Background
The Range Rover became an “overnight success” at its launch in 1970. Like so many overnight successes, the Range Rover had actually navigated a long and, appropriately, bumpy road to automotive glory, however.
As far back as 1949 the Wilks brothers were already growing insecure about the potential longevity of their world-conquering Land Rover. Thoughts were turning to ways to broaden its appeal beyond the Land Rover’s uber-utilitarian hinterland. Their first attempt was the 80 Inch Station Wagon of 1948. Basically, a Land Rover in a soave looking suit, courtesy of coachbuilders Tickford of Newport Pagnell. The coachbuilding process conspired to render the vehicle prohibitively expensive and, hence, it sold in very small numbers. With just 650 units shifted between 1948 and 1951 the model was hastily withdrawn. Despite this less than auspicious start, many consider this vehicle as the origin of the Range Rover lineage.
A couple of years later what we might now describe as a crossover was built and tested. The “Road Rover” aimed to capture some of the offroad DNA of the Land Rover but in a significantly diluted form and based on a two-wheel drive Rover P4 chassis with an exaggerated ride height and an estate body. The concept was in development for nearly a decade before being finally cancelled in 1958.
Like all the best ones, it was an idea that just wouldn’t lie down, however. In 1966 and goaded and frustrated in equal measure by the success of the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wagoneer in the US, Rover revived development of an equivalent model. This time it had the design luminaries Spencer “Spen” King and Gordon Bashford in its corner, so the odds of success were significantly improved.
King’s ethos was simple. Combine the comfort and on road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road capabilities of the Land Rover. Designer David Bache, who penned the P6 saloon, was charged with the aesthetic design. Ultimately, he simply refined the slab panelled prototype used by King and Bashford in what has to be one of the most fortuitous “design accidents” in automotive history.
The project got boardroom approval in 1966 and 10 prototypes were produced and given the code name “Velar.” The car was launched in 1970 and the rest, of course, is history. The original car was far from a luxury conveyance, however. The days of luxury saloon rivalling Range Rovers were still a good then years, or so, in its future. For now, at least, it was all hosepipe friendly rubber mats and vinyl seats. This in no way detracted from the new car’s charms, however. Few put it better than the Farmers Weekly of 1970 did: “Before the Range Rover there can never have been a vehicle that tops 90mph, cruises comfortably at 30mph over suspension crippling potholes, has a cross-country performance that the Land Rover would find difficult to better, and wraps all its qualities in an elegance which galvanises hotel doormen into instant action.”
