Finding and buying Cartman...a bit of history

me at pjboomer@freeuk.com

As Cartman was after we got him home and fitted a new set of tyres

A bit of Cartman's background

After several years of feeling the 'need' for a Land Rover (and a five year stack of LRO's under the bed) I finally took the plunge and bought my first in May '99 (I used the premis of the need for a vehicle capable of shifting stuff about while we constructed a large garage/workshop just to give the purchase some validity- (Guys's, take note of this tip, it works - but don't tell my other half I told you - schtumm !).

We knew that it would have to be a SWB as there was insufficient room to turn round an LWB in the width of the rear garden.

Cost was the next major consideration and I finally found a Series 3 that was both sound and could be improved upon (plus the arches on a 90 wouldn't fit down the side of the house!!). Also, in our price range we found that the Series vehicles seemed to be in better condition for their age and price when compared to the early 90's.

Ideally I wanted a V8 but the couple that I viewed suffered from both poor quality installation and a motor of unknown age or condition. Fuel consumption was not as high on the deciding list as the overall condition as all the info I had to hand seemed to say that a 3.5 V8 and a 2.25 litre petrol had only 2-5 MPG difference. A Series diesel was decided against - I have a problem with diesels anyway, plus we really needed at least a 200 tdi, and as I mentioned above - a 90 was too much or c**p condition.

A great deal of local searching eventually led to a 1978 short wheelbase (88") in Safari spec. Though externally untidy it had a sound chassis, body and a good low mileage 2 1/4 litre petrol engine. The other plus was that it was fitted with a host of 'standard' Safari spec. parts (free wheeling hubs,overdrive,Safari roof,rear sliding windows, front carpets,adjustable tow hitch,rear step,deluxe bonnet,rear wheel mount,and LWB 11" twin piston front brakes etc). The mileage was also low for its age with 66,000 miles in 22 years of use. The last 2-3 owners had little or no knowledge about LR's so we expected to have to do a lot of initial tidying to get it up to scratch. A price was negotiated down and we decided to call him Cartman.

After starting to get Cartman up together I joined Hants and Berks Rover Owners club and Shire Land Rover Club to get some benefits from my new aquisitions off-road ability and to meet like minded person's. See their web sites for more info about them .

Cartman can be seen regularly getting muddy and rolling around the roads and green-lanes around Winchester and Hampshire, UK.

me at pjboomer@freeuk.com

Please feel free to utilise the logos and personal graphic files on your own related sites,

but please place a link back here in return.- Cartman 2001

*Cartman the Land Rover productions circa 2001