In 1999, on the fledgling D-90 mailing list, there was considerable discussion over the merits of the various suspension systems available for the Land Rover Defender. In order to qualitatively measure these suspensions, a weekend of testing was arranged where representative vehicles from Rock Ware, Desert Rover and Safari Gard (both Stage II and Stage III) as well as a stock "control" vehicle, an experimental coilover D90 and an Old Man Emu suspension equipped D90 would all be tested in a variety of categories including RTI, road driving and off road performance.

The on road and performance testing was done primarily by New Mexico State University engineering professor Rich Hall, Jim Allen and Bill Burke. Afterwords, each vehicle owner took their trucks and drove a series of controlled obstacles in the infamous 21 Road trail outside of Fruita.

All of the vehicles line up for the RTI testing.

Chris Hinkle's experimental coilover D90 scores a 1206 on the RTI ramp.

Jesse Rodecker's OME equipped D90 on 21 Road.

The Safari Gard Stage III D90 descends an obstacle on 21 Road.

A group of D90s line up to pre-run the Grand Junction to Moab trail.

A Rover convoy crosses the Colorado River, somewhere in Utah.

During the testing stage, the Safari Gard Stage II suffered a mechanical failure during heavy braking (on an experimental 3-link set up), which caused the vehicle to roll over during the on-road test. Despite the superior off-road performance of the Safari Gard vehicles and Chris HInkle's D90, the on-road driving manners and stability of the more mild configurations won out. Final results of the Twist-Off were as follows (out of a possible 1,000 points):

1st Place - RockWare 949 points
2nd Place - Desert Rover 947 points
3rd Place - OME Suspension 894 points
4th Place - Chris Hinkle's D90 880 points

After the event, all of the spectators as well as competitors drove by backcountry roads to Moab. The group of Rovers then spent the next few days running the various trails around Moab.

Nathan's D90 and Brian Morton's Discovery stop on a steep slickrock incline on Kokopelli's Trail.

Rick Larson's D90 plays on a slick rock obstacle.

A group of Rovers lines up on Poison Spider Mesa.

Charles D'Andrade's (of Rover Accessories) D90 on Poison Spider Mesa.

Rover Bruce drives up the Launch Pad on Golden Spike.

Hollis Mackenzie descends a rock obstacle on Golden Spike trail.

Rover Bruce gets very tippy going through Golden Crack on Golden Spike Trail.

Nathan's truck looks much more stable taking the same line, but with an extreme travel drop kit.