Camel Trophy Land Rover Discovery

[xb70valkyrie]

The amazing Camel Trophy is what got me interested in the Discovery in the first place. Those vehicles have always intregued me. They seem fairly stock except for a roll cage, snorkel, steel rims with some good tires and a winch bumper with a good winch on it. Yet these vehicles seem invincible! I understand they get beat up but they do some amazing things with these vehicles and from what I understand the Series was the only one used and Land Rover pulled out (1998) before the Series II was introduced. What else did they do to these vehicles? How reliable were they really on these expeditions? Any one know much about these Camel Trophy vehicles?

I remember being a teenager in Prague in 1995 when then Czech Republic one the trophy for the year and it was for sale at an auction. I tried and tried to get my dad to buy it for me but no luck.

Fred

 

[NeilWilson]

Hi,
http://www.cameltrophy.es/cameltrophy_lrdiscovery.html (Spanish site but has plenty of English text) has a list of modifications made to the D1. There are plenty of Camel Trophy sites on the web eg. http://www.cameltrophy.co.uk/

Cheers.

Neil

 

[xb70valkyrie]

Very interesting stuff. Thank you. Besides protective geat it is quite amazing how stock these vehicles actually are!

Fred

 

[craig]

I guess I'll point out that they weren't NAS Discos. They were diesel powered, which is why the snorkels were effective.

 

[61rover]

Camel Trophey

Bill Burke was the US driver in 1993. He can probably tell you anything you want to know. You can contact him at: http://www.bb4wa.com/

 

[pangaea]

The fact that the CT Discos were mostly stock, is partly what made them so incredible. IIRC, the mods from a stock vehicle were basically as follows:

Sandglow paint (factory painted)
HD suspension
Mantec Front Bumper
Terratrip computer
No airbags
Manual front windows (easier to extract people in the event of a rollover)
Safety Devices Roll cage and integrated roof rack
Snorkel
Upsized Michelin tires (XCL 91-95, XZL 96, BFG tires 97 only) on LR steel wheels (except 97 which had alloys
"Camel Cut" rear wheel arches
Pioneer tools
Front Winch (Superwinch Husky 91-96, Warn in 97)
Add some Zarges boxes, Peli cases and you've pretty much got a CT vehicle on your hands

 

[revor]

Four Spider Rear Diffs and 24 Spline D-90 military (?) axles..

Why would i know that?

Isn't it time to cook meat slowly?

 

[Michele]

nickname

[OT]
Fred,
do you have a Valkyrie in the box?
Or were you somewhat involved in the project?

[/OT]

 

[blippie]

Yeah, the diferently splined trans and the "Camel Cut" were key alterations. Whether the former was necessary for heavy duty applications or whether it was just to minimise the spare parts they took with them (commonality with the support vehicles) I don't know.

The levels of modification varied from year to year, and I'm pretty sure the last Discoverys to be used (1997, though at least one hung around until the 1998 event with the organisers) were the most standard. That makes sense as the 1997 event in Mongolia was probably the most pedestrian of the events.

Cheers

Blippie

 

[blakesrover]

what are your guys' thoughts on the change from the steel wheel to the alloy "camel cut"?

I've been interested in preserving both form and function in my 98 D1 as I build it. It came with a set of "camel cut" alloys but i've been on the fence with them. any thoughts? opinions? rustoleum them black?:victory:

 

[stevenmd]

Four Spider Rear Diffs and 24 Spline D-90 military (?) axles..

Why would i know that?

Isn't it time to cook meat slowly?

Oh, I don't know, perhaps it is because you can replicate it?:ylsmoke:

 

[Crookthumb]

what are your guys' thoughts on the change from the steel wheel to the alloy "camel cut"?

I've been interested in preserving both form and function in my 98 D1 as I build it. It came with a set of "camel cut" alloys but i've been on the fence with them. any thoughts? opinions? rustoleum them black?:victory:

The "Camel Cut" I thought was just trimming the quarter panel so the tires don't rub when they flex. As far as alloys I believe they were the deep dish, don't the '98s have the boost alloys. Painting the wheels black would take away from the replication, if that is what you are trying to do. You either paint the steelies sandglow or run deep dish alloys.

 

[blakesrover]

icic..i must have miss-confused it. i dont want to replicate the CT as a whole but I do like aspects of the truck and the over-all feel of it's heritage. I'm not sure what alloys you're talking about. I dont know them by name; i.e. "deep dish" and "boost". these are the alloys currently on my 98

 

[Crookthumb]

Those are the deep dish alloys.

 

[JSBriggs]

If you are going for function, I would run steel wheels. They allow you to replace an axle (rear) with out removing the wheel. I prefer the 15" series wheels, but the 16" series/defender wheels, or even the disco steel spare would be fine.

-Jeff