When we decided to test drive our newly converted 1976 Long Wheel Base Land Rover Defender, or E-Landy for short, we thought that a nice gentle outing on some quiet country roads would do the trick. Then we thought where’s the fun in that? So, we entered a rally instead.
The rally in question was the London to Paris Electric Vehicle Rally, or more accurately: The Farnham to Godalming to Battersea to Westminster to Dorking to Summit of Box Hill to Brighton to Newhaven to Dieppe to Rouen to Evreux to Versaille and back again rally.
Lining up on the starting grid (school car park) alongside us was a plethora of electric vehicles, a bespoke extended Tesla, a Hydrogen powered kit car, a fully electric motorbike and a custom converted Austin 7 to name a few. There was even another converted Land Rover Defender, but it was Short Wheel Base so we didn’t give it much thought.
The atmosphere of camaraderie on the grid was electric, there was a real buzz in the air…okay, I’ll stop now… but it was genuinely brilliant to talk with so many likeminded individuals and feel the passion for this fledgling race and the vehicles involved. After a quick bite to eat and a coffee, we were off, first stop Dorking to test out the CCS port at the Tesla Supercharger station.
So, some initial learnings regarding our E-Landy.
Firstly, the passion and love for our vehicle knocked us off our feet. From the people involved in the rally, to onlookers at the side of the road, to the people who were charging their Tesla’s alongside us in Dorking, our E-Landy was unanimously loved and appreciated. We think we have something exceptional here, but to see that confirmed and reflected in peoples’ reactions was special.
Secondly, the acceleration is breath-taking, I mean really really fast. The contrast of vintage Landy feel and modern warp speed takes a while to get used to, but it is a very fun experience.
Thirdly, linked closely to the above point, the brakes. Our E-Landy still has its original drum brakes on it, fine for normal combustion engine acceleration, but not suited for what we have installed. The engine braking from the electric motor is very efficient, so it is perfectly safe to drive day to day, but to allow us to have some real fun with it, we are going to install some disk brakes.
E-Landy Basic Information
- Fully reversible conversion.
- 72 kW battery.
- 450V Peak.
- 150 Miles Range.
- High & Low Ratio.
- Rear Wheel Drive & Four Wheel Drive.
- CCS DC Fast Charge. 20% – 80% charge in 37 minutes.
- 0-50mph in 5.5 seconds.
- Top Speed – Don’t know yet, we need to put disk brakes on first!
I’ll come back to some more insights on the E-Landy shortly, but for now we will cut back to the race itself. We find ourselves at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking, the location of a Tesla Supercharger station.
The main reason for this pit stop was to test out the CCS Charging Port, which we were delighted to find worked perfectly. So, 40 minutes later, the E-Landy was nearly fully charged and we were also nearly full because of the delicious bacon and sausage rolls.
When picturing my first time driving our E-Landy, I envisaged a wide, quiet, open road – possibly even a large empty car park – with minimal hazards and plenty of room to manoeuvre. Tackling Box Hill – narrow, windy, full of middle-aged men in lycra weaving around on bicycles – was not top of my list. But, as you’ve hopefully realised already, we aren’t ones to turn down a challenge here at Electric Vintage, so I swallowed my trepidation and took the wheel.
The driving experience of our E-Landy feels extremely like its Internal Combustion Engine cousin, the quirky joy of driving an old classic car is not lost or diminished, it still handles like a small bus, the windows still rattle and there still isn’t enough room for your right arm. What is absent is the smell of fumes, the deafening noise and the puffs of smoke in the rear-view mirror. What we have managed to capture here is the essence of an old Land Rover, without the messy horrible aspects. Oh, and did I mention the acceleration…
With Box Hill conquered, we set our sights on Brighton. The scenic route seemed most apt and also allowed us to test out the performance on some traditional country roads. The weight distribution is an aspect we have paid very close attention to, and it has really paid dividends. Rather than jamming the E-Landy full of batteries to increase range, we’ve kept the weight almost identical, with the majority of the batteries sitting in the engine bay, as well as some more in the rear. This means we are still able to do proper Land Rover things with it, it will work well off road, it still has Low and High Ratio and the option of four-wheel drive. As already mentioned, when doing this conversion, we didn’t want to alter the defining character of the vehicle.
We arrived at the first finish line in Brighton without upset, only having to pull over once to allow other motorists to zoom by on the windy lanes. Again, the reception was phenomenal, interviews from local and national press and plenty of interest from the EV community, who were gathered on the seafront to see the array of vehicles. After some time talking and exhibiting our E-Landy, we nipped off to the nearest charging point at the local Asda (other brands of supermarket are available) to top up before the next leg of our trip.
As mentioned previously, this was very much a test outing for our E-Landy, we took the scenic route and had some fun driving up a big hill, so we were delighted (and more than a little shocked!) to win first prize in our category at the awards ceremony in Brighton. This was awarded to the vehicle with the most efficient journey and we took home first place in the ‘Self Build’ section. A brilliant achievement and testament to the quality of the work we have done on this conversion.
With our coveted prize safely wrapped up and our E-Landy nearly at full charge, we boarded the overnight ferry for Dieppe.
The charging infrastructure in France was one of our major concerns going into the rally, alongside the discomforting news regarding the riots taking place – which concerned us less as a Land Rover is probably the perfect vehicle to take to a riot. With several different apps and passes downloaded, we were as prepared as we could be.
Overall, our findings were the charging network in France is similar to what we have here in the UK, that is to say it is still in its infancy and is quite complex. Several of the chargers we attempted to use required you to prepay for credit, then did not work. The aggregator charging apps often didn’t function, with each charger requiring you to use the designated app. Most infuriatingly several chargers were well signposted and advertised, but then not switched on. However, we still managed to find enough that functioned to keep us well topped up.
The reception we received in France matched the rest of our journey. We were treated to a fantastic breakfast in Dieppe and were warmly welcomed by a local dignitary. This was also the location of the brilliant drone picture taken of all the vehicles still involved in the rally, some had decided to play it safe and stay the other side of the channel, but again, that’s not really our style.
The roads in France were comfortable and easy to drive on, the scenery through Normandy was beautiful as we cruised quietly through whilst the countryside was awakening from its slumber. The rest of the journey passed without incident, save for the aforementioned charging technicalities. We rolled on down to Versaille and had a thoroughly enjoyable time testing out our vehicle.
Some more learnings regarding our E-Landy and its performance, bearing in mind this is only one trip so by no means definitive.
The optimal speed from an efficiency point of view seems to be 42 mph. At this speed on a flat motorway, cruising along with no stopping and starting, or wild acceleration and deceleration, the range of our E-Landy is approximately 180 miles.
At 55 mph on a flat motorway, following the same conditions as above, there is a phase shift in terms of energy needed and the range drops to about 90 miles.
On windy country roads, with changes in elevation, junctions and lots of stopping and starting, the range is approximately 110 miles.
Considering that most journeys consist of a combination of the above circumstances and conditions, we were very pleased to find that during this initial testing our E-Landy closely matched up to our expectations in terms of range, which is roughly 150 miles on a single charge.
Our E-Landy had performed admirably and although it was tempting to continue on through France, possibly attempt to scale a mountain and maybe even head for Africa, we decided it was time to set our sights for home. So, we placed Versaille in our rear-view mirror and headed back towards home turf.
The return leg was as enjoyable and entertaining as the outward journey, only with less dignitaries waiting to meet us laden with croissants. We arrived back in Farnham with 3% charge left in our E-Landy and probably a similar amount of charge in ourselves. Boosted by the immense sense of pride in our vehicle, the knowledge that there is an exceptional community of likeminded people involved in this space and knowing that this is just the beginning of an exciting, innovative journey.
Oh, and the fact that we were the inaugural winners of the London to Paris EV Rally Self Build Category, not bad for a first test drive.
Event link: https://londontobrightonelectricvehiclerally.com
“The London to Brighton electric vehicle rally is back and in July 2023 it continues to Paris, to become the first official large scale international electric vehicle rally.
As the biggest EV rally in England and the first international event of its kind, we are delighted to announce the continued sponsorship by EDF and that the event is now supported by Motability Operations. The organisers are yet again asking car owners, bus drivers and van drivers to charge their engines! They want builders of road legal conversions, scooterists, cyclists, bikers, inventors, solar car specialists and even electric planes, to prepare for more EV based fun.
Showing the general public and indeed the world the accessibility, variety, diversity and the limitless possibilities of travelling in a low carbon world between major cities.”
-London to Paris Electric Vehicle Rally 2023
