A Day in an L322

[Keithy P38]

Thought I'd throw in a bit about my day yesterday. My folks bought a 3L turbo diesel Vogue L322 recently and seeing as I was out west and the old girl also happened to be heading back to Townsville on my fly-home day, I thought I'd skip a flight and sit in leather and the general Vogue ambiance for a few hours to save her driving 850km home alone.

I drove the whole way, was extremely impressed in the ride, handling, cruise speed and general refinement of the L322 over my lifted and mud-tyred P38.

Given the L322 weighs in about 300kg fatter than my P38 and the 3 litre diesel is down on torque over my 4.6, I was extremely impressed that it sat quite comfortably on 130km/h, overtook triples and quads touching 165km/h at times without having to flog it, and used a measly 11l/100km doing so.

I've no doubt in its off-road ability when equipped with appropriate tyres and perhaps a locker to be sure, but having invested so much time and effort into my P38, I'll be staying here!

While it's easily more refined than the P38, that's not to say the P38 is by any means rough or uncomfortable doing the exact same trip - it's simply less refined than the L322.

To do the same trip in my P38 (with the same load and highway speeds) I'd use 28 litres more fuel, at a cost of about $36 more. The petrol to diesel difference I suppose!

I think the P38 actually has a quieter ride in-cabin also. For road tyres, I certainly noticed the tyre noise, where my muddies seem quieter in-cab in the P38.

Cheers
Keithy

[rar110]

I've recently gone from a Isuzu 110, which is fairly quite for an Isuzu, to a tdv8 L322. It's fantastic on long drives. A huge change.

The 110 is great off road, but the L322 is proving just as good so far (maybe better traction wise).

Also it's quite easy to get the family into the L322. It was getting to the stage where there was a lot of reluctance to go anywhere in the 110 unless a short drive.

[Hoges]

I've read reports from test days where a 'standard' L322 on 'road' tyres performed at least as well as Defenders equipped with A/T boots in marginal conditions.

[harlie]

Keithy - the tyre noise on the L322, what are the tyres like? I run road tyres, owned the car for 7 years now and they only time I get tyre noise is when they are getting down or scrubbed. I had a set of Coopers which were noisy as hell....

One down side of the L322 compared to the P38 - with independent suspension, the alignment is knocked out very easily and tyres last less than half.

[Keithy P38]

Keithy - the tyre noise on the L322, what are the tyres like? I run road tyres, owned the car for 7 years now and they only time I get tyre noise is when they are getting down or scrubbed. I had a set of Coopers which were noisy as hell....

One down side of the L322 compared to the P38 - with independent suspension, the alignment is knocked out very easily and tyres last less than half.

They are practically brand new road tyres. Can't remember the brand, but I did check them out at a rest stop after 400km to see if they appeared low on tread or low on pressure. Perhaps pressure would be more likely although they appeared sufficiently inflated (who's to know!).


It steered true and didn't have any vibrations or wobbles though! It wasn't "annoyingly loud", just more noticeable than the muddies on my P38 - strange IMHO!


Cheers
Keithy

[benji]

I've actually been quite impressed with the road noise running km2s, certainly a lot better than most modern cars, including a late model commodore.
But in saying that, the cheap road tires I run are almost as noisy.

I remember driving an l322 in 03, and what you say is so true, they really are a very refined car.



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[jsp]

I haven't noticed any difference in road noise from P38 to L322, but the TD6 is quite a noisy beast compared to the V8, either in the P38 or L322.

Mine bothers me for a day or so after I have been driving the classic for a bit.