DiscoDavis
Explorer
Not exactly a build thread. More of a curation piece and various technical notes thread
(photo: Brendan Stuart)(June 2017)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
The 1990 Camel Trophy was an odd one being one of the first major sporting competitions of that kind to have ever been done inside the Soviet Union, and even included a Soviet team. Known for being the first year they used the Discovery model, and the only year to use the 2 door model, the event was quite the story even before it began. It was the second of only two times that I am aware of the vehicles and materiel were airlifted during the event en-masse. In this case by the Soviet Air Force! The above photo shows the equipment mobilization in eastern Russia (I said before it was an RAF base but I believe this photo is actually on the unloading end). The journey started at an RAF airbase where the Soviets actually landed two Antonov An-124 Ruslan aircraft to transport the Land Rovers into Russia. The way I heard it told, this was one of the first if not THE first instance of a non-diplomatic Soviet Military aircraft on British Soil, and on a NATO base to boot! The 124 remains to this day the worlds largest military transport aircraft. The RAF were quite keen to see even from a few hundred meters what was then a modern mainline Soviet heavy transport aircraft, and it is suspected they had personnel quite close to the aircraft posing as Camel crew while gathering intelligence. I have seen limited photographs of the event due to its more remote nature, and supposedly a lot of material exists but is held privately. An unknown number of Land Rover 110's were dispatched to prescout the route and I do not know if they stayed in place or were shipped back to England prior to the event (though this is likely as other prescouts did so for aborted events, see 1991). Additionally, 1990 was also the only year the event used Land Rover 127's (at that time not a standard 130 vehicle), and they never again repeated this due to serious break over angle issues with the lengthened frames getting caught up. Probably the rarest of all vehicles used in any Camel Trophy, of the five used, I know of only two 127's driving examples still around. The event took place near Lake Baikal in Siberia, and covered over 1,600km by "road" . The Dutch team won that year.
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
Vehicles sent to USSR for Baikal Event (According to Camel Trophy Owners Club)
Team Vehicles:
Land Rover Discovery 200Tdi 3 door (19)
Support Vehicles:
Land Rover 110 (4)
Land Rover 127 (5)
(photo: roverguide.com)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
This is purportedly one of the 1990 event pre scout and event support vehicles. While it is unclear exactly where/when this vehicle was sent as I have never to date seen a photo with plate numbers of all four one tens, this one-ten was indeed produced by LRSV for the Trophy and produced at exactly the time they would have prepared the vehicles for that year. She is the sister car to the 5 one-tens that were sent to the India Prescout also in 1990 for the aborted 1991 Himalaya event. Post CT/LR ownership, like many of the Camels, Land Rover stripped much of the equipment off of the vehicles and sold them separately to Nene (among others) who put them back together, to varying degrees of accuracy (from year to year vehicles had different layouts). The wonderful previous owners took good care of her and mostly restored the equipment missing, with some weird exceptions. The last guy many of you know and he loves her as much as I do, but wanted her to go to a good home.
Better photos to come but see the photo below from the Return to Camel Trophy night held by NCLR and TAD last year in San Francisco... That's her! (on the left, blurry one )
(Photo: Chris Collard) (For reference use)
Above is one of the latest photos, but she was in an OK shape when I got her, needed a bit of TLC and corrections. (below)
Bear with me as she will be down for a while getting the most necessary items worked on before anything big happens. No, you will not see extensive modification or major diversion from the original factory configuration, but a lot of the upkeep notes and various small restorations as I find detailed photos or references, as of early 2018 I have gotten a lot of help from other Camel contacts out there providing the minute details that otherwise would be impossible to get and ones needed for understanding how everything works. Car doesn't need anything other than a working drivetrain, some lights and the winch. Nobody believes me when they ask who put all that crap on the car and I say "oh Land Rover did it at the factory".
Also as of 2018 the roof still leaks so you know its a Land Rover.
(photo: Brendan Stuart)(June 2017)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
The 1990 Camel Trophy was an odd one being one of the first major sporting competitions of that kind to have ever been done inside the Soviet Union, and even included a Soviet team. Known for being the first year they used the Discovery model, and the only year to use the 2 door model, the event was quite the story even before it began. It was the second of only two times that I am aware of the vehicles and materiel were airlifted during the event en-masse. In this case by the Soviet Air Force! The above photo shows the equipment mobilization in eastern Russia (I said before it was an RAF base but I believe this photo is actually on the unloading end). The journey started at an RAF airbase where the Soviets actually landed two Antonov An-124 Ruslan aircraft to transport the Land Rovers into Russia. The way I heard it told, this was one of the first if not THE first instance of a non-diplomatic Soviet Military aircraft on British Soil, and on a NATO base to boot! The 124 remains to this day the worlds largest military transport aircraft. The RAF were quite keen to see even from a few hundred meters what was then a modern mainline Soviet heavy transport aircraft, and it is suspected they had personnel quite close to the aircraft posing as Camel crew while gathering intelligence. I have seen limited photographs of the event due to its more remote nature, and supposedly a lot of material exists but is held privately. An unknown number of Land Rover 110's were dispatched to prescout the route and I do not know if they stayed in place or were shipped back to England prior to the event (though this is likely as other prescouts did so for aborted events, see 1991). Additionally, 1990 was also the only year the event used Land Rover 127's (at that time not a standard 130 vehicle), and they never again repeated this due to serious break over angle issues with the lengthened frames getting caught up. Probably the rarest of all vehicles used in any Camel Trophy, of the five used, I know of only two 127's driving examples still around. The event took place near Lake Baikal in Siberia, and covered over 1,600km by "road" . The Dutch team won that year.
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
Vehicles sent to USSR for Baikal Event (According to Camel Trophy Owners Club)
Team Vehicles:
Land Rover Discovery 200Tdi 3 door (19)
Support Vehicles:
Land Rover 110 (4)
Land Rover 127 (5)
(photo: roverguide.com)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
(photo: cameltrophy.org.uk)
This is purportedly one of the 1990 event pre scout and event support vehicles. While it is unclear exactly where/when this vehicle was sent as I have never to date seen a photo with plate numbers of all four one tens, this one-ten was indeed produced by LRSV for the Trophy and produced at exactly the time they would have prepared the vehicles for that year. She is the sister car to the 5 one-tens that were sent to the India Prescout also in 1990 for the aborted 1991 Himalaya event. Post CT/LR ownership, like many of the Camels, Land Rover stripped much of the equipment off of the vehicles and sold them separately to Nene (among others) who put them back together, to varying degrees of accuracy (from year to year vehicles had different layouts). The wonderful previous owners took good care of her and mostly restored the equipment missing, with some weird exceptions. The last guy many of you know and he loves her as much as I do, but wanted her to go to a good home.
Better photos to come but see the photo below from the Return to Camel Trophy night held by NCLR and TAD last year in San Francisco... That's her! (on the left, blurry one )
(Photo: Chris Collard) (For reference use)
Above is one of the latest photos, but she was in an OK shape when I got her, needed a bit of TLC and corrections. (below)
Bear with me as she will be down for a while getting the most necessary items worked on before anything big happens. No, you will not see extensive modification or major diversion from the original factory configuration, but a lot of the upkeep notes and various small restorations as I find detailed photos or references, as of early 2018 I have gotten a lot of help from other Camel contacts out there providing the minute details that otherwise would be impossible to get and ones needed for understanding how everything works. Car doesn't need anything other than a working drivetrain, some lights and the winch. Nobody believes me when they ask who put all that crap on the car and I say "oh Land Rover did it at the factory".
Also as of 2018 the roof still leaks so you know its a Land Rover.
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