El Guixaró March 9-11, 2001
VIIa Concentració de Vehicles Militares D'Epoca i Land Rovers

By Annette Flottwell & Takeo De Meter
The Internet Land Rover Club

Occasionally, you see them on static display, in concourse condition and you wonder if the engine would still start at all. Their names are Zündapp, NSU, BMW, they come with a sidecar with driven wheel, have a lockable differential and low gears. Some even came towing the original trailer ! And yes, the engines started. 1st low gear and diff lock got engaged and then the drivers rode them up a very steep and long rocky incline at full throttle. Paint scratches were ignored, the important thing was to prove that the machine would still do it as easily as she did it shortly after leaving the production line, 60 years ago. Same scenario for beautifully restored 50 year old Series One Land-Rovers. This is what one could see during the Meeting of Classical Military 4x4s and over 25 years old Land Rovers in El Guixaró, North Catalonia. (Spain).

The Classic Motor Club del Bages has it's large club building with museum in the city of Manresa in Catalonia, Spain. Their beautiful web site is in Catalán, Spanish and very good English. lIt is the largest and fastest growing classic car club of the country with its 2,214 paying members on March 2nd, 2002. Many makes are present, amongst them, of course, Hispano-Suizas and a very rare £ 380,000 Pegaso Z-102 sports car. Joaquím Llansó is the Land-Rover / Santana specialist of the Club and coordinates this large section. Let it be known that all cars, owned by club members, are also being used to drive to and participating in the most meetings possible.

The Club organizes since eight years an event known as “El Guixaró” which is a large meeting of vintage military vehicles and Land-Rovers of over 25 years of age. This year, we were invited to participate by Javier de Mazarassa-Coll, editor of several publications of the Spanish Defense Ministry. Our main interest were the Land-Rover / Santana vehicles, though we were soon to be very impressed with some other rare old 4x4s and 6x6s.

Santana started producing the Ligero -light- version of the Land Rover in 1968 as a 1/4 and a 1 ton 6-cylinder, the same year that Sollihull introduced the Lightweight. But Santana also built a unique 109 version for various military purposes. Here in the picture next to our Stage One is a Ligero 88. The 1976 LW had served 17 years in the Spanish infantry. The civilian version, which was introduced in 1980 had the headlights in Series Three style outside, but the military version never moved them. The military Santanas shown during the meeting all had Rover diesel engines made by Santana or Ebro.

So we loaded up Annette’s 1982 Stage One with lots of photographic equipment, two 60 kg toolboxes and a toothbrush, poured in 100 litres of petrol and 50 litres of LPG and hit the motorway to Paris, direction Spain, on a short 1,280 km trip. The 109 V8 runs very happily on LPG which is readily available in France at an almost reasonable price. LPG consumption was of 18-20 litres per 100 Km at a speed of some 100 Kph. (Petrol consumption is of about 16 litres / 100 km at the same speed, thanks to some extremely fine SU carburator tuning by Takeo. Bruhahahaha.). The weather was clear and pleasant and the Stage One brought us to Spain without any incidents or mechanical failure as was expected. Traveling south-wards two days from West - Flanders in our 109 we arrived in Manresa, Catalonia, 120kms from the French border in Bourg Madame on Friday, 8th of March with minor carb problems. Our Stage One didn’t start on petrol, being adjusted to LPG, which means an advance of 18°. There is no LPG in Spain, the home-made adaptors offered by the club treasurer who welcomed us didn’t fit. Fortunately, our last supply of French LPG lasted till El Guixaró 40 kms away.

At the turnoff to the village, we saw a spotless Series One sadly attacked by a low flying passenger car, the police was already present to acknowledge the assault.

The meeting started in the afternoon, Land Rovers parked on an old school yard. Among the old Santanas there were two rather new 90s from Germany, whose owners had been invited by a friend from Ibiza. This friend had helped them in an emergency years ago so they thought it a fitting occasion to meet him again. These were to remain the only new vehicles and the only foreigners except French Catalans from across the border and us.

Land Rovers, Jeeps, W.W.II GMC 6x6s, American army Dodge trucks and motorcycles kept arriving all afternoon. The official start with an excellent three course meal in the local taverna belonging to Ferrán, the organizer’s father, helped us to adjust to the atmosphere, though we were not prepared to understand Catalán. But while we enjoyed delicious stuffed sepia and flan, Ferrán did his best to inform us in Spanish.

There was just enough time to admire Land Rovers like Jesus’ 1953 Series One army veteran which had been dented in the accident mentioned before. He posed for the pictured hiding the nasty dent in the vehicle he had owned since 38 years.

The Series I 1953 Chassis # 361 310 55, engine # 361 324 89 served in the Spanish Army till it was bought by a Coronel until Jesús Caralt purchased it in 1965. He has owned it ever since. He has once replaced the Solex carb, the engine is as original as the rest, the vehicle is in excellent condition.

Meanwhile Takeo had readjusted the carbs and the idle for petrol, so we were mobile again with occasional backfire.

Then we all left for a leisurely afternoon tour in the foothills of the Pyrenees round the town of Berga. We explored small country roads and dust tracks till sunset. On the way back to town the meeting saw it’s first and only victim: A passenger had fallen off a Dodge army truck when the tailgate opened driving over a bump. All participants waited in the cold wind on the big sports area of Puig Reig till the injured man had been taken to hospital and his broken leg had been attended to.

This late diesel SII came from the island of Ibiza and was built 1973 by Santana. They did NOT move the headlights to the outside position till Santana started with the production of Series IIIs in 1974.

To warm body and soul, a large BBQ had been prepared in El Guixaró, accompanied by wine and some treacherous hot spiced rum. We used the opportunity to learn a lot more about the history of Santanas and their various modifications in the Spanish armed forces. A Santana standard 3.4l engine is certainly what many British Lightweight owners would like to build in their truck!

The next morning surprised us with bright sunlight on the 9th of March, another large BBQ, bread and wine for breakfast. Takeo had fortunately not forgotten to add teabags, Bundeswehr-Feldgeschirr and the camping gaz stove to our luggage.

While Land Rovers and Jeeps gather in the schoolyard, in the road Dodges, GMCs and other large trucks were parked over 300ms. That stopped all other traffic till the off-road tagalong started at 11.30. Two routes were offered, an easier one for the large or precious 4WDs and one requiring a low box for the steep incline which we opened led by the organizer’s motorbike. We were more than impressed with the performance of wartime Zündapps (great show with a side car) and Series Ones who made it at ease.

Then we left the dust cloud for the next gathering under large trees to have an aperitif and time to chat. Some jeep owners had a whole military museum bolted to their vehicle, there were enough different uniforms proudly worn to re-enact the second world war.

When Takeo addressed a group of 'Russians' in their tongue, they were completely puzzled at first. But later they were glad that they had at last a chance to have all the inscriptions on a giant silk party flag explained. In the back of an open Jeep there were even ration cartons carefully copied with a felt pen, the W.W.II Dodges and GMCs looked better than at the time they had left the factory.

Hubert Arboux from Club for the Preservation of The WWII Military vehicles Langedoc-Rousillon (France) told me how they obtained their trucks: The U.S. army left many CKD new Dodges and GMCs in France, complete sets of parts neatly packed and oiled. Even complete vehicles were for sale as real bargains. So their Club even owns a well equipped spare parts warehouse.

The tagalong went back along the mountain dust tracks and through town, those in open cars had a pleasant drive at 18°C in the sunshine. Another big meal waited for us in the Puig Reig sports club.

Nobody can say that the Classic Motors Club del Bages doesn’t feed you well. During the meal Ferrán explained the contest for the "Premí Antonio Campródon":

Participants were to climb a rope, answer 10 rather difficult 4WD history questions, drive a 400ms dust circuit in exactly one minute, some gymkhana exercises, counting trees on a road and throwing a basketball.

Part of the contest was held in a large dust arena, the public came to watch and applaud the big trucks and small sidecar bikes.

We passed on the rope and basketball and concentrated on the last probe to make a scale model of our vehicle. For this any material could be used, resulting in scale models made of soap, bread or cardboard. That was real fun!

During the following three course meal the first prizes were distributed: The contest winner was applauded, there was a prize for the youngest and the oldest driver and one for the rarest well-restored 4WD vehicle in the show: a Panhard armoured car. No, no-one had dared to take that one off-road, since the driver can only glance through a periscope. When the assembly in the sports hall was over at midnight, we were glad that a Santana ambulance lead us back to El Guixaró, because our amazing Lucas headlights had just blown the 22nd of our supply of 30 amps fuses.

Here is the Santana 109 1977 Military Ambulance, tare 2.400 Kg.

Owned by Jorge Garcí Córdoba. In service from 1977 - 1999, sold after 20 years of Military Service 3.4 litre Santana Diesel engine of 94 hp, chain driven rotary injection pump. Ambulance body contains 4 stretchers + 1 seat for attendant. The rear body has 2 cooling fans and a separate heater. There are ringer push-buttons so that casualties can signal the driver in an emergency. Note: Lifting attachments on wheel hubs are typical for military Santanas. Use for lifting and loading with cranes.

We crashed into the back of the 109 and hardly felt the chilly night till the morning bell woke us up. After another copious breakfast consisting of wine (Bundeswehr Feldgeschirr tea for us), BBQ and more tomato bread we displayed our vehicles to the public and the TV in Puig Reig.

The most frequent questions were: Which country does your red and white number plate stand for till we were tempted to say ‘Belarus’ and :’ Did Land Rover really offer an original V8 engine in a Series Three?’ This had never existed in Spain.

Two hours later we successfully blocked all traffic in town and went on another delightful tagalong via quieter roads and forest tracks between pines and rocks. There was no difficulty but that enabled all vehicles to participate.

As you might have guessed, this lead to another three course meal in the sportshall so that we both hardly ate anything during the first day of our return journey. Now more prizes were presented for special vehicles, to our utter bemusement the club president donated us a cup for the vehicle that had come from farthest away.

After some more clarifying chats with other rare LR owners we parted at 4.30 PM. Here we saw a Santana 88 especial, a true leaf sprung Series Three with the new air intake, three windscreen wipers but no vents built in 1981. The proud owner explained that Santana introduced the power steering for this vehicle in 1982, the same year as they started to use Mercedes G Wagon 230 disk brakes.

The Club del Bages will charge you 116 Euro/ three days for two people and the vehicle, which includes all the wine and food you can squeeze in. We certainly did not regret anything on the long way home but that we didn’t think of exchanging the light bulbs till rain and night forced us to do it on a cold parking lot in Northern France. From 4th to 6th October they will organize a National Spanish Land Rover only meeting near Barcelona, for Series vehicles only. We will certainly attend and keep you posted.

The Internet Land Rover Club