Defender Bling?

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Lord Hemming

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Enthusiasts of LandyZone(.co.uk), has the world gone mad??

I remember a few years ago you could spend a considerable amount of money to buy a bespoke Landy with upgraded V8 and custom trim.....although the cost of these very special vehicles could be questionable to some, others would say that a specially developed engine and gearbox swap, plus new leather and Recaro seats was worth the hefty premium.....


......wind the clock forward 10 years, a lot of companies have jumped on the bandwagon, plush seats and not much else for a £20 to £30k premium. What happened to the V8 (or these days V6 turbo) engines ? It seems to be all about Bling and not performance.....what am I missing???
 
Lord Hemming said:
Enthusiasts of LandyZone(.co.uk), has the world gone mad??

I remember a few years ago you could spend a considerable amount of money to buy a bespoke Landy with upgraded V8 and custom trim.....although the cost of these very special vehicles could be questionable to some, others would say that a specially developed engine and gearbox swap, plus new leather and Recaro seats was worth the hefty premium.....


......wind the clock forward 10 years, a lot of companies have jumped on the bandwagon, plush seats and not much else for a £20 to £30k premium. What happened to the V8 (or these days V6 turbo) engines ? It seems to be all about Bling and not performance.....what am I missing???
Click to expand...
and this weeks most pointless fred award goes to...
 
Fuel prices and insurance premiums happened to the V8. Not to mention the tree huggers and green brigade who want us all to ride bicycles.

Performance comes at a cost (as does insurance) that most peeps can not afford.
When I was young and stupid it cost an extra £20 to insure my 2 door Mk1 Ford Escort fitted with a small block 5.7 litre Chevy V8. Fuel cost 45p per gallon so 12 mpg was not an issue. It used to eat RS2000s (and Porsches) for breakfast. It ran sub 10 second quarters at the Pod, developed over 400bhp with nitrous, and was street legal. Nowadays you would have next to no chance insuring such a car for the road.

Boy do I wish I'd kept it though.
 
Lord Hemming said:
......wind the clock forward 10 years, a lot of companies have jumped on the bandwagon, plush seats and not much else for a £20 to £30k premium. What happened to the V8 (or these days V6 turbo) engines ? It seems to be all about Bling and not performance.....what am I missing???
Click to expand...

Your missing the bunch of companies who will either upgrade your existing engine (mainly TD5) or chuck in a new one (like a 3.0TDV6, or 5.0 Petrol V8 supercharged) and extract a truckload of cash whilst doing so. Doubt the latter happens in any volume unless your a banker or shiekh; 30k+?

Alive Tuning?
JE Engineering?
IRB Developments?
Bell Auto Services?
 
Shifty1962 said:
Fuel prices and insurance premiums happened to the V8. Not to mention the tree huggers and green brigade who want us all to ride bicycles.

Performance comes at a cost (as does insurance) that most peeps can not afford.
When I was young and stupid it cost an extra £20 to insure my 2 door Mk1 Ford Escort fitted with a small block 5.7 litre Chevy V8. Fuel cost 45p per gallon so 12 mpg was not an issue. It used to eat RS2000s (and Porsches) for breakfast. It ran sub 10 second quarters at the Pod, developed over 400bhp with nitrous, and was street legal. Nowadays you would have next to no chance insuring such a car for the road.

Boy do I wish I'd kept it though.
Click to expand...

Dad had the same engine in a Cobra, my god did that thing shift! He did well if he got 2,000 miles out of a set of back tyres! Sadly he sold it a couple of years ago...and has now decided that this engine would be an ideal transplant into his 3.9 90 :eek:
 

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Bling sells some sad people are impressed by bright yellow springs that give a motor a 6 inch lift nevermind that they are so hard they will never fully compress and make the Offroad driving worse than a std setup.

These days marketing sells the mags show stuff.

Look at top gear loadsa bling how many grass roots Motorsport people atcually get shown or mentioned?? None it's not in vougue but bling is all the rage these days!

Back when I was young I thought it great when we fitted a race tuned 1.6 vaux engine into an old nova 1.0 shell wih a set of decent skinny tyres std steel rims and nothing to make it look special take that down to Southend and smoke out all the filler queens in their blinged up jelly moulds at Basildon. We were looked upon as oh another ****ty rusty nova when it smoked the comp we were heroes.

Now days its how you look and not how it performs unless your competing where a different breed of people attend and take part.
 
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People will happily spend hundreds of pounds on a lift kit whereas a set of doff locks would perform why it can only be the show/bling aspect because nobody sees
What's in your axle but some shiny new suspension in various bright colours means it has to be good....................................

doesn't it??
 
jai_landrover said:
Bling sells some sad people are impressed by bright yellow springs that give a motor a 6 inch lift nevermind that they are so hard they will never fully compress and make the Offroad driving worse than a std setup.

These days marketing sells the mags show stuff.

Look at top gear loadsa bling how many grass roots Motorsport people atcually get shown or mentioned?? None it's not in vougue but bling is all the rage these days!

Back when I was young I thought it great when we fitted a race tuned 1.6 vaux engine into an old nova 1.0 shell wih a set of decent skinny tyres std steel rims and nothing to make it look special take that down to Southend and smoke out all the filler queens in their blinged up jelly moulds at Basildon. We were looked upon as oh another ****ty rusty nova when it smoked the comp we were heroes.

Now days its how you look and not how it performs unless your competing where a different breed of people attend and take part.
Click to expand...


Nowdays they cant afford the insurance. My car childhood was 16V GTE's, RS Turbos and R5GTT's, all easily tuneable and dealy quick for a teenager but everyone had them. Nowdays its silly costs on ionsurance just to get the crappest thing going on the road let alone anything with a bit of poke...


As for bespoke landys, pay me enough money and I will do a professional install of any engine you want, RB26DTT powered 90?? If its what you want then I would do it... if you got the cash anything is possible...
 
Boris113 said:
Dad had the same engine in a Cobra, my god did that thing shift! He did well if he got 2,000 miles out of a set of back tyres! Sadly he sold it a couple of years ago...and has now decided that this engine would be an ideal transplant into his 3.9 90 :eek:
Click to expand...
It would make a real good Defender engine so long as you have deep pockets and a selection of drive shafts and diffs. Bryan Adams the rock star had a 5.7 small block fitted to his 90 some years ago by Landrover but in his case price was no concern. The good thing about the Chevy small blocks is that they weigh half of what the big block engines do.

If you thought that a small block powered Cobra was quick just imagine what the original Shelby Cobras were like. 427 cubic inches thats 7 litres of V8 power in a 2 seater sports car with live axle, leaf springs, and drum brakes on the rear. :D
 
Shifty1962 said:
Fuel prices and insurance premiums happened to the V8. Not to mention the tree huggers and green brigade who want us all to ride bicycles.

Performance comes at a cost (as does insurance) that most peeps can not afford.
When I was young and stupid it cost an extra £20 to insure my 2 door Mk1 Ford Escort fitted with a small block 5.7 litre Chevy V8. Fuel cost 45p per gallon so 12 mpg was not an issue. It used to eat RS2000s (and Porsches) for breakfast. It ran sub 10 second quarters at the Pod, developed over 400bhp with nitrous, and was street legal. Nowadays you would have next to no chance insuring such a car for the road.

Boy do I wish I'd kept it though.
Click to expand...

Thanks Shifty! I have been abroad for a couple of years, I think the Green brigade have been ethnically wiped from the lower states of the USA, so I forgot about them :)

Looks like a chip and intercooler is all we have to look forward to......

Agree about your Ford, I bet it was fun in the wet :eek:
 
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