Known as "Nessie", well what else can you call a 1988 110, from the Highlands of Scotland, with the registration letters 'NES', now be honest.....
After several hard years as an estate vehicle F527NES was retired from her lease to a gentler life in England.  Well it would have been gentler if it had been any thing other than a Land Rover.  Old Land Rover's don't die, they just change habitats.
For the first few month's of my ownership she was my second car.  Then a friend wrote his car off, so I sold him my Peugeot 205, and Nessie entered a new life, as a commuter car.  Not exactly ideal you may think, cold, noisy, draughty, thirsty.  Yes, all of those, but you can never loose her in a city centre car park (provided you can get in there in the first place).  Gradually the list of jobs to be done was sorted.  Top of the list was a new seat for my tender behind, not that sticky, cold plastic, but a new cloth one. Then some 'In Car Entertainment', a bit of rug on the rear floor, a snorkel - see the picture gallery as to why!
Side windows, and short bench seats from a 90 were fitted, back seat passengers had complained long and loud about not being able to see what was happening, and it was 'cold on the bum' sitting on the wheel arches, now they complain about being able to see what's happening - you can't please all the folk all the time.
Then the engine started to smoke badly, so a reconditioned Turbo Diesel was put in.
The front looked very naked without any extra lights, a bull bar, or a winch, so a bull bar was put on, and taken off  when the 'Husky' winch was installed. - Tip, never use a 'Tight-n-True' winch mount off road, they only work on the level, and when was it last level off road?  This lesson having been learnt, a new bumper was fabricated, with the winch lower, further back, and much easier to use.

So what does Nessie get used for?  Apart from being my daily transport just about everything. from helping a friend move down to Cornwall, the crowd from work on the odd 'pub run' (I have to count them out of the back to make sure we all get back...)  Marshalling on the Welsh Hill Rally in 1998 saw much use of the tow ropes....  And of course exploring 'green lanes', both in Staffordshire, and further afield.

A few years have passed since I last wrote anything here.  Nessie has changed colour slightly - still blue, just a bit brighter.

Then the big bang - the crankshaft broke.  An ignominious ride back to RK Automotive in Tamworth on the back of an RAC truck.  The fun started.  Due to a change in lifestyle I needed to get back on the road in a hurry, and the only engine available was a 3.9 fuel injected V8 with an R380 gearbox and a little bit of a tweek.  Lets say the power is adequate....

Nessie now travels up and down the M6 on a regular basis, keeping up with the rest of the traffic (and giving a few drivers a bit of a shock when one of Solihull's finest passes them on the way up a hill - at 70(honest guv) mph....

So what's next - LPG is on the cards, if only to keep the fuel bills down to reasonable proportions - more news to follow.

Sadly a low life decided that they had more need of Nessie than I had and stole her and broke her for bits.
There followed a late Range Rover Classic, nice car and quite competant off-road, but showing its age. This was replaced by a P38, which only lasted a couple of years. Both these were the famed ex-Buick V8, honestly who could have a Range Rover without a V8? Both were converted to LPG, which certainly had a positive impact on the fule bills. While a good car the P38 was "not quite right", there was someting lacking and I was never really happy with it despite spendding a lot of money on it in attempts to get it right, so I started to look for a better fit to my lifestyle.
The spec was loose - superb off road, good on road, more space, a less fussy engine. At first glance the Disco 3 filled the bill, along with the RR Sport, or even a full fat RR, not to mention a few other brands.... While looking for a replacement for the P38 I tried just about every 4x4 on the market, some were faster (Porker), uglier (not saying), flashier (B*M), less comfortable (not saying), but nothing actully had that undefinable feeling (including the full fat Range Rover!) that the Disco 3 delivers.

Then along came PapaJon, a Dico 3, with a high tech 2.7 TDV6 engine, six speed box, air suspension and loads of space. Many things have been said about the Disco 3, not the least of which is how economical it is for such a large vehicle, and how fast for such a small engine - if you can call a 2.7l, 190bhp, 350ftlb engine small and how well it goes and and off the road.
I'm loking forward to seeing how PapaJon compares with its standard road rubber against my brother's 110 on its mud tyres - I guess there will be some sybling rivallry along with two LR of different generations having a good go at it. Until thaat battel you will have to live with a pic of PapaJon being loaded....

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