Land Rover Monthly Magazine November 2018 Back Issue

DIY RESTO: PERFECT NINETY
The world has gone mad – at least so far as Defenders are concerned. Since production ended in 2016, demand has outstripped supply, with bizarre results that range from deluded owners expecting ridiculous sums for their battered old farm hacks, through to equally-deluded chancers with no discernible design talent bolting on expensive bling and attempting to sell secondhand Defenders for eye-watering sums. The fact that both succeed in finding buyers with more money than sense shows just how mad that Defender world has become. It therefore comes as a refreshing reality check to encounter a genuinely beautiful Defender that puts these expensive pretenders in the shade. You suddenly realise the world isn’t such a bad place when you learn that the example of automotive excellence you can see on these pages cost its owner and creator just £12,000. Make no mistake about it: Simon Wise’s Ninety is one of the best Defenders we have ever seen, bar none – even though its 1986 year of manufacture pre-dates the Defender badge by four years.