Hmmmm.... That sounds like a collegue at work. He has a large late model
Range Rover with a 4.6 litre V-8 engine and tires about a foot across.
Swears by the pneumatic suspension and all the other bells and whistles
imaginable. He uses the machine to drive approximately 10 blocks from our
underground parking in old Montreal to his condo underground parking in a
tower in new Montreal. It's always polished within an inch of its life. When
he talks about how the machine is built for rough and tough off road work, I
have to grit my teeth to stop laughing as I imagine his panic at the thought
of a scratch from an errant pine cone or a splash of mud on the fenders.
As for rough and tough. Hmmm... a few months ago we drove to Ottawa (2 hours
down a fairly straight highway) in his truck. About 1 hour into the drive on
the way back, suddenly the engine overheated. We found ourselves dumped on
the side of the highway. As he moaned into his cell phone to the service
centre, I ended up crawling through the bushes and swamp between the highway
lanes looking for a kilometer sign to tell the tow truck where we were. Much
fun.
While waiting I examined the dead beast. It turned out that the cooling
systems has pipes all over the place leading to remote filling points and
sensors etc. One 1/4" (OD) plastic pipe goes down the right side of the
engine bay just under the bonnet, does a left turn over the headlight and to
the radiator. Standard vibration of the pipe on the headlight bracket had
worn a hole in the pipe and allowed the whole engine to drain itself.
We stood there in suits being bedevilled by little green flies for 2 hours
waiting for a tow truck. I had a go at convincing him to let me refill with
clean water from a nearby stream, but the look of horror at the thought of
his "rough and tough" machine being contaminated with anything but perfectly
approved Range Rover engine coolant soon made me desist.
The funny thing is that, with the wide tires and the fact that in Quebec
many of the highways have slightly rutted sections, the truck does not fit
perfectly into the road. Not deep ruts you understand, but clearly two
depressed tracks at the standard wheel separation of a car. As he drives the
truck has either one wheel or the other in the left or right rut. He had to
have the electronic adjustment system tweaked so that the car wouldn't start
oscillating as it dodged back and forth between the ruts. What it would do
on real ruts on a dirt road I wouldn't want to imagine.
A beautiful machine, but not really meant for use off road or on.
Mark Hooper
72 TR6
-----Original Message-----
From: Nicholas Froome [mailto:listreader@pvision.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 11:41 AM
To: Javier Vidaurre Ch.; triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: 'Speckled' at The Cat and Custard Pot
Javier
>"...Malmesbury is notable in that the Land-Rovers are
>not driven by Fulham Farmers and actually have real
>mud on them. It's a real country market town"
>
>Is a "Fulham Farmer" a Gentleman Farmer as they say in
>the colonies?
No, a Gentleman Farmer has no livestock, just crops, whereas a Fulham Farmer
has stocks _and_ bonds... He uses his Land-Rover to negotiate the steep
kerbs outside Harrods, and his wife finds it essential to survive the urban
hurly-burly of Fulham, Kensington or Chelsea as she drives the children 200
yards to school every day
>I recall the "rush along the Fulham Road into the ever
>Passion Play" from the Jethro Tull Passion Play Album.
> Same reference or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Same Fulham Road.. though it's a few years since I heard the album. Ian
Anderson's still around though not, I believe, standing on one leg anymore
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