Land Rover: The Story of the Car that Conquered the World. Ben Fogle
early 1990s were not Land Rover’s finest years, and were memorable only for the production of the much-derided Freelander 1. Added to this was Land Rover’s aggressive pursuit of the luxury market with their Range Rover. Beyond British borders, it seemed, the Land Rover had lost its way, but Bowler had given them a platform to remind people of their cars’ serious off-road capabilities, even if it meant a car that had been assembled from only half a Defender.
The relationship with Land Rover remains strong, as Drew pointed out to me when I visited him at his workshops in Derbyshire.
‘We were one of the first businesses to be recognised, supported and endorsed by Land Rover,’ Drew admits proudly. As if to reiterate this, he took me to a ‘secret room’ where a team of designers worked at banks of computers with high-speed CAD (Computer Aided Design) links to Land Rover’s headquarters.
Rally cars required a number of modifications from a standard off-road vehicle. As we walked around the factory floor Drew showed me bumpers that had holes cut out to save weight, but also for ease of cleaning after a race. ‘A rally car picks up 40–60 pounds of mud during a race,’ he explained. ‘They need to be easily hosed down, and the holes help.’
Perhaps most astonishing to see were the massive support trucks that accompany the rally vehicles around the world. Standing some 20 feet tall and weighing in at a staggering 27 tons, I was dwarfed by one six-wheeler truck. Essentially mobile workshops, they also need to be able to navigate across the course. ‘There was a point when they were faster than some of the cars,’ Drew laughed. They too are fitted with full roll cages and rally seats. Nothing has been omitted in the detailed design of these cars, with upwards of one a week being made by a team of 27 staff. Not to be outdone, though, next to the Goliath was a similar-sized Czech vehicle that had once been used as a mobile nuclear missile launcher.
As the popularity of rally driving continued to grow, Drew spotted another hole in the market: those who wanted a road-legal Defender in which they could weekend rally. Thus the Defender Challenge Land Rover was born – a short wheelbase Defender modified into a highly able rally vehicle. The interior was stripped out and roll bars and rally seats were fitted, along with all the other safety requirements. The result was a car that was original Defender on the outside, but something far more sporty inside.
As far as cost goes, a mere £50,000 buys you the car, a further £20,000 will ensure its entry into the six-part Defender Challenge series, and Bowler will even maintain and manage the cars for you. Like stabling of the finest racehorses, the company will deliver the Bowler Defenders to the rally course then take them away at the end and clean and make any necessary adjustments afterwards. The owners just need to turn up, race and go home.
I asked Drew what made Derbyshire such a good place for his manufacturing.
‘Rural communities have the ability to fix things,’ he explained. ‘We have some of the greatest engineers and manufacturers. Locally we have Rolls-Royce, Bombardier and Toyota.’ If you want something made, come to Derbyshire.
Intrigued to know why he had continued with Land Rovers, I asked him why he still worked with this marque.
‘They’re like a fungus that you can’t get rid of,’ he replied. ‘I learnt to drive in a Series I and it was the same car I started rallying in. Today people want the nostalgia of the cars from their past or their childhood; we revert back to what we know, there is reassurance in something we remember. We have every customer from billionaires to builders; they are all drawn to the classless car.’
In the corner of the workshop stood another Series I that looked unlike anything I had ever seen before.
‘This one has been totally rebuilt for a customer in the Middle East. It has power steering, air conditioning, V8 engine, proper brakes,’ Drew explained.
It was a stunning-looking vehicle, and I wondered if perhaps this was the next period of evolution in the cottage industry of Land Rovers.
‘There was near panic and hysteria last year,’ admitted Drew. ‘People heard that production of the Defender was about to stop and there was a mad scramble to get a car.
‘There are two types of Land Rover enthusiasts,’ he continued, ‘those who wanted to get one as an investment and those who had always wanted a Land Rover and thought they’d get one before it was too late.’
Bowler has a loyal customer base.
‘Our customers often have a top-of-the-range Range Rover, and a Defender, and they complete the set with a Bowler rally car,’ Drew revealed.
I wondered whether wives ever have much input. Drew rolled his eyes and smiled.
‘“It’s an investment, darling,” is the most common excuse for buying a Bowler Land Rover. We always have to handle the wives,’ he admitted. ‘The second most common reply from a prospective customer about to sign for a car is, “I’ll just check with my wife.”’
The worst, though, Drew revealed, is the customer who arrives with his ‘enthusiastic mate’ who is invariably a hobby mechanic. The ‘friend’ will moan and complain about the engineering and mechanics and quite literally talk his friend out of the business.
‘The Land Rover is an assuring vehicle,’ Drew said. ‘We see them used by search and rescue, the police, the coastguard, ambulance service and the military, and we think, if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.’
Rally cars aside, Land Rovers had so far proved to be the ultimate vehicles for the adventurous for more than two decades. Yet the most adventurous event of all was about to hit the scene. The ‘Olympics of 4×4’, as it was dubbed, began in 1980 with the Camel Trophy. These new adventure races started with a course that took drivers along the Trans-Amazonian highway in Series II Land Rovers. The events were all about adventure and expedition, and in the early years they took place in Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Zaire, Brazil, Borneo, Australia, Madagascar (the first north–south crossing) and Sulawesi, before returning to the Amazon.
These gruelling tests of human endurance brought together teams from around the world who hoped to triumph in some of the most treacherous off-road conditions imaginable. Teamwork and camaraderie were crucial. The competitive element came in a series of ‘Special Tasks’ – such as winching and timed driving routes – in which the national teams competed against each other.
Between 1981 and 1998, Land Rover was the primary sponsor of the Camel Trophy adventure competition. In each of those seventeen years the company provided a fleet of vehicles for the international teams to use; however, the only event that featured Series IIIs as team vehicles was the one that took place in 1983. That year the Camel Trophy was held in Zaire and featured crew from several countries. The 1000-mile journey crossed terrain ranging from knee-deep mud to desert sand, but the biggest obstacle was the heat – 45 degrees centigrade in the shade, with humidity at 95 per cent.
In the 1990s, the Camel Trophy headed to Siberia and the USSR, followed by Tanzania, Burundi, Guyana, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile (the ‘Road to Hell’ event), Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras (controversially serving 500 out-of-season lobsters at a dinner), Kalimantan (1000 miles and 18 rollovers to celebrate the first crossing of the island 100 years previously) and Mongolia.
The Camel Trophy, however, did not simply change venue; over the years the event evolved from a mud-plugging expedition to include elements of adventure sport, such as kayaking, mountain biking and winter sports. Teams were selected by each competing nation in competitions held nationally, designed to test the athletic, engineering and driving prowess of potential candidates.
Changing environmental sentiments and respect for the Earth began to impact the race as people questioned the damage that the cars caused to the natural landscapes they traversed. So by 1993 the race included green tasks such as building an environmental monitoring station in the jungle so that biologists could accurately study the flora and fauna of an area that had barely been explored previously. In all the events, the convoy’s progress reopened roads and tracks that had fallen into disuse and frequently rebuilt