If your a total P38 nerd like me, even have a special shirt "cough". you will love it.
A very good book documenting the history of the P38..
A great read.
I might just have to keepan eye out for that. I have to say, after being a life long fan but never actually an owner of the Range Rover Classic, I now would not swap my P38 for one. Well, I might for a really tidy sorted one but I think that six months down the line I would probably end up selling it on and buying a tidy P38. They are just so better finished and less hassle.
Plenty around as its still in print. Best price seems to be £17.25 off E-Bay.
Or if you just want to read it once off a computer screen its up on Scribd. Dunno if you have to be a subscriber to read books tho'.
Clive
Smiler wrote:
I might just have to keepan eye out for that. I have to say, after being a life long fan but never actually an owner of the Range Rover Classic, I now would not swap my P38 for one.
I've owned one and would never go back, except maybe as a keep it in the garage and only bring it out for high days and holidays. The Classic is a lot simpler but in many ways more complex. Mine was a 93 LSE so had the 4.2 V8 and originally the EAS although it had been converted to springs before I got it. The original Classic was pretty basic but as the years went on and more and more electrical toys were added (even things like heated door locks and washer nozzles so they wouldn't freeze up in cold weather), the original fusebox on the dash simply wasn't big enough so they had to tack them on wherever they could. So there are fuseboxes and relays under the seats, more relays behind the kick panels, more under the dash, more tacked onto the side of the steering column, any space big enough to fit a relay has at least one there. Even the air con is a completely separate unit to the heater with it's own fans and ducting. It is the best advert for the BeCM you have ever seen and an absolute nightmare to trace a fault. Then there is the rust, in places where you can see it and everywhere else where you can't and there's some really lovely rust traps too. If you get water in the footwells on a P38, it's because the heater O rings are leaking, the AC drains are blocked or the sunroof drains are blocked. On a Classic when you get water in the footwells it's because the channel shaped top of the bulkhead has rotted through as the drain holes at each end have got blocked with dead leaves and the water has just been sitting there eating away at the bulkhead.
To drive they are far more truck like, if you've ever driven a Disco 1, then they feel much the same. The wood and trim looks good but the plastic is BL engineering at it's best, they rattle and creak and the Austin Maestro switchgear just doesn't have even the remotest hint of quality feel about it. Oddly, they feel livelier but the throttle pedal has only half as much travel, so you're giving it more throttle than you realise. The P38 feels like a car, the Classic feels like a truck.
I’ve had 4 classics, they were my starting point into range rover ownership, the first was a 71 3 door, was a manual and a beast to drive, last was an 89 5 door Vogue, would I buy one now, no !, the p38 is such a different drive, the complete car is better made, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed them when I had them, but why go backwards, my last one was 10 yrs ago, I sold it to a guy up the road for 50 quid, it was just sitting on my drive taking up space, suppose he got a bargain really,
I restored an "A" suffix a few years ago and it was probably the only car I made a profit on. Agree with Gilberd they are very truck like and some parts now are just unavailable or really expensive such as a wing mirror.
The last one I saw on ebay was £300.
I've driven a later classic and found the seats uncomfortable. Can't comment on the CVC as it is still in bits.
I've ordered the book off ebay for £5.99 so looking forward to a good read.