Meet Mr Brownie
Range Rover Classic fanatic Tim has bought another – you guessed it – Range Rover Classic
DURING late spring I bought myself another Range Rover Classic, in the form of a 1983, three-speed automatic, 3.5 V8 early four-door Classic. Now I already had several of these early four-doors but I don’t have one that’s actually finished and ready to go on the road, so when this particular example popped up very well priced, on the road and ready to go, I couldn’t resist. I’ve always had a soft spot for Russet Brown Classics, which isn’t everyone’s first colour choice! My idea was to use it for the rest of the summer and do some classic car shows with it, and do some work on it over the winter.
We set off from North Yorkshire down to Macclesfield in Derbyshire to collect it, as it was on the road, I had taxed and insured it to drive it home after being assured by the seller it would get me back. We turned up, it looked fine – perhaps not quite as described, but for the money I was still pretty pleased with it. We set off, and after about 15 miles, I could smell a very hot burning smell. I pulled up, but at this point couldn’t really see anything amiss so we continued. As we approached the Woodhead Pass, the the inside of the car filled with smoke. Thankfully there was a layby very close by, so I pulled in and I popped the bonnet. There was smoke and oil everywhere, thanks to a major oil leak at the back of the engine which was running straight down to the Y-piece of the exhaust.
There wasn’t really anything that could be done to fix it at the side of the road on a Sunday evening, so a call to the AA was the last resort. The patrol man was with us within half an hour, and was very much a fellow Land Rover enthusiast too!
Once back home, the next day I started investigating the oil leak. On removal of the inlet manifold, there was a large mouse nest in the valley of the engine. When the nest was extracted, it revealed it had rotted out the inlet manifold gasket. Along with this all of the oil breathers were blocked solid. After unblocking them, a new inlet manifold gasket cured the leak.
After then using it for a few days it soon became clear there were a lot of other issues, so before it was used any further these had to be addressed: a full exhaust system front to back, complete front hub rebuild (due to a CV joint that had totally gone), rear hubs were also done too, as these were leaking. It soon became very clear that this car had not actually turned a wheel for many years.
After fixing these issues and making it safe to drive, I was happy to start getting out and about in it. I’ve now started calling it ‘Mr Brownie’.
I had booked myself and some friends into a classic car show back in Norfolk, at the North Norfolk Railway. This was Mr Brownie’s first maiden voyage, of which he performed faultlessly, and was a pleasure to drive. I stayed at my parents’ in Norfolk for the weekend of this event, and had said to my mates to meet there and we would all head over to Holt Station together.
Mum and Dad drove my 1992 Warwick 4x4 4.2 Range Rover, Gary came along in his 1974 two-door, and finally Al, in his 1984 four-door.
We departed my parents for Holt which is only about 15 miles away, it was a bright sunny, hot morning, Mr Brownie was in front, and it was a great sight in the rear-view mirror seeing three other Classics behind me. However, as we approached Holt station, we lost a Range Rover. Just a few yards from the entrance, Al’s throttle cable snapped. To get it off the side of the road we put the choke on and drove it very slowly into the show. Thankfully there is an old two-door Range Rover still sat at my parents, which used the same cable as Al’s Classic. A phone call back to my brother Liam was made, to see if he could remove it and bring it with him when he joined us later in the day, which he did and we fitted it there and then.
There was a fantastic range of vehicles, including commercial vehicles and buses at the show. This is one of my favourite classic car shows of the year: generally nice weather, and the mix of steam trains running too tops it off for me. The four Range Rovers got a lot of attention; so many people came up to us and said how nice it was to see some at a classic car show, as they seem so rare to see out and about nowadays!