Long before the luxury SUVs of today appeared in showrooms, there was just the Range Rover in the segment that had yet to be created. It was introduced 50 years ago in June 1970, a product at the top of the Land Rover Range which even the Queen of England appreciated.
Over five decades, the Range Rover has been a pioneer of all-wheel drive technologies, achieved many world firsts and completed numerous impressive feats. It was the first SUV to feature a permanent 4WD system when it was launched and, in 1989, was the world’s first 4×4 to be fitted with ABS. Three years later, it became the world’s first 4×4 to be fitted with electronic traction control and automatic electronic air suspension. In 2012, the latest generation Range Rover became the world’s first SUV to feature an all-aluminium lightweight construction, making it lighter, stronger and more efficient.
A must-have in the garages of many rich and famous owners, the Range Rover has also made a name for itself as a very capable all-terrain vehicle. It has crossed the notoriously impassable ‘Darien Gap,’ a remote and dangerous area between Panama and Colombia. It has been used by adventurers to explore new territory on the planet and has even been a winner in the Paris-Dakar rally – twice. And it was the first vehicle to ever be displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
To celebrate 50 years of a motoring icon, a Range Rover Fifty edition of the fourth generation has been created, restricted to just 1,970 vehicles globally, in recognition of the year the original Range Rover was launched. Building on the luxuriously appointed Autobiography, the Range Rover Fifty features a number of bespoke exterior accents in Auric Atlas as well as two unique 22-inch wheel designs.
The badging features a ‘Fifty’ script created personally by the ‘Guardian of Land Rover DNA’, Professor Gerry McGovern, Land Rover Chief Creative Officer, which will appear on the exterior of the vehicle and throughout the interior on the unique ‘1 of 1970’ centre console commissioning plaque, headrests, dashboard and illuminated treadplates.
“In the world of luxury vehicles, the Range Rover has always stood apart as peerless and enduring,” said Prof. McGovern. “Its unique and pioneering sensibilities, together with an unrivalled engineering approach, have been the intrinsic values which our customers have admired since the first of the breed was revealed in 1970.”
The Range Rover Fifty will be available in both standard and long wheelbase body designs with customers able to choose from four carefully curated exterior colours. Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations is also offering the Range Rover Fifty in one of three Heritage exterior solid paints reproduced from the original Range Rover paint palette of Tuscan Blue, Bahama Gold and Davos White.
A range of powertrain options will be available – petrol, diesel and even a plug-in hybrid P400e version. For customers in North America, each example will be fitted with a 518 bhp 5-litre supercharged V8 powertrain.
