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Land Rover 101FC Expedition Camper MAIN WHAT IS IT? WHY? MODIFICATIONS LINKS BACK TO MARTYN'S LITTLE LAND ROVER AND 101FC SITE |
The second most common question 101 owners get asked is: WHY? This is obvious, to many... Because! It's actually not quite as easy as that (things seldom are), but there's a strange feeling that either grabs you firmly (or not) when you first see a 101. It's got something that many vehicles just don't seem to achieve, a sort of 'style' or 'class', if one can use these terms to describe two and a half tonnes of sluggish, thirsty, noisy, over-engineered granny-frightener! I first drove a 101 sometime around 1985 and was smitten. The memory remained in the back of my mind for many years, a sort of vague dream that one day, maybe, I'd own one. As with many things in life, I never thought about it much more, until the UK Government started selling them off, as they were deemed to be at the end of their lifespan (?) and I started to allow myself to start dreaming again. I'd always fancied a GS, but living in the middle of the 4th largest city in the UK, this wasn't really feasible and I had to justify getting something that we could use as a camper for climbing, walking or whatever trips, so an Ambulance bodied model was my second choice. The 'Ambi' as it's known, has by far the most internal space of any 101 and greatly improved headroom and a wider (by about 8 inches or so) body so I waited until these were released by the Government and early into the year 2000, I went looking... My criteria was simple. My 101 Ambi must have: On the 'highly desirable' list featured: I eventually found GRUMble in June 2000 and although a little over my original budget, all of my criteria were met, in fact, exceeded, so the deal was done. There's a fairly lengthy list of modifications next, but the other question many people ask is "what do your neighbours think?" Well, my neighbours have always felt that I was a little eccentric, so when another Land Rover appeared outside the house, they were not totally surprised. The reality is that my buying GRUMble has acted as a catalyst for some serious Community Development. Before I had it nobody ever talked to each other. After GRUMble arrived, they ALL started talking to each other, about me... ;-) So the ultimate answer to the question WHY? is not "Because it's a Land Rover" but "Because it's the Land Rover" |