Eastnor Castle and Land Rovers

[Jonathan Hanson]

Roseann and I just returned from England, where we had several appointments with people from Land Rover. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Eastnor Castle and the Land Rover Malverns training facility, where we experienced a two-day driving course developed for the Royal Geographical Society. We had the benefit of one of their lead instructors, an expert driver and superb teacher who also just happened to be an extremely pretty brunette named Sarah.

. . . and, yes, a brand new Defender 110 with the Ford-derived turbodiesel.

The whole story will appear soon in Overland Journal, along with other stories on the Heritage Center museum, where Land Rovers from day one are displayed, a visit with Tom Sheppard, and another with Lois Pryce. Plus a feature on Foley's vehicle preparation service, who can lease you a fully insured and carneted Defender 110 for a trip through Africa, at the end of which you simply drop it off in Cape Town and fly home.

 

[bovw]

:bowdown: Looking forward to the articles, about how long might we have to wait?

 

[viatierra]

Not fair.
It's
just
not


fair...

 

[NeilWilson]

Looking forward to the article. I did the RGS course a year or so ago and had a brilliant time - Eastnor is an excellent place and the car park there is Land Rover heaven.

Neil

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

Since 2008 marks Land Rover's 60th anniversary, we'll be spacing these articles out the rest of the year. I hope to get the first one in the spring issue.

We were totally impressed with the Malverns operation. Extremely professional, and being neophytes in mud and water driving we learned a lot. Plus it's just sort of a pilgrimage.

 

[stevenmd]

it's just sort of a pilgrimage.

:hehe:

 

[bovw]

Since 2008 marks Land Rover's 60th anniversary, we'll be spacing these articles out the rest of the year. I hope to get the first one in the spring issue.

Which reminds me, I need to renew.

 

[Jacket]

Roseann and I just returned from England, where we had several appointments with people from Land Rover. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Eastnor Castle and the Land Rover Malverns training facility, where we experienced a two-day driving course developed for the Royal Geographical Society. We had the benefit of one of their lead instructors, an expert driver and superb teacher who also just happened to be an extremely pretty brunette named Sarah.

What a great opportunity! Can't wait to see and hear more about it.

 

[I Leak Oil]

Should make for good reading.
So let me see, the 2008 defenders have a Ford based diesel and redesigned dash which could have been a good opportunity to put in air bags. Sounds like it could have been easy enough to make for a U.S. legal model. I'm beginning to think Land Rover doesn't WANT to sell them too us over here. Leaves us Rover fans not much choice but to go with a Jeep or Toyota in the future I guess.
Jason T.

 

[The Swiss]

...extremely pretty brunette named Sarah.

. . . and, yes, a brand new Defender 110 with the Ford-derived turbodiesel....

Just don't tell me you got to keep either one, the brunette or the Defender; then me too I would be screaming "not fair!!!"

 

[R_Lefebvre]

How did you like the new Ford engine?

I did some development work on the accessory drive system. When I left the program, they were headed down a road that would lead to pretty bad NVH from the engine at idle and when lugging. I'm wondering how it turned out from a customer perspective.

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

I thought NVH was minimal. Unlike some other modern diesels, you can still tell audibly from the driver's seat that it's a diesel, but it felt smooth. Furthermore, the engine has an automatic throttle feature that makes it virtually impossible to stall on hills. When we were doing stall drills we had to step on the brakes to get the thing to stall on anything but an extremely steep slope.

We didn't get to do any higher-speed road driving, so not sure how the drivetrain is on tarmac, but offroad I had no complaints.