Classic custom: Land Rover Perentie

Cultural revolution is a strange thing – it brought us rock and roll, generations of adventurers, and the occasional mullet. But sometimes things line up a whole lot cooler and it’s something that, quite frankly, is fantastic to see.

Up in South East Queensland, in the home of beach driving, there’s a new wave of 4x4ers hitting the tracks, and they’re doing it a little different than most. There are no late-model utes with fluttering turbos or bush-doof stereos. But there is a whole bunch of young fellas spending their weekends camping in classic Land Rovers and spreading the good word. They call themselves the British Mafia and they’re here for a good time.

Bodhi, at just 21, is the main man behind the brand British Mafia, and the owner of one of the coolest Perenties we’ve ever seen. For anyone not familiar with Perenties, they’re essentially a version of Land Rover Defender 110s specially designed for the Australian military with some rather unique factory modifications.

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Australian Defence Force

Bodhi’s Perentie first entered service for the Australian Defence Force way back in 1987, making it a Moorebank build (50 per cent of the build needed to be done in Australia per ADF rules). From the remanufacturing process, the Perentie versions had very little in common with the factory-built Defender 110s.

Bodhi’s is riding high on a custom Perentie chassis. Up the back it’s wider to accommodate the spare tyre relocated from the tailgate to the undercarriage. The ADF specced that the whole frame had to be hot-dip galvanised as well, ensuring there’s zero chance of rust. The original tender also stated the whole vehicle needed to be able to withstand the twisting forces of being air-dropped in by chopper.

On the outside are a couple of notable ways to spot it’s a Perentie rather than a run-of-the-mill 110 Defender. The most obvious is the rear storage compartments behind the rear wheels, but Bodhi’s is still sporting the original ADF bullbar too. Hiding behind that bomb-proof bullbar is a full suite of LED lighting. Without fear of bombers from above, Bodhi’s able to safely light up the beach at night to spot any enemy washouts on his 12.

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One thing that’s far from military spec on Bodhi’s Perentie is the roof. With the Perentie originally leaving the factory with nothing more than a canvas sheet, Bodhi sourced a hard roof from an early Series Land Rover, giving the British wagon a unique look. He’s then covered the aluminium body from front to back in a tough paint job.

The bulk of the panels are coated in Amsterdam Blue Green, while the trim pieces and roof have copped a layer or two of satin black over them. Giving the Perentie even more off-road ability is a four-inch diameter stainless-steel snorkel from Team Perentie hugging the A-pillar. Bodhi’s also fitted up a custom bonnet rack and trick stainless-steel honeycomb grille by Vic mob Rijidij Off Road.

Gearbox upgrade

Much to the annoyance of Land Rover fans, when the ADF were speccing up the Perentie to do serious duties, they decided the OEM Rover engines weren’t up to par. Instead, they sourced a Japanese engine in the form of an Isuzu 4BD1, a 3.9L in-line four-cylinder with no turbo and no worries.

Despite putting out just 245Nm of torque, it was still more than the later model Defender boxes could be trusted with, so a four-speed LT95 Rover box was sourced from earlier models with a bearing upgrade in the transfer case. That transfer case sends drive full-time to the front and rear live axles.

From the factory, the Perenties rode higher than a comparable Defender, but Bodhi’s now rides on Terrafirma shocks and two-inch taller springs front and rear. That’s given him room to squeeze in 35x12.5-inch Mickey Thompson Deegan 38 mud tyres wrapped around 16-inch steel wheels. A significant traction and styling boost over the original cheese cutters.

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With beach camping Bodhi’s primary goal, there are a few key modifications to make life easier. That Series Land Rover hard lid isn’t just for looks. It gives him a dry place to stash his gear, and provides a mounting point for the rooftop tent. Sourced from Aussie company Tough Gear Trading, the hard-shell rooftop tent is constructed out of aluminium with a clever Z-fold design for quick set-ups and maximum space once it’s up. There’s internal lighting fitted up top, too.

Moving to the inside and Bodhi completely gutted the interior, washing out dust and grit from decades of Australian conflicts in foreign lands before laying down a fresh lick of paint. The spray-in bed liner from Dominator gives a tough non-slip surface and allows Bodhi to open the doors and hose out the interior after big beach runs, without concern of damaging anything.

Above the front seats a custom headboard got pieced together and houses the stereo. It feeds into a simple speaker set-up with a couple of 6x9-inch speakers and a Kicker subwoofer for camp tunes. The bench seats in the back mean he’s never short of mates to help around camp.

No.5 trailer

With plans to do more touring in the big Perentie, Bodhi’s built himself a matching trailer. The ex-military No.5 trailer was originally built to match the Land Rovers that towed them, and Bodhi has continued that tradition with his modifications.

Coated in matching paint and riding on matching Mickey Thompson 35-inch tyres, it looks right at home behind his beast and gives the British Mafia crew bulk storage for everything they could need to create memories by the campfire.

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While Bodhi’s rig might not be the most modified we’ve ever seen, it’s definitely one of the most inspirational. There’s nothing like classic rigs, campfires and long nights with good mates as the waves roll in just a few metres away.