9781422270363

The upheaval caused many prototypes and working projects to fail to come to fruition. For example, in 1967, Rover teased a sports car to the British press, but the auto never hit showrooms or sales lots, a victim of the back-to-back mergers, which caused a loss of company culture and altered company leadership, subsequently altering its political will. Although the sports car died, the Range Rover came to light two years following the buyout. Today’s Range Rover in no way resembles the original that debuted in 1970. Although still an SUV, the Land Rover company designed the original vehicle to compete with the American station wagons that surfers used in the 1960s for transporting their surfboards and friends. Those vehicles, nicknamed “woodies,” featured wood-look panels and four-wheel drive, so the surfers could drive directly on the sand. Land Rover wanted to enter the American market but knew that its current lineup didn’t intrigue American car buyers. The venerable United Kingdom firm chose to compete against Jeep and in 1969, it teased car lovers with a prototype Range Rover code named Velar, stemming from the Italian verb velare, meaning to “cover” or “veil.” Land Rover did consider the concept of a code name serious business, so it debuted the vehicle’s 26 prototype models with a badge that used the code name to cover its real identity. The original Range Rover didn’t plan to take over as a luxury SUV. It entered the fray to o ! er the original Jeep Wagoneer competition. Launched in 1963, Jeep’s larger 4x4 quickly earned the love of o ! -roaders. Range Rover hit the market in the United Kingdom in 1970 with a performance engine, a smooth ride, and a 4x4 that could o ! -road agilely. The company’s first SUV o ! ered a boxy, yet roomy, design powered by a Buick aluminum V-8 engine and four-wheel drive. Complemented by compliant coil spring shock absorbers and four wheel disc brakes, the SUV delivered a smooth ride both on and o ! the road. Despite its success in the United Kingdom, it was 17 years later, when it finally was on sale in the United States.

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