Mat777's motoring magnificence and malaise - a mingled meander

[mat777]

I thought it was about time to start a unified thread for my many items of shite! As I come to mention various vehicles I'll link their existing thread here

So to kick things off, one hot off the press featuring the Discovery....

Since purchase in the summer it's been used pretty sparingly, which was kind of the point to be the fair. Even in last week's snow I persevered with the Prius, but when I need to tow then it's the time to shine for Solihull's finest*

The action kicked off on Wednesday with a trip to my local Land Rover club meeting, the first start in over 3 weeks which was a cause for nervousness having not left it that long before... But it fired straight up albeit requiring a few cycles up and down the selector gate to prevent the old gearbox error lights.... Pretty sure the XYZ switch is on it's way out but cycling the selector cleans the contacts enough after sitting for a bit. 

At the club I bumped into an old LR friend of mine who currently has a 1971 Range Rover camper, sporting a 7.1 litre Perkins turbodiesel from a JCB.... 

The main event though - it's been a busy old weekend for the Disco.... A long trip moving some hydraulic systems training and test rigs for British Phantom Aviation Group. Ironically I collected these 4 and a half years, 1 trailer and 4 cars ago, from the now sadly closed Cornwall Avaition Heritage Centre... 

...and delivered to the home of BPAG near Melton Mowbray - which they shortly moved out of.

With nearly everything now relocated, the last piece of the puzzle was to move these rigs down to the new home at Cirencester's Cotswold Airport. Enter the Disco and my current big rig trailer:

I am, however, still getting used to towing with the Disco. For the past few years I've been relatively spoiled with modern trucks sporting 200hp and either a 6 speed manual or 8 speed auto. You could therefore say it's been a bit of a culture shock pulling 2 tons with 120hp and a 4 speed ZF... especially on the steep  vertical bits of the Fosse Way..... Perhaps it's time for a remap and a bigger intercooler, or would that be foolhardy on a 165k mile engine? 

Today, I've evidently gone soft in my old age.... Because after dropping my trailer back off I found myself with a torch and a hose washing the chassis clean! This year there seems to have been a particularly disgusting amount of salt on the roads, and after 700 miles most of it seemed to be over and under the car. Now, having paid a relatively large sum for this D2 on account of having an absolutely pristine chassis I'd quite like to keep it that way... And because of course I'd been too disorganised and too tight to get it professionally undersealed before winter, it was time to break out the hosepipe in a frantic attempt to keep those tinworms at bay....

 

[warninglight]

It's hard to beat a late D2 as an all rounder!

Aren't they nearer 140bhp? 136? Not a lot when you're up around 6 tonnes somewhere hilly though!