Thread: Its home

Picked up the new toy yesterday...not many photos yet because it was nearly dark when i got hold of it.

Got to townsville about 2.30pm, and the towbar had only just arrived, so that took a couple of hours for them to fit. Love the look of the tjm bullbar (a real steel one this time), and the winch looks awsome too - can't wait to use it recovering toyotas.

The parts for the cruise control hadn't arrived, so that will get fitted up here in Cairns next week, along with a uhf, big aerial, my ipfs, my cd player with some 6x9"speakers, seat covers and window tint.

Spent the afternoon at the land rover dealer which was fun. We took a brand new disco around the test track they have there, and demonstrated the value of traction control. The dealer was a good bloke, and I will try and do a trip at some stage with his 4wd club

Finally got the keys about 6.30pm, ready for the 350km journey back to cairns. The book says not above about 80kmh for the first 800km, which i kind of tried to stay near, although i tested it at 110kph a few times and was surprised how nicely it cruised. Seems the main thing with the run in is not to sit on a constant speed/rpm for too long, and not to labour the engine.





The drive back here was good fun, its like a little truck to drive. Very surprised how much poke it has when you get the turbo spinning. You can hear the turbo, and it sounds great. At highway speeds it is not as quiet as the disco, but the noise levels are quite livable, It pulls up hills in 5th better than the disco did (might be something to do with a slightly lower 5th gear) and it has less body roll in corners. Had the iPod playing through the car stereo, which works well, played all the road trip songs you would expect.

Pulled into a truck stop for a steak sandwich for dinner, parked near the big rigs and admired the look of the 90 - sexy i reckon.

Got back to cairns with about half a tank of fuel left, and its only a 60 ltr tank. It is very cool not chewing through the juice. A 55ltr auxillary tank is currently being worked on (thanks rmp!), and once fitted the touring range should be over 1000km, enough for me.

Today went for a cruise up in the hills above cairns. Did a nice little 4wd track which was easy in the dry, would be very tough wet though, only a few km long. A reasonably steep climb, put it in low and idled up, can't wait to do more offroad testing.

Anyway, seems i'm falling in love already, will keep the pics coming when i get some offroad ones.......

8O