On the 17th of June, the Range Rover will celebrate its 40th birthday. The original, or ‘Classic’ went on sale in 1970, and remained in production for over 25 years.
The in 1994, the Range Rover P38a series went on sale, before being replaced in 2001 by the current model. Usually fatness comes with middle age, and you’d expect that perhaps the Range Rover would be the same, especially with the amount on school runs, never leaving the urban sprawl. But that’s not the case at all!
“The Range Rover is really four vehicles in one,” says managing director Phil Popham. “It’s a seven-days-a-week luxury motor car; a leisure vehicle that will range far and wide on the highways and noways of the world; a high performance car for long distance travel; and a working cross-country vehicle.”
And he’s right, I can vouch for him personally. At the famous SMMT Test Day at the Millbrook test track, I was lucky enough to be taken over an extremely challenging off road route in a Range Rover. Despite being full to the brim with the latest tech, with everything from TVs to heated and cooled seats, the Range Rover took anything that could be thrown at it, from crawling down steep hills covered in loose gravel, to wading through a lake. It’s a true ‘go anywhere’ vehicle.
So happy birthday Range Rover. Here’s to 40 years more!
