Must admit that you have to admire SJ's and Vitaras - I always rated them in the "hairdresser" category until I saw the local Suzi owners strutting their extreme offroaders on a local pay and play site............. there were even things there based on a Suzi but that looked nothing like one. They seen to be virtually indestructable offroad if they have had some preparation. One of the guys in the Argyll 4x4 Club that I'm a member off has a Vitara that will show most other "proper" 4x4's a thing or too offroad! One guy particular (Richard Dover) has an amazing Suzi based offroader that just cannot be stopped!
Although the two most horrific offroad accidents that I have seen have both involved Suzukis and there wasn't much left of them afterward - one "pitchpoled" trying to follow my Def down the face of a cliff in a sandpit (owner had put it into Low box but it jumped out halfway down and stuck it's nose into a small hollow on the way down - it was a soft top and the roll bar just crumpled trapping the 3 people inside underneath the upturned car. In the second incident the driver tried to drive UP a stone quarry face that was clearly signposted as being only for descents........... it was a hardtop SJ, when it got so far up the driver bottled out and tried to turn back down the slope and ended up cross slope and barrel rolling it about 4 times before he reached the quarry floor. Even with a full roll cage and all the offroad racing safety gear fitted to the car it was an awful mess when it came to a halt. The driver and passenger were very lucky to just be shaken, they were still able to drive the wrecked car back to their transporting trailer though!
Having said that I would doubt that a Defender would have come out without a lot of crumpled bodywork in both instances! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

I bought my Suzi because Mrs E wanted one so rather the have a hairdressers car i bought a prepped one for off roading, It had been done very well and even had a full external rool cage which i used to use to lift the car up in the air with straps and my tractor, so it was all done properley, but all said and done it was horrible to drive and really uncomfortable off road, but it would allmost go where the Landy went except for very deep ruts because of the narrower wheel base, but i never felt as safe as being in the Landy. Had it for about 12 mths and got fed up with the constent repairs and the difficulty in getting parts so i got shut.

Even Mrs E was glad when it had gone,finally got that out of her system. some of my Previous cars
--------------------------------
P38 Range Rover Autobiography
RRS 2.7 HSE Silver
RRS TDV8 HSE silver
FFRR Vogue black
Disco3 HSE silver
RRS 2.7 HSE silver
RRS 3.0 HSE BALTI BLUE
______________________________
current vehicles
RRS 3.0 L494 Autobiography
Audi R8 V10 Spyder
AC Cobra
Landrover Defender 90
Landrover Defender 110
Suzuki Jimney

After some mods (and more to come) my rrs is becoming more like a weekend car rather then everyday... I just now drive more FFRR and BM daily... So i think i would change gearbox to the manual the other day.. it would give a car much better dynamics and also i would remove this terrain response blocks that also slower the car greatly. With ~480bhp and 650Nm of tourque with manual gearbox and TR-free rrs would have an acceleration of aprox. 5.2 0-100kph (0-62mph) and topspeed of nearly 300kph (187mph) wich is actually quite fast imho for a 2.5 tonn suv.

but these all are dreams. i think it would be almost impossible to do. 2014 Mercedes-Benz S500
2014 Range Rover Autobiography, Causeway Gray, Ivory/Ebony
2013 BMW 530d
2008 Range Rover Supercharged Vogue S\E, Java Black, Ebony. SOLD
2006 Range Rover Sport Supercharged, Java Black, Ebony. Arden body-kit. SOLD
2005 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 Buckingam blue, Ivory. - SOLD.

If you want a RRS with a manual gearbox, don't buy an RRS. It's simply not a feasible thing to do - it would cost a huge amount of money to have done, you would never ever sell it (because nobody would buy it from you) and you might not even be able to get it insured easily. Sorry, but you need to forget the idea. If you want a manual offroader, buy a Defender. 

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

Like it here? Then Donate to RRSPORT!!