Category Archives: Cars & Trucks

Serious Off-Roading

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Mr. Wolf stopped by to visit the Land Rover on Friday. There was a time when we thought the truck would be done by September 2017. What is that, nine months ago? Like everything else with this project, the engine swap has been plagued with problems. There’s a chance the work could be complete by the time I arrive in San Francisco next Friday but I wouldn’t bet the farm.

I’ve confided to friends that my enthusiasm for this project has… waned. We can only hope that returns when I get the truck. But it’s a nice, first-world kind of problem. On a more positive note, Mr. Wolf took his Mercedes Benz Unimog off-roading last week (Fordyce Creek in the Tahoe National Forest) and shares this exceptional video.

Shelbyfest 2018

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When I got to the coffee shop Saturday mourning I found the street lined with hundreds of Mustangs. Shelbyfest is a big rally for Mustang owners and while these beauties don’t turn my crank like an old Land Rover, they are gorgeous hunks of metal. A policeman doing crowd control guessed there were 400-500 cars this year. I’ve included notes on some of the photos below.

 

Car dealerships are doomed

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Long-time auto exec Bob Lutz thinks car dealerships are doomed. They have 20 to 25 years left. Autonomous vehicles will completely disrupt the industry.

”Are they going to be fun? Absolutely not,” he said. “There will be no joy in sitting in an autonomous vehicle …. But it’s going to be enormously efficient.”

He suggested that parents will be willing to place their children in autonomous cars to take them to day care, soccer practice or school. He said they would be able to give their children limited access to a vehicle subscription service that would let them call cars to take them to preapproved locations, and that access could be expanded as they get older.

”When you send them off to college, you won’t send them with a car, you’ll send them with a subscription to a driverless vehicle service that they can use at their leisure,” he said.

I think it’s been a long time since cars were cool (not that I was ever a car guy). They’re all look like gray blobs of molded plastic. Lutz says the car of the future will just be a “module.”

He likened the modules to subway cars: Passengers don’t know who makes them, only that they get the riders to their destinations.

If I can drive my (mythical) Land Rover for five or ten years — and it’s as much fun as I hope it is — I’ll count myself lucky.

The mystique of vintage Land Rovers

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It’s been just over a year since I got the Land Rover bug and — with a little luck — my truck will be ready to ship by the end of the week, but probably a month before I have it (I assume this is what it would be like to be 12 months pregnant). I’ve watched a lot of vintage Land Rover videos on YouTube, including a few restoration series. The one by a Brit who calls himself Maximus Ironthumper is my favorite but I have high hopes for this one as well.

Watching these guys (I haven’t come across a female Land Rover mechanic yet) I’m struck by two things. First, how did they ever learn how to do this? Second, all of the tools required to restore and old truck. It takes a garage full of tools to tackle a project like this. (I have a hammer and a screwdriver) Let me add a third observation. How much fun these guys are having.

As far as I can tell, there are really only a couple of ways get a vintage (mine is a 1979 Series III) Land rover. You can drag one out of the weeds and spend a year or two rebuilding it… or you can pay someone to restore one for you (or purchase one that has been restored). As noted above, the first option takes a lot of time, experience/knowledge and a bunch of tools. The second involves a fair amount of risk, a bunch of money, and — in my case — a lot of patience.

The expression “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore” comes to mind. I’ve thought about this a bit since starting this project. Nobody is manufacturing 1979 Land Rovers anymore. And they never will again. Someone could build a reproduction but it won’t really be a 1979 Land Rover. However many there are, that’s all there will ever be. That’s real scarcity. And I wanted one. But that’s really not what hooked me (possessing something rare). I loved the look of these old trucks. And the simplicity. I have a minimalist itch that occasionally needs scratching.

A month from now I expect to be driving my Land Rover and we’ll see if the reality lives up to my imagination. Will it be fun to drive and mess with… or will it be a pain in the ass? Like the expectant first-time mom, there’s no going back now.

Recovery Rope

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This is a BubbaRope Kinetic Energy Recovery Rope. 7/8” x 20’, breaking strength 28,600 pounds. I don’t plan to get in the kind of deep shit where you need one of theses but no self-respecting Land Rover owner would be without one. Mr. Wolf recommended the BubbaRope and it’s pretty impressive. There seems to be a difference between a “snatch strap” and tow rope but I’m still too new to the game to appreciate the difference.

Growing up in southeast Missouri it was not uncommon to see one vehicle towing another down the highway with a big old chain between them. (Can you say shrapnel?) But I found damned few photos of that so drivers have moved on to better solutions.

With space at a premium, I’ll probably keep this hanging on the wall of the garage and toss it in the back of the truck when I expect to be off-road. Along with a couple of Gator-Jaw shackles.