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.
