Run amok in Melbourne

Holy crap, Batman! There's all sorts of wonderful rubbish in the bazaar area.

For anyone with some airpoints to use for a good cause, I heartily recommend the National 4WD show in Melbourne, Sept 3-5, an off-road enthusiast's Nirvana. Get the details here. Having done it several times, let me warn you to give it a full day to see, touch and play with all the toys, especially as it's teamed with a huge boating and fishing show at no added cost. If this notice is too short, a smaller version will be held in Brisbane April 8-10 and in Sydney later on.

Whadda you mean I won't be able to take them as cabin luggage,
they're only 36s?

… or maybe not: post-show update: Some members of the Aussie Jeep forum have been scathing in their comments about this year's show. I'm including some as a caveat emptor. Must say I've enjoyed the ones I've attended, though:  • It's junk every year • this year was especially crap – less to look at • all 4x4 shows are junk • it has its place but tends to be cater for newer or prospective 4x4 owners • if you include entry $16, parking $10, buy a drink etc, it doesn't work out that cheap. All I can say about the  show is, I WANT MY THREE HOURS BACK.

The good Sorento

The original Sorento bravely tackles a muddy hill,
and wins, despite its city tyres.

Following on from the post below, the only Sorento you need to bother about is also the old model. Since moving to the new Sorento R it seems – if you'll allow me the pun – that the Korean couldn't kia less about off-roadability. The new one has no low-range and, while it makes a good cruiser and suburban duties wagon, you wouldn't want to go bush in it. I wouldn't, anyway. On the other hand, the old one had low range, a separate chassis and could do quite well on even pretty crappy tracks when thoughtfully driven. Initially it came with a 3.5 litre V6 or a 2.5 litre diesel, both mated to a five-speed auto. The V6 was good if you liked to spend lots of money on petrol, but anyone with half a brain chose the diesel, which produced 103kW and 343Nm of torque at 2000rpm. The original Sorento was suspended by wishbones at the front and a solid axle with coils at the back, a simple but effective setup. Oh yeah, the rear diff was a limited-slip unit, which usefully added to its off-road performance.

The only Sportage worth knowing about

Kia Sportage brochure from 2000, back when it was
half-way decent for off-roading.

Kia is in the throes of introducing a new-generation Sportage, but who cares? The only decent Sportage, for off-road enthusiasts, was the first one. This was the model that helped establish the company in New Zealand and, partly because it had low-range gearing, was quite good off-road. Certainly it was good enough to cause consternation over at Suzuki, which pretty much owned the light 4WD sector with its Vitara. Judged by today’s standards both fit and finish of the original Sportage were poor, but it was reasobably strong, had a separate chassis, decently short overhangs until the longer Wagon Plus (top vehicle in the brochure) appeared … and possessed a secret weapon that won it a slightly unearned reputation. The New Zealand specification included open differentials, but unbeknownst to the local office, the factory was fitting a limited-slip unit in the rear. Maybe something got lost in the translation. In some conditions, this gave the Sportage a real advantage over the open-diffs Vitara and people used to marvel at how the Korean could outperform the hairdressers’ car when the going got tough. It was ages before Kia finally twigged as to why the Sportage went so well.

Sportage was developed in the days of the Ford-Mazda-Kia alliance and much of the vehicle was based on Mazda components, including the engine, gearbox and differentials. The brochure pictured above, from 2000, quotes power of 98kW and 175Nm of torque way up there at 4700rpm. By the time it was printed, the company had acknowledged the limited-slip differential in the specifications. The DLX curbed at 1455kg and sat on a 2650mm wheelbase. It was 4125mm long, 1735mm wide and 1655mm tall – a nice size for our tracks and trails. The original was replaced in 2002.

(Too late to …) Be our next knowledge nerd

What's special about this particular 1988 Land Rover 90? It has a Nissan diesel engine transplant, but that's not what we're looking for. The clue is: he does it by the book. Extra kudos for naming the person who owned it when it was enjoying its 25 minutes of fame, and knowing where it is now. Post your answer in the Comments section. (Update: don't bother, we have our winner!)

Diary note for next week: Get a life

Not long ago, a guy just up the road came home with a new-to-him 2006 Hilux 4WD and what attracted me was its registration, DHC6, also the designation of the de Havilland Canada Twin Otter utility aircraft. Aviation is another great interest of mine and I'm particularly fond of the products of this famous Canadian manufacturer, now absorbed into Bomardier. So I did some research on the other registrations that match DHC designations. Serendipitously, half of them were 4WDs of some kind:

   Chipmunk DHC1 Mercedes ML270

                   Beaver DHC2 Grand Cherokee Limited

       Otter DHC3 Toyota Altezza

        Caribou DHC4 Daihatsu Charade

     Buffalo DHC5 Toyota RAV4 L

   Twin Otter DHC6 Toyota Hilux 3.0

Dash-7 DHC7 Toyota Will

     Dash-8 DHC8 Toyota Altezza