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Land Rover Legacy Project & Old Prints

I know I mentioned this a while back but now that it’s actually open, I thought I’d post it again:

Land Rover Legacy Exhibition

A new exhibition about the history of the Lode Lane Solihull factory will take place at the Solihull Central Library from 9 – 25 November. The exhibition tells the story of the Lode Lane factory, its people and products, from 1940 to the present day and features photographs from the Archives of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust. Many of these photographs have never before been viewed by the general public.

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I wish I had the time to get over there before the 25th and see what they’re showing, if you can make it to Solihull, please let me know how it was.

In the same Land Rover history vein – Motorgraphs has some great classic Land Rover & Range Rover photos that you can order in various printed formats. This isn’t an endorsement, just something I think is really neat!

http://www.motorgraphs.com/

Michael2010-11-16T09:22:00-05:00November 16, 2010|

Land Rover Links and Misc Clearance from Sept / Oct

As I do from time to time, here are some links & pictures I’ve collected over the past month or so and just didn’t have a place for them:

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For UK readers, you can pre-order an Evoque here: https://forms.landrover.com/preorder.aspx?marketid=4&langid=2&sreferrer=LLR1710IN_YR&campaignid=LLR1710IN_YR

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For some really crazy Land Rover / Jaguar minutia, check out this site:

http://www.volvologistics.com/logistics/global/en-gb/about%20us/Risk%20management%20documents/Handling%20instructions/Pages/Jag%20Land%20Rover.aspx

There are all sorts of public documents showing how they transport the Land Rovers & Jaguars around the world. The documents have pictures & instructions and things you just may never have known – nor do you really need to know, but it makes great reading for the fanatic.

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Robert Dover, former Chief Executive and Chairman of Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin has been appointed as Chairman of Overfinch

UPDATE: Unfortunate update to the Overfinch story: Range Rover specialist Overfinch in administration

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New Land Rover fan forums site: http://www.mylandroverhasasoul.com

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Mansory showed off it’s latest Range Rover Sport design with a scooped hood & carbon fiber – there are some interesting interior cues that Land Rover could get ideas from:

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And finally, here are some real shots of the Jet leather headliner, a no cost option for the Range Rover Autobiography.

Michael2010-11-12T00:35:15-05:00November 10, 2010|

Just some more notes on the Land Rover / Range Rover branding split #landrover #rangerover

rr-na

When Range Rovers first became officially available in the US back in 1987, the name of the car company here was, Range Rover of North America – prior to that, you could get Range Rovers, but I believe they were all grey market. Here’s an ad from 1984, showing they were available.

Anyway, back to the focus of the post, just more notes on the separation that’s happening between Land Rover & Range Rover as brands. From the slow removal of Land Rover badges from the Range Rovers to the branding they’re using on the web. The actual Land Rover website has two distinct looks and logos depending on what models you’re looking at:

lr-web web-rr

The thing to notice there is that “Range Rover” logo in the upper left of the page. It’s those separate Land Rover / Range Rover logos that are showing up more often. Here’s the cover & last page from the iPad version of the OneLife magazine.

onelife

I didn’t notice all this extra Range Rover specific branding until the Evoque launch, I probably just wasn’t paying close enough attention prior, but now I can’t miss it. Especially when those first Evoque pictures were missing any type of Land Rover branding – a Land Rover badge did appear on the Paris show car.

And finally, back to that OneLife magazine/app, they seem to be very careful in talking about Land Rovers and Range Rovers as independent items which seems like a lot of PR editing.

Directly from the Ratan Tata article:

Tata wants to broaden the Land Rover and Range Rover model range and further differentiate the two brands to attract more customers to the business.

I just wonder what that means exactly? Is this going to be a Toyota/Lexus arrangement? We currently only have two Land Rover models in the US. If this grows with something like the still secret L486 project, where do the Land Rover models fit in? Why not lose them and go all Range Rover? Are they going to be a lot cheaper? There will be a Range Rover at the $40,000 level with the Evoque and I know it’s not the LR4 segment, but what’s going to be the differentiator? Is it just to help people with the confusion between LR & RR that happens at times?

Can someone explain?

lr-rr

Michael2010-10-31T00:02:56-04:00November 8, 2010|

YouTube feature–Land Rover-Bred in the Bone

Great 2 part video – HUE166 is featured and even some center steer shots, I’ve never seen before. The first part focuses on the first 10 years of Land Rover, the second part shows us the NEW for 1958 Series 2.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Michael2010-10-17T19:41:13-04:00November 2, 2010|

The Evoque, the fireplace & OneLife on the iPad #rangeroverevoque

So Land Rover UK has created their OneLife magazine as a free new app on the iPad:

They always like to add in a lot of “lifestyle” content to these things and nothing is different here with an article on Bhutan with “Range Rover” references sprinkled throughout. And there’s also one about a father and son team in the Freelander 2, here’s their video (it’s also available in the app itself):

But along with those articles, we usually do get some real info that doesn’t always show up in other places. We hear from Ratan Tata, current JLR owner with some good insight. And from the actual designers & engineers on the Evoque team. It was there that we learn from the Chief Program Engineer, David Mitchell that:

They’ve adapted the LRX feature where by the lights on the instrument clusters change from blue to red depending on which sport dynamic mode it’s in.
They call the center stack the “fireplace”, which also has an ambient glow – now for this one I’m not totally clear on – did he mean the area that’s lit up behind the HVAC controls? Or the storage area between the armrest and the Terrain Response controls? He mentions it’s where you’d keep sunglasses or other odds & ends.
Finally, when unlocking the vehicle, there is a glow from underneath – is this an enhancement to the puddle/approach lamps or real ground effects? – UPDATE – I missed this in the original PR: “Approach the car at night, and you will also see a bold vehicle graphic alongside the front doors, illuminated by the ‘puddle lights’ which shine from the mirrors.”

So overall, they did a really great job on this issue and I recommend you check it out.

Here’s a link to it again:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/onelife-magazine/id396905875?mt=8#

I’ve got a little more to say about it, but will follow-up in another post since it’s a different topic.

Michael2010-11-04T20:11:30-04:00November 1, 2010|