Maverick wound up as Nissan switches
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• Nissan has stopped supplying its four-cylinder DI diesel engines to two existing Land Rover conversion specialists, and will be exclusively supplying a new company: SMC Industrial Products of Bristol.
The new company is half owned by Glenfrome Engineering's managing director Ian Williamson and half by the Sandringham Motor Company's chairman Peter Jones. None of the range of 3.3-litre and 3.5litre turbocharged and naturally-aspirated engines have been fitted into a vehicle yet, but the new company hopes to sell 200 engines and fitting kits a year through the network of 25 dealers it hopes to establish.
The two conversion specialists left out in the cold are ITS Diesels of Moreton-in-Marsh, and Greenwood of Barnsley. ITS Diesels has been fitting the Nissan engines to Land Rovers and Range Rovers for its own Maverick conversion that was tested recently (CM 21-27 January).
Frank Gilkes, managing director of ITS, says that "Nissan has acted very shabbily indeed", over the change of conversion specialist. He says that Nissan "got over-excited in the early stages (of the project) and imported far too many engines that it is now stuck with". Gilkes first suggested the suitability of the engines for the conversion in 1986 and has worked with Nissan on his Maverick conversion ever since.
The SMC Industrial Products conversion is expected to cover all Land Rover and Range Rover models, including four-cylinder Land Rovers, and automatic Range Rovers. The 3.3-litre turbocharged engine will cost around 23,500 (exVAT) when fitted_ The equivalent prices for the 3.5-litre naturally-aspirated and turbocharged engines will be £3,200 (ex-VAT), and £3,750 (ex-VAT) respectively.
SMC says that it will consider supplying unconverted engines to ITS Diesels, and Greenwood, but Gilkes says that he "will stop the project" and cease manufacturing the Maverick.
He draws attention to major engineering differences between the proposed SMC conversion and his own, and makes the point that he first attempted to start the Nissanengined project to provide some continuity to the business of Land Rover conversions which have traditionally been ignored by large fleet buyers because of their "back street garage" image.