Tata buys Land Rover

Phooey, I originally read that as "Tatra buy Land Rover", which would be much more interesting!

So did i!

On or around Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:04:55 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

heh.

Mind, Tata are more likely to continue production of things like the 90/110, being as that's the kind of thing that would work better in India than an RR sport.

Hopefully they'll want both, although would they want to upgrade the Defender or keep it as it is, given that AFAIK the notional safety and emissions requirements that are going to kill the Defender aren't an issue with the current model in India. So no new Defender, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is open to discussion ;-)

"Austin Shackles" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

More to the point, the Indian army is in the market for a nice new car and the Defender will almost certainly fit their requirement, and the Mahindra no longer does...

Which means, if Tata get the contract, loads of nice shiny TKD kits heading east, and the Defender in production for at least another decade...

At the moment the only new Land Rover you can buy in India is the Range Rover, which seems to be for film stars only...

"William Black" wrote

The Financial Times say it will happen tomorrow lunchtime (the 26th).

I'm gonna go play in my Tatra next month hopefully. Can't wait.

Is it knackered at the moment then, or do you just ration it strictly ;-)

Which will be more than a little frustrating if the non-updated Defender is no longer legal in the UK ...

Maybe they can start shipping knocked-down kits to the UK!

With that international engine in :-)

Lee D

I spend the winters in India.

I may set up in business, sending stuff back...

Do the old wheelbarrow-smuggling trick, shipping trucks into the country loaded with hay and use a different truck each time..

Bit of both. It's in Czech where a mate of mine has been feverishly tweaking it ready for a run to Slovakia in the summer. It runs fine, but he's a perfectionist, and I'm allergic to breakdowns. I'm probably going to keep it out there for at least another year and then bring it back to the UK in 2009.

Still can't wait to go play in it.

Buy a video camera if you don't already have one and take some vids for us to watch please! ;-)

Been to the Tatra museum yet ? Steve

Not yet, no.

My main Czech haunts tend to be Liberec, Mní?ek and Prague. I'm seriously considering moving there for a few months to teach Eeeeengleesh but at the moment financial considerations are making me think very hard about whether I can afford to do it.

The other problem is that I'm not planning on ever selling the Range Rover, and it's impossible to register it in Czech in its current state. Czech mot's don't like aftermarket modifications to engines, so a turbocharged Rover engine isn't going to make life easy, especially when both Janspeed and Wood and Pickett have changed hands since the '80s, and neither have kept build records. This would mean that I'd have to keep it UK registered and that would involve spending at least a grand a year just bringing it back for the MOT.

and today...

Oh well, I've just phoned for a take away to celebrate. Indian of course

Gwen