Taupo 1000 2011
19, 20 & 21 August 2011

Among those is Craig ‘Sooty’ Lord with the Land Rover he rebuilt from the ground up in 2009, over a period of three months. An engineer by trade, Sooty was able to complete most of the tasks himself but still relied on the expertise of a core group of professionals.

This core included the mechanical brains of the team from Stag 4x4 in New Lynn – they are the Land Rover Specialists who kept Sooty on the right track so to speak.

The roof lights are from the Hella HID Motorsport range; the Predators were set up with a pencil beam in the centre to give a long distance light well over ½ a kilometre, and two spread beams for the wide and clear close vision. The two work lamps were placed to assist with the cornering and tight track work.

The interior was modified to make things electrically efficient – because when you are in the middle of a forest on a 51 kilometre loop track – you are a long way from the pits for help. The switches, relays and fuses for the main operation of the vehicle and the lights were retrofitted into cabinets as a “plug and play” system. This means if there is a problem, then the fault finding becomes a much easier task.

With his experience from the four wheel driving scene Sooty knew there was only one package he wanted under the car to control the heavier than normal race machine – springs and suspension from ARB. As the project was based around keeping things production, ARB was able to utilise their Old Man Emu (OME) components which bolted directly onto the original mounts. This ensured that the shocks and springs would be up to the task of 1000 kilometres of unforgiving off-road terrain – something that the standard units would never achieve.