Have a look at this,
[Video] Land Rover Defender prototype global debut with the Duke of Richmond
Have a look at this,
[Video] Land Rover Defender prototype global debut with the Duke of Richmond
Few stills from ol mates walkthrough vid.
Thanks for posting those up BR.
This section looks uncannily like the current 110...
Cheers
To accommodate the targeted buyers to get the high volume of sales required the new model will not have the height from floor to ground as the existing model. It will be targeted to an audience who corner their current vehicles at speed. This I would not be happy with. You can throw all of the electronics you want at a vehicle but ground clearance is a big one in my book. Going in to ruts and hollows you need space beneath the vehicle to stop it banging off the ground.
The drive train will be simple to allow for the new type of owner. There will be no complaints to dealers about clunks when changing gears.
The low first gear will go.
Everything that can be done to make this as close as possible to a normal car will be done. The exercise will then be how they can get this model to perform like the old model. The truth is that they won't.
They will be introducing new systems to get this car which does not have the basic elements of an off road car to perform like one.
I have seen videos of current Land Rover models in off road situations. Wheels waving off the ground and traction still in force. What I have not seen is one of these vehicles travelling on a track with deep hollows to front and side. The type of situation where your series or Defender goes nose in and the bumper occasionally snags on the ground as you level out then the vehicle lurches to one side and the only thing keeping your under body from catching is your axles and on you go. If feel that the new vehicle will be too easily damaged from very rough terrain.
People say that the new generation of Land Rover products are very capable off road and maybe they are but how long can you bang it about?
They new vehicle will probably sell very well to people who always aspired to a "Defender" but didn't like all of the "Defender" things about it.
After 37 years the spring that works on the accelerator pedal on the series 3 finally broke. It drives but idles a little high. I have ordered one in (they come in a pack of 10 for under £5).
The current Defender had a backward genesis from a working vehicle to a passenger carrying vehicle. The new model is going in the opposite direction. I think that the former will prove to be an smoother process than the latter.
P.S. And no I don't think the world is flat...except for the Nullabar that is.
I am live axle clearance fan, but in fairness the new Deefer will have a lot of it in off road mode where the air bags raise the height. Cheers
The thing I like most about my 110 is that I can drive the lonely 17km from the bitumen to my place without worrying that something is going to break if I take one of the bumps or the dips or the great lumps of rock a bit fast, and that if there is a tree down across the road I can expect to be able to drive over it without getting stuck and without any damage other than a few scratches. And that the roo I don't see in time will not do serious damage. Will the new one do as well?
(The only road damage failures I have had have been a bent tie rod, a cracked front diff housing, and the failure of a front radius arm chassis anchorage. The last was the only serious one, and was due to a missed weld in chassis manufacture - but even then it did not fail until about 400,000km.)
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
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