RE: PH Meets: Twisted Automotive

[MellowshipSlinky]

Have often looked at some of these for sale and would love to have one.
I have no need whatsoever, but would be quite happy just bimbling around in one.

Edited by MellowshipSlinky on Tuesday 5th February 10:50

[scottos]

I used to live in a neighboring town and my friend was one of the sales people earlier on in their defender modding take over. He brought the odd one home and i remember being picked up in a tricked out 110 that was supposed to be on demo to some proper famouses the week after!

[SydneyBridge]

what I don't understand is why LR sold all these to Twisted
what did LR get from the deal? apart from a large lump sum obviously!
surely they could the last however many Defenders no problem at full list price and why have Twisted sat on them for so long?

[Macboy]

Tuvra said:

Or maybe it's the people that have realised the Defender by modern standards is an awful vehicle.

I'm no curmudgeon and try to take an "each to their own" approach but I totally agree that the Defender is an Emporer's New Clothes revisionist vehicle where "charm" and "character" are used to cover the appalling issues it suffered until the day it rightly died. I've had a couple but don't have rose-tinted specs that they were in any way sensible, usable or good value for money. My G-Wagons were better in almost every way even though they were older than the two Defenders I owned. I liked having them but I shake my head every time someone laments the model's demise or tries to say just how good they were in later life.

[hornbaek]

If Land Rover goes about renewing the Defender in the same way as Mercedes has successfully done with the G-Wagon, the strategy by Twisted might not work. Looking at how the “new” G Wagon has been received i don’t see that people would hanker after the old one.

[C Lee Farquar]

robm3 said:

Haha, you gotta 'love' the Pistonheads cynicism....
Far better that a company like Twisted shut down right?
I mean what right have they to keep servicing and improving an English legend!

They can do as they please, we don't list our our cars as we do our houses.

Personally I much prefer a standard 110 XS to a barryed up one. I do look at the visual mods as I would someone fitting brown UPVC glazing to a tudor house or a 6" exhaust on a Corsa.

[yellowstreak]

I'll take a 110 pickup please with an LS3 v8 and fully uprated drive train, front and rear locking differentials from the cab, a winch and a modified driving position so I can fit in it.

[DonkeyApple]

SydneyBridge said:

what I don't understand is why LR sold all these to Twisted
what did LR get from the deal? apart from a large lump sum obviously!
surely they could the last however many Defenders no problem at full list price and why have Twisted sat on them for so long?

I suspect that JLR sold all the ones if could to individual customers and simply built more for the block orders. The spike in annual sales volumes at the end probably wasn’t all accounted for by individuals getting orders in.

[DonkeyApple]

C4SYT said:

No body kits, bling or 20” spinners here.... Ok I’m clearly moderately bias, however, it needs saying that we already know, the defender, won’t be as comfortable as a Hilux, as cheap as a Navara, fast as an SVR or as reliable as a rav4. That’s not why we build them or our customers buy them. It’s not a car, it’s a Defender. It has roots in the original Series models. It is part of our heritage and development as a nation. Everyone’s uncle, granddad, teacher or friends dad had one somewhere. They mean so much to so many, but make no sense at all to the rest of the population. If you get it you get it, if you don’t, it just doesn’t seem like logic.

What it does, is create emotions that outweigh any practical benefits. Just the same as any many other hand built cars. What we do it it, in my humble opinion, develops that emotion, marginally bridges the gap between totally impractical and unusable and enjoyable/practical, an event and driving pleasure for other reasons than electric gizmos like lane assist and auto parking. They will never be a Range Rover or anything else. They were never intended to be. We never intended to enter that space, but the nature of a hand built appreciating asset being further enhanced by hand the old fashioned way, puts it into a £ bracket that allows comparison by those that don’t get it, but that’s the beauty of any thing that devides opinion.

The latest release of Series inspired models is the final batch available to the general public. It won’t happen twice.

I want to keep them all really.... is love to hear from anyone who shares the same passion.

Thanks for reading. CRF

Hi Charlie, when are you going to sell a set of your new Rostyles to me? They look great. I’ve had several conversations with Matt Lee over the years but he had no interest in going back to making his wheels and Weller just keep saying they will do it, then I noticed the other day that you’ve finally done it but your website states that you won’t sell them to non customer hoipoloi such as myself.