Camel Trophy vehicles - Support vehicles

Vehículos que ayudaron a que el Camel Trophy tuviese exito. Estos vehículos no salen en las películas ni en los libros, van ayudando a los participantes, transportando repuestos, comida, tiendas de campaña, y todo lo que se necesita en una competición de este tipo.


Defender de filmación	Film maker Defender

Defender de taller	Workshop Defender

Vehículo de soporte	Support vehicle

Tim Cann is a landscape gardener from Keynsham. Tim is a Land Rover devotee - since learning to drive, he has always owned a Land Rover.

Tim has owned his Camel Trophy Land Rover, L435 VAC, since 1996. He went to his local Land Rover dealer, MJ Fews, to buy a spare part for his old Series III Land Rover and came back with the Camel Trophy vehicle.

The vehicle is a rare beast - only three Land Rover Defender 110 High Capacity Pick Ups ("hicaps")were made for the Camel Trophy. For the 1993 Sabah-Malaysia event, a K-reg HCPU was specially built to carry a dismantled raft on which the Camel Trophy convoy was able to cross rivers and lakes. Tim's L-reg is almost exactly the same specification as the raft unit, even down to having mountings on the roll cage to fix the outboard motors. However, the vehicle was probably never used for this purpose as video footage from the event shows the K-reg HCPU carrying the raft.

Tim has collected a stack of documents, pictures and video footage (including the official 1994 event video) to support the history of the vehicle and which show the vehicle was used for an unprecedented four events:

In 1994, the vehicle was shipped to Antofagasta and used to carry nine crates of Discovery and Defender spares for the convoy. For the 1995 pre-scout, radiators and differentials were replaced with more general equipment. For the Mundo Maya event itself, the vehicle was used as a "HQ2", a headquarters pool vehicle marked with the badges "Marshall 7". The vehicle returned to Land Rover for a full rebuild before being shipped to Balikpapan for the 1996 event, during which it served as "Logistics 1", the cook's utility vehicle, marked "CT22". It was during the 1996 event that the vehicle was rolled after colliding with an obstruction on a road.

The vehicle's hard life didn't end when it was demobbed from the Camel Trophy. Tim's landscaping business and his voluntary work take the Land Rover "up hill and down dale" across the country. The vehicle has attended 4x4 events across Europe, includuing the Belgium Nationals and Bad Kissingen, Germany and been used to test an Atlas Overland route across the Alps. Tim also took the vehicle to Bosnia, packed to the rafters with donated equipment.

Although Tim has fully researched the history of the vehicle, there remains two mysteries.

Firstly, where on the vehicle was the pickaxe handle fixed? There is a bracket for the axe blade, but none for the handle. It may seem like a simple question, but it is one that Camel Trophy experts have discussed around a campfire for many hours.

Secondly, and more mysteriously, when Tim paid a visit to GEM (Global Event Management), the company that organised the Camel Trophy, logistics planner Louise asked which vehicle he owned. Tim pointed out of the window at L435 VAC. "Oh," said Louise, "You've got that one ..." She wouldn't say what she meant by that ...


Land Rovering on Bob Ives' farm	Mikey tests out the hicap's articulation	Tim drives through an undriveable hole	Winching is an option ... but only if you have prepared the winch cable by hooking it to your roofrack

Mike White is a tree surgeon from Keynsham. He bought his Camel Trophy Defender 110 Station Wagon, in 2005.

Mikey's vehicle is another unique specimen. H652 JRW was built as a communications unit for the 1991 Tanzania - Burundi event. Powered by Land Rovers indestructible 2.5 Tdi 200, it was fitted with a satellite dish on the roof and a pneumatic aerial mast. The vehicle had its interior seating removed as it was crammed full of radio and telecommunications equipment.

The Land Rover was rolled on the 1991 event. The nearside doors and panels were twisted and bent and the roof rack seriously damaged. Startling pictures of it feature in Chris Bennett's 1992 Land Rover book. "One careful owner," reads the caption, "There aren't many vehicles that would be capable of driving after collecting this sort of heavy duty damage but for the reliable Land Rover it is a walk in the park."

Land Rover rebuilt the vehicle and it returned to provide communications support for Camel Trophy 1992 in Malaysia.

After the Camel Trophy the vehicle passed through the hands of a number of owners, including an off road driving school, until it reached its previous owner in Yorkshire. A complete rebuild followed, unusual for a 22,000km vehicle!


The communications unit in use on the 1991 Camel Trophy	Defender is perfectly suited to negotiating deep ruts	Mikey navigating across Salisbury Plain, Christmas 2005	The Land Rover after restoration in 2004

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