Adventure bound to the Sahara!

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AnInterestingLifeOverland

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Leicester, UK
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Cole
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Hello, I thought I would introduce myself and Jeeves, the long-nosed Defender. I'm a retired US Navy CPO that was stationed in the UK in 1999. In 2014 I retired and moved back to Texas. By 2019 I missed the UK and my gal so much I married her and moved back to stay. So, yeah, I'm the 'overpaid, oversexed, and over here!' GI ;-) I've just finished building Jeeves. Jeeves started life as a 1987 V8 station wagon. But I wanted to make a roadster of him. So I tossed the 3.5 V8 and stripped it down to the chassis. I then moved the bulkead back to where the B pillar would be if the middle doors were full-size front doors. I had bought a 1999 BMW 528i petrol just for the lovely 2.8L straight 6 and drove it in the middle years that I was spending half my time in the States and half my time here. Once I got here full time, I yanked the engine out and scrapped the car. Bolted the big 6 to a ZF 6 speed manual gearbox and an adapter to the LT230 xfer case. Dropped it all in place...just 3' farther back than it would have been. Why the BMW? Well, because I wanted to! And, believe it or not, the M52 petrol is actually a LR motor. WHen BMW bought LR in the late 90's the South Africa plant dropped the V8 and installed the M52 instead as their petrol replacement. By all accounts, the best petrol engine LR ever put in a Defender. They did it for 5 years before LR was sold on. Oh, and the M52 powered Defenders hold the LR factory speed record right out of the box!
I had a 50mm tubing winch challenge front end built for it that stretched all the way to the front where it was joined to a Series 2 radiator grill. Alpha Romeo GT seats, lots of sweat, a few tears, cartloads of hard-earned cash, and Jeeves finally hit the road with a fresh MOT and lease on life.

But Jeeves is no garage queen. A week from tomorrow my wife and are joining 6 other Land Rovers for a month-long research expedition to the deserts of southern Tunisia. As part of Popski's Private Expeditions, we are searching for the remnants of the 'Lost Patrol' of the LRDG during the war. The patrol in question parked up deep in a wadi and scouted the enemy. Unfortunately, a Luftwaffe flight spotted the trucks and destroyed them. The troopers managed to walk the 200 miles back to friendly lines leaving the truck wreckage in place. We have scoured the war records and the Royal Geographic archives for the best guess of where they might be. Of course, they could be long gone as free scrap metal for the locals or rusted away completely. But in 2019, our previous attempt found a truck body panel and some British effects in the area. So we think we are on to something.

Once we get to the small town of Douz, we will trip the trucks of the soft tilts, door tops and windscreens. They will go into a lockup. We then head south into the sand sea for 16 days of exploration and research in the same manner the LRDG and Popski's Private Army did during the war. It will be a rough trip but well worth it!
Jeeves will carry 80L of fresh water, and 125L of petrol in the tanks (and 2x 20l jerry cans if needed). Everything else will be the bare necessities!
Wish us good fortune! I'll give a trip report and pics when we get back.

Cheers, y'all!

H. "Cole" Stage

For information on the expedition, you can check out


Or the website

And on FB
popskis.private.expeditions

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Padams7

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Man that looks awesome and the trip sounds really really cool!

Best of luck in your travels, and I can’t wait to see and hear about any updates!
 
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El-Dracho

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That rig looks awesome and it sounds like a really cool trip which is upcoming for you!

Enjoy and safe travels!

Cheers, Bjoern