On all Fours

Oh and, erm, thinking about it...

brm-forum.org/thread/58/1992-evo1rs-rally-belgium-come

First one of mine.

Genuine Camel Discovery, very original and low mileage when I bought it.

We had some good adventures together.

Full of beer and wine in France



Full of mud



Full of water




But I was driving it too hard, so I sold it to a museum and bought something a little tougher......

Tougher - was in the shape of a Foers Ibex 240HT.

Spaceframe chassis, with a centre winch.
This is as I bought it, it was the factory demonstrator with Defender 200TDI running gear.



I added lots of doo-dads, as I competed in winch challenge competitions




Home made beadlock rims, and some of the first Simex tyres in the country.
Axles upgraded to Salsibury front and rear with ARB air lockers.
Engine change  to 300TDI with an auto box

Every day's a school day, I'd never even heard of Foers - what a cracking piece of kit!


Any idea what happened to yours, looks from DVLA that it's been off the road (no pun intended!) for 10 years - might need rescuing?

It was indeed a wonderful thing.
I sold it to the Postman in the Shetland Isles. He bought it, not because of the off-road capability, but because it was galvanized and therefore wouldn't rust in the harsh environment.
I reckon it is in the Postman's shed, so shouldn't be too hard to find, albeit a long way away.

I may have elsewhere intimated what I now openly declare that I have an unnatural fascination with oddball and especially formerly Soviet vehicles. They only came to Canada for a very short time, and are almost never seen any longer. I have a friend (the guy who gave me the Multipla) who has a gorgeous Niva and quite possibly a Trabant. The Aro however is the unicorn, I have maybe once seen one in the flesh though it could have been just the fog over the moors. This just showed up for sale - sigh.



www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/grand-bend/1978-aro-240/1550673335



OT but, incidentally, the relationship of Canada to the Soviet Union in those days was very different that the relationship of the USA to said entity. There are a number of social historians that argue that for Canadians the cold war was fought on the hockey rink. I have certainly heard thinkers postulate that part of the reason Canadians weren't as fussed was because they figured that anyone that played hockey that good couldn't be all bad.

Also they used to have things like farmer exchanges etc. - and of course we could always holiday in Cuba - unlike our American counterparts.

I remember talking to an old farmer who told me the story of an exchange where someone asked the farmers travelling to see why Belarus tractors (which were being brought into Canada at that time and by all accounts were cr*p) why they had such massive hitches - bigger than any farm equipment they could think about. The farmers dutifully investigated only to discover that the hitches were for artillery pieces stored at the local armory. So, in the case of an attack, local farmers were expected to show up to have their tractors used to tow the big guns. Apparently they were also designed to go as fast backwards as frontwards for similar reasons.

Not under appreciated by people who could make money off of air suspension faults, self destructing interior trim, diagnostic equipment and even broken rear diffs.

I speak as a somewhat bitter ex-owner of a 1998 4.6HSE - nicknamed the depreciator at the time, as to mis-quote the Kaiser Chiefs - every week you are worth less and less.