Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

drewstearne · Joined: 16 Oct 2012 Posts: 8

Hi Everyone, just joined up wanted to introduce myself. I'm 30 and like a lot of guys my age fell in love with supercars in the 80's. I told my teacher at 11 my first car would be a Testarossa and one day I still intent to turn up to his house in one.

I've been extremely lucky enough to end up in a job where I get to drive some amazing new supercars, but over the last five years or so I have also been given access to some amazing classic cars and my love for them is growing. That's how I ended up here, wanted to share some of my stories and engage with people who will most definitely know more about the cars I get access to than I will. I've got some great photos and videos on some of the cars but I wanted to tell you about the most recent classic car I got hold of.

I was invited down to the Land Rover Factory to take part in the Land Rover Heritage run. One hundred Land rovers from '48 to present day would drive in convoy to the Heritage Centre and leading the convoy would be none other than "Huey" the first ever Land Rover Produced.

and I was going to be driving it.

It was an absolute honour to drive. There's a sticker in the window that said "Please enjoy our exhibits but don't touch" and here I was, behind the wheel driving along leading a convoy. We even had a police escort to stop traffic for us which was a good thing as it was a bit of a challenge to drive. The advice I had been given was to let the steering do its thing as when you're driving in a straight line you end up correcting so much it looks like you're in an old american movie. however for a car that was 64 years old it was a brilliant drive and an experience I wouldn't change for anything in the world.

I took a bunch of photos and a short video, if anyone's interested I can post the link to them.

Anyway, that was one of my latest drives, thought I'd share it with you.

peter scott · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7216 Location: Edinburgh

Welcome to the forum Drew.

Nice pictures are always welcome.

Peter
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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

drewstearne · Joined: 16 Oct 2012 Posts: 8

Thanks Peter,

Th short video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFQI0cPkiJA&feature=relmfu

the photos are here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.316664075098412.69213.277554895675997&type=1

clan chieftain · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Motherwell

Great photos and video. Was it a coincidence that the odometer showed 88 miles. Was it a Land Rover 88. Welcome to the forum Drew. I thought for a minute you were Jeremy Clarkson in disguise when you said you had access to all these cars. Laughing

.............Larry.
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The Clan Chieftain

drewstearne · Joined: 16 Oct 2012 Posts: 8

Thanks Larry, it's actually an 80 I think the Platform moved to 88 for the series II, this is of course a Series I being the first of it's kind. I think the odometer may have been stuck. As was the fuel gauge and the speedometer. I was unlikely to get in to speeding trouble, both as we had a police escort who held up traffic and let me run red lights, and I'm pretty sure it would struggle to get over 50mph these days.

No, I am not Jeremy Clarkson but I am the person in the video, a younger, more bearded and Scottish version perhaps. We rarely get mistaken for each other Wink

I actually made a huge faux pas on the day. When I arrived at the Land Rover factory to join all the other dedicated LR fans and indeed to be given the honour of driving Huey, I was getting a lot of funny looks. It wasn't until I got out of my car that I realised they might have been looking at me funny because I had arrived in a brand new Toyota Hillux (on loan from Toyota) Embarassed

I hid it at the back of the car park and came back later after everyone had left to retrieve it.

peter scott · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7216 Location: Edinburgh

Now that's a proper Landy..

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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

welshrover · Joined: 09 Aug 2011 Posts: 326

ive had a lot of series landrovers and they are still the best .none of that electrical garbage and theyve got proper springs too .if you need coil springs buy a car. Laughing

drewstearne · Joined: 16 Oct 2012 Posts: 8

Yup, it will be a long time before I get to drive something that classy again.

JC T ONE · Joined: 30 Oct 2008 Posts: 1139 Location: Denmark

Hi & welcome inhere Cool

One of the young guys living at our farm, had a short Land Rover, with canvas top in the early 70ies.

It was painted Purple, with a Yellow stripe over the bonnet.

Not a colour choise for today, but in the early 70ies it was "in fashion" Rolling Eyes

Jens Christian
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http://www.eurods.eu/wp/index.html

drewstearne · Joined: 16 Oct 2012 Posts: 8

My experience of fashion is that if you stand still long enough it comes back around to you, like a broken clock.

Fluffle-Valve · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:11 pm Post subject:

I have a Series III and I drive it every day just for fun.
The one on the left in the photo.

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Series 3 1972 LWB Truck Cab Pick Up. My daily drive.

drewstearne · Joined: 16 Oct 2012 Posts: 8

Do you still take it off road?

Fluffle-Valve · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:12 pm Post subject:

drewstearne · Joined: 16 Oct 2012 Posts: 8

It's still great to know that the old Series Land Rovers still can be taken off road though. I took a new Range Rover Sport off road for a shoot and after getting it bogged down in a small pond for 15 minutes it came back out with rocks caught behind the brake disks. Had to gall out Land Rover to help me fix it (it was a LR press car).

I'm off to Morocco next week to drive the new Range Rover but I wonder how this generation of Land Rovers will hold up in 40 years time.

Fluffle-Valve · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:10 am Post subject: