Lone Wolf Expedition

[Nick Boy]

Hello,

Thought I should release my website officially on you guys,

lonewolftransglobal.com

Its a 110 Land Rover Wolf, custom built for a global expedition by the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, but the expedition was cancelled when BMW took over LR, and pulled funding. Not before having made 7 of these 90% ready, at a cost of over £45,000 EACH!

Only the Armed forces can buy the Wolf XD. Unless you want one that has been over a landmine or has been stolen, civilians cannot buy these. Except of course for one of these seven, which have never seen the hands of a squaddie (except the guy who built them, who was in the army at some point)

We bought the last one to be released from landrover, and hence the lowest mileage one, and are going to take it around the world.

Tell us what you think of the website, or the trip, and I'll keep you updated on our progress.
We are due to leave in January 2007, and preparation is in full swing, with sponsorship coming in, and the truck in the garage for a couple of weeks for the first wave of modifications.



Also, before you all start wondering about the colour, the vehicle was designed for driving across the arctic, and are painted gold to keep the heat in the vehicle, along with foil and foam lining inside the vehicle. They are not silver, which would be equally good at this job, because in an ice field, silver is invisible.

[roverX]

Welcome Nick Boy. I have traversed your site before. Pretty interesting and cool!

[gordo]

Awesome rig. Ive seen photos of that rig before. How cool to own one! Gordo

[FelixLockhart]

Nice rig! Site is a bit complex to navigate though, especially the pictures section.

[Nick Boy]

Originally Posted by FelixLockhart

Nice rig! Site is a bit complex to navigate though, especially the pictures section.

Thanks, any suggestions to improve this?

Nick

[DiscoPilot]

Very cool I'll trade you my slighty used D1

[Nick Boy]

Originally Posted by DiscoPilot

Very cool I'll trade you my slighty used D1

Hmm, not sure thats a particularly fair trade..? Especially with all the equipment its getting fitted with!

[AAXD]

Very cool trucks, I always wondered why they were gold. What exactly does the Defender XD have that a regular MOD 110 does not? Besides the 300TDi and heavy wheels? You were lucky to get that truck. Truly a unique and well built machine. Should be fun following your progress.

[Nick Boy]

Originally Posted by AAXD

Very cool trucks, I always wondered why they were gold. What exactly does the Defender XD have that a regular MOD 110 does not? Besides the 300TDi and heavy wheels? You were lucky to get that truck. Truly a unique and well built machine. Should be fun following your progress.

I am still a little sketchy on this myself, but I know that they have a strengthend range rover derived "webbed" chassis, they have an improved internal roll cage, (but ours is improved on that, and then an external roll cage is attached - ours is rated to 9T!!! of Glacial crush!). They have slightly improved lockers infront of the rear arches, (they protrude rather than are flat, makes it a little stronger, land rover say theyre waterproof) there is a vent on both wings, which is to improve wading capability (that cool looking plastic bit). the wolf wheels (damn near indestructible). the arctic heating system, but I think that was avaliable before. There were a few modifications to the suspension, and a 2" lift and heavy duty springs are standard. The 300TDi has had a few modifications to make that militirised too though. to make the vehicle EMP proof, all electronics have been removed and replaced with mechanical counterparts, and there is no ECU, which makes it a little sluggish :-( Not sure if its on all wolves, but ours has a twin fuel tank system, giving us 190L of fuel capacity, but we are increasing this to 220L.
The wolves have a whole load of underbody protection bolted on, which is standard, but probably there before.

There are a whole load of other modifications made to make the thing a lot tougher. but I'm afraid I can't rememeber them off the top of my head. and I don't really know completely the spec of the old mod 110s.

Thank you for your interest, hopefully the wolf will be back in a week, with the first stage of modifications added, so so good pictures for the website.

Nick

[DiscoPilot]

Oh well it was worth a shot. Thats an amazing vehicle I'm very jealous. I love the gold

[Series 3 guy]

Beautiful truck!!! You are lucky to get your hands on the sir Ralph rig.Truly rare. You can get a Wolf once it's been released from the MOD.They are usualy5 years old plus,but are great and capible machines. I had a wolf 90 3 years ago and thought it was supurb!!!! Not as nice as yours obviously,but nice in an"Ex-mod" way. Good Luck on your journey.Sounds like the time of your life.

[adnanlr]

Hi Nick,

Superb idea and execution !. Equally superb Xds and preparation.

I have seen the Google South East Asia route map.. lots of cities indicated including Malaysia.. any detailed plan as yet ?

Can't wait to see you here in Kuala Lumpur...

[Nick Boy]

Originally Posted by adnanlr

Hi Nick,

Superb idea and execution !. Equally superb Xds and preparation.

I have seen the Google South East Asia route map.. lots of cities indicated including Malaysia.. any detailed plan as yet ?

Can't wait to see you here in Kuala Lumpur...

No truely definite route as yet, but as many countries as we can fit in as possible, Daniel, Rowan and Gabi are very well travelled in Thailand, so that is likely to be the shipping point, but KL is relatively close, so may include that in the trip.

Series 3 Guy, have you seen us around yet? we are based in Addiscombe/ Beckenham.

[Capt. Ron]

How long is the expedition supposed to last? I admire the dedication and logistics it takes to accomplish something like this. I wish I could do something like this one day.

[Nick Boy]

Originally Posted by Capt. Ron

How long is the expedition supposed to last? I admire the dedication and logistics it takes to accomplish something like this. I wish I could do something like this one day.

The whole thing shouldn't take more than a year, otherwise we would start having problems with the Carnet de Passage, and the DVLA (and we all know what they can be like! )