Land Rover, including their more premium Range Rover line, is renowned for building exceptionally capable off-road vehicles, but just as important is their reputation for prestige, cachet and charming traditionalism.
That “old world” fundamentalism is undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts, and the renewal is daring, if not audacious.
Nothing reinforced this “new world” creationism for me more than a week spent behind the wheel of a 2012 Range Rover Evoque. How this masterpiece of automotive art came to life under the auspices of Land Rover is beyond my scope of rationalization.
Perhaps my perceptions are skewed through ownership of a Series II Land Rover Discovery. And why not? I once asked a Land Rover mechanic about the clunking that emanates from somewhere within the drivetrain. “You have to worry when they don’t clunk,” he wryly replied.
It’s that gestation that predisposes me to the wonderment of the Evoque and the future of Land Rover. The Evoque started life as the LRX concept vehicle, which was intended to fill a gap that had been identified in the Range Rover lineup.
Identifying and filling a gap in a manufacturer’s lineup is quite normal, especially after suitable research has defined an adequate market for the proposed vehicle. But here’s the left turn.
Land Rover – the staid leather and wood upper-crust Brit – produced a design that would be ground-breaking for Porsche, Audi and other bold, voguish manufacturers. This incongruity is like the time my brother got an afro. Shocking!
Fortunately, Land Rover’s uninhibited wild side has produced something far more appealing and sustainable than an afro on a white dude.
When the LRX concept vehicle hit auto-show floors worldwide, it became an instant sensation. To say that it blew audiences away is an understatement. The response was overwhelming but every journalist surely questioned just how faithful the production vehicle would be to the concept.
That “old world” fundamentalism is undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts, and the renewal is daring, if not audacious.
Nothing reinforced this “new world” creationism for me more than a week spent behind the wheel of a 2012 Range Rover Evoque. How this masterpiece of automotive art came to life under the auspices of Land Rover is beyond my scope of rationalization.
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| 2012 Range Rover Evoque (Photo: Rob Rothwell) |
Perhaps my perceptions are skewed through ownership of a Series II Land Rover Discovery. And why not? I once asked a Land Rover mechanic about the clunking that emanates from somewhere within the drivetrain. “You have to worry when they don’t clunk,” he wryly replied.
It’s that gestation that predisposes me to the wonderment of the Evoque and the future of Land Rover. The Evoque started life as the LRX concept vehicle, which was intended to fill a gap that had been identified in the Range Rover lineup.
Identifying and filling a gap in a manufacturer’s lineup is quite normal, especially after suitable research has defined an adequate market for the proposed vehicle. But here’s the left turn.
Land Rover – the staid leather and wood upper-crust Brit – produced a design that would be ground-breaking for Porsche, Audi and other bold, voguish manufacturers. This incongruity is like the time my brother got an afro. Shocking!
Fortunately, Land Rover’s uninhibited wild side has produced something far more appealing and sustainable than an afro on a white dude.
When the LRX concept vehicle hit auto-show floors worldwide, it became an instant sensation. To say that it blew audiences away is an understatement. The response was overwhelming but every journalist surely questioned just how faithful the production vehicle would be to the concept.
 |
| Range Rover LRX Concept (Photo: Land Rover) |