Land Rover Body - Shortened Range Rover Chassis
I could take the Range Rover body off and replace it with a Landrover body. This is how you build a Hybrid. A popular option is to cut down the Range Rover chassis from 100 inches to about 88 inches so that it can have a nearly standard Land Rover body added. I could use either a standard 88” (short wheel base) Series II or III Land Rover or an ex-military Lightweight.
This would give the classic appearance of a Land Rover with the off road performance of a coil sprung chassis. It could also mean the retention of the V8 engine which was not available in the Series Three Land Rover. A more modern option is to use body parts of a Defender 90, but as they become cheaper second hand, it would be just as easy to buy a whole Landrover Defender 90 as it would already have a coil sprung chassis as standard!
A shorter wheelbase performs better in slower speed off-road activities such as trials or playing at a ‘pay and play’ off road sites where maneuverability is important.
This hybrid Series 3 Land Rover - Range Rover is not yet finished but the builder has some ideas so that it will look even more like a Series 3 Land Rover. For a long time I thought the only thing special about this Landrover was how it had Range Rover wheels fitted as they do not normally go onto Series axles. I then realised it also had coil springs etc and asked the driver.
The hybrid below was built by Scott from Pittsburgh in what looks like a temporary garage. In his own words
"This is mostly an '84 RR with a mix of SII, SIII, and D90 body parts. Took about 16 months to build and around $7000 USD. She goes like stink and really throws the mud! Great fun owning the hybrid, as it takes care of the three lacking areas of a stock Landie: Brakes, engine HP, and suspension. Gas mileage really sucks but that's not what I built her for, she's a toy for the weekends and my work commuter when it snows."
It looks very nice and Scott appears to want the same sort of things from his vehicle as I do. For more details try the Fort Pitt Land Rover Group (FPLRG).
Below are photos of various other hybrids built on shortened Range Rovers that I have seen on my travels.
Home
Tomcats
Other Options
Off Road Racers
Other Donor Vehicles
Paper Models
Military Buggies
Support Vehicle
Music
Site Map
|