#safari

There is no shortage of machines jumping on the off-road bandwagon as of late. Rigs like the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato get big grins and all the ink but jacked up machines like the Wilderness line at Subaru are pushing these builds well into the mainstream. Audi is dipping a toe into these muddy waters with the all-electric Q8 e-tron Edition Dakar.

We’re back again with more Monteverdi today, and I’m determined the Rare Rides series will cover all of Monteverdi’s vehicular offerings. European design, American power, and Swiss attention to detail combined with very high prices to make all the company’s models Rare Rides.

We’ve covered two earlier Monteverdi offerings previously, in the 1970 High Speed 375/4 sedan, and the 1971 High Speed 375/L grand touring coupe. Today we head into luxury SUV territory with the Safari.

The Rare Rides series has touched on recreational vehicles twice in the past, when it featured a BMW-powered Vixen, and the custom fiberglass hodgepodge which was the MSV.

Today’s RV is smaller than either of those, but it can also fit into normal parking spaces. It’s the 1991 Provan Tiger GT.

The Patrol has forever been Nissan’s answer to the Toyota Land Cruiser, as both brands compete for rough and tumble SUV customers. Today’s Rare Ride represents just how many creature comforts can be added to a go-anywhere truck.

Presenting the Nissan Safari from 1989.

Some rules are meant to be broken, but not if they’re printed on a sign at the entrance to a wild animal enclosure. Follow those rules.

A Chinese woman was killed by a Siberian tiger in a Beijing animal park this past weekend after she left her vehicle to save her daughter, who was almost instantly mauled after leaving the vehicle seconds earlier.

After 67 years, production of the iconic Land Rover Defender ends today. It’s an amazing feat that the Defender has lasted this long. It was a utilitarian vehicle developed at a time when going off-roading meant just going. It helped Europe rebuild after World War II. And it explored Africa, where often the Land Rover was the first automobile ever seen by locals. It continued that way for years, undergoing constant but slow evolution, rather than complete revolution.

Until today.

Rather than boring everyone with interesting quasi-factual trivia about Land Rover’s most iconic model, I’ll bore you with my own personal experiences.