OT - boss of range rover stuck in flood

[steve]

One of the managing directors of the Range Rover plant was taking one of the managing directors of Ford (Lewis something..didn't catch his second name, nice bloke. gave him a lift to the airport so he could catch his flight)to the airport when he decided to take a short cut through a local ford.

The water was 4ft deep in the centre and the Air intake on the Range Rover is only about 3.5 ft off the deck.

Can you guess what happened next....

Stuck

They managed to climb out of the rear hatch before the water entered
Lewis then had to wade out of the water to get to my car (who else can say they have seen one of the big wigs at Ford paddling out of the local river, let alone sitting in the passenger seat of their Bravo with his trouser legs rolled up whilst the heater dried his feet )

Went back later that evening just to check the water level and they were attempting to pull it out.

They tried with a Landrover and the clutch burnt out (without budging the Range Rover). Apparently the electric handbrake was refusing to release

Then they tried hitching two Four wheel drives (one a disco, the other some sort of stripped down landy)together... still no joy.

They kicked both rear windows through and passed the strap through the rear windows and tried to pull it backward out of the water. The strap broke.

Then they looped the steel cable from one of the winches around one of the rear pillars and tried that.

There was a loud squeel and the cable went slack. (more later )

Then totally unprompted a local farmer turned up with a HUGE tractor. They finally managed to drag it out with that.

Tractor tow

closer to the waters edge

Vid

That tractor was AWESOME by the way.

tractor leaving

They almost got it stuck when it went over a sign post behind it and it slipped sideways into a 4ft deep ditch (hidden under the water) The kid just booted it along the ditch and climbed it out the end

I don't think they will be fixing this
rear

the rear suspension was fooked. There is about a foot difference in the ride height at either end

Rear showing "extra rear suspension travel"

Front

results of steel cable versus rear pillar

results of steel cable versus rear pillar 2

Sorry about the quality of the pics, bad light, over hanging trees and taken on my phone

 

[steve]

sorry the vids link don't seem to work

 

[Anonymous]

Towing


Leaving


Won't work when i just put the link for some reason. Hope this works

 

[MadGT]

that was a good read and hilarious too, lol, the pics actually looked ok, and yes the vids now work, as the links to em didnt, its good to know that Ford had to rely on someone else and another make for once, hehehehehe

Bravo, why settle for less 1.8GT BRAVO

 

[scotty]

HA Ha!! total calamity,you must have been laughing your ars* off.

CRACKER!!

Scotty.

 

[steve]

As i was doing a U-turn to take Lewis to the airport
(i didn't find out who he was until later in the evening when they were trying to get the car out the water), i looked out at the Range Rover exec still marooned on the bridge.

I said "he doesn't look too happy does he"

Lewis said with a chuckle "he's probably wondering how much longer he's going to have a job"

As i dropped him at the airport i jokingly said

"don't forget to send a memo reminding people that even a Range Rover cannot cope with 4ft of water"

he replied "no, i've got to find out why it won't"

Then i read in the paper today that Ford is selling of Range Rover and (I think) Jaguar....oooops!

 

[MadGT]

i think at the end of the day jaguar and range rover will end up bein sold to either
1. we`ve never heard of

or
2. someone who will run the companys into ground almost like rover

if that happens england will have lost all of the england built/made car manufacturers

imho anyway


Bravo, why settle for less 1.8GT BRAVO

 

[steve]

This is the bloke i gave a lift to

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=21673

Just found it on the net.

 

[scotty]

Hey steve did he make any comment on your Bravo????

Scotty

 

[steve]

he said the heater worked well, dried his feet off a treat lol

 

[scotty]

Am i write in thinking that ford sold Aston martin aswell?? back to British owned company??

 

[scotty]

HA HA he,so Ford could be temming with fiat soon HA HA,

 

[Matthew_NZ]

Ford already does team with Fiat.

The new Fiat 500 is on the new Ka platform, and the Iveco Daily is a Ford-Fiat development.

 

[Roberto]

Nice read - good story

That rear pillar on the Range Rover will probably come out with a bit of T-Cut

Yes, Aston was sold to a company headed up by the guy who owns Pro-Drive, I believe.

As for Jaguar & Land Rover, well they have a dedicated customer base. Which one of us wouldn't buy a sporty Jag if we had the cash ? Let's be honest And the Chelsea Tractor brigade and all the farmers love a good LR

No, I think we will either see them snapped up by another car giant, like GM or even a Far East firm. If we're really lucky, they might return to British ownership, but I doubt it

Rob
Mk.2 Marea Weekend 1.8 16v 115 ELX

 

[steve]

sliced through the rear pillar like a cheesewire through cheddar

 

[Matthew_NZ]

There were industry rumours that FIAT were interested in Land Rover and Jaguar.

 

[Ben]

"Look at that thing go"

Basically i think we will be seeing adverts for tractors on our screens within the next few weeks if we get these downpoours.

Sharky

I Love my BRAVO

 

[steve]

the tractor was amazing.

I really want a tractor now

It dragged that Range Rover out of the ford like it was pulling up daisies.

I wonder what hp it was putting out.....and if i could swap the engine into my 1.2 bravo

 

[Allan Wall]

re

that tractor doesnt look that big tbh? lol


did you see the top gear when they had tractors?

we sell case tractors where i work, some of them are awesome! they have so much torque and geared so low they will pull so hard!

 

[steve]

I know it weren't THAT big, having seen the ones on top gear (the ones you are talking about) its quite a small one.

But for a city boy like me anything bigger than a bravo is
HUGE!!!!