Search the Community

Land Rover is giving the Range Rover a special edition to mark the 50th anniversary of the nameplate’s debut in 1970. The Range Rover 50th-anniversary edition will be available in standard or long wheelbase and with a 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 engine rated at 518 hp. It will be available in four colors, but the Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations division will offer small numbers of the vehicle painted in one of three additional heritage colors from the original 1970 Range Rover lineup: Tuscan Blue, Bahama Gold or Davos White. Land Rover will build just 1,970 Range Rover Fifty models for all global markets. Fewer than 400 are planned to be sold in North America.

You know the expression "Kids are starting to learn at an early age nowadays"? After technology, romance, and maybe even swearing, we can add driving to the list - courtesy of Land Rover. While the offer is only valid to the lucky kids in the U.K., I believe it will leave a hunting impression on the teenagers. Start Off-Road is a new initiative by Land Rover that allows teenagers aged 11 to 17 to get behind the wheel of a Range Rover Evoque - and experience true off-road driving. Statistics show that younger drivers pick up new skills easier and are more open to learning good driving habits. By instilling the basics in them at an early stage, it is hoped that they will gain invaluable experience for later in life. The premium U.K. marque will instruct them will skills and techniques that they will go on to utilise throughout their future years both on and off-road. Participants will experience driving techniques including basic ones such as steering, braking and reversing, along with more advanced skills such as climbing and descending hills, crossing ditches and ridges, negotiating ruts, wet grass and mud, and even crossing water. While the novelty of the programme deserves praise, I do not see the logic of teens in high school to be equipped with forest driving skills. But then again, it sure sounds a lot more interesting and fun than watching Twilight with your partner. Each student will receive a personalised Log Book in which to record progress so that when they come again – to the same venue or another venue – they pick up where they left off. Pilot courses are being run at four locations throughout the U.K. As well as providing participants with an invaluable set of skills, the course is also unique in offering youngsters the chance to experience the renowned capability of the Range Rover Evoque, lauded for both its off-road and on-road ability. Safety is not compromised as each Evoque is fitted with dual controls as well as an automatic gearbox, and a dedicated team of instructors are on hand to take participants through every scenario. Parents can also take part in the activity. In contrast, the first time I got behind the wheel, I was 19 in a Honda Civic at BBDC.

[extract] Land Rover vehicles have scooped up three top prizes at the annual Auto Express Awards. The all new Range Rover was voted 'Best Luxury Car' by the judging panel, which consists of the magazine

You may have seen or heard of the city Dubai for its flashy supercars, weird car makeovers and extreme drifting events. But despite being provided with top notch infrastructure, they also like big and bulky SUV's. Maybe because they are surrounded by desert, or petrol is cheap there, or they simply have the money and do not know what to do with it. Regardless being a city surrounded by sand, Dubai is an ideal place for hot weather vehicle tests and the sandy dunes would be ideal for all-wheel drive testing as well. Bearing this in mind, Jaguar Land Rover further enhanced its Middle East test programme by opening a new engineering test centre in Dubai to conduct extreme hot weather vehicle research, development and testing. Temperatures in the desert typically reaching up to 50 degrees Celsius in the summer months. According to Google, its 34 degrees Celsius in Singapore today and I nearly died trying to cross the road after lunch. The new 11,120 sq. ft. facility in the Al Barsha area of Dubai, replaces an existing smaller facility, and will offer a comprehensive range of tests including durability, calibration and hot weather testing for heat and humidity. The engineering team at the new centre will also test powertrains, chassis and heat and ventilation systems, as well as the off-road and sand driving capability of Land Rover's unique Terrain Response system. Including Dubai, Jaguar Land Rover has a network of five global test facilities at Nurburgring in Germany, Arjeplog in Sweden, Phoenix and International Falls in the U.S.A. Jaguar Land Rover Director of Engineering Technical Services Martyn Hollingsworth said, "Jaguar Land Rover has ambitious plans for growth, and since 2008 we have been investing to enhance our engineering capability to help us deliver an unprecedented number of new and refreshed Jaguar and Land Rover models." He continued, "Our new facility in Dubai is four times the size of the previous test centre and will enable us to enhance our testing of future products and technologies. The engineering team is focused on the quality and durability of our products and an important part of this is rigorous environmental testing of our vehicles to ensure they can withstand even the harshest conditions." Robin Colgan, Managing Director Jaguar Land Rover MENA (Middle East and North Africa) added, "Dubai offers some unique and very challenging environmental conditions, so if a vehicle passes our tests here we know it will perform in any hot weather environment. The new facility will be crucial to the company's continued success as every model for the European and MENA markets will be certified here in Dubai following thorough testing before going into global production." Dubai is one of the seven emirates that makes up the UAE and has the largest population and second largest land mass after the capital city of Abu Dhabi. It has the tallest building in the world – the Burj Al-Khalifa - where Tom Cruise was dangling out of in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

[extract] A few of my friends recently test drove the 2012 Range Rover Evoque and most of them basically decided that those that decided to save SG$20,000 or thereabouts for the BMW X3 or the Audi Q5 must have been either mad or simply too 'poor' to afford that extra amount asked by Range Rover for the Evoque. The car is totally 'worth' the SG$260,000 in terms of looks and its interior appointments. It looks stunning in the flesh and is one of those cars that one yearn to own. If one could afford it of course. Anyway, what owners of Range Rover, Land Rover has done is come up with another stunning Evoque, in a chunky Tonka toy sort of way