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[Craig T]

Craig are they rr sport wheels?

Yes, I believe they are. They are 19" wheels and I needed to add spigot rings to adapt the larger centre bore of the wheels down to the hub diameter of the axles. New wheel nuts as well.

I only paid £700 for that Range Rover.
It was being used as a store shed in the corner of a builders yard! The owner used it quite often up until about 3 years previous when a suspension air spring sprung a leak. He parked it up having just spent lots putting all new brake discs and pads on it, with the intention of getting it sorted out, but then left it. I bought it as spares really but he delivered it to me and it only has 80k miles on it. I had to replace a couple of air springs, all brake pipes, swivel ball joints, steering ball joints, rebuild the callipers, skim the discs, new pads etc etc. I also spent 2 days cleaning the sand, gravel and general building debris out the interior!
I probably put another £700 into getting it going again but think it was worth it.

The choice of wheels was more a means of saving money. The tyres it came with were flat and cracked up and the 16" three spoke wheels were corroded around the beads and to be honest, looked awful. It was cheaper to buy those wheels second hand from ebay than it was to get the old rims refurbished and new tyres fitted to them.

Craig.

[Huttopia]

Pretty basic?! It looks GAWJUS!

Too kind :-) I'd had a bit of paintwork done when that pic was taken and whilst there the whole car was lightly machine polished, hence the shine. It is a Bordeaux, a 2001 effort by LR to fit under £40k for I think company car tax purposes, not sure. So there are no heated seats, no sat nav, partly electrically adjustable seats, all to a price point. I think they made a couple of hundred petrol and the same diesel. She's had new air sus bags, ball joints, exhaust, microswitch in passenger door and routine maintenance in the 5 or so years I've had her. Now on 80k miles.

[Mycroft]

There's no onboard satnav that's as good as Waze. And you can retro-fit heated seats if that would help. Great looking beast. And Craig's bargain of the century!

[DogDave]

I did really like my P38 when I had it but the running costs were just too much as an only car and the mileage I was doing then. Worst thing was the suspension I know a lot got converted back to coils but the computerised air suspension could throw a tantrum at any time and a right pain to fix

[Exile]

Hmm. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in my eye the P38A has not become that much more beautiful with age.

So there are no heated seats, no sat nav, partly electrically adjustable seats, all to a price point.  She's had new air sus bags, ball joints, exhaust, microswitch in passenger door and routine maintenance in the 5 or so years I've had her. Now on 80k miles.

I believe the P38 came in with the M plate.

My N plate RRC hasn't had much more than the P38 list above, in the 26 years I've had it - and certainly no major air-sus or electronic problems.
And that's despite having all the gizmos like heated electrically adjustable (and memory) seats, heated electric door mirrors, electric sunroof (that has yet to leak!), cruise control control, air con etc.

As for looks, I don't think they ever again achieved the "timeless" beauty of the original Classic.

It isn't all wonderful though.
You really do have to keep on top of corrosion, and be prepared to repair if necessary.
The cost will usually be repaid in its appreciating value.

Agree with Craig that the LSE was an interesting vehicle, and probably very rare now in decent condition.

I just wish I'd bought a CSK back in the day when people turned up their noses at the "old style" Range Rover, and prices were on the floor.

[diffwhine]

Nailing my colours to the mast here - I've had 39 Range Rovers. 34 of them were Classics, one was a 10MY Range Rover Sport (new) and the last 4 were P38s. Aside from the first 3 P38s being diesel autos and therefore unable to pull the skin off a rice pudding without a chip upgrade, all performed admirably. I'm currently driving a W reg P38 loaned to me by a friend. Its only done 72,000 miles, its diesel and a manual. It is an absolute joy to drive and I never thought I'd be saying that about a P38A...

The general view at LR when we built that car was that we never got it quite right. Using a panhard rod on the back made for some bizarre handling characteristics doing high speed manoeuvres as the police regularly found out. Had it had a Watts Linkage like the Discovery 2, I think it would have been a far more stable and formidable vehicle. Unfortunately, the BMW bean counters stopped that game.

This one has no rust on the chassis or body. The ludicrous thing is that as a diesel manual, its still pretty much worthless.

[Mycroft]

Hmm. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in my eye the P38A has not become that much more beautiful with age.

I believe the P38 came in with the M plate.

My N plate RRC hasn't had much more than the P38 list above, in the 26 years I've had it - and certainly no major air-sus or electronic problems.
And that's despite having all the gizmos like heated electrically adjustable (and memory) seats, heated electric door mirrors, electric sunroof (that has yet to leak!), cruise control control, air con etc.

As for looks, I don't think they ever again achieved the "timeless" beauty of the original Classic.

It isn't all wonderful though.
You really do have to keep on top of corrosion, and be prepared to repair if necessary.
The cost will usually be repaid in its appreciating value.

Agree with Craig that the LSE was an interesting vehicle, and probably very rare now in decent condition.

I just wish I'd bought a CSK back in the day when people turned up their noses at the "old style" Range Rover, and prices were on the floor.

I flirted with buying an RRC a couple of years ago. One of my favourite cars since owning the Dinky police version back in the day. Clearly the market has gone a bit mad in recent years, so it'll have to remain a dream. All this talk of P38s and the 2 gorgeous examples shown has me lusting after that unloved sister.

I'd love to hear more of your experiences at the time diffwhine - the history of why each product or organisation made certain catastrophic choices is always interesting.

[2286]

Hmm. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in my eye the P38A has not become that much more beautiful with age.

I believe the P38 came in with the M plate.

My N plate RRC hasn't had much more than the P38 list above, in the 26 years I've had it - and certainly no major air-sus or electronic problems.
And that's despite having all the gizmos like heated electrically adjustable (and memory) seats, heated electric door mirrors, electric sunroof (that has yet to leak!), cruise control control, air con etc.

As for looks, I don't think they ever again achieved the "timeless" beauty of the original Classic.

It isn't all wonderful though.
You really do have to keep on top of corrosion, and be prepared to repair if necessary.
The cost will usually be repaid in its appreciating value.

Agree with Craig that the LSE was an interesting vehicle, and probably very rare now in decent condition.

I just wish I'd bought a CSK back in the day when people turned up their noses at the "old style" Range Rover, and prices were on the floor.

I have hankered after a rrc, for a very long time.  That was almost certainly made an impossibility when they began to form the basis of a gold rush.

I have only ever driven ancient variants with retro fitted Perkins engines.  The ride comfort, and turning circle were a revelation coming from a series driver.

P38a I ridden in and found the ride slightly choppy in comparison,  most likely due to air suspension gremlins, although comments on suspension link set ups could account for that.  How did the wheelbase compare?

Re LSE I looked at one that was relatively young but had ended up as unwanted hide it round the back trade in at a vw main agent.  It was a kind of metallic brown, I remember remarking on the seat leather and carpet being noticeably more opulent than a regular range topping vogue se.

I talked myself out of taking the plunge due to the villainous mpg and the long wheelbase and other part availability down the line.  I think the interior came from a place other than the land rover trim shop?  It was so nice.

I looked at few csk's at the same time, and they were pretty rotten at 5yrs old!  Just rot with a chrome bumper.

There will for me only ever be one shape, and its is the original.  Even if its rotten.

[Craig T]

The P38 is on a 108" wheelbase. Same as the LSE Range Rover which was 108" and off course the normal Range Rover was 100"

I think they tested a few systems on the LSE that ended up on the P38 such as the air suspension which is identical except the air compressor and valve block is under the bonnet on a P38 and under the floor on the classic. The way they achieved the stretch was quite crude though. The chassis was a standard one cut in half with U shape gusset plates welded to both sides. The rear doors were the same, cut normal doors with plates welded in and a new door skin fitted. I seem to recall the rear window winder mechanism also had welded in extensions and the exhaust pipe just got an additional 8" spacer piece to fit behind the centre box. They did at least make a bespoke rear propshaft.

The LSE did have unique wood trim in it. I think it was Italian Poplar trees they cut down for that model. Mine was a black body colour, brown carpets and brown leather interior. Mine was the earlier style dash panel as well before they went "Soft-dash" and fitted airbags into them.

I would still love another LSE one day but that would be another restoration project and I doubt I'll get the chance to do another one after the series one. There is something about them having the rear door longer than the front door!

Craig.

[diffwhine]

The P38A came out for 1995 Model Year, but were actually released in 1994, so there re some L registration ones about. I know because I had one!

I have  K plate RRC LSE which is sitting in London waiting for a proper rebuild. It isn't actually that rusty having been a town car and garaged for much of its life. We would consider getting shot of it, so if anybody is thinking of doing an LSE, if this one suits the bill, PM me and we can talk turkey. No rush to sell it though and I know what its worth...

[2286]

Craig it seems the LSE was one expensive cut and shut factory style.

Your lse pic has reminded me that the wheels were specific to the model too, the the rest of the rr having the three slot alloys.

The p38 lost the the wheelbase increase due to its chunkier appearance. It was a surprise to find it the same as the lse.

I know dunlop did the bags and bits for the air suspension.

The last lse I saw in the flesh had been absolutely trashed, just the windscreen remained.

Roof chopped for shooting and an isuzu engine lashed in.  It was a travesty.

I have also seen L322 getting weighed in and broken as running cost and repairs outstrip value at the time as they have been run on a shoestring and thrashed.

Hard to believe that they have been about for 20+ years.

Does anyone recall that 2 door 'olympic' from mid 80's, a csk ahead of its time.

[diffwhine]

I remember the Olympic. Wasn't it around D / E Reg time? I always felt it was a bit of a lash up, but then that's my era at LR, so everything was a lashup...

[2286]

Re Olympic

Red stripe, and recaro seats and livened up engine

Not sure if it was a low run production or a concept pre production.

2 door shell when they had ended aside from export market.

[Jeremy]

Olympic was a concept, very similar to the Kestrel. That was a lovely thing, I had the pleasure of owning it for a while - experimental 3.9 (I believe a John Eales one but not certain), rev’ed much better than production 3.9s. The Kestrel was Red  with Recaro interior - very much one I should have kept

[Jeremy]

Approx ten years ago…