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The Range Rover has been one of the world's greatest cars since it made its debut half a century ago…
While the Range Rover is often nominated as the world's first luxury SUV it wasn't – because the original car was far from luxurious and besides, the Americans got there first. But nonetheless, 17 June 2020 marks a very important birthday for one of the world's most famous cars, its 50th.
The Range Rover quickly became the standard by which all other luxury SUVs would be judged and now it's seemingly unassailable. Here's how it came to be the best 4x4 by far:
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Road Rover
This is where the Range Rover story starts; with the development of a less utilitarian Land Rover, way back in 1951. Called Road Rover, the version pictured is the Mk1 while there was a Mk2 which looked more like a Rover P5. But the Road Rover project would be canned in 1961.
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Road Rover revived
With Rover having acquired a suitably powerful engine (the ex-Buick 3.5-litre V8), the Road Rover project was revived in 1966 and the first prototypes were up and running just a year later. Now called Velar to throw the press off the scent, jointly from the Spanish 'velar' (to look after, to watch over) and the Italian 'velare' (to veil, to cover), the engineers behind it were Charles Spencer ‘Spen’ King (1925-2010) and Gordon Bashford (1916-1991).
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The inspiration behind the Range Rover
The Range Rover is often credited with being the first luxury SUV, but early cars were utilitarian and the Jeep Wagoneer (pictured) arrived as early as 1963. Rover research executive Graham Bannock (born 1932) went to the US in 1965 and saw luxury SUVs in use, such as the Wagoneer along with the Ford Bronco and International Harvester Scout. Bannock reckoned Land Rover needed a leisure vehicle and the die was cast.
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Velar takes shape
The first Velar prototype came with permanent four-wheel drive and used a 100-inch wheelbase. Spen King did such a great job of designing it that chief designer David Bache (1925-1994) only had to tidy up some of the details before the car was ready for production.
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The Range Rover launches
Revealed in June 1970 and marketed as 'A car for all reasons', as soon as the Range Rover went on sale it caused a sensation and long waiting lists quickly formed to buy one. Priced at £1998 (perhaps the equivalent of £35,000 in today’s money), the car was just what British Leyland (BL) – now the owner of Rover - needed in the early 1970s as it went through tumultuous times. The press launch took place in Cornwall, with the off-road testing in tin mines near St Agnes on the county’s north coast.
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Breaking new ground
With dual-circuit disc brakes all round, long-travel suspension and a lightweight V8 engine the Range Rover was impressively engineered. The V8 sent its power to each corner via a four-speed manual gearbox, and to cut weight most of the outer panels were made of aluminium. The integrated gear and transfer box had a lockable centre differential that was vacuum operated to eliminate problems with cables.
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Engineered to go anywhere
The Range Rover was designed as a workhorse, and it was engineered to tackle perilous terrain. The carburettors were switched from Zenith/Stromberg items to SUs so that whichever way the car was tilting the fuel supply would be uninterrupted. The water pump and fan were raised so the car could ford deep water and there was even an aperture for a starting handle in case the starter motor failed.
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The most articulate Land Rover ever
The Range Rover's off-road ability was much better than that of any contemporary Land Rover. The reason was axle articulation, on account of those long-travel coil springs. This allowed double the articulation of a normal Land Rover and as a result the Range Rover was more comfortable and more capable over rough terrain.
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A minimalist luxury car
The cabin was very basic as Land Rover bosses wanted a simple hose-out interior. The boot area, which had been bare metal on prototypes, was soon trimmed to include a cover for the tool kit. This was partly because of feedback from Buckingham Palace. The tools were exposed in the boot and a man from the Palace said a corgi could get hurt…
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The Autocar verdict
Although the Range Rover was unveiled in June 1970, we didn't get to drive it for another five months, with the report appearing in our 75th anniversary issue. We said: "We have been tremendously impressed by the Range Rover, and feel it is even more deserving of success than the Land Rover. It remains to be seen how durable and reliable it will prove in service". Incidentally, our test car was priced at £2005 – including an extra £7 for front seatbelts!
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Expeditions galore
In 1972 the Range Rover became the first vehicle to cross the Darien Gap (shown here) on a British Army Trans-America expedition. Two years later a Rangie covered 7500 miles in 100 days, crossing the Sahara. In 1977 a modified car won its class in the 30,000km (18,750 miles) London-Sydney Marathon and two years later another modded Range Rover won the first Paris-Dakar Rally.
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Developing the Range Rover
In launch form the Range Rover was incredibly basic, with its minimalist interior and plastic-trimmed seats. Buyers expected more luxury so throughout the 1970s Land Rover upped its game. In came higher-quality trim including cloth seats, extra soundproofing plus the options of power steering and overdrive, the latter in a bid to improve high-speed refinement and fuel economy.
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Land Rover goes it alone
In 1979 Land Rover was hived off from BL as a separate company and as a result it received significant investment – cash that had been lacking throughout the seventies as part of the BL empire under British Government ownership. Land Rover would at last be able to develop the Range Rover in ways previously unimaginable…
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The Range Rover goes four door
Land Rover built a four-door Range Rover prototype as early as 1972, but the project was axed. As a result there were no four-door cars available throughout the seventies, but in 1980 Swiss company Monteverdi launched its own version, which was officially sanctioned by Land Rover and sold through its UK dealerships at a premium of around one-third over the two-door model.
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Emergency service use
Selling cars to police forces was essential in the 1970s, to gain consumer confidence. From the outset Land Rover's plan was to have Range Rovers patrolling UK motorways and by 1971 Cheshire Police had four of them. Forces around the world would follow suit, including in Belgium, Australia, Holland, Norway and more, but as the Range Rover got ever more plush the cost was getting too high. The solution was to launch a stripped-out version called the Fleet Line which arrived in 1981.
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An official four-door RR
Just a year after Monteverdi's four-door Range Rover went on sale Land Rover unveiled its own official version. The rear seat was moved back three inches to aid entry and exit while there were new door handles, shared with the Morris Marina. The interior trim was also upgraded, although there was still plenty of room for improvement on that score…
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The Range Rover goes auto
It seems incredible now, in a world of two-pedal Range Rovers, but for more than the first decade of its existence the Range Rover came only in manual form. In 1982 Land Rover finally acknowledged that this was a luxury car and as such it should be available with a slush box. A year later, for those who preferred to swap cogs themselves, the four-speed manual box was swapped for the five-speed LT77 unit shared with the Jaguar XJ6.
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All things in excess
Throughout the 1970s a raft of companies offered upgrades and conversions to make the Range Rover faster and/or more luxurious, as well as more exclusive. Companies such as Townley, Chameleon, Wood & Pickett (pictured here) and Glenfrome would stretch, upgrade or decapitate your Range Rover however you liked.
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The Glenfrome Facet
Lots of Range Rover conversions featured six wheels, six doors, extreme wheelbase stretches and more, but perhaps the most extreme conversion of all was this one, the Glenfrome Facet. All that was carried over was the chassis and running gear; the bodywork and interior were replaced entirely.
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The workhorse
Not all Range Rover conversions were about luxury or exclusivity – many were about improving versatility as a lot of RR-based vehicles were true workhorses. Fire tenders, military vehicles and rescue/recovery were common uses to which the Rangie was put.
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The first Range Rover diesel
Sixteen years after its introduction the Range Rover was at last available with a diesel engine. But it wasn't very slick; lacking torque, refinement and efficiency, the 2.4-litre VM four-cylinder unit was a feeble performer and far from worthy of a luxury vehicle. As a result few British buyers opted for a diesel, but the Turbo D proved more popular in Europe.
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Range Rovers to America
It wasn’t until 1987 that the Range Rover was exported to the US, but when it finally got there it was greeted with great enthusiasm by buyers and acquired a cachet - including celebrity fanbase - that it holds to this day.
That was in stark contrast with Rover's other cars which were a resounding failure in the US such as the SD1 in the 1970s and then the 800, launched in America under the Sterling name in 1987. The engine capacity of the petrol V8 was increased to 3.9 litres and only an automatic transmission was offered.
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Ever increasing luxury
As the eighties progressed the Range Rover gained fuel injection for the V8 engine, air conditioning, anti-lock brakes plus improved manual and automatic transmissions. Leather trim, wood cappings, electric adjustment for the seats, windows and sunroof became standard depending on model and with each passing year the Range Rover moved further away from its utilitarian roots. But that was where the car was clearly headed, complete with hefty profit margins for its maker.
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The Range Rover CSK
Land Rover had deleted the two-door Range Rover from its price lists in 1985, but five years later the CSK arrived. This special edition model came only in two-door form and just 200 were made, each carrying the initials of Range Rover engineer Charles Spencer King.
This was Land Rover's testbed for anti-roll bars front and rear, which it had always resisted fitting in case it compromised the Range Rover's off-road abilities. It didn't, while wallowing in corners was massively reduced.
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The ultimate factory Range Rover?
The Range Rover Classic was on borrowed time, but Land Rover kept raising the bar. In 1992 the LSE arrived, stretched by eight inches and with a 4.2-litre injected V8. It was the most expensive production model that Land Rover had ever offered with its list price of £39,995, and featured air suspension with five different height settings.
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The last hurrah
A Range Rover powered by a petrol V8 was a glorious thing but very costly to run, while the VM diesel alternative was so hateful that Land Rover was losing sales. The answer lay in fitting the 200 Tdi engine from the Discovery, which had arrived in 1989. But demand for that car and engine were so strong that it took three years for Land Rover to offer a Range Rover 200 Tdi, which in 1994 was upgraded to the 300 Tdi unit.
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Range Rover: Take 2
Codenamed P38A, the second-generation Range Rover went on sale in 1994, developed at a cost of £300 million. It came with a 3.9 or 4.6-litre petrol V8 (the old Rover unit), or a 2.5-litre straight-six diesel unit supplied by BMW, which bought the Rover Group, including Land Rover, in 1994.
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Designed for comfort
Although the new Range Rover was engineered to go anywhere in typical Land Rover fashion, comfort was more important than ever. For a roomy cabin the 108-inch wheelbase of the outgoing Range Rover LSE was carried over, air suspension was standard and the ZF automatic transmission was now electronically controlled for smoother gear shifts.
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The Autocar verdict
We devoted 20 pages of our 28 September 1994 issue to the P38A including an eight-page group test, which the Rangie won easily. The next week another eight-page road test was published, in which we opined: "The Range Rover has every bit of its predecessor's desirability. The original may have been a hard act to follow, but the engineers of Solihull have made it look easy".
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Range Rover Classic bows out
The original Range Rover still had a following when the P38A arrived, so Land Rover made the unusual decision to keep it in production alongside its successor. But two years after the Range Rover Mk2 was unveiled, time was called on the Classic in 1996. It had remained in production for 26 years and in that time 317,615 examples were made.
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A mid-life refresh
In a bid to keep the Range Rover competitive, Land Rover revealed an updated model in 1998. BMW had considered installing its V8 and V12 petrol engines but instead the ex-Buick V8 was fettled further to improve refinement. Electronic traction control became standard and the exterior was refreshed, but only subtly so there was no mistaking that this was still a Range Rover.
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All change once more
In 2001 the third-generation Range Rover made an appearance, codenamed L322. Developed under BMW's ownership of Land Rover, the L322 was the first Range Rover to feature monocoque construction, while the technology and quality was massively improved over the P38A. By the time the L322 appeared, Land Rover had been taken over by Ford, in 2000.
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A clean-sheet design
BMW had left no stone unturned when developing the Range Rover Mk3. Everything was new, including the BMW-supplied engines: a 4.4-litre naturally aspirated petrol V8 or a 3.0-litre straight-six turbodiesel. For the first time ever there was no manual-gearbox option, with all cars getting an automatic or sequential automatic (Steptronic) transmission. To help cut weight and reduce corrosion much of the outer panelwork was made of aluminium.
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Capable on- and off-road
Fast and refined, the Range Rover L322 was supremely capable on-road; Land Rover knew that few owners would drive anywhere else. But this was a car that was still incredibly capable off-road too, thanks to independent air suspension front and rear (for the first time) and a raft of electronic driver aids including Dynamic Stability Control, Hill Descent Control and Brake Assist.
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The Autocar verdict
We first reviewed the L322 in January 2002, and said: "Solihull's engineers have had the courage to totally re-imagine the Range Rover, transforming its road manners without sacrificing its off-road ability. It can't quite match the [Mercedes] S-Class for ride or [BMW] X5 as a driver's tool, but it is remarkable that it gets so close yet can cross terrain that would defeat a Defender… The only doubts concern the car's quality and ferocious thirst".
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New powertrains for the L322
The BMW-supplied 4.4-litre V8 petrol engine was a nice powerplant that was torquey, refined and strong, but in 2005 Land Rover switched to new engines from its sister company Jaguar. Buyers could choose between a 305bhp 4.4-litre normally aspirated V8 petrol unit or a 396bhp supercharged 4.2-litre V8 which had 42% more power than the BMW unit. To go with the new petrol engines there was a ZF six-speed automatic transmission, as introduced on the Discovery 3 the previous year.
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Expanding the Range Rover brand
There was a lot of equity in the Range Rover brand, so Land Rover decided to capitalise on that by launching a range of offshoots, starting with the cheaper, more compact Range Rover Sport in 2005. Pitched against the Porsche Cayenne and BMW X5, the Range Rover Sport would be Land Rover's biggest-selling model globally by 2007.
Though resembling a full fat Range Rover, it was in fact based on the Discovery 3; that economy-of- scale combined with high transaction prices boosted by attractive options enabled the Sport to reputedly become the most profitable vehicle made by Ford globally.
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The best Range Rover engine yet?
By 2006 60% of Range Rover purchases were diesel models and the 3.0-litre BMW straight-six unit wasn't really good enough for such a premium car. Ford had the perfect solution: a 3.6-litre V8 diesel that could generate 54% more power and 64% more torque than the outgoing powerplant, with similar levels of fuel consumption. Even better, the TDV8 came with the ZF six-speed automatic transmission in place of the previous GM-sourced five-speeder.
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A baby Range Rover
When Land Rover showed the LRX concept at the start of 2008, it caused a storm of excitement. Buyers were desperate to acquire one, so Land Rover put the LRX into production in 2010 as the Range Rover Evoque (pictured), and with the looks barely watered down at all the car proved a smash hit, with long waiting lists quickly forming for the smallest Range Rover yet, and it sold 800,000 examples in its first generation.
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The fourth generation arrives
Predictably, when the Range Rover Mk4 was unveiled in autumn 2012 it was the most sophisticated iteration yet. Known as the L405, this king-sized SUV featured an aluminium monocoque which was 39% lighter than an equivalent steel bodyshell – enough to cut more than 400kg from the Range Rover's kerb weight.
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The first Range Rover hybrid
At launch, buyers could choose between 3.0 V6, 4.4 V8 diesel engines or a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 petrol unit. By early 2014 there was also a diesel-electric hybrid which combined Land Rover's 3.0-litre SDV6 engine with a 35kW electric motor to give 40+ mpg potential with a 0-62mph time of just 6.9 seconds.
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The Autocar verdict
The L405 impressed us in our 12 December 2012 issue – but it got 4.5 stars out of five. We said: "The Range Rover is so achingly close to being a five-star car that it hurts. And the more time you spend with it, the more you live with it, being eased around the world in what is, without question, one of the finest and most impressive cars we've driven in a decade, the easier it becomes to justify… But for all its aluminium technology, the Range Rover having the weight of a Porsche Cayman over each axle is sufficient to rob it of the ultimate accolade".
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The £180,000 Range Rover
The original Range Rover cost just under £2000 when it launched in 1970; the Holland & Holland edition that made its debut at the end of 2014 was priced at £180,000. It wasn't the first time Land Rover had teamed up with gunsmith Holland & Holland; this time, buyers could choose between SDV8 or supercharged V8 petrol engines, with Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations geared up to build 120 examples over a three-year period.
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Modified L405s
Not all fourth-generation Range Rovers were modified quite as tastefully as the Holland & Holland edition. There were plenty of companies happy to take your cash if you wanted a Range Rover with a bit more presence, including Kahn, Mansory, Startech, Lumma and Hamann. The car pictured is by Hamann, which called it the Mystere, presumably because it was a complete mystere as to why anybody would want to be seen in one.
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Range Rover Classic reborn
Jaguar Land Rover was going great guns with its Reborn programme, that brought back to life – sometimes in heavily upgraded form – iconic models from its back catalogue such as the E-Type, Defender and XKSS. In 2017 to this roster was added the three-door Range Rover Classic, priced from £135,000. Those with deep enough pockets could order an as-new Classic built to a far higher standard than any original car, with a 1970s-spec 132bhp 3.5-litre petrol V8.
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The Velar name is revived
When Land Rover launched the Range Rover Velar in 2017, few of the people who went on to buy one would have realised the significance of the Velar name. Priced from just under £45,000, the Range Rover Velar became the fourth member of the Range Rover family, and one of the best looking too to many eyes.
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JIA: the 556bhp Range Rover Classic
In 2017 we tried out a Range Rover Classic with a 556bhp supercharged GM 6.2-litre V8 in its nose – and what a beast it was. Jensen International Automotive mated a Range Rover Classic bodyshell with a Discovery 3 chassis; this £250,000 leviathan could do 0-60mph in under five seconds, featured a completely reworked interior and drove like a modern SUV, albeit a ludicrously fast one.
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The first ever Range Rover coupé
For the first decade of production all Range Rovers had three doors, so the SV Coupé that was unveiled in 2018 was hardly unprecedented. But this was a luxury limousine priced at £250,000, powered by a 550bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8. Sadly it wasn't to be, although Dutch coachbuilder Niels van Roij Design introduced its own version a year later.
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The Astronaut Edition
There have been a lot of special edition Range Rovers over the years, but the Astronaut Edition that arrived in 2019 must surely be the most bizarre. Available only to members of the Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut community, there was a Zero Gravity Blue paint finish and unique interior trim parts including a cup holder made from the spaceship's front landing skid. And no, this wasn't an April Fool.
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Here in 2021: the Range Rover Mk5
Based on an all-new platform, the fifth-generation Range Rover is set to hit showrooms towards the end of 2021 in standard- and long-wheelbase forms. Likely to be offered in petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid and electric guises, the next Range Rover is likely to look similar to the current edition – but it'll be even more technologically advanced and expensive, especially at the top end.
That's because, unlike the last time it re-generated, it now needs to compete with new SUV offerings from the likes of Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and Aston Martin as well as long-time rivals from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The Range Rover story continues. PICTURE: Autocar spyshot
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