THE AIR

Rover Discovery. But having taken it off-road, his eyes were opened to a tough but unremarkable looks hid the fact that it was one of the most unusual only so far they can go, and soon he was on the lookout for a coiler.

‘I sold it on for a 200Tdi 90,’ he continues. ‘It was a better vehicle all round but I wasn’t convinced that it was the best engine or the best transmission. After three or four new diffs and countless halfshafts, I was ready for a change.’

And what did he change? The gearbox, that’s what. From manual to automatic, would you

4x4 believe. Oh, and the engine, too. And from that moment on, his 90 was transformed.

With no love at all for the 200Tdi, Ian wanted rid. And to replace it, he went looking for a good 300Tdi. ‘I was after a bit more torque at lower revs, and that’s the reputation of the 300Tdi.’ When he found one, it was in a Disco that had been written off as a Cat C loss. The engine and gearbox looked to be a steal, but as always when that happens there’s an inconvenient truth lurking around the corner.

‘I quickly realised that it wasn’t as good as I expected,’ admits Ian. ‘So I bought myself a reconditioned block and rebuilt the engine I had. Next up, I had to graft it into the 90, so I went on to the forums asking for help – but I couldn’t get answers that made sense.

‘In the end, I just thought to myself that it couldn’t be beyond me, and set about doing it. It was a lot of work though, with new crossmembers needed, new engine mounts and the oil coolers to think about.’

After all this effort, it might not be too much of a surprise to learn that there are very few engine mods of any kind. The snorkel is an off-the-shelf item that’s been adapted to fit, but that’s about it. Many people would have immediately been starting to think about bigger intercoolers and other performance upgrades, but not Ian. He’s happy with the 300’s performance as standard – though of course that may have something to do with the bullet-proof auto box bolted to the back of it.

This is the famously indestructible ZF4HP from the Discovery. Ian admits that he’s a bit rough on gearchanges, and that this was sending shockwaves along the transmission that were exploding diffs and shattering halfshafts.

‘The thinking was that the auto could compensate for my foot!’ laughs Ian. ‘If you grind to a halt, all you have to do is apply a bit more throttle and away you go. Besides, I lay pipelines for a living – and the plant around the sites is all driven by hydraulics. The advantage of sending the power through gradually is less wheelspin.’

So he changed the engine and gearbox, but that was all. Well, apart from the axles, which are also from the same Discovery. Oh, and he fitted the rear one with heavy-duty Salisbury halfshafts. And both of them with ARBs.

By now, you’ll have got the idea. Not a lot about this 90 is standard. The suspension, for example, is, well, not standard.

Actually, ‘not standard’ hardly scratches the surface of how unusual it is. He used aftermarket trailing links to keep the Disco axle in place, but they kept bending so he made some of his own out of 6mm wall tube.

Even that, though, will hardly give you any idea of what’s coming next. ‘It seemed to me that buses and wagons have air suspension and it’s in Range Rovers, so it should be okay,’ he told us of his decision to buy an Ogden Air kit. ‘It wasn’t a direct replacement, though – I found it needed a lot of adaptation.

‘The axles’ tops had to be ground down, and there was a lot of work involved. The airbags are kept inflated by the biggest compressor for the kit, but I ended up getting another from Matt Savage so now I have two feeding the air reservoir.’

Air suspension all round, combined with cranked rear radius arms made from steel tube with a 6mm wall thickness, yield what Ian estimates to be thirty inches of travel. The former was fitted with much modifiation and now uses twin compressors, while the latter are home-made items replacing proprietory parts which kept breaking

A lot of work, then, but it was worth the effort. ‘I get thirty inches of axle travel. It’s so extreme that when I tried to test it with my high-lift jack, it didn’t reach high enough to get the other wheel off the ground. And each corner is controlled by its own rocker switch, so I have complete control.’

Lest that control should falter, Ian installed an external roll cage which he made himself out of 2.25” steam pipe. When we say external, it really is just that – while the body was off, he created a design that would fit completely around it. There are mounting points on the outriggers at either end of the rock sliders, and on a 6mm girder he welded to the rear crossmember; the only panel that’s pierced is the roof, where it’s bolted through to an interior diagonal brace.’

Further heavy metal comes in the shape of a winch bumper that’s tucked as deeply as possible into the front of the 90. Dirty great tangles of tube that protrude so far they need their own postcode might make a statement, but keeping it neat makes an approach angle to be proud of and that’s what mattered to him.

‘The front winch is an X9,’ Ian told us. ‘But I don’t think the brake holds ever so well. I’ll probably replace it with a Husky, which seems to hold better because it has a worm drive.’

He should know, because there’s a Husky hidden away in the rear. It’s mounted just behind the bulkhead in the load bay, well out of the way of mud and water, with its Dyneema rope routed through a ‘letter box’ hole in the floor, round a pulley and out through the bumper. Here, it pays out through an aluminium fairlead which is one of those things off-roaders come up with from time to time that make your jaw drop.

Did Ian machine it? Hell, no. He had a bash at casting. ‘It’s the third attempt, but it works quite well. It’s not hard on the Dyneema cable, and I wanted it to feed all the line towards a central point on the winch drum. It works… sometimes!’

That sounds like quite a self-effacing verdict on anything to do with such a comprehensively planned and put-together vehicle. Looking at Ian in action aboard his 90, he clearly didn’t build it to be looked at and admired, but to be an exceptionally capable off-roader – and he didn’t mind going about it in ways that might raise an eyebrow among traditionalists. The result? A Land Rover that certainly is worth looking at… not least because in its builder’s hands, whenever you see it it’s apt to be doing something that’s very well worth watching. It’s a far cry from that family Disco he bought all those years ago…