DAVE PHILLIPS

T he Voca l Yokel

IENJOYED Ed Evans’ feature on Cummins-engined Defenders in last month’s LRM. Enthusiasts have been shoehorning big diesel lumps into their Land Rovers ever since the Series I was launched and the sophisticated truck engines produced by the Us-owned company are an obvious choice if you want to harness the pulling power of a thundering beast under your bonnet.

I also like Cummins because they are the only diesel engine manufacturer in Northamptonshire, where I live. There used to be two, but Perkins ceased to be in Northants when the county boundaries were moved in the 1960s and Peterborough became part of Cambridgeshire. And, yes, a variety of plodding Perkins lumps also found their way under several Land Rover bonnets, although I’d argue they were better suited to the pedestrian pace of the narrow boats where they are usually to be found.

Cummins, on the other hand, are a bit more exciting, in an engine-envy kind of way. Their biggest is the 15-litre ISX, found on American trucks. If you’ve ever wondered why US trucks have long noses, you have the answer. I once drove a V8 petrol L322 Range Rover on a nearempty freeway in Nevada when a big truck roared past at over 100 mph. I bet it had a Cummins engine under its hood.

In the UK, where the eye-watering fuel duty we are forced to pay is a national disgrace, diesels have always been popular. They are cheaper to run, because diesel engine fuel consumption is much more efficient than a petrol unit, where more of the fuel remains unburnt – hence the higher mpg achieved by diesels.

With petrol-engined Land Rovers being much more expensive to run, it’s easy to understand why canny owners found ways of installing various diesels in order to save money. For many years most of them were non-rover diesels, because until 1989 and the advent of the ground-breaking Tdi series of turbodiesels, Solihull’s offerings were either non-existent or lumbering.

The Series I was launched in 1948 but there wasn’t a diesel option until 1957. It produced just 52 bhp.

The situation was even worse for Range Rover owners, who had to wait 18 years. The original Range Rover was launched in 1970 but didn’t get a diesel option until 1988 – the Italian VM turbo that produced 112 bhp compared to the V8 petrol’s 155 bhp.

No wonder owners turned to some weird and wonderful diesel engine transplants.

In the 1990s, Land Rover magazines carried large adverts for diesel conversions, using imported used engines from decommissioned Japanese trucks and taxis. One of the biggest professional converters were Devon-based Samurai Motor Components Ltd, who offered GMC V8 diesels with 6.2 or 6.5-litre displacements, with or without turbos, producing 140 to 215 bhp. Prices ranged from £1400 to £4000, complete with conversion kits. And if that was too expensive, they supplied smaller Nissan diesels for £995. There were plenty of takers.

Of course, the bottom dropped out of that market when the 200Tdi diesel came along in 1989. It was designed for the Discovery, but this powerful and reliable engine soon became the diesel option for Range Rovers and Defenders, too – as did its 1994 successor, the 300Tdi.

Diesels have been the best-selling Land Rovers ever since, especially in the UK, where Land Rover ceased selling petrol Defenders (apart from special editions) after 1993. No wonder, with engines like the Td5, TDV6, Td4 and TDCI you didn’t need to burn gas.

Diesel technology came on in leaps and bounds after 2000. For a while, they were the darlings of the automotive world, thanks to their frugality and ultra-low carbon emissions. Everything was cosy until it was discovered that German car makers Volkswagen had been cheating the system by installing software that cheated testing equipment into recording much lower carbon emissions than the engines actually produced. After that, politicians fell out of love with our favourite engines and made a series of ill-judged pronouncements on diesels that have swayed public opinion to the extent that the ordinary man and woman on the street have been scared off. Sales of diesels have slumped, which is very bad news for owners of a diesel- dominated marque like Land Rover.

People are convinced that diesel engines will be banned completely or taxed even more heavily, so they won’t buy them.

One Series Land Rover specialist who until recently did a steady trade in Tdi conversions for leaf-sprung petrol Land Rovers told me that his biggest line of business at the moment is installing petrol engines in diesel Land Rovers. In other words, owners want those Tdi engines removed and the original 2.25 petrols reinstated.

Engine conversions, it seems, have gone full circle. EX-LRM Editor Dave has driven Land Rovers in most corners of the world, but loves the British countryside best

“Everything was cosy until it was discovered that German car makers Volkswagen had been cheating the system”