daft Land Rover idea

[bigalan]

Having seen some fantastic lowered Land Rovers on here I've come up with a daft idea which I'm sure is probably impossible but I lack the skills to know why lol

How feasible would it be to take a defender 90 pickup and lower it?


Then convert it to rwd?

Then swap in a powerful engine?

Then take the body off?

And the daft bit - put the body on BACKWARDS?!?

To my untrained eye it looks like you sit pretty much in the middle, and the engine would fit in a modified pickup bay (with a cover)

Could put some red bulbs in the headlights and side lights, add some headlights to where folk put reversing spotlights. Maybe swap a bigger screen in to replace the three rear windows? Add some wipers to the front (formerly the back)

I'm picturing appearing at Driftland and confusing the crowd by drifting a car that looks like it's going in reverse:-)

Discuss:-) Or show me one the somebody has already made:-)

[jules1200]

I'll knock it up in my lunch tomorrow, it'll be dead simple!!
Btw if you make it rear wheel drive then turn the body round, it's front wheel drive

[bigalan]

Lol, fwd with rear wheel steering and the driver facing backwards?

[composimmonite]

The off roaders sometimes weld the two front sections of a Range Rover chassis together as the front set up is better than the rear.
First off you will be shocked at how much even a total heap of a Defender will cost you.
I'd say go with a standard Rover V8 and autobox. Should be easy to find a tail housing that will fit on autobox instead of the transfer box.
Land Rover diffs are offset so if you use a RWD gearbox then drive will have to "kink" sideways.
How will you get around having more reverse gears than forward gears ?
Lowering shouldn't be a problem as coil springs.

[bigalan]

Gears not a problem. The chassis and seats would still be driving as intended, forwards. But the body would make it look like it was going backwards. Imagine putting a scalextric Car body on backwards - would look like it was reversing but the mechanical stuff would all be working as before:-)

[ettorebugatti]

I've seen a Buggy which used a land-rover/ range rover chassis backwards last year at Stoneleigh kit car show.
Maybe they flippped the axles to do so.


Ah, I did took a picture of it:

[composimmonite]

Rather than putting the body on backwards it'd be a lot simpler to swop the axles over so steering was at rear. Then all you'd have to do is sort out steering and have engine in the rear under the original bonnet.

[VIP]

There's an awful lot of people here that appear not to understand a simple concept.

He wants a low, RWD Land Rover chassis. He wants it drive perfectly normally. But he wants to put the body on backward so that it appears to be driving in reverse when he's actually going forwards.

You wouldn't have more reverse gears than forwards, the chassis would still move in the same direction it always did, and swapping the steering as to the rear, you'd end up with completely the opposite effect of what he wants.

[bigalan]

Oct 26, 2014 7:58:27 GMT VIP said:

There's an awful lot of people here that appear not to understand a simple concept.

He wants a low, RWD Land Rover chassis. He wants it drive perfectly normally. But he wants to put the body on backward so that it appears to be driving in reverse when he's actually going forwards.

You wouldn't have more reverse gears than forwards, the chassis would still move in the same direction it always did, and swapping the steering as to the rear, you'd end up with completely the opposite effect of what he wants.

Exactly what I'm trying to describe lol. That's why it seems like it should be easy.maybe I should have left out the mechanical changes to stop confusion lol

Ok- simple version, could you put a land rover body backwards on the chassis and make it legal?

[rsmithy626]

what a bonkers idea.. this is why i love retro rides!

[VIP]

Easiest solution would be a Landy body backwards over a Scimitar chassis. Getting a LR chassis low, and getting it drifty, would be a very tricky job.

[retroandproud]

Oct 26, 2014 10:12:58 GMT VIP said:

Easiest solution would be a Landy body backwards over a Scimitar chassis. Getting a LR chassis low, and getting it drifty, would be a very tricky job.

^^^ What he said... You could also use the Rover P4 chassis, as per Bruce's low and RWD Landy.... Composimmonite is quite correct with regards to Defender prices, you might be able to get a Series Landy body for less money, expect to have to do quite a lot of repairs tho'.....
It's a mad idea yes, but perfectly possible if you have the time and patience. Just don't expect it to be straightforward, quite a lot of the mods needed to make it drive, stop and steer will seem minor, but it actual fact will take lots of time and drive you halfway to insanity....
Good luck with it, I will watch with interest....

[composimmonite]

Simple answer is yes you could put the body on backwards but it'd be a lot of work. The body is sectional - rear tub, front bulkhead, inner / outer wings, front panel etc so not a simple case of turning around a monocoque but rather than having to build up in situ. The bulkhead is the main part and when you rebuild a Land Rover this is the part that is fitted first with everything else built up around it. So you'd need to add bulkhead support outriggers to the chassis before anything else. Then you can work either forwards or backwards adding rear tub or bonnet / wings / front panel.
If it was me then I'd be aiming at finding a V8 Disco as a base and cutting down the chassis to Defender length. Disco chassis would also be easier to add a rear crossmember to the front, and plain bumper to the rear, for the effect you require. Body panels are always available secondhand although good items can be dear but it'd still be cheaper than buying a complete Defender as they fetch serious money even when in very poor state.
Small (motorbike ?) projector type headlights in the non structural crossmember could be neater than fitting full sized headlights.
If you intend keeping the doors looking original then they will become suicide items and law requires a detent system to stop them coming undone when vehicle moving. I'm fitting suicide doors to my Marlin and intend using FX4 Black Cab detent system as past are cheap to play with.
Early type wipers which the motor is a separate unit on the bottom of the screen would be an easy way of adding them to the rear window.
Defender fuel tank is under the seat where your legs would now be so that needs relocating. Again is using a shortened Disco as a base it could stay in the original position as it's already at the rear.
Not sure how you'd get around the offset rear diff with just a RWD format in a SWB as the proper shaft is short so the angles could be too acute. The Defender hand brake is on the transfer box so you'd have to either fit an alternative axle with handbrake mechanism or add a parking brake to either the gearbox or axle drive flange. I'd go with a disc and mechanical calliper on the rear of the gearbox.

Have fun

[Deleted]

So like this, but with a Landy + the other traits you mentioned?

[bigalan]

Oct 26, 2014 10:40:37 GMT @jxke said:

So like this, but with a Landy + the other traits you mentioned?

Genius, exactly like that:-)

[Deleted]

Oh awesome, here's the source if anyone wants a better look
Sure there's something better somewhere, but also this

[colnerov]

Hi, I would say this could be fairly straight forward. Just leave the bulkhead, doors and seatbox as they are, Then move the front wings and put them behind the seatbox, then move the rear wings and fix them to the bulkhead. you are only trying to create an illusion. Mechanically, do the same to the front axle as was done to the 109". Leave the transfer box in place for the handbrake and prop alignment, then weld up the centre diff.

Colin

[stefan]

I have often thought of this but a classic range rover on a scimitar chassis backwards

[chairchild]

for the rear axle - a scimitar would become a good donor. Would need all the suspension brackets/etc changing over to suit however, as the scimitar has a 4-link setup. These also use a "normal" handbrake, compared to the Landy's rather pointless handbrake setup.

But once you've gone to the near ridiculous levels of modding needed to make a landy chassis low - you could well indeed simply use a whole Scimitar chassis. Essex V6 as standard too - which whilst rather gutless beasts, they do sound lovely with cherry-bombs


Defenders, as has been mentioned, cost a bomb. But the individual panels can be had for pennies if you're patient. Front wings often go for £30 (or less!) on ebay as an example. Fit Cortina rear lights in place of the stock headlamps. Projector style lamps can be used in the "rear" panels for headlamps

[sowen]

You can buy lowering springs for Land Rovers but off the shelf they are -1", then you'll be really close to the bumpstops.

If it was me, I'd make a new bulkhead where the original one is to hold the dashboard and pedals etc, but the outside would fit inside the rear tub on the front. Also, I'd drop the body lower over the chassis to get the extra lowness.