[BlackPearl]

Only one thought is coming to my mind as I am writing this and it is aptly depicted by this meme -



The vehicle that we are going to talk about is a 1991 Defender 110 and our third Land Rover. Before anyone asks, no we did not buy another Land Rover because they have a reputation of breaking down and need back-up vehicles



Background and the buying experience

Last year we got the Corris Grey Defender 90 in April and started looking for greenlaning opportunities immediately after that. In October we found a group doing a trail in the Lake District and we joined them. Though the Defender did not have any problem tackling the terrains, I was a bit unhappy as some of the lanes were scratchy and there were some trails which were very rocky. I was able to hear my loud heartbeats when going through them.

More details on the Defender 90 and the greenlaning trip in these threads -

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...90-review.html (The heartbeat of BlackPearl | Land Rover Defender 90 Review)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ilmasters.html (Land Rovers greenlaning in the Lake District (UK) with Trailmasters)

After coming back I realised that the Defender is too nice to be offroading/greenlaning with it. I needed peace of mind on the trails and not have palpitations everytime I see a jutting out tree branch or rock! So started looking for a really old Discovery/Defender on the net. Found a few Discovery 1s and 2s but the good ones were quite pricey. The Defenders were way out of budget. But after a month I suddenly saw a post from one person I follow on Facebook that his brother is selling an old Defender but the vehicle is in good nick mechanically, cosmetically not so. The price was very reasonable as the person wanted a quick sale in order to buy a new Jeep Wrangler. It was the perfect one for us as the main purpose of the vehicle would be to do greenlaning. So on a cold November morning Rajsri and I started on a 200 Kilometer (120 miles) drive. Though I have lost count of the number of times we have bought a car, I still could not sleep properly the night before. I was up by 4 o clock and on the road by 5 am. We had to reach the person's place before 9 am as he would go out for work after that. We were so excited that we reached before time and I could see the car parked in the driveway. Immediately liked it and by the time Tony showed me the vehicle I was already sold. It was cosmetically not the best looking Defender, but the bold stance, lovely tyres and old school workhorse look bought me over. Went for a short drive and confirmed that I will take the vehicle. Tony showed me how everything works including the winch. Then we completed the formalities and I got the green slip. Yaayyyy!

Starting its trip back to London


A coffee break on the way back. Those with OCD, please overlook the fact that the Range Rover is not parked properly.


It was strange driving a 30 year old vehicle on the expressway. I had very little expectation from the vehicle in the beginning, but after while I saw that I could easily maintain 120 Kmph (70 pmh) on the highway and occasionally it was going up to 130 or more trying to keep pace with the Range Rover Sport. Rajsri was equally surprised seeing the Defender in the rear view mirror of the Sport. What I realised is this Defender is much more comfortable than the 90 due to the larger tyres and longer wheelbase.

Happy me after returning home -



Lined up in front of the house

[BlackPearl]

The Vehicle and the modifications

There is nothing new to write about the Defender that has not been written before by someone on the internet. But this Defender is not a stock one, so I have to give some information about it. The brand Defender came out in the 1990 and this one is a 1991 vehicle. The Defenders during this period came fitted with the ultra reliable 200Tdi engine and LT77 gearbox. But somewhere down the line this Defender was fitted with the Land Rover Defender community's most loved engine, the 300Tdi along with the R380 gearbox. This is a highly sought after combination in the Defender world.

The vehicle has been heavily modified and the list is a very long one. I will try to write them down if I can remember them all.

1. ARB air lockers for front and rear differentials
2. Warn 8274 winch with Bowmotor 2. 8274 is a competition winch and one of the most winches in the world. The number 8 stands for 8000 pounds, 2 stands for 2 way winch and 74 denotes the year it first came out.
3. Heavy duty winch bumper
4. Heavy duty rock sliders and rear corner protectors
5. 33" (255/85/R16) BF Goodrich KM2 tyres on heavy duty steel wheels
6. Pegged differentials
7. Heavy duty shafts and flanges
8. Ashcroft front CV joints
9. Heavy duty steering bar
10. Raised air intake (snorkel)
11. Hybrid turbo
12. Momo steering wheel
13. CB Radio
14. Double din JVC headunit
15. High lift jack mount
17. Front and rear differential guards
18. Heavy duty steering guard

I will add later if I have missed anything.

Initial Experience

Immediately after getting the vehicle we went for a greenlaning tour in the Peak District. Peak District is around 240 Kilometers (150 miles) away from our place and we started very early in the morning in order to be able to reach there by 8:30 am.

On the way to Peak District. It was cold and foggy.







Waiting at the spot for others to join



Look at the ground clearance, I can crawl under it easily






We did the greenlaning there for around 60 miles throughout the day and came back in the evening. Overall it was more than 600 Kilometers on that day and the Defender performed flawlessly. The lanes were too easy for the car of its capability. This Defender has a strange amount of comfort that we did not feel any fatigue after such a long day. I will not be able to describe it, but driving the vehicle is like meditating, it soothes the heart and calms the mind. The sound of the 300Tdi engine is beautiful.

[BlackPearl]

The shock

One week after buying the vehicle I planned to get it checked at a garage to get the quotation for fixing the rust in the rear left door. However when I put in the post code for the garage in Google maps it showed that I have to pay £12.5 for ULEZ charge. ULEZ stands for Ultra Low Emission Zone and the vehicles that do not comply have to pay that charge for driving in the zone. This was not a problem as I was aware of it when I bought the vehicle. There is an option of setting up autopay for the ULEZ and congestion zones on the Transport for London (TFL) website. I already had autopay setup for the other two vehicles. The autopay option removes the headache of paying for each trip and inadvertent penalties in case one forgets to pay. So I tried to setup autopay for the 110. What I saw gave me a rude shock. On the page it showed that I have to pay 3 charges for this vehicle -

1. £15 Congestion charge for driving in central London
2. £12.5 ULEZ charge for driving in ULEZ zone
3. £100 LEZ charge for driving in LEZ zone

The third row in the list made my heart skip a beat. 100 pounds per day for driving the vehicle! I had no idea about LEZ. LEZ is Low Emission Zone and includes a huge part of greater London area. Our Defender has been registered as a van like many other Defenders and vans that do not comply to euro 3 standards have to pay this amount everyday for driving in the LEZ zone. The immediate thought that came to my mind was that I have to sell off the vehicle. I cannot afford to pay a hundred pounds per day for driving it.

I spent the whole day reading about LEZ and studied online forums if anyone has any solution for it. Most of the forums said that the vehicle can be made LEZ compliant but it is a huge headache to deal with TFL. I also read that it needs a letter from the manufacturer and that Land Rover has stopped issuing letters for vehicles manufactured before 2001. That evening guests had come to our house and I think I did not behave properly with them. I had this constant thread of thought going on in my head that I could not think about anything else.

Next couple of days went by reading online forums whenever I could get a chance. I even called up one person I had met during the greenlaning trip who runs a garage. I asked him if he could fit a LEZ complaint engine in the vehicle and the cost for it. He said he could but it would be a nightmare to deal with the authorities to get the engine change approved on paper and making it LEZ compliant.

After a few days decided with a heavy heart to sell off the vehicle. Put up ads on Facebook marketplace and eBay. There were quite a few responses and a few people confirmed that they would come to have a look at the vehicle.

The way out

A few months prior to this event I had contacted a group called Surrey 4x4 for greenlaning with them. I had completely forgotten about it. Suddenly saw an email from them saying that my place has been confirmed for their next greenlaning event and that I needed to pay the booking amount immediately. I was in a fix. On one hand I had got the vehicle for attending such events and on the other hand I was desperately trying to sell it. Moreover I would have to shell out a hundred pounds for just taking the vehicle out for the event. But after much deliberation I thought of giving it a go and it turned out to be a great decision.

On the day of the event we reached the appointed place. The entrance to the site was muddy and a marshal was standing at the entrance. He greeted us and said that the vehicle looks nice and the tyres are awesome. It was enough to lift our spirits. We made our way through the thick mud and reached the parking spot where several other vehicles had already lined up.

The entrance to the Surrey 4x4 camp in the woods


Parking spot amidst the trees


Lining up for the trail




We were introduced to our instructor, a person called Stuart. We started chatting and he turned out to be a gem of a guy. Stuart asked me about the vehicle and I told him everything. He had a thorough look at the vehicle and said that it is one of the best Defenders he has seen in a long time and told me not to sell it. He said there must be a way out. Things had started to look up for us. When such a knowledgeable instructor says something like this it is bound to lift your mood up. After that we met the rest of the team and started for the greenlaning trails.

Stuart, our instructor, going through a thorough inspection of our vehicle


Happy us


The gang


During a break I met a guy called Sam in a Land Rover Discovery 4. He asked me about the vehicle and said he had overheard our discussion with Stuart that I was planning to sell the vehicle. I told him the story in a gist. He said that he had seen a similar thing on a Facebook forum and that the guy had fought with TFL and finally won. He immediately found the writeup in the Facebook group and asked me to join that group. I am indebted to Sam for this information. This was the biggest hope I had got! I contacted the person on Facebook and he told me the steps to proceed. I raised a case with TFL with all the details, however it got rejected without giving any reason. I got dejected but did not give up. Studied the rules thoroughly again and raised another case after a few days with even more details. This time I got a response in less than a day with an email notification that they have accepted my claim and the vehicle has been added to the LEZ complaint list! I could not believe my eyes when I saw the notice. Now I know the rules so well that I can run a consultancy agency

Letter from TFL

[BlackPearl]

Greenlaning/Offroading with the Defender, earning the "Unstoppable" title

As we had got the Defender for greenlaning and offroading, we have done that at every possible opportunity. In the last 4 months or so we have done a lot of trails in the UK. Each and every time the Defender has dismissed the obstacles in the trails like child's play. I have driven a lot of 4WDs, but I have never had such a capable vehicle before. It seems to be unflustered by anything and maintains a calm poise with an unstoppable yet slow motion of progress over anything that comes in its way. I have seen other cars like Defender, Discovery 4, Shogun, Land Cruiser, Hilux etc struggling in places where our Defender just maintained its pace without missing a beat. I am not biased because we have another Defender and that is a newer one with lot more tech, but it cannot hold a candle to the green Defender 110 when it comes to offroading prowess.

A few pictures from different trails -































One good thing is that Rajsri has also got a lot of confidence in the vehicle and has started enjoying driving on the lanes. Bad thing is that she is snatching the vehicle away from me whenever possible.



A couple of weeks back we did the Strata Florida trail in Wales. It is one of the most famous greenlanes in the UK. In one of the obstacles on the trail the other cars struggled while our Defender just breezed through, so much so that the lead car's driver told me that "you could have at least tried to make it look difficult"

Here is a clip of that part -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N40lwF4pqBI

There have been several other occasions where our unassuming old Defender has just crossed tricky sections in rocky trails and mud effortlessly where other vehicles have struggled.

In this muddy terrain the tyres made a huge difference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uawTFMMDQSY

In this particular part I think the longer wheelbase helped our Defender

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNZq0yg_OCg

Here the higher ground clearance and longer wheelbase helped a lot. The stock Hilux performed terribly in this section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz1qzNW5-_8

So this is how our Green Defender 110 has earned the title "The Unstoppable"

[BlackPearl]

Summary

To summarise, the Defender has turned out to be much more than I had imagined when buying it. It has won the heart of not only me but also Rajsri's and whoever has come across it. It has been very reliable without a single issue till date. Everything works like a sewing machine, except the dashboard clock that needs to be fixed! The brakes might not be up to the current standards, there might be ample body roll while cornering (there is no anti-roll bar), it might send out a whiff of black smoke under heavy acceleration, it might have a huge turning radius, but believe me when I say that it is a joy to drive the vehicle. It has a character of its own like all Defenders and I just love it. The Defender returns amazing mileage, the best among our three Land Rovers, in-spite of being the oldest and having huge MT Tyres. It returns more than 11 Kmpl with mixed city, highway and off-road driving. Did the MOT recently and I was quite concerned that there would be issues in a 30 year old vehicle and there would be costs associated to fix them, but the person doing the MOT told me this - "I can see you have taken great care of the truck. There is a small oil leakage from the rear differential, but it is a Defender and all of them leak"! It was a huge relief and I did not tell him that I did not do anything yet and that it had been maintained so well by the previous owner . I hope it turns out to be as reliable as the Range Rover Sport and the Defender 90 in the long run!

A parting shot -

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[s4ch]

You, sir, are living the dream! When I retire back in the UK I can I'll be playing catchup with you for years to come. A beautiful trio and congrats for all the passion you put into them.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

The shock

I raised a case with TFL with all the details, however it got rejected without giving any reason. I got dejected but did not give up. Studied the rules thoroughly again and raised another case after a few days with even more details. This time I got a response in less than a day with an email notification that they have accepted my claim and the vehicle has been added to the LEZ complaint list! I could not believe my eyes when I saw the notice. Now I know the rules so well that I can run a consultancy agency

Letter from TFL
Attachment 2290013

I just love this. So reasonable, so easy to deal with, just the way it should be. A L-O-N-G way to go till this country gets anywhere close to this ease of sorting out issues like this. I mean c'mon, so many have issues with just sorting out a Fastag, and here you've convinced TFL about being LEZ compliant, IN LESS THAN A DAY!

[karthikd21]

Wow! Man, I got to admire your passion. Just too good. Hearty congratulations . Wish I were in a place the old Defender 90 was available for buying used. I simply cant digest the new designs, these old ones are charmers for sure

[Sandman689]

Brilliant Report Sumitro da!

I felt every little emotion that went through you reading this. It hasn't been long since I bought my first 4X4 and it's intriguing to find that you went through the same emotional journey when buying the "Unstoppable"

I wish you many happy miles of offroading!

[JoshMachine]

Wow, you are taking things up to the next level, with this new acquisition, literally

Since I am not much into off-roading generally, had this curiosity - and this again came up when watching your video of the Strata Florida trails (in which the other guy had great difficulty with his Toyota) - at what point does one decide to give up conquering the obstacle in front? How do you establish the limits of your car when off-roading and/or put your hands up when you know its not possible to go ahead?
Is the answer different when you are doing stuff in a group (peer pressure) and/or alone?

BTW, I thought the approach line at a particular point that the Toyota owner took in the trails, was a bit different than the one that you took. And the result was you smiling vs. he trying to make up for it!

To me, this shows a vehicle is only as good as the driver

[SnS_12]

Congratulations on the 110.. The kind soul who fitted the 300Tdi along with the R380 gearbox, will be very happy to read that you didn't give up and got it LEZ complaint and gave it a new lease of life which this vehicle truly deserves.

[Samba]

Congrats!

Land Rover owners- Hey BlackPearl, we have a Land Rover meet this weekend.

BlackPearl- Thanks, but I have already got an in-house arrangement for that!

[Arshad YR]

BlackPearl I thought before opening the thread that you might have replaced the beautiful 90 that you have with the 110 but the meme at the beginning of the thread proved my assumptions wrong. Your lineup of Land Rovers is beautiful. I was awestruck by the way your defender crossed obstacles. Its a cake walk for it when others struggle. Kudos to the man who has built this beauty. Congratulations on getting one of the best offroaders on the planet. Your experience with land rover shows that there are a few reliable ones out there XD
OT: We need to crown BlackPearl as the land rover ambassador of teambhp

[vigneshkumar31]

Thanks for writing a first hand account of my favourite - the good ol' Defender. Very nice pictures and setting. Keep them coming!

[gururajrv]

Just one word -

LIVE LIFE DEFENDER SIZE!!

Great review and you’re just making it seem like a kid collecting cars - hot wheels to be apt! great taste in having the right cars picked.