Motorway driving

In 87 we went to pick up two sj413's in Rotterdam, drove them to Vlissingen, ferry to Tilbury, back up to MK.
Got into our own sj413, three up and luggage, drive to Stranraer, ferry to Larne, drove to Donegal over a couple of days.
Method for SJ driving on motorway, was to weld your right foot to the floor and let the vehicle decide on it's speed.
Also owned an lj80, hilariously slow on any road.
Hard to really get your head around older cars if you never drove them, I owned a Rover SD1 v8 when I was about 20, got 120mph on an A road after thrashing the hell out of it. My Isuzu Dmax diesel pick up will easily reach 100mph loaded with kit, would probably give some 80's sport salooks a run for their money.

wrote:

My Herald was a 1967 12/50. I did not realise, until today, that this upmarket model had an incomparable 51 bhp!
All that power to shift a kerb weight of 841kg.
Jimny JB74, twice the power to shift 1065kg.


You lucky sod, having a 12/50. l used to dream of the 12/50 with the fabric sun roof. At least mine had the same engine and not the weedy 39bhp

My first car was a red '79 Chrysler Sunbeam 1.3LS. I loved it, but what a difference from modern cars! I wish i still had it. BWF845T in the great scrapyard in the sky.

Compared with Dreadnaught, Temeraire is a revelation on the motorway. Yes there is more body movement without the trailmaster sport dampers so there is a definite buffeted feeling around trucks but with the taller final drive of the automatic 70 mph is just a tickle over 3000rpm which makes for a very comfortable cruise. The full power seamless change is ideal for slip road merge too. Compared with the 1984 1.0 polo I started with any Jimny is a rocket ship!

Well, another positive for motorway use, we drove to York in our 2020 SZ5 yesterday and no issues at all, kept it at the legal limit some of the time, otherwise it was cruise control set at 65mph.
We averaged 44mpg according to the readout on the dash. This has definitely gone up as the vehicle has loosened up, now on 5,500 miles.
lt is better with both hands on the wheel in windy conditions, same as any 4x4 with a steering box rather than rack and pinion steering.
As you need to make minor corrections to the steering. But it was fine and once we get a tow bar fitted it will be able to tow our boat, and may replace the Defender for trips to Scotland.

On the Defender l fitted an RTC steering damper and that transformed it for road use, making the steering more car-like with better self centering and less need to make constant minor adjustments.

l haven't seen one available for the Jimny, l wonder if it would also make the Jimny a better road car, the Terrafirma one that fits Defender would be too much for the much lighter Jimny.
 

It's been like that with Jimnys for years. I've never had a problem driving a Jimny at motorway speeds, but it's always surprised me the number of people that say they do. My 20 year old JImny is quite happy at 80+mph for hours at a time. I generally don't care for fuel economy but as far as I can tell it gets slightly over 30mpg at 50mph and slightly under at 80mph. I value my time more than money, so getting places sooner is by far the most economical option for me.