The Car

Since moving over from the UK, where having a car is not much of a necessity due to the size and the abundance of public transport,we realised that Australia would be a whole different kettle of fish. For example one of our drives to work was about 880km. One way! That’s the same as driving from Brighton on the South Coast (UK) to Dundee in Scotland. So a mode of transport was high up on the priorities list if we were going to get out and see this big old country.

We set about looking for a suitable vehicle mid-2011. This was to be a long, long search. There was a criteria that it had to meet:

• It had to be a 4x4: Be it part time of full time. For hopefully obvious reasons when heading into the outback. There is a lot of Australia that you can do in 2wd or a soft roader but when heading bush…. 4x4 is the only way.

• Comfortable for 2: seating for 5 and enough storage space for our stuff. A trip to the beach takes a duffle bag and some towels. A trip to the Simpson Desert takes 60L of water, tents, recovery gear, food etc. Your storage space is never enough.

• Diesel: This was a biggie due to the shear size of Australia and our plan for outback exploration- the distances between the bowsers can really rack up. Add to this a fully loaded car and driving on sand or steep terrain and you can watch your fuel economy go out the window.

• A decent size: I know this sounds weird but some 4x4’s are too small (Grand Vitara) and some are monsters (Nissan Patrols and 80/100 series Land Cruisers). If you have tried to parallel park a Patrol in Brisbane CBD you will know what I’m talking about. Good visibility and enough interior space without driving the Bismarck. So a mid-sized 4x4 is on the cards.

• Price! With such a vast array of vehicles on the market trying to narrow down a budget was difficult. Of course we would have loved to go drop $60K on a brand new Land cruiser Prado, add another $15 grand for all the bells and whistles and you’re ready to go!

Unfortunately neither of us managed to unearth a giant gold nugget or stumbled onto a grove of money trees. So the age old dilemma: Do we go for an older car with low kilometres and spend more accessories/have more money in the kitty or do we buy a newer car but with lots more kilometres and a higher buy in price?

We narrowed it down to two contenders: An old series one Land Rover Discovery, 300tdi, stock standard (and cheap!) or a Toyota Prado TD, 90’s series again stock (and not cheap!). Looking through car sales sites on line, Gumtree, E-Bay etc. we realised that for the price of a single Prado with around 220,000 km we could by two Disco’s with around 150,000 on the clock. I know Toyotas hold their price but seriously? Hmmmm…. Slight false economy me thinks.

After much, much…… much searching we finally located a 1997 Discovery, manual, diesel with 141,000km on the clock, complete with fancy leather seats and wood trim. It looked like a 1950’s bar inside. Sold! The only fly in the ointment was that it was located west of Sydney in Penrith when we lived in Brisbane some 950km away. A flight, a taxi and a big wedge of cash later and we were heading up the coast home in our new car!

Let the modifications begin!

Straight out the box a Land rover Discovery has always been one of the most capable 4x4’s on the planet. Defenders and old school Range Rovers are in the same club (with the Discovery being based on the Rangie with a tweaked body) but Defenders are slightly in front with stronger diffs etc.

However, the need to tinker is strong and there are some things that were just crying out for attention. A note to our European readers – Australia has a very different set of conditions to the rest of the world so things that may seem unnecessary are usually a mandatory requirement.   

What we did:

1. Bull bar – To protect from animal strikes
2. Suspension lift (2”) – To allow for bigger tyres and gain better diff clearance
3. Uprated intercooler and fuel pump tweak – The car was suffering from a lack of power so a double thickness intercooler and an extra boost of fuel gave us a lot more go and the power to turn the bigger diameter tyres
4. New tyres (32” or 285/35R16) – Goodyear Duratrac gives us much more traction in the sticky stuff and they have a very strong side wall to help with puncture prevention. Highly recommended tyres
5. Dual Battery – An auxiliary battery was installed under the bonnet to power the fridge etc. Dual battery managements system and cables to the rear installed at the same time
6. Sound proofing – We stripped the inside and laid Dynamat from the fire wall to the rear door, and did the front doors, rear panels and rear door. Dynapad was used through the front section to replace the aging factory matting. This made a huge difference to the ambient road noise
7. A new head unit and speakers in the front. USB connection and good 4” speakers make 10 hour drives bearable
8. Storage system – The rear seats were removed and a custom made set of Drifta Draws was installed along with a modified cargo barrier and homemade rear shelf
9. 11000 pound Winch – As we are traveling solo self-recovery is important. A Runva 11xp was installed in the bull bar
10. Rear bar with swing away – A Kaymar rear bar with custom made swing away arm was put on the back. The bar gives a huge amount of rear protection and the swing away hold two 20L Jerry cans of fuel when needed plus the main spare tyre. Also provides a spot to mount a rear facing LED work light

Everything apart from the fuel pump tweak and making the rear swing away was done by Kyle! There is a whole lot of love and skin/blood in this car.