WRITERS ROVERS
Patrick discovers that his father-in-law also loves Rovers…. and ferries
People have lost their sense of adventure. We live our lives through screens or other people’s social media posts. TV, phones and tablets have taken over. We take the easy road instead of the adventurous one.
Last Christmas my wife and son flew to Northern Ireland for a break. They left a week or so before me as I still had to finish off the February issue. I decided to instead take the Stena ferry from Liverpool to Belfast. Yes I know that the Liverpool docks are miles from my house (170 to be precise) and the ferry crossing takes eight hours, but I had a new Range Rover Velar R-dynamic HSE on test.
Swapping a 2.8 litre petrol engine for a V6 3 litre diesel, was no doubt going to save me some money – I had no doubt that it would do better in the fuel consumption ranks. I get around 20 miles to the gallon in my Defender while the official figure for the Velar is around 38.2, although I would’ve been happy with something in between the two. We will be doing a full driving impression on the Velar in a future edition of LRM.
My sailing was overnight so I spent most of it sleeping. Another reason for taking the Velar over is that my in-laws were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and so we would be spending Christmas in the swanky Slieve Donard Hotel. It is rather scenically located with the beach less than 100 metres from the hotel entrance and the majestic Mourne Mountains provide an unforgettable backdrop. My in-laws (John and Heather) have been very kind to me and my family since we moved over from Africa five years ago so it was only right that I drove us all to the hotel in style.
While John does not own a Land Rover he still subscribes to LRM just to make sure that I am behaving myself. He was considering buying a Discovery 2 at one stage but then he read about my chassis woes and decided to buy a seven-seater Hyundai instead. As we drove down to Newcastle John started to tell me about the time he took a ferry across to England to go and pick up a spanking-new Rover SD1. “Yes I took the same ferry as you to go and pick up a new tumeric mustard Rover SD1 in the south of England. I had hitched a lift with my brother-in-law who was going to pick up car parts for his business. The year was 1977 and as they had only just been launched I could not
get hold of one in Northern Ireland and so I paid £500 more than the list price. I had no choice in colour, gearing or engine. It was the thirsty 3500 V8.”
Incredibly it came out of the same Solihull factory as my Velar and Defender, although John’s bright yellow SD1 probably turned a few more heads on the boat crossing than the Rangie did. “It attracted loads of attention, people would just come over to take a look at its V8 engine. I remember that it was cold when I came off the ferry and the staff warned me about the ice. So I carefully drove it from the port back to our house in Donaghadee.”
After our lovely break and once back in Donaghadee, John brings out the old family album and shows me pictures of his Rover parked at up at Portaferry. My wife, who was three at the time, is posing proudly in front of it. John also has pictures of a family visit to the Slieve Donard in 1977. He sure has a soft spot for the place and remembers his first visit there with his dad when only 17 years old. “Dad had to attend a conference there and as I already had my licence I drove him down. While Dad worked, I enjoyed the hotel and its facilities.”
When we go to take my son Isaac and his cousins to the impressive aquarium at Portaferry the following day, I drive down to near the water’s edge and park the Velar in exactly the same spot as John did over 40 years ago in his Rover SD1. I recognise the backdrop building from the photo he showed me. This time I ask John and Isaac to pose in front of the Velar. There is a cold wind coming off the water yet John and Isaac are happy to help me recreate that photo he took here over 40 years ago.
To me this is what Christmas holidays are all about, spending quality time with your family and finding out new things about them. So while time might have moved on and John no longers owns his Rover SD1, the family still like to visit the impressive Slieve Donard and we are still driving cars made at the now muchlarger Solihull Rover factory. Now if only John could find some images or records of that Series I that he used to own....