CAN A Land Rover Defender be a competitive rally vehicle?- Kankku think we will find out in a big rally test in the Lake District.

Kankku - the off-road 4x4 driving school based in Windermere - aimed to give a debut run to its new ‘eco’ Land Rover in the Coppermines Grizedale Stages Rally (now postponed because of the weather).

The 4x4 Defender competition vehicle sports bright orange livery of the Kankku’s off-road driving fleet.

But a set of green road wheels is clue to the fact that it has been developed and tuned to run on bio-diesel.

The bio-diesel ‘sustain fuel’ is manufactured from waste cooking oil by sustainable energy firm Convert 2 Green Ltd.

All processing and logistics are powered by bio-fuels and waste products are used in bio–digestion systems - making it one of the most sustainable fuels available.

Kankku man Nick Fieldhouse said “We now run our 4x4 off road adventure fleet on a mixture of bio-diesel sustain fuel which is a significant step towards our goal of carbon neutrality.”

But the Land Rover is not just flying the company’s flag in the event alongside its two Subaru Imprezas.

Kankku man Nick Fieldhouse said: "The Defender has a world wide reputation for excelling in extreme driving situations - if these conditions prevail we have a traction advantage with the Land Rover drive system and a tyre advantage with our aggressive Cooper 4x4 tyres - as the tortoise said to the hare - "slow and steady wins the race".