Andrew St.Pierre White
And never the slightest hint of mechanical trouble ever. It grew The Thing, and the 105 for me always will have it, but it had to earn it. I sold the 105 to build what I called the Ultimate World Cruiser, with a camper conversion of a 78-series Troopy. As I began building this vehicle, I realized that this was the very first Land Cruiser that had The Thing, even in its very plain, rock-hard suspension, drab, plain, uninspired self. It was because of the promise of what it could become. I fell in love with this vehicle. How do you tell if the vehicle you drive possesses The Thing? To answer this honestly, you need to ask yourself, 鈥淲ould you take it for a run, for the sole purpose of taking it for run - for no other reason than to be with it? If the answer is yes, then it has The Thing.
I'm talking about the Moon, our Moon, our own very special Moon that's unique in so many ways. In the last hub, we explored a little of what the Moon is made of and how it came into being, interestingly enough both the Bible and science tell us that the Moon is actually younger than the Earth. If you were to look at our solar system you'd be fascinated to discover that the planets in our system can be split into two categories. The four closest planets to the sun are small and rocky, they're known as 'terrestrial' planets. The outer planets of our solar system are all much larger than the 'terrestrial' planets and have atmospheres so thick we haven't actually 'seen' their surface! You heard it, but why would we go? And they're not the only ones wanting to go! China has said that they intend to land people on the Moon in the next twenty years.
Following on from the long wheelbase Land Rover One Ten the short wheelbase followed the next year, 1984, and it was called the Land Rover Ninety. The Land Rover One Ten and Ninety were not limited to the V8 engine only, but were also sold with much the same selection of engines as the Series III models. So they were available with the original 2.25 litre in-line four cylinder petrol engine, and the 2.25 litre diesel. Both of these engines were upgraded from the original three main bearing crankshaft to five main bearing crankshafts for the new models. The diesel was subsequently upgraded to 2.5 litres capacity. As the 1980鈥檚 progressed Land Rover realised that they had the expensive 鈥渦pper crust鈥?Range Rover for the moneyed customers, and the humble Land Rover for the not so moneyed, but they needed something in between. To this end they created the Land Rover Discovery using much the same engine choices and transmission. At that point they had two models with names; the Range Rover and the Discovery, and one without. We are told that there is a new Land Rover 鈥淒efender鈥?on the drawing board. What will be has not yet been revealed, but we hope it will be something that remains true to the original Land Rover DNA.
US company, Ford is now eying on India to offset tough business conditions in other global markets. The company that survived the downturn without a government help, Ford Motor is planning to integrate car designs globally and develop compact and mid-sized cars as part of a strategy to improve profitability and productivity. Ford has focussed on economies of scale and implementing 鈥極ne Ford鈥?strategy across markets. Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor, is also making a lightning visit to India to showcase its small car in the middle of this week. He joined Ford in 2006 after divesting brands like Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.This moment will be exciting and worth watching. Ford India will launch its small car, code named B517 in March 2010, which is expected to compete with the Hyundai i20 and the Maruti Swift, that were also showcased to its dealers in Chennai recently. The small car will be a four-door hatchback, powered by an indigenous diesel and petrol engine manufactured at its Chennai plant. 500 million (Rs 2,400 crore) to double the current capacity by one lakh cars and 2.5 lakh engines, company officials said.
