Günther Nawrocki has achieved his goal: his Range Rover III has exceeded one million kilometres. The 2007 car with the 272 HP (200 kW) 3.6 liter V8 biturbo diesel engine under the hood still drives with the completely original transmission. “For me there is no better car,” says the man who spent some 2,500 days behind the wheel of the Range Rover Vogue in the last nine years of his life. Günther Nawrocki values the comfort in the form of leather seats and the air-sprung chassis above all, but also the powerful engine, the all-wheel drive and the high towing capacity. The Range Rover has covered the million kilometers almost exclusively with a trailer.
It all started in 2007, when Günther Nawrocki, a car mechanic and later a car salesman, handed over a new Range Rover Vogue to a customer. Five years and 145,000 kilometers later, he took delivery of the car as a leaseback to drive it himself. “At the time I thought I was going to drive the Range Rover for six months and then sell it again,” he recalls. But a phone call from Rüdiger Czakert, then head of Auto König in Anzing near Munich, changed everything.
In January 2013, Czakert asked Nawrocki if he could deliver a car in Duisburg and bring one back from Gummersbach. He accepted voluntarily, got himself a 3.5-ton trailer and became one of the most sought-after luxury car transport companies in Germany. Since then, Günther Nawrocki has been in the car five days a week and his wife accompanies him on many longer trips. Between Amsterdam in the north and Saint-Tropez in the south, the Range Rover racks up mile after mile as a towing vehicle. When it has covered 400,000 kilometres, its owner’s ambition was awakened. Günther Nawrocki has set himself the magical goal of one million kilometres, with a trailer in tow.
Engine, transmission, front and rear differential – the entire Range Rover drivetrain is still in its original form. On the way to the million only the valve covers, the air suspension and various wearing parts were replaced and the little things fixed. Both turbochargers have been replaced, as well as the intake manifold and air mass meter. There was a transmission oil change every 100,000 kilometres, new brake pads every 40,000 kilometres, and new brake discs every 80,000 kilometres. “I find it really amazing that I’m still on the road with my first windshield,” says Günther Nawrocki, looking back on his long journeys.
For many years, the car was technically maintained by Günther Nawrocki’s former work colleague, Alexander Lemke, who works at the Jaguar Land Rover dealership Feser-Scharf in Nuremberg. (awm)
