Father's Day Outing with my Defender 90 and Black Bay Steel!

[SoCal_Batman]

I took my Land Rover Defender 90 out for a spin with my pup today (dog dad) and enjoyed a nice Sunday ride along the coast. No matter where I go, this truck gets a lot of attention with everything from nods and waves to inquisitive questions. The one thing commanding my attention today was how well my Black Bay Steel complimented my Defender. It’s hard to put into words, but something about both my watch and Defender together feel very vintage yet functional. It’s almost as if I could traverse the Moroccan Desert from point A to point B and let you know with precise accuracy on when I would arrive. Better yet, I could come to the rescue of all the overly confident Jeep owners out there and bail you out of tight spot’s that wouldn’t even make the Defender break a sweat!

For those of you who don’t know much about the Land Rover Defender, it’s a British off-road vehicle that was continuously produced in Solihull, United Kingdom for 67 years. Land Rover produced over 2 million Defenders and also holds the record for longest-running production vehicle in the world. The Defender 90 or D90 as it’s know was only imported into North America legally for 4 years; '93, '94, '95, and '97. In 1997, the final year of US Defender 90 production, the engine and transmission were both improved with a 4.0L V8 with Automatic Transmission and Air Conditioning was added. One of the reasons that 1997 was the last year of US production was because in 1998, regulations were passed that required all vehicles to have airbags for front seat passengers and side impact doors. The D90 couldn’t be fitted with these features without major modifications and ultimately Land Rover made the decision to retire the model in North America and focus on the rest of the World where they didn’t need to comply with said regulations.

I know that D90’s are plentiful in other parts of the world and those folks may not see this as a big deal, but in the North American market, they are extremely rare. The one I own is a North American Spec model #2297 / 2500 and is highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts, almost like every modern Rolex SS model ! The only way to purchase a D90 now is to either buy one that was already legally imported and sold during one of those 4 years in the US, or import one under the “grandfather” clause which applies to any vehicle 25+ model years or older. Anyways, just thought some of you might enjoy seeing something different on TRF and without further adieu, a few pictures below.

Cheers and Happy Father's Day Everyone !