THE familiar off-beat thrum of a fivecylinder engine cuts through the still summer air. From the distance an unmistakable silhouette approaches, sun dancing off the gleaming paintwork, causing the colour to flicker from bright copper to deep bronze.
TAs the Land Rover draws closer, the driver’s side window rolls down and a smiling, if slightly tired-looking face leans out. ‘‘We made it!’’ grins Max Brown, owner and builder of this stunning Defender.
You may recognise Max’s name from previous issues of Land Rover Monthly. As well as being a complete Land Rover nut, he also knows his way around a camera and has done a few photoshoots that have graced the pages of LRM in the past. Today’s a bit different though, as he’s not snapping someone else’s Land Rover – this time, it’s his own.
‘‘In hindsight, I should have built it and then booked the ferry. It’s been non-stop takeaway dinners and working into the early hours of the morning at my unit. For months I’ve been questioning my sanity every evening, until last night when I started bolting the last few bits on. And then all of a sudden it made sense.’’
That’s right; this stunning 110 hasn’t just been rebuilt with meticulous attention to detail and futureproofing in mind, it’s all been done very much against the clock. Max’s drive from his home in Essex to our first shoot location in Cambridgeshire is the Defender’s first real test drive,reference all about then?
