Thread: Sleepy's 101

Congrats Sleepy I looked at this one many times on carsales to replace the wifes disco but she wasn't interested. Awesome looking vehicle.

Originally Posted by Sleepy

yes I have done an intro on the 101 club forum, will join in Aug....(get a full year that way !)

Be sure to email the webmaster if you dont have access to the site members area after two weeks or so. I waited well over a month before I finally did something about it and within 2 days I had access. Went to download the magazine and the work laptop spat the dummy, found out you can only attempt to download it once within a calender month, now have to wait till its delivered in the post

Congrats on the purchase too. I've just started restoring/rebuilding one but am waiting for the weather to heat up atm so I can apply some paint to the chassis and diffs.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Congratulations on the new 101! It looks excellent to me, I love it with those tyres, but I'm not a purist.

x2


Great buy!

I was eying that off on carsales and hoping the lotto numbers would play nice, good luck hope to see it around on an AULRO outing.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

I was eying that off on carsales and hoping the lotto numbers would play nice, good luck hope to see it around on an AULRO outing.

Yeah, I have been staring at it for ages too. I really liked Cooee's when that came up a couple of years back and when this one came up I ummmed and ahhhed for a (long) while.
Then it went onto ebay, so I thought I'd have dib....got the winning bid but wasnt close enough to his reserve.
After a bit of haggling (with the missus) we managed to reach an agreed price. More than I really wanted to spend, but as some reassured me (thanks Mick) it has had some serious money spent on it.

So the Defender will go up for sale soon and I bought myself a 10 year old magna for city driving and will set the 101 up for fun driving.

I got some good ideas on what I would like to do to the 101. I offered my old man to come over and knock off a bottle of red while we plan out a few ideas.

His response....."It certainly has possibilities well worth exercising the brain over a couple of bottles of red. Given a few more bottles we could probably fit it out with warp drive, phasers and a detachable battle bridge"

Dont you just love trekkies! I am more of a Thunderbird type of guy.....Maybe I could paint a big yellow "2" on the side

Thinking I'll jump on a plane and drive her south. Would be good to get to know each other.
Thanks Julia for not adding carbon tax to fuel!...............yet

Originally Posted by Sleepy

but as some reassured me (thanks Mick) it has had some serious money spent on it.

Great. Now I'm going to get the blame.

It is an excellent 101 and as I said, the money I will have spent on each of mine will exceed that price by the time I get them up to scratch.

Gday sleepy

Nice looking rig that one. it will put a smile on your face everytime you drive it. love them.
Cheers Gaz

It gets to that point in your life when you decide. What the hell, you only live once.
So I decided to go out a buy a convertible, what’s more a V8 too..
will
Some of you have seen it on ebay or Carsales. It’s been on the market for 2 years.
I probably paid more than it’s worth but a lot less than he advertised.
The biggest issue was that it was in QLD, 1700km away. Ah, what the hell, I’ll drive it home.
I left myself only 3 days to round trip.
The week started on a typical Melbourne morning.



But as soon as we passed through 8000’ we saw what the rest of Australia was enjoying.
I decided to pay the extra 30 bucks for an exit row seat. Well worth the money considering the expectation of 3 days in a 101.
Arriving in Gold Coast, we did the hand shake, test drive, chat, more Land Rover chat, more paperwork and the deal was done.
It was a busy day. Mrs Ho Har kindly dropped down the coast to say g’day and help me pick out some camping gear. (Winter in the back of a 101 – sure, no worries, I’ll get the -10 sleeping bag.)

So by 4pm I was on the road. Having only ever driven a 101 for short distances, 1700km was going to be …..well……….interesting.
Escaping Queensland was a breeze, zipped off down the expressway at a rocketing 85kmh. (She goes quicker but I was just taking it easy )
I thought I would aim for Grafton, 250km (ish) and find somewhere to park.
Well as I had been warned the Pacific Hwy still has major works underway and it wasn’t too long before.

The 3 odd hour trip became 4 hours and I was exhausted. Yes I went soft and grabbed a motel. It was so nice to have a warm shower and get some sleep.
Day 2, I was up early and on the road by 7am. I was aiming to meet Jim (Ausfree) who had kindly offered to “pilot” me into Cardiff to met some more old aulro buddies banjo, fatty and the clan.
Again, I was plagued by traffic and roadworks. We seemed to crawl along for hours. Grrrrrrrr.
Anyway by early afternoon, I caught up with Jim and his lovely wife and the convoy of Freelander and 101 headed into the suburbs of Newcastle.
I had a quick lesson on TRACK. The 101 is about 300mm wider than a defender. Those curbs got awfully close – think I may have jumped a couple!.
So by mid afternoon we had a coffee with the banjo clan and ausfree, chatted, saw harryhighback and had showed off my new toy.



By about 3 pm I was on the road again. I thought to myself a quick spin down the freeway and hopefully through Sydney by 5pm and find somewhere south of Sydneytown for a nap.
Bwahahahahahahaha ….you say…

Yes I hit a wall of traffic and was still battling the traffic at 6.30pm.
101’s are fun to drive it traffic. You don’t need to toot. Just rev the V8
So by 9pm I dragged myself as far south as Goulburn. A fairly pleasant drive, although I have learnt that Lucas is a anglicised version of Lucifer. The panel lights were intermittent, didn’t really matter because the speedo was doing the “Series 3 Bounce” and with 38.5 tyres is 10% out.
Yes went soft again and grabbed a motel. Turned out to be a good plan. As I listened to the morning news they reported a brisk minus 5 degrees in Goulburn.


Hit road at 7.20 and after about 20 minutes, the ice fell off. I was getting more confident with the beast, pushed the earplugs in a bit further and wound her up to about 105kmh. She sat like a brick and I was becoming quite comfortable with her. Ventilation is an issue. With the sliding series-type windows open, a vacuum is created which sucks in the exhaust from under the canopy. (Sorry to blaspheme but the little kick doors on the Toyota FJ40 would be ideal on a 101)
Pushing across the Victorian boarder I saw one of those overhead speed check devices. You know, the ones that tell you your speed (not sure if they are a VIC only thing) …..anyway…with the speedo bouncing around and my doubt that it was accurate anyway I thought I would get an accurate reading from overhead….
You wouldn’t believe it. My speed…..”101” Couldn’t repeat that if I tried.
Anyway with confidence high I put the foot down, 1500km down and only 200 to go…..
I started to notice the temp starting to rise to ¾ and felt I better pull over and give the poor old girl a rest. So after a reality check I resumed at a more leasurely 90kmh. A far more comfortable speed in a 101.

With the Melbourne skyline in view, I zipped through my well trodden path home , up the drive and slid the 101 into her new home.

Yes She fits!!!!
I think I knew when I built the carport with 2500mm clearance............
A helluva a quick trip. 1700km, 2.3 days. Haven’t worked out the fuel cost. Don’t think I will!
Met some old friends for the first time. It’s amazing how aulro has brought us together. Friendships born online. We meet,, and its like we are all old buddys……well guess what, we ARE!.
Thanks Mrs Hor Har, Ausfree, Fatty and Banjo for making my adventure all that more special.
Thanks aulro.
The adventure with my 101 starts tomorrow.
Those hillbilly stickers are coming off.!


Four things I have learnt from this trip.

1. Interstate truck drivers are excellent drivers. (I have mentioned this before but was very impressed with their patience with me doing 90kmh)
2. Pacific Hwy is a disgrace when compared with Hume Hwy. (It should've have been dual carriageway 20 years ago)
3. fatty is not a fatty.
4. banjo, you always look serious in photos. You are much smilier in real life!