It’s been 50 years since the emergence of arguably the world’s first luxury SUV. And boy has the Range Rover come a long way since her mid-sized, two-door days.
Origins
It all started in the 60s, when Charles Spencer King, then spearheading Land Rover’s building efforts, bought a Bronco, believing the long-travel coil spring suspension a necessary component in marrying luxury car comfort with Land Rover’s proven off-road prowess.
King also believed that the car needed a permanent four-wheel drive transmission for adequate handling and to absorb the power needed for the car to remain competitive with its US counterparts.
Further West in the US of A, companies like Ford and International Harvester were already making leaps and bounds towards a proto SUV that would be so much more than an off-roader. And Jeep seemed to push the envelope further with their Wagoneer, which did what Ford and Harvester attempted, but with more power.
Feeling the need to give their British buddies a leg up on the competish, Jeep’s USA President sent King and co a Land Rover Series II 88, fitted with an advanced small block all-aluminium Buick V8 engine, the missing piece to the Rover puzzle.
With all the parts at his disposal, King had the opportunity to assemble a “Car for All Reasons.” Giving the Buick alloy V8 engine some off-road modifications, including carburettors to maintain fuel supply at extreme angles, on June 17th 1970, Rover’s engineering team presented the public with a 4×4 marvel and changed the luxury SUV world for good.
Rangie’s evolution
Since then, the Rangie has gone on to win the 18,750-mile London to Sydney Marathon and the Paris-Dakar rally to name but a few accomplishments. It’s a testament to its sheer mechanical power and sublime engineering execution (the engineering and not the styling team designed the original Rangie).
In 1981, Land Rover launched a four-door Rangie, with luxuries such as automatic transmission following soon after and the diesel finally arrived in 1986, a year before the Rangie launched in the United States.
We bade a fond farewell to the original classic in 1996, two years after the arrival of Rangie’s second-gen line up, and 7 years later we had the third-gen, which went on to include the Range Rover Sport (2005) and the Evoque (2010). They grow up so fast.
The public greeted Rangie’s latest release 8 years ago in 2012, which is an indication that we may be in for a new model soon.
Celebration in colour
In the meantime, join us in wishing Range Rover a wonderful 50th birthday and celebrate with a limited edition Range Rover ‘Fifty’, featuring exclusive 22-inch wheels and ‘Fifty’ badges as well as a colour splash including Carpathian Grey, Rosello Red, Aruba and Santorini Black. Want to get even more exclusive? They’ve released an “extremely limited number” finished in one of the three solid colours available on the 1970 original (“Davos White”, “Bahama old” and “Tuscan Blue”.
Speaking of very rare limited edition cars, check out our One of a Kind series! Each week, you’ll be acquainted with cars that have, literally, commissioned just one unit.
