My experience too. I had a 2CV6 Club (square headlights and luxury fittings) and it took me though several East Yorkshire winters. Sometimes I was the only one to make it to work. Never failed to get me there, or home. Unless I can control myself, I am close to getting another one.
A few years ago, a chosen few (press-ganged, more like!!) were on 'winter gritting rota' at work
*
So, 2 of us, for a week at a time, were on call (1st Nov - March 31st) for ice/snow duties
This was after I'd sold my last Landie (typical!!)
However, I had the use of my mothers one week; a bog-stock, 1.0 ('R' plated, so a mark 1?), on skinny tyres
Like a 2CV, it had sod all power, but with steady driving, it could get most places, & impressed me
* I didn't mind, as to keep it all correct, the Trust paid for a weeks training, to get us the correct DVLA group for a tractor, & an industry recognised accreditation for JCB
A week of 5 hour days! playing with 'big boys Tonka toys'.
And paid (9 hour days) to do it
I once was clerk of the course for a 4x4 club and laid out a trial for everything from RTVs to Class 5 modifieds. To see if it could be done, I ran round it in my Range Rover 4.6 and it did it without a murmur. Extremely capable, and just as good as the Classic RR in my opinion. Also in my opinion, the P38A was the last proper Land Rover - everything since (Defenders excepted) have been style-led technological aberrations with all the charm of a dead frog.
I wasn't too sure about the P38, when it came out
My first drive of one, was at a demo-day (I think it was the Doncaster dealer), at a site on the outskirts of Bawtry,
Whilst it wasn't anything particularly difficult, the invitees who'd stepped out of their M-B & B*Ws were impressed
My 2nd drive was not long after, a 101FC owning friend & I went to (as it was then) Appleyards, in Leeds, as he wanted to look at them
By letting a salesman try his 101FC, we got a drive out (swapping between us) in a 2.5DT (manual)
It may have been a good engine in the relevant B*W cars, & a comparative flyer in the Vauxhall Omega (which also used it), but a P38, not that good
No doubt, it'll have been even worse in the automatic 'box versions
Third close encounter was in 1997 at Copley Land Rover (Halifax), when I was buying -at the time- a 3 year old 110(300Tdi)
It wasn't ready when I arrived for it. so was browsing the forecourt, & looked at a 4.6HSE
The salesman I was dealing with came out, with the keys, & asked if I fancied a ride
Now, if anyone reading this knows the Halifax area, & the dual-carriageway (sadly, better known at the moment for being in the background of some TV film of the partially collapsed bridge at Elland), that climbs up to jct 24 of the M62 (Ainley Top), will know that it's a fair old climb.
This was when it was a national speed limit (& pre camera days), once away from the traffic lights, he booted it
For such a big vehicle, the acceleration was very impressive, & I'm not going to tell you what speed we crested the hill at, as it passes under the M62
Whilst I couldn't, & wouldn't have tried to do the same in my 110, when I drove away, it did crest the hill at probably about 65MPH, not bad for what it is
