By Jeffrey B. Aronson
A fisherman friend came up to me in our island’s village parking lot, a wharf on the edge of the main harbor. “You know, Jeff,” he said, “You can actually buy cars made after 1980.” He then touched the door handle on his family minivan and watched the door slide open electronically.
So what if his door moved automatically? Does his car provide him with health benefits? I don’t think so! Performing even the simplest maintenance on a Land Rover gives you a fitness workout usually accomplished only with the aid of those strange devices extolled by Chuck Norris and introduced by lovely blondes on late night infomercials.
The Land Rover exhaust is a series of bolted together pipes. Replacing them gives you the chance to get eaten alive by bugs while lying on the ground, chew on rust flakes, spit out dirt and search for nuts, bolts and washers that fall onto the ground. And it’s free! (…)

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Story & Photo by Jim Edson
[Jim Edson, Irving, TX, entered the Land Rover world with a rare ’95 Discovery manual transmission. Once hooked, he upgraded to a 2004 G4 Discovery. He’s a past president of the Texas Rovers and now serves as the webmaster of their site, www.texasrovers.org. Here’s his story on the 2008 South Central Texas Rally –ed.]
Five years ago, the late Ross Mabey and fellow Texas Rovers Club members (texasrovers.org) started an annual event for Rover enthusiasts in the Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas area. Each year, it’s been hosted at Barnwell Mountain, located in northeastern Texas (Four Wheeler Magazine listed it as one of the 101 places to wheel before you die). Each year, it has grown; this year, with over 150 participants and great sponsors, Texas Rovers rented the entire park for the nearly 100 Land Rovers. The vehicles ranged from a 1962 Series II to a 2008 Range Rover Sport – but the majority of trucks were Discoverys. (…)

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