"Legendary vehicle", "Desert King" and other no less flattering nicknames of Land Rover are truly well-deserved. No other all-terrain vehicle has so many admirers the world over. Just in its home country, the UK, there are at least four magazines devoted exclusively to Land Rover cars.
The very first Land Rover was presented to the public on April 30, 1948 at the Amsterdam Motor Show. It was designed by Maurice Wilks as a utilitarian vehicle and in the subsequent years was subjected to a number of upgrades, getting the Defender designation in the process. It was this very model, Defender, which helped Land Rover to acquire the unique position of a company which makes the best off-road vehicles in the world. The model was so successful it has been manufactured practically without any changes since the beginning of production just after the World War II. Despite its seeming simplicity the car enjoys a quite prestigious image. The British Queen still uses the most basic version of Defender, and Sir Winston Churchill got a Defender I as a present for his 80th birthday in 1954.
Having easily gotten over the half-a-century milestone, Defender is still very much around. The car has unique off-road potential and is amazingly undemanding. The ability to go practically anywhere made the first Land Rover the favourite car of travellers, explorers and adventurers. The automobile is immediately recognisable thanks to its typical features. The first Defender's front wings were made flat because initially the designers were unable to mould aluminium sheet into a complex shape. They remain like that until now. Car owners even liked to place their cups of tea on top of them during a traditional English five o'clock somewhere in the middle of an African savannah or Amazon jungle. When Defender's metal radiator grill was replaced with a plastic one, the makers received numerous complaints from the customers. It turned out that in certain parts of the world people used to take the grill off and use it for barbecues. The ascetic passenger compartment, according to the designers, helps the owners to stay in good physical shape and in good spirits.
Defender comes in three versions with different wheelbase: 90, 110 and 130 inches. The short-base 90-inch series includes convertible and hard-top 3–7-seats estate, minivan and pickup cars with 600–850 kg carrying capacity. The convertible model with a folding cloth roof, a 3.9-litre V8 engine and automatic transmission is exported to the USA. The medium-base 110-inch series offers a wider choice: a pickup, a 5-door station wagon and a double-cabin Crew Cab which had its debut in Geneva in 2000. It's being actively promoted by Land Rover due to the world-wide fashion for this type of all-terrain vehicles' body. The hard-frame chassis allows installing any kind of body, like in a child's construction set. The longest 130-inch series belongs to a utilitarian class; these cars mostly come with specialised bodies. 130s have a 1.4 tons carrying capacity, and their full mass is close to 3.1 tons so the powerful winch connected to the transfer box doesn't seem unnecessary. Defender isn't a fast car (120–140 kmph); its main purpose is going where there are no roads, not taking part in highway races. The best-selling Defenders come not with voracious V8 injector engines but with efficient and undemanding 5-cylinder turbocharged in-house designed Diesels. Their 2.5-litre cubic capacity is enough to get 122 hp and 300 Nm torque.
In 1970 a new model - Range Rover - was presented to the public. This more stylish and comfortable automobile became immediately popular. It does have excellent off-road potential but at the same time it was positioned as a high-end car. This didn't stop it from winning its first 1979 Paris-Dakar rally in 1979, driven by Joseph Terbiaut.
In 1980 four Germans decided to drive through the impassable South American roads. Their first sponsor was Camel tobacco brand, so the event was called Camel Trophy. A bit later Land Rover also became a sponsor - permanently. Every year for twenty years in a row the participants of this grandiose raid had conquered the most insurmountable routes and visited the most exotic and beautiful places in the world: the islands of Borneo and Mundo Maya, Tanzania and Mongolia, Chile and the Philippines took turns to host this fantastically hard, long and grandiose marathon trophy.
Numerous countries competed with each other to have a Camel Trophy stage. The best crews were selected from all over the world. The only permanent fixture was Land Rover Discovery cars painted in Camel's brand-name yellow. Neither the extremely strict selection procedure nor the tremendously hard conditions of the race scared the enthusiasts. But nothing lasts forever in this world, so one of the most famous trophy raids no longer bears the Camel logo. Environmental concerns and the trend for a healthy life prevailed over the image of the unshaven tough guy with a cigarette. Land Rover G4 Challenge came to take the place of Camel Trophy in 2003. The world-wide adventure competition became a new grand automobile project. The spirit of the event has also changed: the adventures are still very much there but these days they have a pronounced "environmental" tinge.
Land Rover headquarters are based in the UK not far from Birmingham, in the town of Solihull. In 2000 Ford bought the company from BMW for $3 billion. The company's Premier Automotive subsidiary which makes luxury cars, apart from Land Rover includes Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lincoln and Volvo. The group is headed by Wolfgang Reitzle, previously the second man in BMW.
At this stage the Land Rover model line includes five cars: Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Discovery 3, Freelander 2 and Defender.
Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are de luxe all terrain vehicles with unique off-road potential. Their passenger compartments are not as ascetic as Defender's - in fact comfortable enough to satisfy even the most demanding aristocrat. Owners of such cars are usually perceived as wealthy people with good taste.
To celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2008, Land Rover is going to introduce a special version of the legendary Defender. Today most of the 25,000 Defender cars made each year are simply necessary to ensure normal operation of farmers, forestry and emergency services and humanitarian organisations. However, the SVX model is going to become the most stylish and perfect Defender car ever.
Defender SVX will come in convertible soft-top and estate versions. The distinctive marks will include the striking unique "Defender" and "SVX" badges, tubular steps at the sides, pronounced design of the radiator grill and new lenses for the headlights. All cars will have new diamond-tooled five-spoke wheel disks, reinforced aluminium front bumper and new LED backlights. In the passenger compartment SVX will feature custom-made Recaro seats, gearshift made of a special alloy, a new multimedia system with a subwoofer, USB port and iPod jack and Garmin navigation system. The convertible version looks especially trendy, thanks to the silvery metallic tubular frame supporting the custom-made black fabric roof. The car has a flatbed cargo compartment and a spare wheel behind the front seats - an allusion to the very first open-top Land Rover.
Land Rover keeps working on new models and during the next Detroit Motor Show in January, 2008 is going to present the new LRX concept: a three-door crossover premium-class coupe. The LRX design shows affection to the Land Rover brand but it's a totally new car, which is yet another proof of the fact that Land Rover doesn't make ordinary vehicles.
Vladimir Golovin
Photoreport
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