Atomic is an ex-MOD 1991 Defender 110. She's big, green, slow, smelly, noisy and a whole lot of fun. She's got a 2.5 normally aspirated diesel which, together with her raised air intake (snorkel) and wading kit, means she can continue driving with water up to the windscreen. (Which means covering the engine, me and any passengers) ...... Also need the back door open, otherwise there's a chance of her floating.
I
got her from an eBay auction (you can click
the image for a real picture) and, collecting her was her first real adventure.
I asked about every question known to mankind - after trawling all the Land
Rover BBS I could find - and printed off all of the answers.
One train ticket (two actually) and a day off, saw me wending my merry way to Durham (yes - the place at the other end of the country) to pick her up. So why the adventure? Remember the third attribute - slow? Not only that, but she's thirteen years old, hasn't done any motorway trips in a long while (or short ones either for that matter) and I don't want to push her too hard to start with. I reckon that an average of 50mph will be just fine thanks very much and, at about two-hundred and sixty miles, that's going to be some drive back.
So why the hell swap a Jaguar for a third-hand (one of those hands being the British army) 110? A touch of eccentricity perhaps, she can take all of my diving gear and, with the correct preparation, we should even be able to sleep in her. And .... well .... just look at her - she's beautiful. Lastly, and not leastly, we have Ibstone. Ibstone? Yes, Ibstone. After three years of commuting from home to work - mainly the last two - the Jag has picked up a wonderful assortment of long scratches down one side. These have mainly been caused on the winding, single-track (with passing places) road from Ibstone to Fingest. Caused by f*&k-wits in BMWs who think that their Teutonic sales-wagons give them access to not only all of the road, but also some staggering ability to come to a complete standstill whilst rounding a blind single-track corner at sixty on wet-leaves.
Well, in future, rather than a Jag making a desperate dive for the hedge to get out of their way, they'll be faced with the smiling ton-and-a-half face of solid steel that is Atomic. I can't wait.
Here are a few sections about Atomic;