Miller
February 28th, 2011, 04:29 PM
Hello Gentlemen,
My name is Jon, and I have proudly become the owner of a 1985 Land Rover 110 SW, 3.5L V8 with LT95 gearbox. Being stationed in Germany, I was highly motivated to find a 25 yr old Landy to take back to the US. Upon my arrival here in the summer of '09, I began my search.
I found a lot of sad looking Landys along the way. By December '10, I had located a good looking Alpine White 110 near Eindhoven and a "very" original '85 Camel Trophy 110 near Nijmegen. I packed up my family on a 4-day weekend and drove up to the Netherlands to take a look.
Having proudly served in the 82nd Airborne Division, I used the opportunity to visit Arnhem and tour the former HQ of the Parachute Regiment during the ill-fated Operation Market Garden. We then set off to Classic Defenders, near Nijmegen, to check out the Camel Trophy 110. It was one of the German team's vehicles and had low mileage, albeit Camel Trophy miles. Needless to say, it was in need of some serious attention and with my limited skills and knoweledge, I was not up to the task. Haks, the owner of Classic Defenders, kindly gave me a quick rundown of what to look for (and avoid!) in a used Landy. We set off for Eindhoven to check out the Alpine White 110.
After all I had seen up to this point, I was quite surprised to see an '85 110 in such good condition. It had began its life as an export to Switzerland and later ended up in German and Dutch hands. It has the 3.5L V8 with an Edelbrock intake manifold and 4-bbl carb kit from RPI installed by the previous owner. The gearbox is an LT95 4-speed also used on 101FC gun carriage trucks. The previous owner had also installed a Britpart (shitpart, so I've been told) 2" heavy duty lift. The frame appears to be in great condition for a 25+ year Land Rover. After some bartering, I happily agreed to purchase this Landy. It was too late in the day to transfer ownership of the vehicle, so we drove back to Germany and I returned to NL the following weekend to pick it up. The previous owner from Germany still has a website up with photos of the 110 when it was in his hands: http://www.oneten.eu/OneTen.html
After purchasing the 110 and obtaining the "export plates", which consisted of characters inscribed on a plastic card by hand with a fat permanent marker, I was off on my first moderate distance drive back to Germany. One of my friends pulled wingman duty in his BMW in the event the Landy broke down. Aside from chugging down unleaded at a sickening rate with the V8 and the high-revving LT95, I had a great time on my cherry-blast with the 110. I triumphantly pulled into our neighborhood, with my wife and 2-year old son cheering on the sidewalk. As a side note, my son is just like dad and completely obsessed with Defenders.
I am totally in love with this thing, and my wife actually digs it too! Also, last week I found out that JimC was recently assigned here as well, and works a few doors down the hall from me. I had a chance to ride in his awesome Puma Defender and he stopped by to check out my old 110. I'm glad to be working with a seasoned Defender owner, and look forward to picking Jim's brain as I work on improving my 110.
Since purchasing the 110, I have done some small jobs such as removing and repainting the wheel arches flat-black, and swapping the disintegrated shift knob with a new original one from Pegasus Parts in the UK. I also removed the tint from the rear windows, and ripped the tattered insulation off the bonnet. With my birthday around the corner, I am looking forward to taking on some more projects, like installing seat re-trim kits and some later model interior trim.
Over the horizon, I'd like to upgrade to a disc-brake rear axle among other things. I'd love to drop in a 4.6, but we'll see. My wife has kindly given me the green light to get another Landy to bring back to the US, so I am on the lookout for a 25-year old 90 with a 200/300 TDI.
Here are some photos of the 110 after I brought it back to Germany. I'll take some more recent pics :
My name is Jon, and I have proudly become the owner of a 1985 Land Rover 110 SW, 3.5L V8 with LT95 gearbox. Being stationed in Germany, I was highly motivated to find a 25 yr old Landy to take back to the US. Upon my arrival here in the summer of '09, I began my search.
I found a lot of sad looking Landys along the way. By December '10, I had located a good looking Alpine White 110 near Eindhoven and a "very" original '85 Camel Trophy 110 near Nijmegen. I packed up my family on a 4-day weekend and drove up to the Netherlands to take a look.
Having proudly served in the 82nd Airborne Division, I used the opportunity to visit Arnhem and tour the former HQ of the Parachute Regiment during the ill-fated Operation Market Garden. We then set off to Classic Defenders, near Nijmegen, to check out the Camel Trophy 110. It was one of the German team's vehicles and had low mileage, albeit Camel Trophy miles. Needless to say, it was in need of some serious attention and with my limited skills and knoweledge, I was not up to the task. Haks, the owner of Classic Defenders, kindly gave me a quick rundown of what to look for (and avoid!) in a used Landy. We set off for Eindhoven to check out the Alpine White 110.
After all I had seen up to this point, I was quite surprised to see an '85 110 in such good condition. It had began its life as an export to Switzerland and later ended up in German and Dutch hands. It has the 3.5L V8 with an Edelbrock intake manifold and 4-bbl carb kit from RPI installed by the previous owner. The gearbox is an LT95 4-speed also used on 101FC gun carriage trucks. The previous owner had also installed a Britpart (shitpart, so I've been told) 2" heavy duty lift. The frame appears to be in great condition for a 25+ year Land Rover. After some bartering, I happily agreed to purchase this Landy. It was too late in the day to transfer ownership of the vehicle, so we drove back to Germany and I returned to NL the following weekend to pick it up. The previous owner from Germany still has a website up with photos of the 110 when it was in his hands: http://www.oneten.eu/OneTen.html
After purchasing the 110 and obtaining the "export plates", which consisted of characters inscribed on a plastic card by hand with a fat permanent marker, I was off on my first moderate distance drive back to Germany. One of my friends pulled wingman duty in his BMW in the event the Landy broke down. Aside from chugging down unleaded at a sickening rate with the V8 and the high-revving LT95, I had a great time on my cherry-blast with the 110. I triumphantly pulled into our neighborhood, with my wife and 2-year old son cheering on the sidewalk. As a side note, my son is just like dad and completely obsessed with Defenders.
I am totally in love with this thing, and my wife actually digs it too! Also, last week I found out that JimC was recently assigned here as well, and works a few doors down the hall from me. I had a chance to ride in his awesome Puma Defender and he stopped by to check out my old 110. I'm glad to be working with a seasoned Defender owner, and look forward to picking Jim's brain as I work on improving my 110.
Since purchasing the 110, I have done some small jobs such as removing and repainting the wheel arches flat-black, and swapping the disintegrated shift knob with a new original one from Pegasus Parts in the UK. I also removed the tint from the rear windows, and ripped the tattered insulation off the bonnet. With my birthday around the corner, I am looking forward to taking on some more projects, like installing seat re-trim kits and some later model interior trim.
Over the horizon, I'd like to upgrade to a disc-brake rear axle among other things. I'd love to drop in a 4.6, but we'll see. My wife has kindly given me the green light to get another Landy to bring back to the US, so I am on the lookout for a 25-year old 90 with a 200/300 TDI.
Here are some photos of the 110 after I brought it back to Germany. I'll take some more recent pics :