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Cameltrophy Disco
story & photos by Jim Allen
Though it’s only showing about 18,000 kilometers, this Camel Disco has lived a hard life. It still runs and drives surprisingly well, but it’s bent, folded and mutilated in places 4x4s shouldn’t be and will never see use on the road again. It participated in two Camel Trophy events, once as a team vehicle and another time as a support vehicle. It also served for a year as a training vehicle for the Polish Camel Trophy Team and spent the last four years of its professional career as a training vehicle for the U.S. Camel Team based in Colorado.
Some 4x4s live a long life at a sedate pace. Others do their livin’ at a frantic pace and that’s where pedigree counts. This 1993 Land Rover Discovery definitely fits into the latter category. It spent the majority of its life in competition and in places that would make most of us go pale in fear. Its survival is only a step short of a miracle.
Some of you might need a reminder on what the Camel Trophy was all about. Imagine taking a small fleet of identical, basically stock, expedition-prepped vehicles to areas of the world where “road” is a loosely defined term. A course is plotted across 1,000-2000 miles of the most desolate and hospitable terrain and unreasonable daily mileage goals are demanded.
The roof rack carries four expedition cases, a second spare tire, an exhaust jack, sand tracks, axe, shovel, pick and tow ropes. Inside, the vehicle carried 12 gallons of water, 12 gallons of fuel, two food cases, a tool case, a tow bar and four more expedition cases. A conservative estimate is that this rig weighed a good 8,000 pounds loaded, sometimes more.
Two person teams from countries from all over the world manned the Camel Trophy vehicles. Each carried all the food, personal gear, spare parts and equipment needed by the team for the duration of the trip. In some cases that was over 30 days. It was a load of gear that tested the vehicle and the driving skills of the team. Later in the competition, each team vehicle was also saddled with two journalists and their gear.
Camel Trophy was called an adventure/competition. Part of the time, the teams were helping each other to simply survive and to make progress. Sometimes the amount of ground covered in a day could be counted on the thumbs of both hands. And that’s for a full 24 hour period! At other times they were competing against each other in special tasks, athletic endurance events and driving competitions. Sleep came only when specific travel goals were reached and the vehicle was ready for the next day. Sometimes sleep didn’t come for days.
The Land Rover Tdi engine is noted worldwide for durability, economy and a lot of torque. Even with 195 lbs-ft of torque on tap at 1800 rpms, it struggled to haul the bulk of the loaded Discovery over hostile terrain. Empty, it’s pretty sprightly and offers around 30 mpg.
Camel started in 1980 with three German teams and a thousand mile Jeep trek along the Amazon in Brazil. Land Rover supplied identically prepared competition vehicles from ’81 to the last event in ’98, as well as all the support vehicles. The event became truly international in 1982, with teams from several countries coming to play. American teams competed 12 of the 18 years.
“Rode hard and put away wet,” comes to mind when you sit inside. The smell of jungles and sweat has never really left the inside of this rig and probably never will.
The Land Rover models used ranged from the old boxy Series IIIs, to stripped down versions of the luxury Range Rover. The Defender 90 and 110, Discovery and Freelander were also used, the Discovery most often. All were powered by a four-cylinder diesel engine whose only mod was a snorkel. The vehicles were prepped with mostly off-the-shelf Land Rover parts, consisting mainly of heavy-duty springs, HD four-pinion axles with open differentials and a few other HD goodies that varied according to model. Special equipment included a full internal roll cage, roof racks, front brush guard, engine and fuel tank skidplates, winch mounts for the Superwinch Ox or Warn winches, front and rear towing points, two fire extinguishers, eight auxiliary driving lights, Terra-Trip navigation computers (later GPS units were also incorporated) and Michelin XCL mud tires.
A day in the life of a Camel Discovery. Only the legendary toughness of the Land Rover allowed these rigs to survive at all. Ex Camel Trophy vehicles have become hot collectibles and there are a few in the United States besides the one shown here.
The Discovery shown belongs to Tom Collins the U.S. Camel Trophy Team Coordinator from 1990 to 1998. Collins coached the team to a first place finish in ’93 and 2nd place finishes in ’92 and ’96. He competed in the ’87 event and fought a hotly contested battle with the Italian team, only to get second place by a handful of points. The old Disco lives in retirement, a gift to Collins from Land Rover for his many years of service as the U.S. Team Coordinator and for being a driving force in their off-highway instructional team since 1989.
Specifications:
| 1993 Land Rover Camel Trophy Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Engine: | 2.5L turbo diesel 4-cylinder |
| Power: | 111hp @ 4000rpm |
| Torque: | 195 lbs-ft @ 1800rpm |
| Comp. Ratio: | 19.5:1 |
| Transmission: | 5-speed manual, LT-77 |
| Transfer Case: | 2-speed, LT-230, 3.3:1 low range |
| Front Axle: | Land Rover Spiral Bevel, 4-pinion |
| Rear Axle: | Land Rover Spiral Bevel, 4-pinion |
| Axle Ratios: | 3.54:1 |
| Tires: | 7.00-16 Michelin XCL |
| Wheelbase: | 100 inches |
| Fuel Capacity: | 23.4 gallons |