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MikeS	MikeS posted 11 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 264, Visits: 1.2K	Morning chaps, long time no posts from me down under ! Hope everyone is still behaving themselves and keeping to the 'orange side' ;) Anyway, some will remember when I moved out here nearly 3 years ago (yep, it's that long already) one of my main goals was to get the photograph of Tango in front of the big red rock in the centre of Aus. Well, over Easter we finally got there. Exactly the same night as a certain William & Kate.... Pretty cool eh :cool: We took advantage of the 4 day Easter weekend and the Labor Day holiday the following week to get a 10 day holiday from only 3 days taken off work. A 3300 mile round trip from our house in Melbourne, through South Australia, passing through the Land Rover Club of South Australia's yearly bash at the foot of the Flinders Ranges where we stumbled across this.... 2008 110 from the cancelled event, was sent out here as 1 of the 2 selections Defenders and now belongs to a very nice Brit. He was heading off from Melrose to the Flinders Ranges, where he was meeting up with John Pearson from LRO mag for an 8 week holiday crossing the Simpson Desert, John's managed to 'borrow' a D4 for his holiday rather than ship his 110 over as he'd originally planned. Anyway, we drove up to Ayers Rock via some of the iconic unsealed tracks and trails through the Flinders Ranges and SA / NT. This is our first proper trip since moving here, Tango's been restricted to my town car for the last 2 years so it was superb to just be able to open her up and clear out the clag of the last couple of years I can tell you. We took the Oodnadatta Track from the Flinders to Marla and on the way, a bit of a milestone for Tango was reached, so we stopped at the exact spot to take some photos. That milestone ? 100,000 miles on the clock. And a simply stunning place for it to happen, middle of nowhere on the Oodnadatta Track. Couple more from the same spot, it was a little bit straight and a little bit sunny.... The open road to nowhere.... Had we been there 3-4 days earlier we'd have been driving much slower, in mud, as the area had 7" of rain in one day which closed all the tracks to traffic. You can see some of the small ruts at the side of us, believe me there were many others much deeper and plenty of washouts to avoid, which keeps the speed down to about 80km/h (50mph) at the max. Those ruts drag the car all over the show if you drop into one, so it's certainly a bit of a concentration fest, especially with all the gear on the roof as it's a bit top heavy to say the least. Crossed about a dozen floodways, none of which were more than 12-18" deep but it gave an idea of just how much rain had fallen. The 'greenery' in the photos had only arrived really since the rain. Hitting the wet sections of the track at 50mph lead to an almost instant dragging down of speed, we could very easily have got stuck had they been 30-40 yds longer that's for sure. Talking to others we met on the track, the area to the north was incredibly wet, born out by the state of the vehicles we saw to be honest, we were positively showroom clean in comparison. Having said that, it's now stained red underneath and it's taken a while to get the thin layer of red dust off the inside. I took 2 spare wheels, one underneath and one on the roofrack but luckily didn't need either, letting the pressures down and keeping the speed down did the trick so we didn't get any punctures. The Oodnadatta has a reputation for damaging tyres, but other than a few scratches the Pirelli ATR's I fitted in the UK 3 years ago are still OK :cool: . We also had 3 jerrys of fuel on the roof along with 2 boxes of recovery gear and tools. Inside the car were our bags, the newly installed fridge in the boot (full of beer, wine and snack food), 15 litres of fresh water, sleeping bags in case we didn't get to our destinations each day, the camping stove and incredibly vital kettle, a small air compressor for the tyres and my trusty Halfords Professional Toolbox. It's also now fitted with a double battery kit to power the fridge and iPads etc, along with UHF radio in the glovebox, so all up we were pretty heavy albeit still with plenty of room. Petrol was available at a few of the small places along the way, but not always the minimum 95 RON I need, mostly it was the 'standard' 91 octane, which wouldn't have done on its own so I kept mixing it with the 98 I had on the roof or a bottle of octane booster. I never ran below half empty before fueling up, which was about every 200km (not far at all). Fuel 'economy' was pretty horrendous, fully loaded it used 20 litres per 100km, so as we covered 5500km that's a lot of fuel... It's also nearly double the price once we got a couple of hundred miles from Adelaide, albeit still cheaper than the UK !! The car didn't miss a beat. I have to say it's just an incredibly comfortable place to be sat for hours on end on rough roads. The air suspension took most of the bumps in its stride, only the 12"+ deep washouts shook it up (one of those will cost me a new rear wheel bearing soon after I didn't spot it in time and walloped it at 90km/h) and at every stop we were the envy of all the other travellers we met. Generally the conversation would go "so, what Toyota or Nissan are you driving?" "Erm, we're in a Range Rover Sport" cue lots of laughing and "a Range Rover ?? Out here ?? Are you quite mad ?? How many times has it broken down, you're not on the school run anymore you know, etc etc". Then they'd see it, realise it's not just any old RRS and pour all over it looking at what it has fitted. One chap just stood looking at it, then looking at his 12 month old Toyota Land Cruiser 70 series (think Defender without any comfort, which should give you a great impression of them) and said "my spine is very jealous of your air suspension". It's fair to say that Tango caused lots of comments wherever we went, many asked if we were recce-ing for some competition, as the Sydney to London Classic Rally had been through the week before. Our average day consisted of 5-750km of driving. Longest day was nearly 800km, I was dog tired after that one even though MrsMike drove the last 2 1/2hrs. Ayers Rock is 240km off the main highway, so just over a 2 hour drive off the main Stuart Highway. A section of the Stuart Highway went quite quickly, as the Northern Territory speed limit is 130km/h and I only saw one cop car in 400km, so I sat at 160-170km/h (around 100mph) for 2 hours with the occasional run up to 210km/h when passing the Road Trains. Now they're impressive, bloody enormous things they are, over 160 feet long it feels like you're overtaking them forever, even with 130mph on the clock. My tactic with them was to call them up on the UHF and wait for a clear stretch, most of the truckies will tell you when it's clear and then pull out and just plant the throttle, not lifting off until I'm past them at warp factor 10. It's a long time since I've been able to wind up Tango properly and for an old bus, it still surprises me just how much ooomph it's got at the higher end of the rev and speed range considering the drag from the roofrack, it really does go like a stabbed rat. Believe me when passing 2 or 3 road trains together, it's quite unnerving just how long you're out there for but the drivers are fantastic on telling you when it's safe, they're also quite funny when you come past them at 130+mph in a fully loaded 4x4, many's the time we'd get a "faaarrkk me, what is that thing and how fast are you going!?". Bear in mind, they're also cruising at 70-90mph with 3 x 30 to 40 tonne trailers behind a monster tractor unit.... So anyway, thanks for reading and I'll try and stop in a little more often. Next year we've been invited to take it to Cape York (the northernmost point of the Oz mainland), Darwin & Kakadu with another group of Sport owners to prove to everyone else that they're not just a school run car! We might do that, albeit I'll send the car ahead to Brisbane on the train and cut out a couple of days of boring driving. Before that though it'll need MTR's again and probably a bull bar. Someone does make a bar for the Sport now, but once it's on that's it, there's no going back as it needs the front wings trimming to make it fit. Not sure I want someone taking a grinder to my front wings... Dave I'm sure will like my new reg plate on Tango, fitted only in February this year :cool: Take it easy fellas Mike BV55 YZE, Fleet No 19 - Thailand 2006 Now registered as YZE 481 in Melbourne, Oztralia.
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stu_007	stu_007 posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 1.1K, Visits: 22K	Sounds excellent! Has it really been three years since you left sunny Penarth?! There are plenty of MTRs in the right size for sale on eBay in the UK at the moment if they can be shipped at reasonable price? I think Dave will be more interested in selling you some more stickers as yours are looking a bit sun worn!!! Current: "YYS" Range Rover 2006 Thailand Support Vehicle - Fleet No 81 Previous: "OWD" D2 Commercial (IBIJ-666) 2003 Australia - Support Vehicle "AVJ" F2 (4826 YBP) 2007 Mongolian Recce Vehicle "OZR" D110 (1930 YBA) 2007 Mongolian Recce Vehicle "GHZ" D110 2003 South Africa - Team Vehicle No 60 2006 Setup and Communication Vehicle
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MikeS	MikeS posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 264, Visits: 1.2K	Yep, we left in September of 2011, time really flies. Still got the house in "Chaversham" and we just hope it keeps on renting out to be honest. The car only got here a little over 2 years ago and really, up until this trip we hadn't been anywhere in it ! MTR's aren't available here anymore and neither is the Duratrac replacement, I'll have to import the 19" tyre from the US if that's what I decide to get for it. The alternative is getting hold of a set of 18" rims, which opens up a vast array of tyre options here in Oz. The stickers are now looking very tired, the sun here is basically making them crispy on the edges. The WARN stickers are now incredibly 'worn', in fact they're pretty much bleached white. I'd picked up a new pair from Dave at the last Land Rover show I went to (Billing I think) but haven't put them on yet and tried to get the Goodyear ones about a year ago, but I don't think anyone could find them at the time. I'm surprised the stickers have lasted 2 years here to be honest, manys the time I can barely touch the panels they're so hot. I'm considering ordering a new Defender 90 next year so I can retire Tango from everyday use. I'm just trying to get Land a Rover Australia to confirm when last orders will be for the end of line cars here, but that's like trying to get blood out of a stone, they're bloody hopeless. LRA have a pretty poor reputation for customer service so I'm not holding my breath !! BV55 YZE, Fleet No 19 - Thailand 2006 Now registered as YZE 481 in Melbourne, Oztralia.
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stu_007	stu_007 posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 1.1K, Visits: 22K	I did the same and have bought a new Defender but still same old build quality; one week old and needed new belt and tensioners and now paint falling off underside of wheelarches; great for a hand built car! Current: "YYS" Range Rover 2006 Thailand Support Vehicle - Fleet No 81 Previous: "OWD" D2 Commercial (IBIJ-666) 2003 Australia - Support Vehicle "AVJ" F2 (4826 YBP) 2007 Mongolian Recce Vehicle "OZR" D110 (1930 YBA) 2007 Mongolian Recce Vehicle "GHZ" D110 2003 South Africa - Team Vehicle No 60 2006 Setup and Communication Vehicle
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MikeS	MikeS posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 264, Visits: 1.2K	It's a bit of a worry that's for sure, especially as I plan to modify it into a soft top with the Exmoor trim kit and fit a roll cage as well ! I reckon a BAS remap would make it a ripper of a town car, so that's also part of the plan :cool: BV55 YZE, Fleet No 19 - Thailand 2006 Now registered as YZE 481 in Melbourne, Oztralia.
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davezrx	davezrx posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 1.9K, Visits: 7.7K	hi mike long long time wondered what you was up to ?.................3 years were the hell did that go funny how its only your warn stickers gone white ? bet its time for another polo shirt isnt it ? in one respect you wouldnt know the club now , we are as big as we have ever been ,still the[ old members ] you would know but a lot of new ones we do a lot more than landrover shows now , we have done a demo at a gun club , [ been asked to return and display cars alongside JAGUAR AND ASTON MARTIN ] been camping in the lakes done a weekend PROPER CHALLENGE against camel at yarwell quarry , in LRO 16 pages , dont know if you get LRO OUT THERE club offs to camping / touring in france for a fortnight just starting showing on sky here OUTBACK TRUCKERS about aussie roadtrains i , now that would be amazing if you got filmed overtaking !!!! at yarwell you wont believe how DIRTY i got mine , took me 7 jet washes and 2 hand washes to get it clean [ SEE POSTS ABOUT PHOTOS ] contact alan edwards as you might remember hes at JLR he would be able to help with final build date see you soon and remember keep the shiney side up DISCOVERY 2 G4 LE DAVE G4 committee merchandising officer 2010 -2016
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MikeS	MikeS posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 264, Visits: 1.2K	Dave, I looked at the photos and all I could think was how long it must've taken you to polish your show car back up afterwards ;) Just for you, here's a piccie taken just now of the rather worn WARN sticker, you can see how it's going brittle along the edges and breaking off. Part of me wants to fit the new ones, but the rest of me says leave them until I can get the rest and then replace them when I retire it from everyday use. BV55 YZE, Fleet No 19 - Thailand 2006 Now registered as YZE 481 in Melbourne, Oztralia.
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davezrx	davezrx posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 1.9K, Visits: 7.7K	see what you mean mike , funny how its only the WARN STICKERS ?:(:( when you [ retire truck ] let me know we now have all correct stickers so send me sizes in future and we will have to work out postage .... to the other side of the world , or i could start digging now :w00t::w00t: DISCOVERY 2 G4 LE DAVE G4 committee merchandising officer 2010 -2016
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lottienmatt	lottienmatt posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 144, Visits: 1.2K	Epic trip Mike :) Great pics too. Sorry to butt in on your conversation but about stickers - Adrian never responded to me. Is he still about? I really need the chevrons for the rear three quarter of the D3 Lottie 'n' Matt 2008 D3
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davezrx	davezrx posted 11 Years Ago Post Details
Group: G4 Member Posts: 1.9K, Visits: 7.7K	yep , adys still with us . just had major house extension ,and its cause him a lot of time , hes not been on-line for a while , we had meeting of committee at ripley are are going to get some more made DISCOVERY 2 G4 LE DAVE G4 committee merchandising officer 2010 -2016
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