Top Gear with Richard Wiley
LAND Rover and I have something in common: We were both born in 1948. Just as I’ve developed a bigger gut, so has the Landy acquired a bigger engine, but not a great deal else has changed in the case of the Land Rover at least.
One of the reasons is that unlike me in my present configuration, the Land Rover was designed to conquer the toughest terrain and 62 years later it’s still doing just that. In Defender 110 Fire configuration, it’s not lacking ground clearance which makes it quite a difficult steed for me to mount as arthritic joints and other ailments conspire to curtail my once deft movements.
Apart from a boatload of cosmetic additions and an admittedly significantly enhanced equipment list, the 2010 Defender looks like it’s been in a time warp since my last multi-year association with a 1964 Series 2A which was fitted with a simple and gutless 2,3 four-cylinder petrol motor.
The basic body shell ain’t changed a jot which brought back vivid memories of negotiating beaches and sand dunes in the late 60s in the aforementioned 2A. This particular Landy had free-wheeling front hubs which meant you had to jump out and engage them before tackling the shifting sands. The 2010 version, by contrast, features permanent four wheel drive and a lot more besides.
The main reason this particular Defender has so many add-ons is that it belongs to the limited edition “Fire and Ice” range.
Fire means what is says, at least in terms of colour which is a loud and rather garish orange with copper overtones. Ice, by contrast, is a shade of white as you might expect. Both versions are highlighted with black, specifically the roof, bonnet and wheel arch extensions and sport revised frontal styling and clear rear LED lamps which nonetheless are the same ultra simple round design they’ve been for the last half century.
Add a set of exceedingly smart five-spoke alloy wheels and the Fire was certainly noticed, especially by those driving lesser model Defenders. It’s surprising how many you observe when you’re driving one yourself!
Aside from the loud colour, the exterior is notable for its surprisingly good paint finish and for the forest of rivets and only partly hidden spot weld marks that make the aluminium panels resemble something of a pepper pot.
This utilitarian detail demonstrates just how little the Landy has changed and perhaps also tells you that a Defender buyer is likely to be a very different person from a Range Rover buyer. Yet, when you eventually clamber up into the cabin, you’ll find a forest of equipment crammed into the most basic surroundings.
The front features two reclining individual seats covered in a mix of leather and alcantara. In-between is a large and very useful lidded storage box. If you ignore the extremely limited fore and aft movement which ensures the wheel is always too close, the comfort level is perfectly acceptable, but it needs to be given the ride characteristics, about which more later.
Once you’re settled in and have got your breath back from the climb up, the lofty perch and multitudinous glazing provide excellent outward visibility which is only marginally impaired by the tailgate-mounted alloy spare wheel. You’ll be fortunate though not to have got parts of your body trapped in the driver’s door which persisted in closing under its own steam thanks to completely ineffective stays.
There’s room for at least five more pax in the back which features a split fold-down second row of seats and side-mounted seats in the loading area which suffers from a lack of space because of these intrusions.
Surprisingly, the floor is covered in black carpet, but the concessions to luxury don’t end there. A long list of fitments includes excellent aircon, power steering, radio/CD, central locking with keyless entry, alarm, electric front windows, heated rear window with wiper and more. This is a far cry from the stripped-bare spec of the Series 2A, but the differences more or less end there because there’s remarkably little difference in how it drives.
Sure, the 90kW 2,4 Turbo Diesel motor has loads more torque (360Nm @ 2?000 rpm) but it’s no ball of fire and it’s not exactly quiet either thanks in part to surprisingly short gearing in the lower ratios at least.
The ride offered by the traditional coil-sprung live axles is restless and refinement levels aren’t on the menu notwithstanding that the slow-shifting six-speed Getrag gearbox and the 4WD system are notable for lack of gear whine.
If you’re familiar with the aural abuse you take in the rearward seats of a Boeing 737 on take off, that’s about what you can expect in the Defender at a 120km/h cruise on the motorway.
In fairness, the vehicle maintains this pace with relative ease, but expect to make lots of steering corrections as the vague power-assisted set-up exhibits lots of slop around the straight ahead position. You’ll also need to confine U-turns to a rugby field, so large is the turning circle, but you’ll find the all-disc ABS braking system fully up to scratch.
It’s sometimes said of a journey that half the fun is in getting there. In the case of the Defender, this doesn’t apply at all, but in fairness it’s not really designed for that job despite all the comfort add-ons in this application.
Where it comes into its own is after you’ve got there. It really does perform when the going gets tough and you only have to take a look at a few wildlife clips to see that it’s still omnipresent in the bush and in jungle swamplands.
Thanks to a simple but proven 4WD system that offers high and low ratios with a diff lock option, and a truly rugged ladder frame chassis with excellent approach and departure angles, there’s little that the Land Rover won’t conquer in experienced hands.
Importantly, its also going to be more “repairable” in the bush than modern, computer-reliant competitors.
Indisputably, it has earned a loyal following among the 4WD cognoscenti who turn their noses up at the thought of driving a 4WD SUV.
Just remember that it isn’t an all-rounder in the mould of a Discovery or Range Rover, but if you spend most of your time off-road, it’s a great companion. Indeed, it’s a modern anachronism made all the more distinctive by the selection of conveniences fitted to the Defender Fire and Ice models.
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form