Test drive Land Rover Range Rover 1994 - 2002 SUV

Pegasus wings

Each country has something that makes up the subject of national pride and is its symbol. For the UK, along with Princess Diana, Tower and local beer, these are certainly Land Rover cars.
Why Pegasus?
There is a legend that the project of Land Rover was so beautifully and pretentiously called the creation of a car that has no analogues in the world and combines the quality of the limousine and a full off -road all -terrain vehicle. The project was successfully implemented in 1994, and Range Rover V8 4.6 HSE was born. He immediately declared himself as a prestigious class of a class of not even VIP, but VVIP, and Elizabeth II contributed to the creation of such an image, which stopped his choice on this model as the official car of the court of the royal Majesty. It is quite obvious that Range Rover 4.6 HSE since his birth was destined for the fate of an exclusive car. It is indecent to mention some mass of mass there. By the way, in some countries various special services were very loved, primarily the protection of senior people in the state. Excellent speed characteristics, high cross -country ability, strength - what else the guardian angels need, so that their ward died exclusively from old age!
But the car, the tuning company Je Engineering, was engaged in the car, and Pegasus, spreading his wings, ascended to a truly unattainable height.
I'm going to take off!
The low sky frowned very much in English, a small rain drizzled. The approaches and entrances to the Khodynsky field were tightly blocked by traffic police in the rank not lower than the major. They were waiting for the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Kulikov, who was invited to the indicative test drive of a Range Rover V8 series S. S. S. S. The Minister never appeared. And somehow, a group of multi-star officials in mouse uniforms quietly resolved in space. I was not interested, therefore, the car is our Ministry of Internal Affairs. But serious customers of this department will probably be interested.
So what is it? At first glance - the usual Range Rover 4.6 HSE. Unless a pair of new little things: the light -linked wheels of a larger wheel and a small modest nameplate on the decorative grille of the radiator with the abbreviation je. The interior decoration, devices and controls, except for the luxury, under a nut tree, handmade steering and the same inserts on the front panel and the central console, are practically no different from the standard 4.6 HSE. The whole special essence was concentrated in a small rectangular green button to the right of the steering wheel.
The topic of a special button in the car is operated in many Western militants. The first to receive her at the disposal, if I am not mistaken, was agent 007. Then there were many others. It looked beautiful and spectacular, but there was nothing more than science fiction. It is noteworthy that it was the compatriots of Mr. Bond that managed to realize this fiction.
The engine is easily launched, the car moves out, nothing special happens. Well, it’s going, well, quickly, so what? Until the moment of pressing this greenish button, a sharp acceleration literally presses the body in the seat. And the ears strive for the back of the head. The huge, almost three -ton Range Rover turns into a cannon core, a shell, a rocket, in God knows what else! He literally goes to take off. A few kilometers of the former runway fly in a matter of seconds. Brake! Small vibration from the work of ABS, and a huge carcass stably recorded on the spot. We stop, turn around and - a new start, a green button is pressed. Something is difficult to believe in. Have you never tried a similar class with a constant full -wheel drive to take a start so that all four wheels on a dry hard coating fall into a slip? And do not try, it will not work anyway. And we did it. Almost. Still, the anti-circus system worked, not allowing to effectively let the smoke.
The secret of the green button
What happened to the car after the JE Engineering experts were conquered over it? The engine is equipped with a boost system - Supercharger, hence the name - S -series. The on -board computer received new software. Significant changes have been made in the engine: they touched the injector, piston, crankshaft and camshaft. The dynamic characteristics as a result have changed a lot, which entailed the modernization of some vital systems of the car. The size of the brake discs has been increased, and special radial grooves are made on them, designed to improve the efficiency of braking. In the rear suspension, a reptile stabilizer of the new design is installed.
Supercharger deserves special attention. This is the basis of the foundations and the subject of the special pride of the creators of the S-series. Here it is, chrome magnificence under the hood! The design installed on the car is a low -pressure turbine. Its belt drive drives it, and it works constantly. In principle, similar systems are known in the USA, they are installed on cars like Chevrolet Tahoe or Jeep Cherokee. But there, as a rule, further installation of the turbine and replacement of rear drum brakes with disk do not go.
The British, in addition to the already mentioned improvements of the engine and suspension, supplied the turbine with a special circuit cooling circuit, the so -called intercooler. This allows you to operate the car in any climatic conditions. But still, the most important thing that is nowhere else and no one had - you have the opportunity to manage a turbocharged: the same green button. Simple pressing - and you will experience all the charms of being inside the cannon nucleus. Repeated press - and you returned to the normal car.
It is unlikely that anyone will turn to call the language like tuning.
FOR THREE PERSONS
Each car has its own face. Each car to one degree or another creates a certain image to its owner. Some help to stand out from the total mass, some-on the contrary, merge with it. Range Rover S -Series is not even to stand out, not to emphasize, it is to rise. Above everyone and everything. For this car can be replaced by three: a chic limousine for special trips, a jeep for leisure and a sports shell for well, why it serves!
All this is worth a lot. And the presentation of the S -series in Moscow is a very significant and even flattering event. Its creators, who previously focused only on the Middle Eastern Sheikhs and the special services of some especially democratic states, realized that in Russia there are also people who want and, most importantly, they can buy this.
The autopilot thanks JE Engineering (England) for the car provided for the test, as well as a club of off-road enthusiasts, (095) 782-1252, for help in preparing the material.
 
One thing can be said with complete confidence: in Russia, alas, there is not a single owner of Range Rover JE. And there are relatively few ordinary ranges. The volume of their sales here is just a few pieces per month. It is all the more surprising that rare owners without any pity subject their cars all kinds of off -road tests. In particular, they go to the famous pokatushki arranged by the 4x4 club. This is how one of their participants spoke about his car, the keyboard player of the time machine Petr Podgodrodsky:
What do you like in this car? Yes all. All good. According to the running, suspension, engine - a cool apparatus. Temperament (it and mine too) has a cavalry scum - but it is better to stay on the Zvenigorod highway, to go more or less carefully. Did this car bring me? Of course no, never. Ugh, ugh, pah. I do not trust my Range Rover even to my beloved woman. Let him learn on another car.
And in general, without a rangge with the Russian crew, not a single competition of SUVs can do. Even in the rally Paris - Dakar participated Range Rover with a crew from the author. Despite the many bent carders, broken gearboxes, gearboxes and clutch baskets, he still reached Senegal - though outside the race.
Sliekot, dirt and unsteady sands are one of two places where you can find the happy owners of Range Rover. The second is the highest spheres, royal palaces and presidential apartments. Elizabeth II rides on an elongated, special restrained-green color. There is almost the same rang in Moscow - it belongs to the English embassy. And most of all, the Rover Rovers are actually not in England, but in Iran. This is a typical car of the Eastern Lord. After the death of the famous Iranian Shah, Muhammad Redge Pakhlavi, more than a thousand English SUVs remained in his garage! Each of them had a strictly defined role. On one, the shah drove his son to the school, went to the other to the shores of the Caspian, another accompanied him in flights this year, part of the modest eastern fleet was set at auction in Geneva.
An exclusive car is exclusive that it does not and should not be direct classmates. There can only be analogues: in the world, there are successfully firms that engage in their manufacture, making themselves a loud name on this. Standard models are taken as a basis, as it should be well -owned by a number of parameters and in this form are offered no less exclusive consumers.
The first attempts to create a truly exclusive car based on a jeep can hardly be called successful. A separate significant improvement in the dynamics and speed characteristics led to the fact that there was nothing left of the source except the body. We are talking about the GMC Typhoon, created by the GMC engineers on the basis of Jimmy and at one time porsche among SUVs. Yes, he became Porsche, but completely lost the right to be called an SUV.
Independent companies that are seriously engaged in such a business are not limited to refinement of a purely cosmetic nature. Brabus, which processes only Mercedes Benz cars, or Beverly Hills Motoring gives the standard car new qualities, leaving it nevertheless within the framework of their class.
Mercedes Gelandevagen remains a car of increased cross-country ability, however, with a much more powerful 12-cylinder engine, an enhanced suspension and luxurious interior decoration, which has a TV, video system and an audio system of High-End. About the same thing happens with the GMC Suburban or Tahoe, which are rolled out of the Beverly Hills Motoring gate.
Je Engineering committed something fundamentally new, challenging the laws of the genre. Having combined the properties and quality of several on the basis of one class at once, it, in fact, laid the foundation of a special class of cars. Yes, he is very expensive, yes, he is very exclusive and specific, but he appeared, and this is a fact.
By the way, according to our intelligence data, General Motors is going to reanimate the Typhoon project in the near future, only under a different name. So the real classmate Range Rover from Je Engineering can appear.
 
Andrey Timofeev,
Alexander Semin (photo)

 

A source: "Autopilot"