LAND Rover doesn’t like using the c-word anymore. No, not that one. I am referring to the Camel Trophy, of course, the off-roading Olympics which ran from 1980 until 2000. An annual event that took more than 500 amateur adventurers from 35 countries on the Land Rover ride of their lives.
For two decades participants took their distinctive Sandglow Land Rovers through seemingly impenetrable forests and up impassable mountain tracks. It was an event that won the hearts and minds of wannabe adventurers and 4x4 enthusiasts the world over.
Then enter the PC police and suddenly smoking (sponsor Camel was a cigarette brand and not an animal with two humps) and bashing through virgin forests were not deemed to be cool anymore. And that was that for over two decades.
Well, we did have the two Land Rover G4 Challenge events (held in 2003 and 2006) but they were more like modern-day adventure races with a small element of off-road driving. I should know, I attended both.
Then in February 2021 it all changed: Land Rover Classic announced it was building 25 adventure-ready Defender Works V8 Trophy vehicles. Owners would have to cough up £195,000 for a 90 and a bit more for one of the reworked 110 old-style Defenders, but as a bonus they would be able to take part in the first-ever Land Rover Trophy at Eastnor Castle.
This was supposed to have happened in 2021 but
