Chapter 16: Some Well Deserved Praise

During this series a lot of the time we mention the faults and issues that Raymond has and how we combat them, but Raymond has lots of redeeming features and that’s what I want to write about. Firstly, the comfort; when sitting in Raymond you feel like a king, the seats are comfy and heated, the ride is so smooth you can barely feel the potholes of Britain. Raymond is spacious in all regards; you never feel cramped when driving or as a passenger. He also has a lovely big boot, so you can easily do a big shop for the whole family and not worry about whether or not you can fit it in the car. The heated steering wheel, front and rear windows were life savers during the winter months.

The thing to note with Raymond is that he tries to make life as comfortable and easy as possible, and if the price to pay for that is that you need to constantly look after him, then that is pretty good value for money. Raymond isn’t just any car, it’s a driving companion with personality.

All that being said, there of course has been an issue this week. He started making a random noise on the way home, however it then disappeared, came back momentarily and hasn’t been back since. Fingers crossed that it was a minor blip and not something serious.

Chapter 15: Shake, Rattle and Roll                                 

Perhaps a fresh start with Raymond? Hopefully all the issues are a thing that we leave behind us. The first few trips looked promising, Raymond driving smoothly and without a problem, however this was too good to be true and within 3 days, we had something to fix.

As I was driving along, suddenly Raymond started to shake, the wheel vibrating in my hands. I quickly pulled over and did a quick check of the car in case I had blown a tyre. However, upon further inspection, I couldn’t see anything. I decided to brave it and get back in the car and continue. Thankfully there was not a recurrence, that was until the next day. I was mere minutes from work when he started shaking like a rollercoaster. I began to brake, however this time this made matters worse, and the shaking became violent. Once I finally got it to work the Workshop technicians had a look and found that the front brake discs were warped and in general bad shape.

Raymond carries on his streak of being in the workshop at least once a month, but that’s the fun of owning a low budget L322. The technicians fitted shiny new brake discs and pads. With these now replaced Raymond is back to 100% and driving flawlessly. Whenever Raymond is working, he is an absolute dream and it kind of makes it worth the constant stress.

Chapter 14: Don’t Forget About Raymond                                           29.12.2022

Over the past few weeks there has not been much to write about. Raymond has carried on working like a trooper throughout a month of very low temperatures. For the most part, Raymond has been a solid companion on the drive to and from work. So, I thought I would treat Raymond to a nice clean-up. A good hour with some warm soapy water and a sponge got him looking all lovely. I then thought I would give him a rest for a bit as he has been working really hard over the past few months. This, however, would be a mistake, because when I came back to Raymond, he was not well.

Firstly, he was as dead as a Dodo, nothing was working, so we needed to get him on the life support instantly and get that battery charging. Whilst waiting for Raymond to burst into life, I opened the tailgate to get something from the back and suddenly I felt the weight of the top half crash into the top of my skull. The gas struts that usually hold up the tailgate had given up and the price for this was a lump on my head. Maybe Raymond shouldn’t be left alone for any more extended periods.

I took him to work once he was charged up and got the gas struts replaced so that he was back to a healthy L322 again… well apart from the ongoing battery issue… but other than that, smooth sailing.

Chapter 13: The Cold Front Hits                                                                                       25.11.2022

This week in the UK the temperatures have plummeted below 0°C hitting as low as -6°C. Monday morning and I go to get in Raymond and he is completely frozen over. I got in the car and turned on whatever heater I could find: windscreen, seats, steering wheel to try and warm myself and Raymond up. When I finally set off, I was lovely and toasty inside but outside was a different story. The roads were white and like ice rinks, however Raymond handled those slippy roads like they were glue, not sliding once.

Tuesday was the coldest day so without a moment of hesitation all of those heaters were back on making Raymond heaven. The drive was once again sublime, however this is Raymond, so something had to go wrong. Once I was parked up, I went to open the door and nothing happened. I locked and then unlocked the door a few times trying to open the door with each attempt. I thought to myself that it must be the weather and perhaps the mechanism had seized up. I called over to a passing colleague to try the door from the other side, hoping that it was just the inner door handle, but no luck, Raymond had locked me in. I got up and shuffled across to the passenger seat and tried the other door and thankfully with a little persuasion the door opened. Later on, we went to inspect what had happened but lo and behold, nothing was wrong anymore, all the doors were working fine. I think the workshop technicians think I’m losing the plot, with all these issues that ‘solve’ themselves.

The rest of the week Raymond, surprisingly behaved himself, dealing with the tumultuous weather like a champion. Despite the little hiccup near the start of the week, it is times like this when owning a L322 has its benefits and makes me one happy driver.

Chapter 12: A Whole Heap of Problems 28.10.2022

Another week and to start with it has been pure bliss driving Raymond around. There have only been a few minor issues, such as a side light bulb needing to be replaced. The issues of the past seemed to be just that, in the past, or so I thought.

The problems started on Friday; I started him up to go to work and put him in drive. Normally, this is when the car would move, but not today. I decided that maybe this was just a blip and that I should just try again. Put it back into park, waited a moment, said a little good luck prayer, and then moved the shifter into drive and… nothing yet again. I swear Raymond just likes making me late for work. I thought to myself, what’s that old saying “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” So, I did just that, turned Raymond off and back on again and then proceeded to put him in drive once more and hallelujah, this time he moved off like there was no issue at all. Having spoken to the technicians, we believe that a solenoid might have got stuck and that it should be a recurring problem.

Sunday then came around, and I thought, let’s go for a little drive, clicked to open and there was a telling silence that something was wrong. Maybe the key was just dead, and my negative thoughts would be proven wrong… I wasn’t wrong. Raymond was as flat as a pancake, no battery at all. So, instead of going out for a relaxing drive around the countryside, I am in the garage digging out the battery charger and hoping that he is alive for the morning drive to work.

Thankfully, the outcome was good, and he came alive with full power in the morning. Something is definitely draining this battery and we need to get to the bottom of it. We have reason to believe it is not the Sat-Nav, however that leaves us with more questions than answers. Oh, Raymond, you do make life interesting….

In the previous two blog posts about these toy cars we looked at two pairings of vehicles and in this post we will look at the last of our pairs. The third pairing is the army vehicles.

First up is the Series III station wagon in the camo livery with the classic spare wheel on the bonnet. This car just looks like it belongs in a war film, driving through the gritty land, mud everywhere. And they were used a lot, not just by the British Army, but also the Australian and New Zealand armies too.

In my research into the military usage of the Series III, I was shocked to find that a lot of the time they did not use the hard top like in this example here, but instead would use soft top models.

The other car in this pair is a Series II LWB Fighting Vehicle that was designated FV18061/2 which stood for General Service or Fitted for Radio. That meant that this truck was customised to fit its purpose. It was fitted with twin fuel tanks, pusher bumpers, military electrical equipment and had longer spring hangers, which allowed the use of larger section tyres when needed.

The Sankey trailer behind the car is also a fighting vehicle designated FV2361. It was a ¾ ton trailer, equipped for either carrying cargo or fitted with specialised equipment, such as water-purification plants, radar equipment or welding equipment. The body was designed to be watertight so that it could be floated across bodies of water.

On the box it states that this vehicle was used by the 1^st Battalion, Royal Green Jackets, which would date the model between post 1966 as that is when the Royal Green Jackets were formed. They were a light infantry unit, and the 1^st Battalion were based in Weeton. The unit is most known for being deployed to Northern Ireland in the 1980’s as well as West Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Looking at all six of these cars, it shows how influential and useful Land Rover were and still can be in the world. They are multi-purpose vehicles that can be applied to many different situations and are also highly adaptable. And yet whilst they may all be adapted to fit the job description, at the heart of it, is still the everyday civilian car that Land Rover make. And that makes the everyday car, that little bit more special, because it could be a police car, it could be saving lives on the beaches, or it could be delivering essential cargo in a warzone.

Chapter 11: A little Recharge                                                               19.10.2022

Raymond has been working like a trooper, so he had a little holiday for two weeks. However, we aren’t too sure if Raymond liked the holiday as when we went to unlock him, he wouldn’t. When we manually unlocked the car, there were no interior lights. When we tried the ignition, nothing happened. Raymond was out for the count. Luckily, we have jump start packs in the workshop so we managed to get one of those out to Raymond, but no luck, he still wouldn’t start. Perhaps this issue was bigger than just the battery, maybe, just maybe this was the end for Raymond.

Not being one to give up so easily, especially not on Raymond, I persevered, placed the jump pack on him for another go, Boom, we were running.  I left him ticking over whilst I got ready and within 5 minutes, we were on the road heading for Louth, every mile charging the battery a little bit more. OR was I? I had no lights on the dash so assumed the best.

Once back at the Workshop, we tested the alternator, it was working, phew! Next the battery, all ok, or will be after a charge, phew! Then the realisation that Raymond must have a battery drain, oh no. I left Raymond with the Workshop for a while, I think he likes it there as he behaved. A few hours later I am informed the drain has been traced to the Sat Nav which is constantly live. We need to sort this out so Raymond can soldier on.

Following on from the previous post about the toy cars, we are going to be looking at another pairing of cars; specifically Coastguard Land Rovers.

Starting off with the Corgi Classics 50 Years of Land Rover,  Series IIA Station Wagon in navy blue with a yellow roof. The car also has searchlights and a siren on the roof and of course the spare wheel on the bonnet. Written across the side is HM Coastguard and Marine Rescue.

Once again I had trouble finding this specific model in the internet’s archives, however I did manage to find a Series III in a very similar livery. The similarities between the design of the two cars makes me confident that at some point, somewhere this Series IIA was roaming the beaches of the UK saving lives.

I can imagine that the offroad capabilities would be very useful when traversing beaches and rocks to find stranded or injured people.

The second model car is not so great a story as this one I believe to be completely fictitious for a number of reasons. Firstly, being the livery. I could not find one single example of any UK coastguard vehicle looking anywhere near this. Then it got me thinking, this one doesn’t say HM Coastguard, so perhaps it is not English. I looked at the design and searched European countries with coastlines and then also the USA as I feel the more cartoon like text and logo might be more in line with the Americans, however no luck again. I then scrapped the idea of another country because I noticed it was right hand drive, so the conclusion I came to is that someone at Corgi wanted to design a Coastguard car, chose a vehicle that is in line with the accurate vehicles and then created a unique design based off of the designs already in place.

Whilst one of these cars might not be a legitimate Coastguard vehicle, it once again goes to show how the versatility of Land Rovers have been used in a positive and life altering way. To think that since researching these cars, we have seen the mail being delivered by Land Rovers, gas and electric brought to people’s homes by Land Rover, law and order being kept in Land Rovers and now the beaches and coastlines kept safe by Land Rover’s. It is amazing how much one company have helped shape the history of a country.

Chapter 10: Teething Problems                                                              05.10.2022

The cold mornings are finally here; however, Raymond is well prepared for the frosty challenge ahead. The heated steering wheel, the heated seats (of which have two settings, hot and very hot), and the heated windscreen will all fight off any inclement weather and keep me toastie. The first day and what do I have? A frozen windshield, but as I predicted, Raymond dealt with it as if that was what he was made for, and I was on my way with clear glass in front of me.

Whilst Raymond has been a trooper against the cold, I do have to point out a few teething issues that have happened this week. There is a weird musty smell that appears when you have the heaters on. We suspect this to be either the pollen filter or the a/c. We will keep you informed either way. The other issue is that the radio is intermittent these days. I will be driving along, jamming out to some music, everything working fine and then suddenly, silence, radio off, not turning back on until you restart the car, only for it to repeat the process. I have noticed that it does it more often when the headlights are on, so perhaps Raymond has a wiring issue?? The final issue to note is the constant changing of the key fob battery every other week, which I would describe as more of an annoyance than a problem.

Famous Four x

In our next dive into the die-cast model cars collection, I am going to be looking at a pair of cars with a common theme between them; that theme, the police.

Firstly we have the 5 door Range Rover Classic from the West Midlands Police, more specifically the Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG). The livery is quite accurate to the real counterpart, however there are two glaring errors. Before I go onto the errors though I would like to point out the numbers and letters on the roof of the car. This is code created by the force so that aerial units can identify the ground units. In our case there is a red circle which generally means traffic or general response unit.

Now the errors, one of which may be arguable, but one not so. The arguable point is that, during my research I could never find this particular car in this model. I did however find this EXACT livery on a P38A, the model that came after this one. Perhaps there is no documented existence of this car, perhaps you need special access to find this out. The only shred of evidence I have is that Corgi made this model and with it was a card that read:

“1972-1997. 25^th anniversary of West Midlands Motorway Network and Motorway Police (C.M.P.G) Featured Range Rover is the last of its style to be take into use by the Central Motorway Police Group.”

The second error is in the design of the car. The car is a fairly solid remake of the 5-door Classic, however the indicator lights struck me as quite odd when I first looked at it, because instead of the usual split of indicator and fog lights, there was just a singular red light. I researched for a good few hours and I could not find one example of a Range Rover Classic that had this design. So if it is by some miracle accurate, then this is a very rare car.

The second of the police vehicles is another 5 door Range Rover Classic this time from the Metropolitan Police. The livery on this model is not accurate and appears to based on a few different designs, and more noticeably those designs appear to be more later designs as the designs used on the Classics was very different. Funnily enough though, this model car has the same issue as the other one in that it has a singular red indicator not a split like we know the Classics had.

Despite the issues with the models, I think these two cars serve as important reminders of the importance that Land Rover and more specifically the Range Rover plays in British policing. 2 separate areas of the country and yet the same cars used. I also think that it is a testament to Land Rover because these are being used in jobs in which you need the best, in order to fulfil a public need.