Land Rover Monthly – October 2019

LANDROVER MONTHLY 93

hear anything and it turned out thatKen thought that Dennis
was arranging things, and Dennis thought thatKen was!
Once the confusion was sorted out Iwent along for an
interview with BillTurner, and all he said to mewas ‘when
do you want tostart?Is Monday all right?’ I told him I had to
give a month’s notice at Thompsons but he told me to turn up
onMonday anyway. I later found out that he’d called the
foreman at Thompsons –everyone kneweveryone in those
days – and agreed with him that Iwouldn’t servemynotice
because I’d bestarting the followingMonday at LandRover.
That’s how itwas back then!
“I joined a small team of mileage drivers underKen Twist.
Aswell as Dennis therewas Brian Goodchild, AlanWinter
and, of course,Dan Archer, while BillMorbywas responsible
forrecovery and drove‘Buttercup’, the 112-inchForward
Control prototype that is today preserved in the British
MotorMuseum at Gaydon.Wewere all allocated to the Land
Rover side of the business and at that time the car side had
theirown mileage drivers, although around the time that
theRover SD1 saloonwas being developed the two teams
were combined.
“Dennis hadvolunteered to join the team that took the
two Engineering Prototype RangeRovers on the Sahara
Trials in late 1969 and hewas the only mileage driver in the
LandRover team on thatexpedition, which I thinkwas the
company’s first overseas vehicle testing programme.
I’d always wondered whether I’d get the opportunity to
get involved in something like that, but one ofmyfirst jobs
was working with Dennis on the military trials of the 101
Forward Control and the 109Truck Cab. I spent a lot of
time atBagshot doing theroughroad driving, at LongValley
and at Long Cross driving the pavé and setts, andwehada
number of electrical problems with the 101 and thestub
axle broke on the 109.
“In the mid-1970s I hadmyfirst taste ofoverseas adventure
when Iwas part of the team on the Dutch military trials of
the Series III 88-inch diesel and the diesel-powered
Lightweight. And in 1980 I spent threeweeks inHondo,
Texas,on the hot climate trials for the new 110. One of our

testvehicleswas delivered with no oil in the

gearbox and of course no-one on the team in

Texas thought they needed to check something

as basic as oil in the gearbox.It lasted for 500

miles before it seized! Oncewe’d completed the

trialswethen spent aweek driving toNew York.

I forged a lot of friendships on that trip and

remained in touch foryears with some of the

Americans thatwemet.

“A lot of the job was much more routine,

though, and involved testingvehicles on the

road.Wehad a number of circuits thatwe would

drive, andmy regularroutewas theNorthRoute

whichwas around 400 miles long. From Solihullwe’d head

north on the M1 and M62 to Oldham and from there across

Saddleworth Moor to Holmfirth, and then back across

HolmeMoss to Glossop, thenover the SnakePass andMam

Tor and down to Chapel-en-le-Frith. From therewe’d head

south toBuxton, Leek, and then Ashbourne and back north

to Buxton via the Longnor loop.

“We had avariation on this whichwecalled thePeak

Route whichwas around 230 miles long thatweused for

testing low-range, and aroute in the Cotswolds through

Stowe, Cirencester and Birdlip whichwas for running-in.

Therewas also a long SouthRoute but thatwas used mainly

bythe car side of the business.Testingwas done both day

and night and some of the driversweren’t tookeen on the

night turns, although I found they suited me well andI

swapped with the other drivers to do their night runs.Most

of the time I drovetheNorth andPeakRoutes, although

occasionally I’d have a running-in turn on the Cotswold

circuit. Lesleywas working as a teacher at the time and she

always used to joke thatwe’d pass in the morning on the

stairs, as shewas coming down to getready forwork and I’d

be heading up to go to bed!

“Each night therewould be up to four drivers out andwe

all did the circuits the sameway. And it never stopped,really,

even during the periods when the factorieswere shut down

due to the all-too-frequentstrikes in the 1970s. During one of

“One ofthe routine

hazards ofthe job

was whenthe police

showed aninterest.

Thiswas particularly

important tome

because Iintendedto

drive ashardand fast

asI could”

Colin trialling (in

drivingseat) in the

1980 ALRC National

at Petworth