January 2008 took TV4x4 club back to Speen. This small site to the north of High Wycombe provides muddy trails through woodland with a few hidden bombholes.

Just getting to the site was an exciting trip, early morning frost coated the approach road with ice which caught me out and saw the Jimny travelling sideways down the raod before I managed to the recover the skid.

Yet again the Jimny performed well, showing up a couple of heavier Landrovers (and heavy footed drivers!) with its much lighter approach. The muddy surface was very slippery which saw vehicles sliding off the track in all directions.

However the day was not without problems, by the end of our outing the brakes were making a terrible grating noise from the front which could be felt through the pedal, I suspect the front pads are worn down to the metal. Also the handbrake was jammed in the down position, perhaps something such as a branch is caught under car. Therefore we called it a day just after lunch and returned home to clean down the car ready for repairs!

December saw a very wet trip to Birck Kiln Farm just outside of Alton in Hampshire. A wooded site with plenty of water and chalky hill climbs made for an exciting day out in the Jimny.

So the beginning of November saw the second outing of the Jimny, this time to Oxley's Shaw. This site is a small wooded site just to the west of Reading. The event was part of the the normal monthly calendar of events that TV4x4 operate but with the addition of fund raising for the BBC Children in Need appeal.

The site has developed over the past few years with a number of man-made hazards that have become increasingly difficult as the sandy soil gets churned by successive vehicles.

The event was a "Punch Challenge" that meant participants had to collect punches hidden around the site. Being a charity event the punches were particularly difficult to get to in order to raise "penalty" money for the charity.

What could be more harmless than an afternoons Green Laning on a warm October afternoon, partcularly as all the local lanes have been surfaced?

Well all except one and we went alone and we got seriously stuck!  This tiny lane http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=470345&Y=165350&A=Y&Z=3 which is only a few hundred yards long has a "wet" section on a 90 degree bend - a wet section that hid a mud pit. We drove in thinking it was just a wet part of the track, lulled into a false sense of security by the simple surfaced lanes we had been along.

So to the first outing of the Jimny. Thames Valley 4x4 Club run monthly off-road days around the Thames Valley area. Speen is a small wooded site to the north of High Wycome. The events are designed to be suitable for all comers and all vehicles. The TV4x4 club website has a gallery of pictures from the event.

Once on site we charged up the air tank to supply the locker and selected two wheel drive. The immediate difference between this and my old SJ410 is the suspension. The coli sprung Jimny ate up the bumps in the ground. The only downside is the noise that the coils make as they move around on the mounts which is a litle disconcerting at first, although I had already experienced this in various lifted LandRover Discoveries.

The picture below shows a bit of the articulation possible, I have yet to explore it fully.