Land Rover: The Story of the Car that Conquered the World. Ben Fogle
In 1998 the Camel Trophy returned to Argentina and Chile for the penultimate Tierra del Fuego event. It was here that the Land Rover Freelander made its debut, when it was used to speed the competitors 6000 miles across the remote and snowy terrain. Outdoor pursuits dominated that event, and shortly afterwards Land Rover, still a major sponsor, felt that the Camel Trophy was moving away from adventure and exploration and issued a press release that indicated they would not sponsor future events. This ultimately led to the cancellation of the 1999 event, which was planned for Peru.
What we have left now are memories of the competition’s glory years of the 1980s and 90s, when the Camel Trophy’s distinctive yellow-orange Land Rovers travelled to diverse places across the globe.
That was not quite the end, though, as Land Rover’s role as the mainstay of tough off-road adventure was briefly reprised in 2003 with the Land Rover G4 Challenge. This hugely expensive event was staged by Land Rover itself, and although slicing through jungles was out of the question, special off-road stages were held to test the capability of the vehicles as well as the skills of the drivers, using Defenders, Discoverys, Freelanders and Range Rovers.
The obligatory gruelling aspect of this event came from physical challenges such as kayaking, orienteering, mountain biking and abseiling. The first competition was won by Belgian fighter pilot Rudi Theoken, who turned down the first prize of a brand-new Range Rover and requested two Defenders instead!
Following the first G4 Challenge, in 2003, G4-Edition Defenders became available for the general public to buy. As well as the distinctive Tangiers Orange livery of the competition vehicles, yellow and black versions were also produced. Defender 90 and 110 versions were available, with front A-bar, roll cage, side steps and front spotlights as standard, as well as G4 badging.
Another G4 Challenge followed in 2006 and a third was scheduled for 2009, but the costly event was scrapped in 2008 by new owners Tata, who decided the return wasn’t worth the outlay, and instead diverted funds into creating new models and the frenetic launch activity for them that we have witnessed in recent years.
These days the world is a smaller place and there aren’t so many unexplored corners left to encourage budding explorers to jump into a Land Rover and get out there. But there are still plenty of adventures to be found for the thoughtful Land Rover owner. In the UK, there are Land Rover clubs up and down the land which meet most weekends and together drive the nation’s green lanes – byways that have vehicular rights and can be legally driven. For the more adventurous, though, there are companies that lead expeditions to all corners of Europe and North Africa, which you can join in your Land Rover. Morocco and the Sahara Desert are particularly popular destinations, following an overland drive through France and Spain, before catching a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Although the days of the big set-piece events are over for Land Rover, their role as expedition vehicles continues in occasional challenges. Most recently, Land Rover sponsored the Pole of Cold, a 7500-mile journey from the UK to Oymyakon in the Sakha Republic of Russia which chased winter across Europe and Siberia in a red, specially modified Land Rover Defender. The expedition enabled geographic researchers to reach the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, Oymyakon, in northeastern Russia, which has recorded temperatures as low as minus 67 degrees centigrade.
For this journey the Defender was equipped with a Webasto engine heater and extra insulation around the engine bay and suspension. An additional layer of glass was fitted to the windows to create an insulating double-glazed effect and enabled the team to see through side windows whatever the conditions. In three months the Defender covered 18,750 miles. Over the next four months the team drove the length of Norway and Finland, crossing the Arctic Circle twice, before driving the breadth of Eurasia, returning via Altai, Tuva, Sweden and Denmark – all in the depths of winter. In all, the team drove some 22,500 miles and experienced temperatures as low as minus 58.9 degrees centigrade. During the expedition the team spent time with a variety of people recording wide-ranging perspectives on winter, from fishermen in Norway to aurora scientists in Finland, Shaman in Tuva and reindeer nomads in Yakutia.
PART II
The huge success of the original Land Rovers of the 1950s and 60s encouraged the company to launch other models, which would in turn greatly influence the design of future Defenders. In fact, the development of all future Land Rover models would become hopelessly intertwined, sharing engines, gearboxes, suspension set-ups … the list is endless. For example, the 200Tdi, 300Tdi and Td5 turbodiesel engines developed for the Discovery transformed the performance of Defenders throughout the 1990s and 2000s. But all the other models, of course, were inspired by the original Land Rover.
Through the 1970s, Land Rover’s position as the world’s best 4×4 utility had been eroded in many of the world’s markets by cheaper alternatives from other manufacturers – particularly Toyota.
Toyota’s story begins in 1941, when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Philippines and found a Bantam MkII Jeep abandoned by the Americans. It was shipped back to Japan and handed over to Toyota, who were inspired by it. The resulting AK prototype was used until the end of the war in 1945, and then largely forgotten until 1951, when Toyota re-entered the 4×4 market with the BJ prototype. Again, it was very much based on the American Jeep and the Series I Land Rover (which in itself was based on the Jeep). But the Toyota was bigger and more powerful than both, with a six-cylinder, 3.4-litre petrol engine producing 84bhp.
By 1954, Toyota coined the name Land Cruiser in a bid to attract the same sort of audience as the Land Rover and to boost overseas sales. By 1968, Toyota had sold 100,000 Land Cruisers – and increased the vehicle’s attraction greatly by introducing a powerful Mercedes diesel engine to it.
The Toyota was also cheaper than the Land Rover in most markets, and in places like the Australian Outback it achieved a justified reputation for reliability. Meanwhile, those Land Rovers that were produced through the strike-prone 1970s and early 1980s under British Leyland rule were often of dubious quality and had a reputation for breaking down – often.
Toyotas were cheaper, more powerful and more reliable. It was a no-brainer. And by the time Land Rover did anything about this changing state of the market, the Japanese had made huge inroads into the company’s traditional strongholds in Australia, Southeast Asia and Africa.
In fairness, it was lack of cash from the struggling BL parent company that held back development at Land Rover. While money was ploughed into absurd products like the Austin Princess, Triumph Toledo, Austin Metro and Morris Ital, the Series III of the early 1980s was in most ways little changed from the Series II launched back in 1958.
The arrival of the Range Rover, however, was the tipping point for the company’s fortunes. The car was given a starring role in Blashers’ daring Darien Gap expedition, but it was officially launched on 17 June 1970 – the very last day of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s first term of office. The following day Wilson was deposed by Ted Heath and the Tories. It was ironic, really, as Wilson had pledged back in 1964 to embrace ‘the white heat of technology’, and the new offering from Solihull was that and more.
By the summer of 1970 the Swinging Sixties were over. The Beatles were tearing themselves apart, while England, who had won football’s World Cup back in 1966, were about to lose their champion status in the heat of the 1970 tournament in Mexico.
Most of the optimism of that landmark decade had evaporated as Britain plunged into a new era of industrial strife, decline and inflation. Things were no better at Land Rover. The runaway success of the ultimate go-anywhere utility, launched back in 1948, had begun to slow in recent years, to the extent that sales of the company’s only model – the Series IIA – had become a disappointment. A new model was needed.
These were some of the darkest days of the once-proud British motor industry. In 1968, Rover had been lumped together with much of the remaining, ailing, domestic automotive manufacturers to become part of the British Leyland conglomerate