Car-spotting thread

Lots of Land Rovers on the safari section of the trip.

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The Puma powered LR 110 that we were in for 4 days

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Hard to tell but were were in some thick brush. The ranger was able to drive this 110 into ultra tight sections to look for the animals. There is a leopard and her cub in there.

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I got to poke around the motor pool. This is just half the Land Rovers they use.

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Earlier 110 with the 3.5 Rover V8 petrol

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One of 3 Toyota Land Cruisers they had. Apparently they ride rougher than the Rovers and IMO don't have that "look"

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One of the older ones that is used for odds and ends and chores.

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The guy that works at the garage thought it was funny when I said even their parts truck would be worth some money in the US. Even thought they were thrashed there was no rust. I wouldn't mind having the drivetrain from this!

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Up close to one of the leopards

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Series 1 - I bet this little one has some stories!
 
Sorry for the safari and Land Rover picture overkill but I thought it might be interesting to some of you gearheads.


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Prototype electric powered 110. This motor was bolted to the stock LR gearbox and transfer case. The big bonus was I got to drive it a mile or so around! I've actually never driven an electric vehicle so it's pretty rad that it was a RHD electric powered 110 in the bush of South Africa lol. The manual gearbox electric power was very cool but I'd still prefer a small turbo diesel.

Our ranger said the animals aren't keen on the electric powered vehicles. They can hear, feel and smell the tdi's from a distance and know what they are. Some animals like the male elephants would come pretty close as they have been used to them since they were born.

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And I got to help change a flat tire haha. I am surprised there aren't more punctures as we were going thru very thick brush.
 
don said:
The family and I were in Cape Town, South Africa over the Christmas break. Lots of neat cars and this only shows a few that I had time to take a picture of.

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Our tour guide said there are a number of these Cobra replicas that get together for local drives. I remember seeing them for rent too.

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Puma powered Defender 90 in the background.

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Chinese made double cab? We were on a time crunch so couldn't get much more info on it.

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Series Landy

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Suzuki Jimny - There were a bunch of these in the Cape Town area. Not sure if it would be hard to make legal for the states but I feel like they would do well here.

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Mitsubishi. I didn't get tired of seeing all the smaller 4x4 crew cab turbo diesels.


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Fancy car.
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I think superformance and backdraft both make their cobra replicas in South Africa......those side pipe guards look like backdraft.
 
Not exactly car spotting but car news.

www.thedrive.com

Honda and Nissan Officially Announce Plans To Merge After August 2026

Mitsubishi is involved in the merger talks as well, but Nissan shareholder Renault figures to play a crucial role in how this all unfolds.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com

My first thought was they try to bring back the Honda element and make it a convertible like that horrible Murano cabriolet. 🤪
 
iman29 said:
Not exactly car spotting but car news.

www.thedrive.com

Honda and Nissan Officially Announce Plans To Merge After August 2026

Mitsubishi is involved in the merger talks as well, but Nissan shareholder Renault figures to play a crucial role in how this all unfolds.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com

My first thought was they try to bring back the Honda element and make it a convertible like that horrible Murano cabriolet. 🤪
Click to expand...
My first thought was how many more Hondas with tinted windows and body damage will be owned by people with poor credit.

If I recall correctly the only reason the Murano convertible existed was the wife of the CEO at the time wanted one. Horrible sales, really expensive because the body was basically all custom, basically everything new behind the windshield.
 
don said:
Sorry for the safari and Land Rover picture overkill but I thought it might be interesting to some of you gearheads.


View attachment 253708
Prototype electric powered 110. This motor was bolted to the stock LR gearbox and transfer case. The big bonus was I got to drive it a mile or so around! I've actually never driven an electric vehicle so it's pretty rad that it was a RHD electric powered 110 in the bush of South Africa lol. The manual gearbox electric power was very cool but I'd still prefer a small turbo diesel.

Our ranger said the animals aren't keen on the electric powered vehicles. They can hear, feel and smell the tdi's from a distance and know what they are. Some animals like the male elephants would come pretty close as they have been used to them since they were born.

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And I got to help change a flat tire haha. I am surprised there aren't more punctures as we were going thru very thick brush.
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Where were you? I went to Kroger in 2012........
 
THATmanMANNY said:
so cool man! @don thanks for sharing
It like the safari ride in animal kingdom 😁

photos of animals?
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Here is a quick dump. No editing so a little dark on the ones taken by my daughter on the digital slr with telephoto lens.

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Hyena cubs - they made a den out of a termite mound. The amount of material the termites move would make even the most seasoned TM person impressed.

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The Rhinos and Elephants never got old to watch. Esepecially the little ones.

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Warthog

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This leopard was on a perch when we saw her. She was eyeing up some impala coming across and made her way down. We were hoping for some action but nothing came of it but very interesting to watch her movements.

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This was an interesting night. A pack of wild dogs were spotting and called over the radio so we bee-lined from watching the leopard for a half hour of high speed and caught them walking cross plain toward some zebras. The ranger said they were not going for a kill but maybe just an exercise for the pups to learn how the zebras operate. A group of dominate male zebra came out of the heard and made known not to mess with them. The lone wildebeast was helping out as they will be hang near zebra and impala. Definitely cool watching this all go down right before sun down.
 
shrpshtr325 said:
Man, this looks like an awesome trip, some great finds in here too.




but man that mechanic must be BUSY!@
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He had an older V8 gas in for work but it seems like the Puma turbo diesels are pretty robust from what I could gather from the language barrier talking to him. It's a Ford engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Duratorq_engine

Plus there is nothing left to the Land Rovers - just seats, lower body panels and dash. From what was laying around the shop it looked like small repairs (like welding a broken seat), tire fixes and general maintenance.

It sounded like he does more work on his co-workers vehicles lol - there was a Mitsubishi in the other bay getting a tune-up.
 
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