Land Rover Defender 110 test drive since 2007 SUV

Land Rover Defender 90 SVX VS Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

People undress each other, and we shared Jeep and Land Rover. This is stunning. Do you want to get a thermal blow, writhing on a wet seat with sand in your mouth? We went into voyage to test in our own skin, what to drive in open cars, but not simple, but the most famous Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Defender SUVs in the world.
Defender arrived in a special SVX design with an additional safety frame, a 2.4 liter diesel engine and a six -speed manual gearbox. Wrangler could be taken in the representative office only of long -drawn (five -door) and in the Rubicon configuration with all locks, reduced gear 1: 4, disconnected by a stabilizer, a 3.8 liter gasoline engine and automatic transmission. A short Englishman costs 1,552,770 rubles. Long American 2195 328 rubles.
Tula gingerbread cookies and Audi fighter
Where to go? Not a question is a beach option. Sand, sun, spray of water. And no Oblomes. As the sand will creak remarkably on the teeth, the sun will pleasantly burn his head through, and the water runs cheerfully in the cabin. And you can just grab on the highway where your eyes look. The main thing is not to blow off the side wind from the seats and does not smoke the daughter Garia from the trucks. And we went until we rested on the rocks that once grew up in the Tula region. They climbed the stones, ate the Tula gingerbread and arrived back to Moscow. What was on the road is difficult to describe with words composed of letters.
The first impression of driving in an open car as if you were running along the road yourself, raking the air with your hands in which you hold the windshield. All sounds, inaccessible earlier, burst into the salon, stun with their power and dumbfounded by unexpected occurrence. At some point, I thought that the fighter was going to take off to my left. It turned out that it went to overtake the Audi A8 on wide rubber, the noise from which was like an aviation engine.
From such a shock, at first I want to shy away to the side, so the hands are hard to squeeze the steering wheel. Accustomed to cacophony of the sounds of tires, motors and winds, slowly relax and notice how literally all fellow travelers stare at you. Fifteen minutes side by side with me was rode Bentley, whose owner is sure, is not easy. But he dragged at a speed of 70 km/h and did not take his eyes off.
Give your foot your leg
Yes, it is beautiful from the outside, but which of these onlookers knew what I have inside! Whatever speed you rode at, whether it be 120 or 60 km/h, you still go too quickly. Only motorcyclists can get used to this noise and wind. When in Defender, in order not to freeze, I turned on the stove, then after fifteen minutes my left leg could be cut off, because from inconvenience it lost sensitivity, and the right limb, wrapping with ketchup, to serve to the table. The head also gets. It makes no sense to put the cap it flies out the window immediately with other things left on the seats. Even an elastic band for hair flew off me. It became a little better only when I tied the bandana.
We must forget about your usual life. Do you like to speak on a mobile phone? You will not hear his call, and even more so you won’t figure out what they say into the phone. Headset? Look for it in roadside bushes. Only a heavy walkie -talkie, tied to the chest with a whole hoe of the tape. Smoke? Congratulations! The ashes can not be shaken, he flies away into your eyes, ears and behind the scruff. Do not leave the bull, you don’t know where it will fly. The cigarette should go out by itself, and then put it in your pocket. How about a snack on the road? I did not dare, because I drove the first half of the way on a short Defender, and it is so hard to go out that it is more difficult to get a hamburger in my mouth than a match from a rifle. It is better to drink water like a bicycle from a nipple. But on the traffic police inspector, you can, in principle, score. He will not speak with a person sprinkled with ash over the ketchup, with a burning bull in the hood and a shell -and -a -way, requiring the interlocutor at least yell into a megaphone.
You can’t put it in your pants, you will pass the turns
It became easier to live driving Wrangler. It is softer and with a longer base. Only at the wheel of Jeep I again remembered that I was not running along the highway with my feet, but I'm going on an open car. For Defender, an open top is still exotic, and for Wrangler a regular accessory, as common as a drive to all wheels. And most importantly, in the jeep you can easily get rid of the doors! You only need a special instrument in an octagonal star. Unscrew four bolts, disconnect the four electrical connectors and, if enough strength, remove the doors from the loops. Defender SVX does not offer such a transformation.
If someone thinks that he just takes off four pieces of iron, then let him throw out of his head a stupid error. With the disappearance of doors, a new car is born in front of our eyes. Jeep in this form is a completely different car. The weight changes and therefore, the center of gravity of the entire structure. And this means that Wrangler behaves differently on the go. Imagine the smoothness and controllability increase significantly. The jeep no longer shakes on the cracks of the asphalt, and you can enter the turns at a real speed. On the off -road, cross -country ability increases many times. And not only because of the low center of gravity, but also because of one hundred percent visibility. You can control the front and rear wheels with your eyes, and this is almost half the success for a very crossed area. The fact that you simply did not dare to do in a closed car, now it seems light and relaxed. You laugh at those dangerous hills where you used to be afraid of overturning. And do not try to repeat these tricks on Defender in his pants.
We were cleared of two SUVs, but I really discovered Wrangler for myself. How fantastic it is when the machine is transformed in a few minutes, making it more harmonious and functional. But the open Defender SVX is just a car without a top, and there is no strong difference with the sheathed option.
The rain will not get wet, the assistant will not die
At the moment when you have to take off the tents, you delve into the details. On Jeep, one can do this a short person with strong hands, he will have to climb into the trunk and lift weights. It is better to approach Land Rover with an assistant. But the Defender tester can be removed quickly, you don’t need to observe a clear order and read the instructions simply unfasten everything that comes to hand and put it in the body. It takes no more than 20 minutes. Put the tent back about the same.
With jeep, everything is more complicated. When we got rid of the roof for the first time, it took us about 40 minutes to understand what-what-how. Then the matter went easier to get stuck in 20 minutes. They set a tent for 25 minutes. By the way, we dressed Wrangler and divided clearly against written instructions, using the innate lack of logic. Everything worked out.
Do I need to quickly collect, seize the tents? Suddenly it will rain? It turns out that he is not so terrible, if short -term and does not pour like a bucket. A little moisture in the area of \u200b\u200bthe rear seats will be, but the front line will remain dry. I didn’t get a single drop on my face. Marvelous. I thought at the sight of the cloud immediately slow down under the nearest canopy.
Some, stripping Wrangler in the spring, leave it like this until the fall, and individual fans do not bother for the winter. Instead of a factory cover, they put an emergency, much more convenient, and instead of iron doors, unfastened plastic. Of course, a number of problems arise, but most of them are solved. Firstly, the theft is limited to the fact that all the glove compartment are locked up and there are tuning iron boxes. Secondly, from cold and moisture to some extent protect the excellent stove and waterproof seats. The fan is enough.
What did I understand after our journey? Riding on an open SUV along the beach is stupid, on the highway noisy and windy, and on the road there is a full buzz. It may also be tested by the adherers of the English off-road school, but the American car, which has all the doors, will give true delight. After this test, I am almost sure that they are generally superfluous.

Author: Dmitry Leontyev, photo Victoria Ilyinskaya

   
 

 

Source: Magazine 4x4 [August /2009]