The Rover Owners Association of Virginia is the oldest Land Rover club in the United States that has remained in operation. Each Fall it sponsors one of the largest Land Rover gatherings in North America. This year they had almost 400 vehicles registered. They ranged from Series I's all the way up to the Freelander.
In a repeat performance, this years weather decided to mimic last year's as Hurricane Jeane followed closely in the timing with Hurricane Isabel. The end result was that the James River was about 12 feet above normal making for extremly wet conditions. The organizers figured that they lost 3/4's of thier trails to the wet and muddy conditions.
This year found me hanging out with 'Camp Roanoke'. Though the group did not have a real name, this group of like minded individuals all hail from the Roanoke area so that is what I will call them. I got reaquainted with Jude, who I met at the 2002 MAR, and I met a ton of new friends. This family oriented group brought a variety of vehicles that covered the spectrum from a bone stock Discovery, tricked out Range Rovers, a well equiped Defender 90 and the Series crowd rounding it out. One thing has to be said, even if this crew did not log the most miles on the trails, I doubt you will find anyone that ate as well.
Ramp Travel Index or RTI - This is score that measures your Land Rover's suspension flexability. The object is to drive your Land Rover up the 23 degree incline ramp and measure how far you can go before your wheels start to lift off the ground and spin. The distance is measured and the score is issued as a ratio based on your wheel base. A simple stock 88" rover scores somewhere in the high 300's. I updated my Land Rover with parabolic springs last year giving my suspension just a little more flex. My score was in the low 600's. While I was pleased as can be at my acheivment, it was dwarfed by the efforts of others. There were a few coil sprung Land Rovers that had extensive modifications done to them that were scoring clean 1000's. This display was operated by one of the rally sponsors - Browne and Ware Overland, sellers of Land Rover parts and services and are located in Maine.
Interesting Rovers At The Rally
Carmicheal FC109 Fire Appliance
FiremanShort likey!! This rolling restoration has had my casual eye for a few years now. The owner states that it was originally an airfield fire appliance that carried large containers of dry chemical extinguishing agent - like a 4x4 fire extinguisher! He is slowly turning this back into its orginal or like condition with the addition of a standard Lucas blue acorn warning beacon and other fire related accesories.
More information on this Land Rover can be found at its own web page.
Minerva
The Series 1 Minerva Land Rover was in production in Belgium from 1952 to 1956. Its most distinguishing feature is the angular front wings.
Engines, gearboxes and transmissions where sourced from Solihull but the rest was manufactured in Belgium, including the steel body. They were produced for the army initially and were in miltary service until the 1990's. The civilian version was introduced in 1953. It is thought that less than 10,000 Minervas were produced overall and most of them went into Belgian military service. The Belgian police acquired some ex-miltary Minervas and used them until 1972/73.
(TEXT BORROWED FROM http://www.series123.com/USAhomepages/index24/)
How To Fund Your Next Land Rover Project
Sticker found on Adam Stone's 88".
Mishaps
Sometimes... things did not go as planned.
