Winter is Coming

...But not that quickly. A nice warm (10° C), calm, Fall late afternoon, great for a drive in the country.

End-of-Summer Drive

Such a nice day: who could stay in at lunch?

For reasons that remain somehat of a mystery to me, this remains one of the most satisfying vehicles I've ever driven, and I've driven types from firetrucks to Porches to F2000 race cars. An ongoing enjoyable mystery.

(As usual, photos can be clicked upon to make them bigger if desired.)

Stormy Weather

One of those truly spectacular storm fronts came through today. Parked to watch, saw fine dust rising straight up from the fields in a cloud, before suddenly being blown sidways. Must have been quite the updraft in the storm cell. Got home to find tornado alerts posted everywhere.


The wide-angle photo looks a lot better if you click on it. Interesting light.

You can just see the rising dust in the background. I thought it was rain at first.

Birthday

Today is the Land Rover's 53rd birthday. Built July 18, 1960, in Solihull, England, and aside from the chassis and some replacement parts, is mostly completely original. Photo taken yesterday.

Wiper Update

I usually avoid driving the Land Rover in the rain, as I've heard how bad the old windshield wiper system is. Of course, there's been a couple of times when there have been a few raindrops, but nothing really needing wipers. Well, today we were caught in a proper rain shower, and so I switched on the wiper on my side - and it did a perfect job. No hesitation, and wiped the windscreen clear of rain, just as it should. I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised, but somehow was. The 52-year-old refurbished motor did a great job, and the new wiper blades cleaned off the rain as they're supposed to, visibility was great, and on we drove. Too bad the door tops were off and we got a little wet. :)

Caught in mid-sweep, by smartphone camera, as we pulled in. Rain was ending by this point, but still.....

Two Land Rovers

We've become a two Land Rover family! This Discovery 2 will become my wife's daily driver once the lease runs out on her current car. The Disco was owned by a friend who is a professional British car restorer/technician, and the vehicle is in very good shape. Heated seats and full-time four wheel drive will be welcome in winter. It should be fun to get to know and maintain.

Small Details

Just posting a couple of small details, to help someone out on the S2C forum.

First, a factory installed (I believe) cylinder on one of the five 1959 rims, which I assume is a balance weight of some sort. If so, it doesn't say much for build tolerances back then!

Secondly, the position and shape of the engine hand crank handle hole in the front bumper. Horizontally, this is 25.5 inches from driver's-left end of bumper, 34.5 inches from driver's right (that is, looking forward). I don't know how uniform all bumper overall sizes are, but this is how it works out on mine.