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Off-road legends collide as we compare the CJ-7 Jeep and the Land Rover 110, two of the 1980s best 4x4s.
’80s Off-Roaders
The original WWII Willys jeep, that paragon of functionality, was the jumping off point for a whole host of post-war light 4x4s that included the Willys-Overland CJ-Series, the British Land Rover, and the Japanese Toyota Land Cruiser. Once adapted for civilian use, these jeeps found domestic audiences receptive to their ruggedness, their go-anywhere sense of adventure, their seemingly endless adaptability, durability, and utility. Were they sometimes hard to work on with ejector seat suspensions and minimalist to a fault? Sure, but all that was part of the charm of these vehicles.
And so, by the 1980s the beloved Jeep (by this point a proper noun) and the venerable Land Rover both had devoted followings across the globe. If your journey did not involve paved roads, chances were, you were taking something like a Jeep or Land Rover to get there. If you have ever wondered why so many less capable crossovers and SUVs today are marketed as “rugged,” “tough,” and “off-road-ready” when they are none of those things, it is because of real sport utility vehicles like the CJ-7 and Land Rover 110 (and their modern successors, of course). Back before the Ford Explorer brought the SUV to the strip malls and soccer tournaments of America, there were real 4×4 off-roaders out there getting muddy, getting stuck.
Today, we compare two great 80s off-roaders: the Land Rover 110 and the CJ-7 Jeep.
Land Rover 110/90
The Land Rover 110 was introduced in 1983 as what would be the eventual replacement for the older Series III Land Rover. The modernized Land Rover 110 offered many upgrades and improvements over the prior Series III. These included new coil springs front and rear, ditching the old leaf springs. The new version also received permanent four-wheel drive, a single pane windshield, and an updated and more comfortable interior. Visually, the most notable update was a flat grille rather than the Land Rover’s signature recessed grille.
The name 110 came from the vehicle’s wheelbase measurement. So, when a shorter wheelbase version arrived a year later in 1984, it was designated the Land Rover 90. An extended wheelbase version was released in 1985, the Land Rover 127. These Land Rovers were offered with a range of engines, including gas or diesel four-cylinders in 2.3L or 2.5L varieties or larger 3.5L V8s could be had. Transmission options were limited to four- or five-speed manuals.
Ruggedness was not just advertising spin when it came to the Land Rover 110. The model was popular across the globe for its ability to tackle extremely tough terrain. To help advertise this fact, Land Rover partnered with Camel Cigarettes as the principle vehicle for the Camel Trophy off-road race starting in 1981. The Came Trophy was a globe-trotting off-road challenge which ran along jungles tracks in places like Sumatra and Papua New Guinea and remote locales in Mongolia, Tanzania, and Tierra Del Fuego. International teams from Turkey, Germany, Italy and elsewhere compete across days and hundreds of miles of the toughest roads in the world.
The Camel Trophy race was held for twenty years from 1980 through 2000, and for 19 of those years, it was Land Rovers that the teams competed in (Ford built CJ-5 Jeeps were used in the inaugural race). The first few races featured Ranger Rovers and Series IIIs, then later Land Rover 110s and 90s through the 80s, and later on Land Rover Defenders and Discoveries.
Given the harsh demands on the vehicles, they were kitted out with all sorts of off-road equipment. These included roll cages, winches, bull bars, lights, guide wires to keep tree branches from cracking the windshield, and large roof racks brimming with shovels, jerry cans, and sleeping bags. As this was a branding exercise after all, the Land Rovers were all painted in a distinctive “sand glow” yellow with Camel Trophy in big blue script across the hood and doors.
The Land Rover 100/90 was the first evolution of what would become the Land Rover Defender in 1990.
Jeep CJ-7
The early 1980s was an “interesting” moment for the Jeep brand. Recall the circuitous path for Jeep from Willys back in WWII and Willys-Overland in the post-war years to Kaiser Motors through the 50s and 60s who in turn sold out to AMC in 1970. American Motors Corporation had had its own struggles over the decades and was on its last legs by the early 80s, with French carmaker Renault owning a 49 percent stake in the company as of 1983.
The Jeep brand was one bright spot in an otherwise diminished portfolio. The CJ-5, which had evolved from the military design used in the Korean War, had been a popular model among off-road enthusiasts for years. The CJ-5 was still in production in 1980 despite its ostensible replacement, the longer wheelbase CJ-7, debuting back in 1976. An expose by 60 Minutes sensationalizing the CJ-5’s rollover potential was at least part of the final push for AMC to ax the older Jeep from its lineup.
The CJ-7 was the first major design update since the transition from the original military jeep to the civilian version back in the late 1940s. The added length to the wheelbase improved stability and expanded room for passengers and cargo and an updated frame increased rigidity.
Like the Land Rover 110, the CJ-7 was offered with plenty of engine options over its run. These included a four-cylinder Isuzu diesel (for export only) and two different 2.5Ls inline-fours, two AMC straight-sixes (a 3.8L and a 4.2L), and a 5.0L V8. There were even more transmission options with four- and five-speed manuals from Werner, Borg-Werner, and Tremec, along with a pair of three-speed automatics.
No surprise to Jeep fans, the CJ-7 saw numerous memorable trim variants. Among them, the Jamboree trim is today the rarest and most sought after CJ-7. Just 630 Jamboree were created to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Rubicon Trail. Other trims included the Gold Hawk and Gold Eagle V8 variants (304s). The Jeep Scrambler (aka the CJ-8) was an extended wheelbase version of the CJ-7, which added another ten inches between the wheels (now totaling 103 inches) and a truck bed in back rather than a rear seat.
The Jeep Wrangler was introduced in 1987 as the replacement for the 14-year-old CJ-7. The same year Renault completed its sale of AMC shared to Chrysler, who bought the company to acquire the Jeep brand.
And the Winner Is….
With similar wheelbases for the Land Rover 90 and the CJ-7 and their long travel suspensions and gobs of ground clearance, these two were both supremely capable off-roaders. For many of us in the US, we have personal connections to the CJ-7. Weekend rock crawling, hunting trips in the back country, or that unique mixture of toughness and whimsy defined in the phrase “It’s a Jeep thing.”
But for my money, it doesn’t get much cooler than the Land Rover 110 in Camel Trophy livery, replete with off-road accruements intrepidly fording some unnamed jungle river or racing through clouds of dust somewhere in in Inner Mongolia.
Just check out this doc on the Camel Trophy:
