THE ‘GREEN MACHINE’ MAKES ITS MOBILITY DEBUT AT DVD 2008
By Julian Nettlefold
27 Jun 08. At last year’s DVD Hobson Industries showed, for the first time, an Asset Managed Land Rover Truck Utility Medium General Service (TUM GS) Hardtop 12/24v 300TDI 110 Vehicle; M/Y 1992, the ‘Green Machine.’
“The Green Machine was built to show that the Land Rover is probably the most eco-friendly vehicle in the world giving a competitive advantage when it comes to recycling and rebuild over its competitors We proved in that instance that it was possible, using our Asset Management techniques, to salvage well over 60% of existing parts from wrecked vehicles and Asset Manage them to build ‘as new’ vehicles. We estimate that in less than a year we will have a full Asset Managed Land Rover parts list of well over 4000 items. In addition an Asset Managed Land Rover has better fuel consumption, is more reliable and makes better use of assets.” said Peter Hobson, Managing Director of Hobson Industries.
That was last year, where the vehicle was the centre of attention at the time when the MoD was formulating its future fleet policy and the OUVS Requirement.
At DVD 2008, Hobsons brought the ‘Green Machine’ to display again, but did not expect the vehicle to be called into service!
Its American cousin, the HMMV had been chosen, in preference to a Land Rover, by Vislink and Flir to carry the filming equipment for the live off-road filming. At the eleventh hour the HMMV had a catastrophic breakdown which disabled the vehicle from filming the Off-Road course.
Enter the ‘Green Machine’ to save the situation!
“When we were approached by Vislink to use the ‘Green Machine’ for the off-road filming, I had no hesitation in handing the vehicle over to Vislink and KAM, for the filming activities. I had complete faith that the ‘Green Machine’, unlike its American cousin, would stay the course for the two days of constant filming. It proved its worth with no problems at all. We would like to thank KAM for allowing us to use its Off-Road site for the vehicle.” Peter Hobson said.
“When we found out about the HMMV breakdown we thought that the filming venture would be stopped in its tracks. We are very grateful to Peter Hobson for giving us the ‘Green Machine’ to take up the roll. We used the vehicle on both days, all day, giving film feeds to the Off-Road, On-Road and Press Office feeds, with no breakdowns. I learned to drive on a Land Rover Series 2, thus the ‘Green Machine’ proved no problem.” Laurence Venner of Vislink said.
“We were delighted to help the live filming team of FLIR, Vislink and BATTLESPACE with the ‘Green Machine’ as it gave us a clear chance to road test the vehicle, proving its worth. That is where DVD wins. Not only can manufacturers show off their vehicles to potential customers but, using the extensive Millbrook facilities, it allows us to prove our vehicles and provide vital reliability data. DVD 2008 proved the worth and the reliability of the ‘Green Machine. The filming initiative should be expanded next year to give manufacturers and the MoD vital footage to use in vehicle assessments.” Peter Hobson said.
“The off-road filming was a complete success – we will be providing a CD-ROM for Exhibitors after the footage has been approved by Millbrook and the MoD. The quality of the footage, beamed by non-line of sight digital video datalink operated from a vehicle mounted camera was transmitted to a diversity receiver system complemented by the SUMMIT flyaway antennae system, was excellent and proved our systems capability,” said Matthew Richards, Marketing Director of Advent.
“Next year, we hope to expand the filming activities to include not only IR filming but also video filming using our dual-mode system. We would all like to thank the MoD and Millbrook for giving us the chance to prove this technology at DVD 2008.” said Dave Strong of Flir Systems.