear Goodyear oodyear Goodyear GT Radial GT Radial GT Radial Hankook Hankook Kumho Kumho Kumho Kumho Kumho Kumho Kumho Kumho Lassa Lassa Marshal Marshal Matador Maxxis

AZ850 G-Grip SUV Urban Terrain T/A Dueler H/P Sport CrossContact ATR ContiCrossContact LX2 Conti4x4SportContact ContiPremiumContact 5 ContiEcoContact 5 ContiCrossContact LX Sport ContiCrossContact AT ContiTracSUV Discoverer SRX Discoverer H/T Discoverer M+S Sport DX640 DX740 Sport Maxx RT 2 SP Grandtrek ST1 P portma randtre ouring A P intersport SP Quattromaxx SP Sport 01 SP Sport 9000 Azenis FK510 SUV Azenis FK453CC Couragia F/X Couragia XUV Destination HP Grabber GT Vector 4Seasons SUV Gen-2 Excellence Eagle F1 Asymmetric SUV ficient rip Wrangler HP All Weather Champiro HPY SUV Savero SUV Savero HT Plus Dynapro HP Ventus S1evo2 SUV 798 Crugen HP91 Crugen KL33 Ecsta X3 KL17 KH15 KL16 Road Venture APT KL51 Solus KL21 Competus HL Competus HP Matrac X3-KL17 Road Venture APT-KL51 MP47 Hectorra 3 Bravo Series HT-770

18,19,20,21,22 16,17,18 15,16,17,18 16,17,18,19,20,21 15,16,17,18,19,20 15,16,17,18,19,20 19,20 15,16,17 15,16,171,8,19,20 16,17,18,19,20,21,22 15,16,17 16 16,17,18,19,20 15,16,17 15,16,17,18,19 16,17,18,19,20,21,22 16,17,18 16,17,18,19 16 , , 8, , 0, , , 8, , 0 , , 8, 0 16,17,18,19,20,21,22 15,16,17,18,19,20,21 16,17,18,19 17,18,19,20,21 17,18,19,20,22 17,18,19,20,21.22 15,16,17,18 15,16,17,18,19,20 15,16,17,18,19,20,21 14,15,16,17,18 16,17,18,19,20 18,19,20,21 , , 8, 16,17,18,19 17,18,19 16,17,18 15,16,17 16,17,18 17,18,19,20,21,22 15,16,17 15,16,17,18,19,20,21 16,17,18,19 16 16,17,18 15,16 15,16,17,18 16,17,18,20 15,16 16,17,18,19,20,21 16,17,18,19 15,16,17,18 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21 15,16,17

80/20 bias

un at un at un at

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

Michelin Michelin Michelin Nexen Nexen Nexen Nexen Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres Ovation Ovation Ovation Pirelli Radar Roadstone Roadstone Roadstone Silverstone Toyo Toyo Yokohama Yokohama

CrossClimate SUV Latitude Sport 3 Primacy 4 CP521 N’fera RU1 Roadian 541 Roadian 542 Line SUV zLine SUV Rotiiva HT Vi-286 HT Vi-386 HP Vi-682 Scorpion Verde All Season Rivera Pro 2 Nfera RU1 Roadian HP Roadian HT Estiva X5 Open Country U/T Proxes CF2 SUV Geolandar H/T G056 Geolandar SUV

16,17,18,19 17,18,19,20,21 16,17,18 16,17 17,18,19,20 16 17,18 15,16,17,18,19 17,18,19,20,21,22 16,17,18 15,16,17 18,19,20 15,16 15,16,17,18,19,20,21 15,16 17,18,19,20 16,17,18,19,20,22 15,16,17,18,20 15,16,17,18 16,17,18,19 15,16,17,18 15,16,17,18,20 15,16,17,18,19,20

£100-£150 £110-£200 £70-£90 £70-£90 £70-£100 £75 £75-£80 £70-£120 £90-£180 £105-£145 £60-£65 £60-£75 £40-£50 £80-£180 £30-£40 £70-£105 £80-£145.00 £65-£95 £45-£85 £50-£125 £60-£85 £70-£140 £75-£140

Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV

AZ800 ZX7 ContiCrossContact UHP ContiSportContact 5 Zeon 4XS Sport Ventus ST Dynapro HP2 S Pro Roadian HP Roadian HT P Zero P Zero Rosso Scorpion Zero Asimmetrico Scorpion Zero All Season Dimax AS8 RS 500 Enduro SUV Proxes T1 Sport SUV Proxes S/T Advan Sport V105 BluEarth RV-02 Advan S.T. Parada Spec-X

15,16,17,18,20,22,24 16,17,18,19,20,21 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23 17,18,19,20,21,22 16,17,18,19,20,21 17,18,19,20,22 15,16,17,18,19 17,18,19,20 16,17,18,19,20,22 15,16,17,18 17,18,19,20,21,22 18,19,20 17,18,19,20,22 17,18,19,20,22 15,16,17,18,19,20,22 16,17,18 17,18,19 17,18,19,20,23 17,18,19,20,21,22 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23 15,16,17,18,19 17,19,20 22

£55-£155 £60-£160 £95-£270 £70-£195 £85-£140 £70-£150 £70-£105 £70-£110 £60-£95 £60-££95 £70-£200 £100-140 £105-£160 £100-£170 £35-£80 £45-£90 £85-£105 £75-£215 £90-£135 £60-£220 £90-£130 £80-£235 £80

Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV Performance SUV

AW730 Ice G-Force Winter 2 SUV Winter Slalom KSI Blizzak DM-V2 Blizzak LM-80 EVO WinterContact TS 860 S WinterContact TS 850 P

19 16,18 16 16,17 15,16,17,18,19,20 18,19,20 16,17,18,19,20,21

£85 £50-£140 £100 £85-£90 £80-£200 £165-£215 £50-£250

Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV

Notes

Performance SUV tyres Atturo Avon Continental Continental Cooper Hankook Hankook Maxxis Nexen Nexen Pirelli Pirelli Pirelli Pirelli Radar Radar Runway Toyo Toyo Yokohama Yokohama Yokohama Yokohama

Winter tyres Atturo BFGoodrich BFGoodrich Bridgestone Bridgestone Continental Continental

Winter Winter Winter Winter, studdable Winter Winter Winter

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

Notes

Continental Continental Cooper Cooper Cooper Dunlop unlop unlop Dunlop Falken Falken Falken Falken Federal Firestone Firestone General Tire Goodyear Goodyear Goodyear GT Radial Hankook Kumho Michelin Michelin Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres

ContiCrossContact Winter Conti4x4WinterContact Discoverer Winter WeatherMaster WSC WeatherMaster ICE 600 Winter Sport 5 SUV P intersport P intersport Grandtrek WT M3 Eurowinter HS01 SUV Eurowinter HS449 Landair SL S112 Landair AT T-110 Himalaya SUV Destination Winter Winterhawk 3 Snow Grabber(Studdable) UltraGrip 8 Performance UltraGrip Performance SUV Gen-1 UltrGrip+ SUV Savero WT Winter I’cept evo2 SUV Izen KC15 Latitude Alpin Alpin 5 Hakkapeliitta 9 SUV WR SUV 3 Hakkapeliitta R2 SUV

15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 17,18 16,17,18,21 15,16,17,18,19 16,17,18,19,20 15,16,17,18,19 , , 8, , 0, , , 8, , 0 18,19,20 16,17,18,19 16,17,18,19,20 15,16,17 15,16 16,17,18,19,20 16,17,18 15,16,17,18 15,16 15,16,17,18,20 16,17,18,19 16,17,18,20 15,16,17 16,17,18,19,20,21 16,17,18,19,20 16,17,18,19,20,21 15,16,17,20 16,17,18,19,20,21,22 15,16,17,18,19,20,21 15,16,17,18,19,20,21

£60-£225 £150-£165 £80-£170 £55-£100 £95-£150 £65-£125 - 00 0 £120-£235 £70-£120 £35-£135 £100-£150 £55-£70 £90-£175 £70-£110 £45-£90 £55-£65 £50-£150 £80-£200 £90-£100 £60-£75 £75-£170 £60-£120 £120-£250 £85-£130 £110-£220 £80-£200 £100-£200

Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV oad oad Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV

Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter inter, run at inter, run at Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter, studdable Winter Winter Winter, studdable Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter, studdable Winter Winter

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

Notes

Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres Ovation Pirelli Pirelli Radar Radar Radar Roadstone Runway

Hakkapeliitta 8 SUV Hakkapeliitta LT2 Weatherproof SUV W586 Scorpion Winter Scorpion Ice & Snow Dimax 4 Season RW 5 RW 5 Ice SUV Winguard SUV Enduro HT2

16,17,18,19,20 16,17,18,20 16,17,18,19 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21 16,17,18,19,20,21,22 17,18,19,20,21 15,16,17,18,19,20,21 15,16,17,18 15,16,17,18 15,16,17 16

£90-£230 £140-£275 £85.00-£160 £40-£80 £80-£250 £70-£200 £40-£85 £45-£70 £40-£95 £45-£55 £210

Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV

Winter, studdable Winter, studdable Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter

16,17,18 18,20 15,16,17,18 16,17 14,15 15,16,17,18 16,17,18 15,16,17,18,19 15,16,17,18 15,16,17,18,20,22 15,16,17,18,20 15,16,17 15,16,17

Contact retailer Contact retailer £100-£150 £110-£125 £80-£160 £75-£115 £70-£100 £70-£130 £70-£105 £85-£190 £75-£155 £75-£80 £75-£85

All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain Off-Road Off-Road Off-Road All Terrain All Terrain

All-Terrain tyres Atturo Atturo BFGoodrich BFGoodrich BFGoodrich Bridgestone Continental Continental Cooper Cooper Cooper Davanti Dunlop

Trail Blade A/T Trail Blade X/T All Terrain T/A KO2 Long Trail T/A Tour Radial T/A Dueler A/T 001 ContiCrossContact LX Conti4x4Contact Discoverer AT3 Sport Discoverer AT3 4S Discoverer A/T3 Terratoura Grandtrek AT3

40/60 bias 40/60 bias

A couple of winters ago, we fitted a set o the then new Cooper Discoverer inter on the old issan ash ai we used to run.

If you’re sceptical about winter tyres, what we learned ro the e ercise was enough to convince us that they re an absolutely top idea. he ash ai was a odel, but it had better grip than a co parable on snow – not just under braking, which you re e pect as our wheel drive a es no di erence there, but when pulling away from low speeds. he tyres per or superbly in cold and wet conditions, too which is good news, as that s what winter tends to mean in ritain these days

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

Dunlop Falken Federal General Tire General Tire General Tire General Tire General Tire General Tire Goodyear Goodyear GT Radial Hankook Kumho Lassa Marshal Matador Matador Maxxis Maxxis Maxxis Michelin Mickey Thompson Nexen Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres Ovation Pirelli Radar Roadstone Runway

Grandtrek AT2 Wildpeak A/T Couragia A/T Grabber AT3 Grabber AT Grabber AT2 Grabber HTS Grabber HTS60 Grabber TR Wrangler AT/SA+ Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure Adventuro A/T Dynapro AT-m (RF10) Road Venture AT KL78 Competus AT2 Road Venture AT-KL78 MP72 Izzarda A/T 2 MP82 Conquerra 2 Bravo Series AT-771 Bravo Series MA-751 Marauder II MA-S2 Latitude Cross Baja STZ Roadian AT Rockproof Rotiiva AT Rotiiva AT Plus Vi-286 AT Scorpion ATR Renegade A/T5 Roadian AT Enduro AT2

15,16,17,18,19,20,21 15,16,17,18 16 15,16,17,18,19,20 15,16,17,18,19,20 15,16,17,18 15,16 15,16,17,18,20 15,16 15,16,17 15,16,17,18 15,16,17 15,16,17 15,16,17 15,16,17 15,16 15,16,17,18,19 15,16,17,18 15,16,17 15,16 16,17,18,20 15,16,17,18 16 14,15,16 17 15,16,17,18,20 16,17,18,20 16,17 14,15,16,17,18,19,22 15,16,17 14,15,16 15

£70-£235 £70-£130 £95 £85-£125 £90-£130 £110-£120 £75-£175 £75-£145 £75-£90 £75-£110 £65-£130 £95-£125 £60-£90 £55-£90 £70-£85 £105-£125 £90-£140 £70-£120 £70-£85 £64.91-£80 £75-£120 £75-£105 £220 £50-£140 £150 £85-£130 £90-£170 £60-£75 £85-£290 £65-£80 £60-£65 £75

All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All-Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain

Notes

20/80 bias 30/70 bias

40/60 bias 20/80 bias

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

Toyo Yokohama

Open Country A/T plus Geolandar A/T G015

15,16 15,16,17,18,20

£35-£75 £65-£170

All Terrain All Terrain

16,17,18,19,20 17 16 15,16,17,18 14,15,16,17,18,20 15,16,17,18,20 15,16,17,18,20 15,16,17,18 15,16,17,19 15,16 15,17,19 16 15,16 15,16,17 14,15,16,17 15,16,17,18 15,16,17 17 15,16,17,18,20 15,16 16 15,16,17,18,20,22 15,16 15,16 15,16 15,16,17,18

Contact retailer Contact retailer £95 £105-£190 £150-£300 £110-£190 £100-£175 £95 £110-£135 £105-£140 £75-£125 £110 £100-£130 £110-£145 £70-£135 £90-£160 £70-£135 £110 £100-£170 £55-£60 £90 £90-£125 £90-£100 £145-£150 £95-£110 £65-£110

Mud Terrain Off-Road Off-Road Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Off-Road Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Off-Road Mud Terrain Off-Road Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Off-Road Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain

Notes

Mud-Terrain tyres Atturo Atturo Avon BFGoodrich BFGoodrich Cooper Cooper Federal General Tire General Tire Goodyear Goodyear GT Radial Hankook Kumho Kumho Marshal Maxxis Maxxis Nexen Radar Radar Silverstone Silverstone Silverstone Toyo

Trail Blade M/T Trail Blade BOSS Rangemaster Mud Terrain T/A KM2 Mud Terrain T/A KM3 Discoverer S/T MAXX P.O.R Discoverer STT Pro Couragia M/T Grabber X3 Grabber MT Wrangler DuraTrac Wrangler MT/R Adventuro M/T Dynapro MT (RT03) Road Venture MT KL71 Road Venture MT51 Road Venture MT-KL71 Bighorn MT-762 Bighorn MT-764 Roadian MT Renegade R5 Renegade R7 MT-117EX MT-117 xtreme MT-117 sport Open Country M/T

70/30 bias 85/15

80/20 bias

The MT764 Bighorn from a is is a bit o a le t field choice among the many famous makes of mud tyre you have to select from.

We gave a set a try on the Land Cruiser Colorado we used to neglect and abuse… sorry, run as a project car in our old incarnation as Total Off-Road magazine.

The tyres performed very well off-road and were amazingly civilised on it; they resisted damage in rough terrain, too, which is a very big deal – especially with new tyres capable of costing so much to replace

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

Notes

Part 2: Remoulds SUV tyres Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Malatesta

EcoDrive HP Mountain Sagra 4x4 Kondor M 80

16,17 15,16, 15,16 15 16

£50-£60 £60-£70 £70-£80 £85 £85

Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV

50/50 bias 30/70 bias 30/70 bias 10/90 bias

Thermic Kougar Kobra Trac Kobra Trac NT Kobra Trac NT1

15,16,17 15,16 16 15,16,17 15,16

£35-£45 £100-£120 £120 £75-£85 £75-£105

Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV Road SUV

winter winter winter winter winter

15,16,17 16 15,16,17,18 15,16 15 15,16 15,16 15,16,17,18,19

£70-£85 £90 £55-£85 £75-£80 £45 £55-£70 £55-£60 £75-£100

All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain

50/50 bias

Winter tyres Malatesta Malatesta Malatesta Malatesta Malatesta

All-Terrain tyres Fedima Fedima Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Kingpin Kingpin Kingpin Malatesta

Fronteira Town&Country Ranger TM+S 244 All Terrain Technic Tracker XPC Koala

50/50 bias

winter

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4x4 2019 WHEEL AND TYRE GUIDE Maker

Brand

Rim sizes

Price range

Type

Malatesta Nortenha Nortenha Nortenha

MPC 4x4 AT1 Hunter Camtrac

16 17,18 15 16

£75 £55-£65 £85 £110

All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain All Terrain

£65-£100 £100-£110 £95 £70-£80 £120 £90 £85 £65-£75 £75 £70-£80 £80 £70-£80 £75 £70-£75 £75-£95 £55 £85-£95 £95-£100 £75 £65 £60-£75 £125 £123.90

Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain Mud Terrain

Notes

Mud-Terrain and Extreme Off-Road tyres Fedima Fedima Fedima Fedima Fedima Fedima Fedima Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Insa Turbo Kingpin Kingpin Kingpin Malatesta Malatesta Malatesta Nortenha Nortenha Nortenha Nortenha

F/Mud Sirocco Maxi-Grip Extreme Extreme Evolution Partner Maxima Special Track Sahara Competicion Dakar Traction Track Sahara K2 Amazon Extreme Hilander Kaiman Kamel MT NX Trac 4x4 MTK2 Grab Plus Grab Plus

15,16,17 15,16 16 15,16, 16 16 16 15,16 16 14,15,16,17 16 15,16 16 15,16 15,16 16 15,16 16,17 15 16 17,19 16 16

70/30 bias 90/10 bias 80/20 bias

95/5 bias 80/20 bias 80/20 bias 70/30 bias 80/20 bias

90/10 bias 90/10 bias 80/20 bias

Spanish giant Insa Turbo is a world-leader in remoulding technology.

It’s best known among British off-road fans for its hardcore tread patterns, and the company recently branched out into specialised competition tyres, but it also makes hard-working all-terrains like the Ranger, seen here in 265/75R16 form on a Land Rover Defender. This is a classic compromise design which grips well and rides quietly on the road while also allowing a far more dependable performance on low-traction surfaces than standard tyres can deliver

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ew Defe

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Velar Discovery Disco Sport RR Sport Evoque

Perfect for your Disco

sales@xs4x4.parts web: www.xs4x4.parts tel: 0800 030 6887 22-23 XS4x4 AD.indd 23

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Look after your tyres and they’ll look after you.

As the only point of contact with the road, tyres should be correctly inflated for; Safety – Optimum grip on the road

Carbon Footprint – Reduce CO2 emissions

Ring Tyre Inflators, part of the family 24 Ring AD.indd 24

ow

n

Money Saving – Improved fuel efficiency and reduced wear and tear of tyres M o d el

RTC

1

0 00

sh

For the complete range and your nearest stockist visit

ringautomotive.com

31/03/2019 22:28