Land Rover Range Rover test drive since 2009 SUV
After a slope. Part One - Range Rover
Following the next exhibition, having come to your senses and allowing you to stand what you see, each time you find something that causes surprise. This, most often, is far from the most important and not the most striking from the standpoint of the mass viewer of the auto show. But this is what catches me as a professional engineer-designer and, of course, as an automobile journalist with 35 years of experience. This time we are talking about the Parisian car dealership.
In the focus of my attention there were three exhibitions that arranged: Land Rover, Jaguar and Peugeot. In this sequence I will begin my story.
I will come from afar. Three days before the completion of the Moscow car dealership on the evening of September sixth in England, a presentation of the fully updated Range Rover was held at the Royal Ballet School of Richmond Park. In the morning of the next day, we told about this and gave a rather detailed report with the characteristics of the novelty.
Thus, the assessment of the salon in Moscow was automatically determined, which, according to the British, clearly does not reach such serious shows as the completely new Range Rover. But, we must pay tribute that the British value the Russian market directly, very, very highly. This conclusion suggests itself based on the fact that the presentation of the completely new Range Rover in Moscow took place only a day later.
The world premiere, of course, was in Paris. What is it about. But closer to the body (I did not describe it). The fact is that the most amazing in New Range is his body. For the first time in the world, the SUV has a completely aluminum nramy body. Moreover, in terms of rigidity, surpassing all previous versions! For the uninitiated, I will say that it is simply amazing. The mass of the car decreased by 420 kg! Imagine, with the same size, you took and lost almost half a ton. Incredible. I will not discuss the rest of the bells and whistles, they are described in detail in a press release. Look, it's interesting. And yet, I am attaching 12 videos of sketches that give a complete picture of the dynamics of forms and the capabilities of the new SUV. By the way, about the SUV. Some call him a complete nonsense crossover. This is a real, full -blooded premium SUV. On this car, however, the previous generation I happened to drive not only to the hills and rivers of Scotland, but also at special training grounds. This was made a training film by off -road driving technique. After a month and a half, I will post it on the site. I think that the new Range will behave no worse. I admit, I have not felt him yet, but the fact that now the depth of the overcame armor is 90 cm. (!) Says a lot.
A rather curious conversation took place with Frank Witteman Director General of Jaguar Land Rover in Russia.
We talked about a lot and one of the new Range Rover. I asked Frank that too many functions were concentrated in Range. When there is a lot in one, then, as a rule, each individual function is flawed: Frank, I have been seriously observing the development of Range Rover for more than 12 years. This is a wonderful SUV, this is a real premium car (the queen of England does not hesitate to drive it), and recently it is a claim to a sports car, which is indicated by the equipment with a 510-horsepower engine and racing settings of the entire system. Such versatility clearly affects reliability and quality as a whole. There are many jokes on this subject around the world, and you probably know them. Tell me, the direction of universality in the ideology of the project remains?
And why not, ”answered Wittemann. Universality is our horse. We are the only ones all over the world. Yes, I agree that this is very difficult, but we gained experience and with each new generation Range Rover becomes more perfect and perfect. With reliability, of course, there were problems at one time, but today a lot has already been done to solve this difficult problem. And, you know, to get the stigma and spoil the reputation is quite easy. But to fix it archlical. We are doing this now. Most problems no longer exist, and the memory of them still works.
Then tell me, ”I continued to pester Frank,“ why are the creators of Range Rover in pursuit of universality stubbornly trying to endow it with features of a racing car? ” I went on the track on a charged version, and I will say that in addition to the cannon dynamics of acceleration from the sports car in Range Rover there is nothing.
Well, firstly, in this version there are real needs of the market, and secondly, try the new Range Rover on the track and then we will talk about this, ”Frank Wittemann completed this sensitive topic.
It was an unknown argument and he had nothing to object to him.
Source: Magazine 5 wheel [October 2012]
