64 Years ago, Maurice Wilks invented the Land Rover. By then he might have dreamt of a Range Rover Evoque, but never the Defender in the Icelandic ISAK-version! In 2007 the company Isak Ltd. was established to run a car rental with modified Defenders the Icelandic way, on 38 wheels. Both for an individual rental and in convoys for groups.
My intention is to publish monthly at the 15th of each month- on this website some pictures and stories of the operation of the company Isak Ltd. Tell you of some adventures that weve been experiencing and what was happening when the adapted remarkable picture was taken. But I also plan to tell you a little more of my personal touch with Land Rover through my lifetime. Like the fact that my first vehicle was Land Rover model 1955, same make as I myself. Still out of series I, having the 86 inch wheelbase (I mean the Land Rover, not me!). I bought it on march 1st 1972, almost 4 months before I got the driving license up here we only have to be 17 years of age.
During the writing of these articles now and then Ill bring into my writing some flash-backs to my first encounter of Land Rover, which somehow looking back- had a remarkable inpact on my life. And still it does, as you can clearly see!
Probably it is adequate, in this very first publishing, to show you a couple of pictures from the first days of our company Isak, from the first Defender 110 to be converted into an ISAK. At the time being Isak Ltd. owns 16 ISAKs, there of two 130s. One of the 130s, the ISAK 12, has been converted to have some 44" tyres fitted on when needed, since this is our main guiding vehicle normally being on the front. On the convoy tours in the wintertime we need to have one vehicle that can cope with (almost) any condition of snow. When such a 44" tyre has been deflated to approx. 2,5 psi, it intrudes less in the snow than a man standing in his boots.
In the beginning we had 9 Defenders to be converted within 3 months of time, before the first tour was on. It was at the 10th of January 2008. This was only managable with a little help of our friends; the garage of the brothers Snorri and Steinar Gíslason. They are the absolute Land Rover specialists in Iceland, called SSGísla. Their place was for 3 months looking like the Defender manufacture site in Solihull I guess, pretty caotic!
To the pictures, how a Standard Defender grows up to be an ISAK: The first one shows the first Defender at the Isak HQ before it was modified. Second picture showes the SSGísla-site during the modifications, having three ISAKs worked on at the same time, and the third one shows the final product, picture taken from the same spot as the first one. CU on Dec 15th!
