Low Profile

Originally Published: April 2010 Words: Olly Sack Pictures: Steve Taylor

Once you get inside the vehicle, it becomes more apparent that its Defender looks are only skin deep. This isn’t a stripped-out 90 cabin – it’s the bespoke interior of a hand-made race car. Note the instrument cluster fixed to the scuttle bar and the ultra-wide tranny tunnel, built to accommodate the engine’s location deep into the bulkhead area. The Art Carr auto shifter operates the box via a manual valve block, giving the driver full control over gear selection. Julian will get control of another kind once there’s a pair of fiddle brake levers next to it; he’s already got a kit from Milners, but has been taking time to convince himself that the manoeuvrability benefits really do outweigh the opportunities to put the vehicle on its side

The TMC spaceframe structure beneath the Land Rover body can be seen here. Note the horizontal upper bar running through the rear bulkhead in the cabin, and the reinforced shock mounts midway up the back stays

As you can see here, while the vehicle might be a purpose-built spaceframe racer it’s not a full tube buggy. Manufacturer Tim Marsh started by welding together the front ends of two Range Rover chassis – a tried and trusted technique among comp safari builders which provides radius-arm suspension at both ends, doing away with the massively flexible but much less controlled A-frame at the rear. This is one of the chassis mounts for the rear radius arms, braced and gusseted to strengthen it against the enormous impacts that are a regular part of a race truck’s life. Since these pictures were taken, it’s been beefed up further by the addition of Polybushes all round to replace the old rubbers you see here

Front radius arm mounts don’t look much like what you’d see beneath a showroom Landy. But then, a showroom Landy isn’t built to be caned into a hidden tree stump at eighty miles per hour. Long trailing braces, with a very shallow angle, provide the biggest possible contact patch with the chassis and are further strengthened with gussets to both sides

Up front is a strengthened Range Rover LSE axle with heavy-duty steering bars, but what you’re looking at here is the one at the back. A Tomcat unit, this is sleeved for bomb-proof strength – and on that subject, the diff case looks like it could contain a nuclear explosion. Both axles contain KAM hardened shafts and stock CVs, with open 4-pin diffs, and support vented, drilled and grooved EBC brakes. The handbrake is, in Julian’s words, ‘stock and sticking’ – no surprise that an X-Brake is high on his current wish list

The use of Range Rover front suspension at the back means the addition of a panhard rod, whose axle mount is seen here. Note the radius arm link just behind it (aka a hockey stick, swan neck or C-spanner), and also the check strap – in racing, suspension is all about controlling movement, not liberating as much of it as possible

Looks odd? Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. The Tomcat bonnet does accentuate the shallowness of the windscreen, but that’s not really what you’re looking at here. What makes the difference is the removal of the vent panel, moving the base of the windscreen down to bonnet level – and bringing the height of the roof down with it. Hence the faster rake of the screen. In addition, the whole body has been dropped around six inches on its mountings and the arches trimmed to prevent it fouling the tyres, while the rear overhang was trimmed to be as small as possible. The effect is most dramatic when seen from the side and rear – note how much different the vehicle’s shape is to that of a standard 90, and how much more squat it appears from behind

If you’re a fan of nice details, check this out. What you’re looking at here is a custom fuel tank, shaped to fit in the rear of the vehicle and house the spare wheel. The battery’s next to it, too – putting two heavy items smack bang in the middle of the wheelbase

At the head of the drivetrain is a Race Developments 5.3-litre V8 in full race spec, sending 346bhp to the axles via a three-speed Range Rover auto and custom propshafts from Qt. These were necessary, if they weren’t anyway, as the engine is mounted around 12-15 inches further back than standard for the best possible weight distribution

The engine’s position is made very clear indeed here – just check out the gap between it and the radiator. Waterproofing is limited to a plate protecting the distributor cap. This will get bigger yet when Julian carries out his plan to move the rad to the rear, but what’s really interesting here is the position of the engine in relation to the front axle. The whole of its weight is mounted aft of the axle – meaning none of it is trying to pitch the vehicle when it crosses rough ground

Suspension uses Tomcat springs all round with 2.5” front and 2” remote-reservoir Fox shocks. Having previously raced Freelanders, Julian describes the vehicle as being ‘most of the way there’ in terms of handling, but plans to change the shocks for Reiger units in due course

Julian Read’s latest race truck looks like a Land Rover. In many ways, indeed, it is a Land Rover. But get beneath the skin, and you’ll find that it’s much more than just a Defender with a big engine…

This isn’t your average story about a bloke with a Land Rover. Unless you’re very, very new to Total Off Road, you’ll know the formula: the vehicles we feature in these pages tend to have been built by their owners, created through some combination of homespun engineering and bolt-on parts to represent one man’s vision of, if not the ultimate off-roader, then at least as close to that as the bounds of reality will allow.

In the case of Julian Read’s comp safari racer, it’s not quite like that. For starters, the vehicle was bought as-is rather than being the fruit of his own labours. For another thing, it was originally the work of one of the greatest names in the entire history of comp safari racing. And on top of all that, it’s not Julian’s pride and joy. Well, it might be, but unlike most of the vehicles we feature, this one has a lot of competition for his attentions.

Julian, you see, is what you could call a Land Rover Man. Asked about the vehicles he’s owned, he lists about fifteen before saying: ‘I’ve left a load out, but these are the ones I did stuff with.’

Having worked all summer long as a labourer aged 16, just to save up enough for an 88-inch Series IIA, Julian started young. By the time he passed his test, he’d graduated to a 1979 Range Rover Efi, which was followed by a Series III Lightweight with a Rover Vitesse V8 (‘my first engine conversion and off-road toy.’)

A challenge-spec 90 followed, converted first from 2.5 nat asp to 3.5 Efi and thence to 4.2. He also owned a Camel Trophy Freelander and a comp safari Range Rover (which he describes kindly as a ‘crap, unreliable learning curve’), before racing a brace of Freelanders with SCOR and latterly in the BORC, winning his class three years in a row. A Vogue LSE became home to the toys he’d stripped off his 90 after stacking it, and his current fleet includes a Disco Td5 ES and a V8-engined 110 County, which gets used for general towing, dog-walking and marshalling duties.

And then there’s the Landy you’re looking at here. It’s a bespoke build from a very, very well respected workshop – but with a 100-inch wheelbase, a chassis made from two Range Rovers and a set of Defender body panels, it’s very hard not to describe it as a hybrid.

In Landy language, the H-word traditionally refers to the vehicles created by a small army of DIY mechanics who, back in the days when even a raggedy old 90 still cost more than a three-bedroom terraced house in Liverpool, would cobble together a cut-down Range Rover chassis and Series II or III bulkhead and body panels to build a coil-sprung, usually V8-engined equivalent. Many very good vehicles were built as a result, but so were an awful lot of snotters, and the word ‘hybrid’ became a mixed blessing as a result. Nowadays, it’s code for ‘I’m in for a kicking from the SVA man,’ and with half-decent 90s and eminently moddable Discos now available for less than a year’s council tax on those self-same Liverpool townhouses, they’re yesterday’s news.

Find a good one, though, particularly one built for a specific purpose by somebody who really knew what they were doing, and assuming it’s been looked after in the interim it’ll still be holding together at least as well as anything else of a similar age. And that’s exactly what Julian did. What you’re looking at here isn’t just any old hybrid; in fact, it’s the work of none other than Tim Marsh.

Best known for the TMC buggies which for years battled with Dave Simmonite’s Simmbugghinis and Robin Clarkson’s Warriors for supremacy in the comp safari and hillrally circuits, Tim built this vehicle in 2001. By then, he’d been doing independents for several years, but this one’s live-axled, using a Range Rover LSE unit at the front and a reinforced Tomcat case at the rear.

A 100-inch wheelbase is often quoted by racecar builders as the ideal length at which to dial out pitching without building in unnecessary weight, and one look at the vehicle’s body shape will show that it’s helped here by having overhangs which are minimal even by 90 standards.

More subtly, though, its body height has been reduced to bring down the centre of gravity; it’s not necessarily at first glance that you’ll notice the absence of vent panels from beneath the windscreen, for example, a modification which is made possible as the vehicle hides a full spaceframe beneath its bodywork, meaning the bulkhead is no longer structural.

You’re also unlikely to notice that the engine is positioned as far back as possible, either, so much so that the line of its front pulley is behind that of the axle. Ideal for weight distribution, of course, and the fact that the engine in question is a Race Development V8 displacing 5.3 litres does no harm to the vehicle’s power to weight ratio, either.

That engine was actually fitted by the guy Julian bought the vehicle from, and he reckons he’s going to need to fit a larger radiator, possibly mounted in the rear, to keep it cool. He’s planning to put a limited-slip diff in the rear, too, to replace the open unit that’s in there currently, and will replace the Fox shocks with his preferred Reigers when finances allow.

There’s unlikely to be any shortage of takers for his old ones on the second-hand market. Finally, he has a set of Milner fiddle brakes which he’s currently plucking up the courage to fit.

Underpinning it all, though, is a car which didn’t need to be modified at all – because it was already very special. The fact that at the time of writing, all Julian’s really done is service it speaks up for that.

You wouldn’t expect anything else from a Tim Marsh vehicle, of course, and combining his level of race-build expertise with the look of a near-standard Land Rover made this the ideal comper for a Solihull diehard like Julian. ‘I have always had a soft spot for TMCs over the years,’ he says. ‘I have known this one pretty much since it was built in 2001, and have seen it racing with SCOR for several years. Having raced independent axled cars for the four years previously, I have taken a step back going to a beam axle, but it suits me for now.

‘I’m a little old fashioned and I like to race a car that can be related to by people, that is in Production class. Hence the Range Rover I raced, the two Freelanders and now the TMC all look like normal Land Rovers. There’s nothing wrong with the new Group B rally car style which many people has gone for, but I’d still love to strip out a Discovery 3 or Range Rover Sport with a nice big V8 and race it in Production class. I would think the strength, speed and handling could be superb.’

As it is, though, the TMC is set to be Julian’s racing steed for a good while yet. ‘As a driver,’ he says, ‘I’m still learning how it handles and behaves. But I have learnt one thing, it’s very quick – at the moment, still quicker than me.

‘I have been able to set times very close to people I have always looked up to when racing against. Obviously, with my Freelander I was used to racing a car which had very good handling but not much structural stability in the rough stuff. Now I have something which is fast, tough and most of the way there in the way of handling – not that a beam axle will ever compete with a fully independent car for dynamics. But I enjoy pushing it hard!’

Whether the TMC is even a Land Rover at all is one of those things you could debate long into the night, but since it looks like one and is made from bits of several, it definitely counts in Julian’s roll call of Solihull exotica. Its place in his affections might ultimately be usurped by something with a more modern suspension design, but one thing you can be pretty sure of: whatever that vehicle might be, it’s unlikely to have a sounder background than this one.

ART CARR SHIFTER, TMC SPACEFRAME, KAM HALFSHAFTS, EBC BRAKES, CUSTOM FUEL TANK, RACE DEVELOPMENTS V8 ENGINE, QT PROPSHAFTS, TOMCAT SPRINGS, FOX SHOCKS, DEFENDER, TMC DEFENDER