In this week's automotive adventures, Steve gets misty-eyed about the luxury off-roading icon that is Land Rover's Range Rover, thanks his stars that he lives in the UK (a hotspot for new car creation) and shakes out his Mazda MX-5 on some snaky B-roads.
Wednesday
Call me sentimental, but it seems only right to be sitting in the latest Range Rover, a P400e plug-in hybrid, on the 50th birthday of this wonderful machine, talking to ‘Mr Land Rover’ Roger Crathorne, who as a young engineer participated in the Range Rover’s creation.
“We had no idea it would turn out as well as it has,” he says, “as one of Britain’s automotive icons and a standard for off-road capability and luxury at the same time. Looking back, I see it was a complete and utter privilege to be involved – but then, I was working with such a great team I thought exactly that at the time.”
Crathorne did a huge amount of Range Rover testing and development over the next four and a half decades and still gets the call on all-important Land Rover occasions.
Thursday AM
One of the joys of living in the UK is that you meet or hear about a steady stream of highly creative, driven individuals who, despite monstrous hurdles, set out to create their own car. One such is Rob Moon, a former Ricardo now Prodrive engineer, who’s in the throes of a two-year project to build a high-performance, Hayabusa-powered, single-seat three-wheeler of his own design, dedicated entirely to driving enjoyment.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Getting paid every month from
As a drivers car, the 3 wheel
As a drivers car, the 3 wheel layout will always be flawed because of a lack of rear end grip.
I think Ariel have got this covered.
roll hoop
wouldn't that be better if braced towards the front, like a curved A-pillar, so as to move higher masses away from the single wheel?