Land Rover- open topped 4x4 ..!!!
Wild Rover: Classic off-roader is reborn as open topped 4x4 beast
By RAY MASSEY
Last updated at 1:36 PM on 13th September 2011
Born as a rugged workhorse for farmers, the classic British Land Rover has always been rough and ready.
But now, it seems, it's been pumped with the automotive equivalent of steroids.
For the new Land Rover Defender, unveiled today at the Frankfurt Motor Show, is a muscular open-topped beast of a car.
Cutting edge: The new Land Rover DC100 Sport is a muscular open-topped beast of a car
The classic design has been given a high-tech makeover
Codenamed the DC100 Sport, it is designed to be as useful off-road as the trusty original of 1948.
But, bristling with high-tech wizardry and with a strikingly macho appearance, it is likely to appeal to fashionable city dwellers when it goes on sale from 2015.
The Defender’s new features include ‘Wade Aid’, which uses sonar to assess water depth when crossing a shallow river or ford, and next-generation Terrain Response to optimise the car’s drive settings for any type of environment.
It also has fighter jet-style ‘Terrain-i’, which maps the contours of what’s ahead to create a 3D image on the dashboard screen, and retractable tyre spikes for driving on snow and ice. And when you’re not taking on the great outdoors, there’s even a park-assist system to help you at the supermarket.
Retro: Winston Churchill stands next to the original Land Rover Series 1, sometime between 1948 and 1958
A Land Rover spokesman said: ‘It takes its cue from the early canvas-roofed Defenders with their fold-down windscreens that still typify the Land Rover spirit of adventure and exploration. It features a wrap-around aero screen and cut-down side windows for exhilarating open-air motoring.’
Even its colour – metallic amber – is designed to echo the ‘vibrant ochre hues found in Africa’. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover claims three-quarters of the two million Defenders built since the original are still in regular use.
Even the first pre-production model, which is on display at the Heritage Motor Centre museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire, remains in working condition.
The metallic amber colour is designed to echo the 'vibrant ochre hues of Africa'
The Defender's features include a sonar to assess water depth when crossing a shallow river or ford
Britain’s answer to the American Jeep, the Land Rover was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1948 as the world’s first mass-produced civilian 4 x 4.
Early fans included the Queen, who used a specially adapted model for her first world tour in 1953. Winston Churchill was given one as an 80th birthday present at his home in Chartwell.
And shortly after Group Captain Peter Townsend ended his love affair with the young Princess Margaret in the 1950s, the former battle of Britain pilot set off on a 57,000-mile journey around the world in his Land Rover Station Wagon.
The Land Rover for the 21st century has been designed to tackle all kinds of terrain
But this thing is owned by TATA so you can imagine how dramatically the already low reliability has worsened!
sorry. double post.
i prefer the original Land Rover Series 1 pictured above (the one with Churchill pictured next to).