Member Since: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Sunny Cyprus
Posts: 3054
Off Roading charity event
Hiya All
Here in Cyprus there is a small Land Rover Owners Club which i joined earlier this year and attended a 4x4 half day charity drive event. I was the only D3 there and given that everyone else seemd to have heavily modified defenders with winches, RAI's and the usual Knobbly tyres, there was initially a lot of smirking and pointing, especially at my bog standard 17 inch road tyres, i did naturally feel a bit out of place, however the D3 did me very proud through the whole day, proving its immense superiority in all situations, and at the end of day BBQ, there was a very warm element of acceptance and inclusion.
So recently i was asked if i would like to participate in a special fund raising event for charity, where a dozen or so obsticles were created on a circuit which we would take members of the public as passengers around. Naturally i accepted, However still feeling a little concerned as i as yet have not invested in some more serious rubber, i decided to take one of my oldest mates along, both for support, and because he has a rather unique Land Rover based vehicle he built especially to bring to Cyprus that the Authourities here have as yet not allowed him to register and use. Damned Red tape.
So i used my contacts to get him the loan of some Trade plates so he could bring and use it for at least the day. In any event i knew it would be an eye catcher and would server the charitable purporse of the events aims well.
So with no more ado, on to some photos from the day, starting with my Mates afore mentioned special.
Click image to enlarge
Some may recognise it, its a Dakar conversion using all the running gear from a V8 Discovery 1
It was nice and clean till he let me have a go, and i got it a bit dirty for him
Here it is next to my so far nice and clean D3,
Click image to enlarge
The eagle eyed amongst you might spot i have already diagnostically lifted my D3 up a bit more than normal before venturing onto the circuit. Well some of the holes were a bit deep and even the Dakar bent its side step
here is my first forray onto the articulation exercising stretch.
Click image to enlarge
That front wheel is airbourne as is i suspect the rear one, causing the traction control to work its magic.
here is a picture from further down that stretch where this can be seen better.
Click image to enlarge
I promise you those alternate holes were very deep with most struggling and having to have a couple of goes. and even in the Dakar i got stuck here, had to back up, with a bit of difficulty, engage the diff locks and boot it through with a bit more momentum to get it through. Its also where the Dakar bent the side steps.
But amazingly other than a bit of wheel spin here and there as the TC sorted itself out it never really presented any problem to the D3.
So next was the climb a hill and steep decent into large hole.
taken from the rear it looks bad enough
Click image to enlarge
but from the front it looks a whole lot worse,
Click image to enlarge
Admittedly the picture taker canted the camera to accentuate the angle in this shot, but it was plenty steep enough to impress the passengers i had on board at the time, one of which was thinking about importing a D3 himself and is now fully commited to that. In fact i threw him the Keys a bit later to allow him to experience the sheer joy of ownership himself 8)
You might notice also the lovely sunny weather here, in fact while the UK is being flooded at present, we are desperately short of water and one of the biggest costs of organising the day was paying for a bowser to put some water in one of the holes in the rest of the course so we had some mud to splosh through as well.
Anyway, not much i know, compared to what some other members get up to, but never the less all in a good cause, it was nice to help out, and it was sure something that bit different.
Last edited by BBS SPY on 2nd Mar 2010 8:04 pm. Edited 2 times in total
23rd Nov 2009 7:06 pm
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Member Since: 06 Nov 2006
Location: In the Clubhouse
Posts: 21361
Nice to see you away from the test bench for a change Bodsys Brake Bible
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23rd Nov 2009 8:28 pm
BBS SPY Site Sponsor
Member Since: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Sunny Cyprus
Posts: 3054
Thanks Bodsy
I dunno if it was me or the Disco 3 that appreciated the day off from the bench more
It did seem that the D3 was more in its true element though, while i was wishing i had an inclinometer to hand.
23rd Nov 2009 8:39 pm
IKke
Member Since: 29 Apr 2008
Location: Brabant
Posts: 327
I see a BMW flag
I like the pics off the cross axle section (elephant steps?)
23rd Nov 2009 9:07 pm
BBS SPY Site Sponsor
Member Since: 15 Jun 2007
Location: Sunny Cyprus
Posts: 3054
Ah yes, well here in Cyprus, BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover are all owned by the same parent company, and they were one of the sponsors of the event, but it could have been much worse, they just bought Nissan too
At at lest the BMW hill was more challenging than the StarBucks hump
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