Living the dream
Meet the couple who left humdrum city life behind to live on the open road in their cleverly-converted Range Rover Classic
Meet the couple who left city life behind to live on the open road in their Range Rover Classic
THE LAND Rover parked outside your home is your passport to adventure, which you could jump in any time and drive around the world. But what happens when your Land Rover is your home and the world is your back yard?
To find out, we’re meeting a young couple who decided to take overland travel to a whole new level by turning their Land Rover into their place of residence. David Zu Elfe, 26, and his 24-year-old partner, Carlotta Steca, both grew up in the German city of Speyer, but neither had any ambition to put down roots there. “Rather than staying in a city we didn’t like, or moving for the sake of moving to a place or city we don’t know anything about, we joked about the idea of moving nowhere and everywhere at the same time – meaning just going on the road full-time,” says David.
But what started as a joke took a serious turn when they realised that it could be done; followed soon afterwards by the decision that it would be done as soon as possible. “We knew that there are only certain times in your lives when it is feasible to do it,” he explains.
That moment came in 2017, when Carlotta’s apprenticeship as a tailor came to an end and David set up in business as a freelance photographer and film maker. But before they could set off on their footloose adventure, they needed the right vehicle.
Says David: “In 2016 I was producing films for Petrolicious and was sent on assignment to the UK to shoot a couple of cars, one of which was a pretty 1981 two-door Range Rover Classic. During those two days of filming I got to know quite a bit about its capability, and of course, its beauty.
“At that time I was thinking about our potential adventure
rig. I had been considering a Toyota HJ60 Land Cruiser and I started looking around, but without the budget for a decent one. I posted on a forum asking for advice. I mentioned the fact I’d love a Range Rover Classic for its looks and clever rear tailgate, but could never afford one: a V8 would cost too much to run, a two-door too expensive to buy, a VM diesel wasn’t reliable enough and I disliked the Tdi’s soft dash.
“Two days later I got a reply from someone who said they had just the vehicle I was looking for . . .”
It was an unusual hybrid: a Range Rover Classic body sitting on a Discovery 1 chassis and running gear. So it had a 300Tdi engine, minus the soft dash that David hated so much. The price was also right, at 5000 Euros.
“I grabbed Carlotta and off we went to see it,” says David. “I should have taken someone knowledgeable, but that day I was wearing rose-tinted glasses. We took a look, figured out we could sleep in it with the rear seats removed, went for a test drive and bought it.
“I had noticed the front left corner was in a poor state and large parts of the body had prior repairs, but I decided it was good enough for us.”
Although he had been assured it was rust-free, David soon realised that corrosion was a major issue on the bodywork. “We removed everything behind the front seats to bare metal and made a list of stuff we needed to make it work. In May 2017 I took the grinder to the left rear wheel well. It was too far gone to ignore, even for our intended DIY set-up. After a serious debate with myself about sourcing a whole new body, I bought a welder, compressor, some sheet metal and replacement panels and set to work. I did read up on most things; what was lacking in knowledge I made up through trial and error.
“The rust repairs took until July, when we started on the conversion. Apart from the chassis being acid-dipped to get it clean, the bigger suspension and axle parts being sandblasted professionally and the re-plating of screws and
other hardware, we did it all on our own. I did all the mechanical work as well as the welding and painting, while most of the woodwork, carpets and seat upholstery were done by Carlotta. Her parents own a caravan business with a huge workshop which they allowed us to work in; even building a makeshift paint booth was possible.
“A big challenge was the mix and match of parts in the truck. The Range Rover body is of unknown age – the best guess is 1991 – while the Discovery chassis and drivetrain are from 1996. The axles predated both vehicles, and the electrics of the two cars were just loosely put together where needed. We removed miles of redundant wiring.”
Early on, the couple had decided they wanted a flat floor throughout, allowing them to fit swivelling front seats, as featured in modern campervans. It wasn’t an easy matter, as it required a new dashboard and electrics, including steering column and stalks, relocation of handbrake, trim adjustment, new seat belt anchor points and custom carpeting. But the space beneath the flat boat-inspired wooden floor was ideal for stowing equipment.
“Many of our modifications were necessities to make the platform work, not as a luxury,” says David. “The Range Classic is a terrible base vehicle with difficult parts supply and non-existent aftermarket. Nothing bolts on, nothing fits first try. We spent four months sourcing one panel for the dashboard conversion to make it complete and did the first two months without a working glovebox because we couldn’t figure out where to get the lock plate we needed.
“Storage units are bolted to the roof as well as the floor and aligned with the rear quarter windows in the doors so that they’re invisible when looking at the car in profile. The tint in the windows is matched to that, and Carlotta trimmed the headlining around the units.
“Inspired by other conversions, we fitted a small heat exchanger into the external cooling circle of the 300Tdi engine, straight off the heater hoses, with quick-release fittings. We carry two hoses with us, one of which has a 12 volt pump attached that’s powered via one of our 12v outlets. That way we can heat any water source so long as the engine is hot and running. Mostly we circulate the water jerrycan until it is hot enough and then use our Frontrunner shower arm, which hitches in behind the hi-lift jack on the rack, to have a shower. The spare tyre works great as towel holder!
“We wanted our conversion to feel old. Not dated, but
classy, which is why we wanted the 1980s dash, door cards and steering wheel. It also makes the cabin a lot more roomy and adds a glovebox. It was hard to get it all in – as opposed to bolt-on, most of our conversion was made for our exact needs and in more than one instance style first, problemsolving later.”
The whole conversion took 2000 hours of work by David and Carlotta, spread over seven months. During this time they named the Range Rover ‘George’. “It’s a good name for misbehaving British royalty – it’s a Range Rover Classic in Westminster Grey, after all!” explains David.
Once finished, it was time to hit the road. David takes up the story . . .
“In November last year we headed down from Germany, through France, Spain and into Portugal, where we knew it would be warm enough to stay over winter. We used the time to essentially explore every corner of the country and just get to properly test the car without the risk of being so far out that a mechanical failure would be catastrophic.
“By the time we left there I had an assignment scheduled in Thailand end of December, so while I flew out from Lisbon for ten days, Carlotta stayed behind. Learning from that we tried to work out how to do 2019.
“We then headed north out of Portugal, towards the Pyrenees and then the Alps. After a work-related trip in late March, near Frankfurt, we returned to the Alps. After another work-trip to the US, we are bound for Norway in late summer – yet again tied to a job, but we wanted to go there anyway.
“We try to do as many of these together and laid our personal goals carefully around them – seeing the Alps and northern Norway in particular. Aside from that, we both spend time on our own Instagram and Youtube accounts.
“When it comes to driving and navigating, we have a very classic split here: I drive, she navigates. Carlotta drives very well, but I am just a trucker and can go on forever, while she gets a headache after a short period of time. Most times we rely on a paper map, but for precise paths we use Google maps regularly, which has taken us to a lot of cool places. We want to switch to a permanent digital map solution (offline) in the near future but still use old maps for the general driving. There are enough screens in our lives as is.
“In the end we left to look for a new home, so while we have destinations, we try to see them as casually as possible,
“WE WANTED OUR CONVERSION TO FEEL OLD. NOT DATED, BUT CLASSY.. IT TOOK 2000 HOURS OF WORK”
hoping that one day we’ll find a place where we would want to settle and just say ‘Hey!’. Maybe it’ll fly at us tomorrow, maybe in six months, maybe in two years. Ultimately, when we know it, we know it. It’s hard to be any more precise than that.
“What we want most of all on our travels is to see beautiful places. With our roof tent we have a 360-degree panoramic bedroom. The Range Rover is our living room, dining room and office, but the way we built George forces us to be outside 95 per cent of the day, which in turn gives us the chance to get the feel of a place very quickly.
“We wanted to build the most elegant overland truck that you could live in while being extremely functional in every way – and still drive it in black-tie attire if needed. The car we built is a luxury that many won’t get at our point in life. Would we do it again? Probably. Can you live in a Range Rover? Yes, but you should really, really want to.
“Overland for us is not about extreme off-roading; we’ve only pushed the truck once or twice and it is very likely more capable than we are. It is about reaching any place we want to get to, getting to sleep within a postcard.
“We’ve learned so much about ourselves and what we want and don’t want in life. It taught us to feel at home in lots of places, and to realise how much in life you don’t need. We might also find out what we want because of that.”
Find out more about David and Carlotta’s adventures on Instagram (instagram.com/onlyaroadtripaway/) and Youtube (youtube.com/c/onlyaroadtripaway).