Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division has unveiled a special Range Rover Astronaut Edition, which will only be available to people who have signed up to fly into space with Virgin Galactic.
The Astronaut Edition is based on the SVO-developed Range Rover Autobiography, with a number of unique interior and exterior design elements.
It is part of an ongoing collaboration between Land Rover and Virgin Galactic, which is aiming to start offering commercial space flights using its SpaceShipTwo vehicle. So far, around 600 people have signed up as 'Future Astronauts' by reserving a flight.
Exterior changes include an exclusive Zero Gravity Blue paint, bespoke puddle lamp design and Astronaut Edition badging on the rear and side of the car.
The interior features a ‘DNA of flight’ graphic on the carbon fibre centre console lid and rear armrest, and engraved aluminium door handles.
Most notable are two discs within the cup holders, which have been crafted from the landing skid from the Virgin Spaceship Unity craft that flew last year. One of the discs features a quote from Virgin boss Richard Branson, with the other showing details of the flight. Once a buyer has flown into space on a Virgin Galactic flight, the discs will be replaced with part of the wooden skid from the craft they flew in.
The Range Rover Astronaut Edition will be offered with a range of Land Rover engines, including the 398bhp p400e plug-in hybrid, and the 518bhp 5.5-litre V8 P525 supercharged petrol engine.
Pricing for the Astronaut Edition has not been disclosed. The Range Rover Autobiography starts at £103,130, while a reservation for a 90-minute Virgin Galactic flight costs around £190,000.
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Company that wastes years getting its Defender replacement designed and built makes car for company that gets its space vehicle years overdue from its continual promises. Shared brand values there then.
PSA - Ratan Tata isn't stupid (but is getting on a bit) but what about those reported internal post sale (to PSA) cost saving documents? Chery are now doing JV work with Tata on top of their JLR Chinese JV - is there a Chinese dimension to all this?
So that's the attraction
This convinced PSA to buy?
sierra wrote:
No they are not END OF STORY
Shark Jumper
This is just an utterly ghastly and tacky thing, it can hardly be called a PR stunt since I'm unsure there's a cogent underlying PR or sales motivation here.
GM gets eternal kudos for giving Corvettes to the NASA astronauts. One would have thought that JLR's PR people, who (along with Ford) used to be some of the best in the business, might have gone down that path with an F-Type. But this?, no as someone said, they "jumped the shark" as Americans say. (For those unaware of the phrase, it's a reference BTW to Happy Days when The Fonz jumped across two sharks and the show lost all credibility).
My heart sinks.
Shark Jump
If I could +1 I would. 'aaaaaaay'