The world’s fastest Series 3 Land Rover?

Taken through the windscreen of a Land Rover, capturing another Land Rover in front, on a Polish road, at dusk. The sun is shining through the trees at the side of the road and there are small buildings covered in snow. — “Dorothy” the Land Rover Series 3 in Poland at dusk

Go back a couple of decades and I was a bit of an asshat. I’m still an asshat, just less so.

It was my first proper trip in my Series 3 Land Rover, Dorothy.

We’d been out to South Eastern Poland, in February, for a spot of play in the snow.

And snow there was, plenty.

So much so, in fact, that we ended up going off road very little because the white stuff was so deep.

An open sided wooden hut, selling paintings, set in snow. There's a man in the foreground, and the corner of a Land Rover One-ten is just visible — Get your snowy paintings in Poland

No matter, the roads were still fun enough. Especially when you consider, here in Blighty it takes only around an inch of snow for the country to grind to a halt.

Out there, it dumps a foot overnight and it’s business as usual.

My kinda place.

Anyhoo.

On the way back, we were charging through Germany on the E40 (charging as much as you can in an ol’ girl like Dorothy). Bouncing along, averaging 55mph, with Dick and co following in “Ol’ Blue”, his 110 V8 County.

Realising we were headed down a long, steep’ish, hill I decided it’d be a fun thing to see what Dorothy was capable of…

…so foot flat down, ignore the bleeding ear drums, and let Dick score the speed from behind.

Turns out, GPS verified, Dorothy’s capable of 83mph.

Eighty-f*cking-three miles an hour in a 1976 Land Rover Series 3 diesel!!!

(before someone trolls me about gearbox ratios and the impossibility of this speed – Dorothy sports a Fairey overdrive)

Easing back down to suitable speeds, wearing grins, we carried on meandering towards Calais.

A little later though…

…”bang, bang, Bang, BANG… silence”.

Dorothy was dead.

A blue Land Rover Series 3, parked on the hard shoulder of a German autobahn at dusk, with its drivers door open and the bonnet up. — Land Rover Series 3 “Dorothy” broken down at dusk, on the hard shoulder of a German autobahn

I had no idea what was up. All I knew was she wasn’t going anywhere.

Long story short, she’d thrown an end cap off number 4 piston, which jammed in the sump causing the engine to abruptly stop.

Luckily, no other damage occurred.

After we recovered her, and some phone calls later, a replacement end cap was sourced, fitted, and that problem was sorted.

A blue Land Rover One-ten, stationary at Calais docks waiting to load on the ferry. A trailer is attached and there's a blue Land Rover Series 3 on it. — “Dorothy” the Land Rover Series 3, being trailered by “Ol’ Blue” a V8 One-ten Land Rover, at Calais docks

Now, if you’re itching to grab your keyboard and hammer away furiously at it because con rods are unique, so you can’t swap one end cap with another. Dorothy is living proof they CAN be swapped around til your heart’s content.

Even if it turned out to NOT work, for the sake of a tenner I wasn’t going to bin Dorothy’s beating heart without giving it a go.

And therein lies the lesson.

Old Landys Rule!

Cheers, Phil.

PS. You can’t buy used con rod end caps here, but you can get some pretty neat swag if you like Old Landys… https://shop.oldlandysrule.com/