Range Rover Classic

Concept and design

Although only intended to be a post-war stopgap, Rover's Land Rover 4x4 that was launched in 1948 proved to be a worldwide success; within two years, it was vastly outselling the company's usual product of semi-luxury cars. The Land Rover had been designed to be cheap, simple to manufacture and suitable for hard work in rural terrain. It was a basic vehicle with minimal concessions toward comfort. On early vehicles, the canvas hood, passenger seats and even doors were optional extras. From the beginning Rover realized that a market existed for a Land Rover that was off-road capable but more comfortable and civilized. In 1949 the Land Rover station wagon was released with a coach-built wood-framed body by Tickford. While an improvement on the standard vehicle (the Tickford had seven seats, floor carpets, a heater, a one-piece windscreen and other car-like features), its hand-built nature kept prices high. Less than 700 were sold before sales ceased in 1951.

In 1954 Land Rover launched its second type of Land Rover station wagon, this time built by the company itself. The new version was much more successful but was aimed at the commercial user who needed an off-road people-carrier rather than the buyer requiring car-like comfort in an off-roader. The station wagon was based on the commercial variant of the Land Rover but with seats fitted to the load space and windows cut into the sides. While available with features such as an interior light, heater, door and floor trims and upgraded seats, the station wagon retained the base vehicle's tough and capable but firm suspension as well as its mediocre road performance.

By the late 1950s, Rover became convinced that a market existed for a vehicle combining the toughness and ability of the Land Rover with the comfort of a Rover saloon car. In 1958 the first of the "Road Rover" series were built. These were a series of development cars built by the engineering department consisting of Land Rover chassis and running gear clothed in a functional but car-like estate car body. The Road Rover was aimed at markets such as Africa and Australia where ordinary motorists faced long journeys on unmade roads where a vehicle with four-wheel drive and tough suspension was a benefit.

By the 1960s, Rover was becoming aware of the development of the sports utility vehicle (SUV) in North America. SUVs such as the International Harvester Scout and the Ford Bronco offered a different blend of off- and on-road ability from existing utility 4x4s such as the Land Rover and the Jeep, proving capable of good on-road comfort and speed while retaining more than adequate off-road ability for most private users. The Jeep Wagoneer proved the concept further. The final element of what would become the Range Rover concept was provided by the president of Rover's USA operations who, frustrated by the lack of suitable vehicles from Britain to compete with the new crop of SUVs, sent Rover a Land Rover Series II 88 fitted with a Buick V8 engine which offered far greater on-road performance and refinement than any Land Rover then in production.

Rover acknowledged the emergence of this new market for recreational off-roaders, and, in 1967, with Charles Spencer King in charge, began the "100-inch Station Wagon" program to develop a radical car to compete. King quickly defined the basic layout of the new vehicle, realizing that only long-travel coil springs could provide the required blend of luxury car comfort and Land Rover's established off-road ability. (King is said to have been convinced by coil springs while driving a Rover P6 across rough scrubland on part of the Solihull factory site that was being redeveloped, but Rover also bought a Ford Bronco which featured such a suspension system in the early stages of the 100-inch SW program). Spencer King was also convinced that a permanent four-wheel drive transmission was needed both to provide adequate handling and to reliably absorb the power that would be required by the vehicle if it was to be competitive. This required a totally new transmission unit to be developed, but Rover spread development costs between the 100-inch SW project and one working on what would become the Land Rover 101 Forward Control. The adoption by Rover of the Buick alloy V8 engine had provided the perfect powerplant for the new 4x4, being powerful, light and sturdy. Various modifications were made to the design to suit use in the Range Rover, such as fitting different carburetors that maintained fuel supply at extreme angles and making a provision for the engine to use a starting handle in emergencies.

The final design, launched in 1970 with bodywork styled largely by the engineering team rather than David Bache's styling division, was marketed as "A Car For All Reasons". In its original guise, the Range Rover was more capable off-road than the Land Rover but was much more comfortable, offering a top speed in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h), a towing capacity of 3.5 tons, spacious accommodation for five people and groundbreaking features such as a four-speed, dual-range, permanent four-wheel-drive gearbox and hydraulic disc brakes on all wheels.

Body

Like other Land Rover vehicles, most of the Range Rover's bodywork skin is constructed from lightweight aluminium, except for the two-section rear tailgate, and the bonnet on all but the earliest models. Apart from minor cosmetic changes, the body design changed very little in its first decade. However, while utility Land Rovers had body panels rolled from a single sheet of aluminium, the Range Rover used aluminium panels hung on a steel 'safety frame' (a method pioneered with great success on the Rover P6 saloon). This allowed the bodywork of the Range Rover to carry much greater structural strength with the steel frame while retaining the corrosion-resistant and easily repaired aluminium outer panels. While the steel frame was designed by the engineering team, it was expected that Rover's stylist David Bache would provide a design for the outer panels for use on the production vehicles. For the prototypes the engineers designed their own functional body panels simply to protect the occupants and to allow the vehicles to be driven legally on the road. However the clean, square-cut and functional design of the prototype was deemed so good that Bache only altered the detailing, such as providing a different front grille and headlamp design.

Early vehicles may be distinguished by the rear 'C' pillars being absent of a vinyl covering which was introduced a little later in the 1970s.

One of the first significant changes came in 1981, with the introduction of a four-door body. Until then, Range Rovers only had two doors, making access to the rear seats rather awkward. These doors were also very large and heavy. Several companies offered conversions to four doors in the late 1970s. That by one of these companies, Monteverdi, was approved for warranty purposes by Land Rover and was closely followed when the company then produced its own development. The four-door version was received well by the public; its popularity was such that the two-door was discontinued in the United Kingdom in 1984, although the two-door continued to be produced to January 1994, mainly for the French market.

The first major push upmarket was in 1984, which saw the availability of leather trim and automatic transmission; this was followed by the 1985 model year, which saw the instrument pod replaced by a more modern one (adapted from the Austin Maestro) and new door cards (using Austin Metro door handles) with walnut inlays.

The front end of the Range Rover was revamped in 1986. This brought a more pedestrian-friendly plastic grille with horizontal slats, and optional front valance with two fog lights. The seat base was lowered and door handles were redesigned, making it more difficult for rear passengers but greatly improving the comfort for taller people in the front. Other changes included the windows, tailgate and bonnet, but none of those affected the general design. Bonnet and door hinges gradually evolved out of sight and the fuel filler cap was hidden behind a hinged flap.

Chassis and suspension

The Range Rover broke from the Land Rovers of its time by using coil springs instead of the then-common leaf springs. Because of its hefty weight, it also had disc brakes on all four wheels. Originally, it had no power steering, though this was added a few years after its introduction.

One problem with the Range Rover chassis was that it suffered considerably from body roll. Because of this, the suspension was lowered by 20 mm (0.8 in) in 1980, and later gained anti-roll bars. Air suspension was introduced in late 1992 for high-end 1993 models.

Most Range Rovers had a 100-inch (2,540 mm) wheelbase. However, 1992 saw the introduction of a more luxurious model, branded the LSE in the United Kingdom and County LWB (long wheelbase) in the United States, providing expansive rear-passenger legroom absent from the 100-inch wheelbase models. These had a 108-inch (2,743 mm) wheelbase and 4.2-litre engines.

The 100-inch Range Rover chassis became the basis for the Land Rover Discovery, introduced in 1989.

Engines

Originally, the Range Rover was fitted with a detuned 135 hp (101 kW) version of the Buick-derived Rover V8 engine. The 3,528 cc (3.5 L; 215.3 cu in) engine was increased to a displacement of 3,947 cc (3.9 L; 240.9 cu in) for the 1990 model year, and 4,197 cc (4.2 L; 256.1 cu in) in 1992.

Petrol-fuelled Range Rovers were fitted with carburettors until 1986, when they were replaced by Lucas electronic fuel injection, improving both performance and fuel economy. The Lucas injection system continued to evolve over the next several years, culminating in the 1990 to 1995 Lucas 14CUX. Some export markets retained carburettors, with the original Zenith/Stromberg manufactured units being replaced by Skinners Union (SU)-manufactured items.

From 1979 onwards, Land Rover collaborated with Perkins on Project Iceberg, an effort to develop a diesel version of the Range Rover's 3.5-litre V8 engine. Both naturally aspirated and turbocharged versions were built, but the all-alloy engine blocks failed under the much greater pressures involved in diesel operation. The project was, therefore, abandoned. The effort to strengthen the Rover V8 for diesel operation was not, however, completely wasted; the 4.2-litre petrol variant of the engine used crankshaft castings developed in the Iceberg project.

Because of the Iceberg failure, it was not until 1986 that Range Rovers gained diesel engines from the factory. The more efficient 2,393 cc (2.4 L; 146.0 cu in) inline-four VM diesel from Italy was made available as an option for the heavily taxed European market as the 'Turbo D' model, and were increased to 2,499 cc (2.5 L; 152.5 cu in) in 1989. The VM engines were highly advanced and refined diesel engines for their time but were received poorly by the UK press, who tended to compare their performance to the V8 models. To counter these criticisms Land Rover used a Turbo D Range Rover to set several speed and endurance records for diesel vehicles during 1987, including a continuous run over 24 hours at over 100 mph (160 km/h). The VM were replaced by Land Rover's own 200Tdi turbocharged diesel engine in 1992. and 300Tdi at the end of 1994.

Transmission

The Range Rover used permanent four-wheel drive, rather than the switchable rear-wheel/four-wheel drive on Land Rover Series vehicles, and had a lever for switching ratios on the transfer box for off-road use. Originally, the only gearbox available was a four-speed manual unit, until Fairey overdrive became an option after 1977. A three-speed Chrysler TorqueFlite automatic gearbox became an option in 1982, which was upgraded to a 4-speed ZF box in 1985, coupled to an LT230 transfer box. The other major transmission upgrade in the Range Rover's lifetime was the switch from the LT95 combined four-speed manual gearbox and transfer box to the LT77 five-speed gearbox and separate LT230 transfer box in 1983. The LT230 was later used on both the Defender and Discovery models, but was replaced on the Range Rover by a Borg Warner chain-driven transfer box incorporating an automatic viscous coupling limited slip differential - earlier transmissions had a manual differential lock (operated by a vacuum servo on the LT95 and mechanically on the LT230). The LT77 had two major design changes: first an upgrade to larger bearings for the layshaft and new ratios around 1988, then a newly designed synchro hub for third and fourth gear and double synchros for first and second. This is also known as the suffix H gearbox or LT77s.

Australian assembly

Jaguar-Rover-Australia began assembly of the Range Rover from CKD kits at its Enfield plant, in New South Wales, Australia in 1979. Government increases in the tariff on parts lead to Australian assembly being discontinued in 1983.

North American market

Although the Range Rover was designed with the US market in mind, and was planned to launch in USA already in mid-year 1971 with a base price of $5,300, it didn't come to fruition due to the lack of financials, production capacity, and new US safety and environmental regulations. While Land Rover Series III was imported to the US, a decline in sales and new smog regulations caused British Leyland to withdraw from the US market in 1974.

In the early 1980s, Range Rover was sold in the US as a grey market vehicle by four Los Angeles area-based dealers, and starting in 1984, also by Aston Martin's American Division based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

With the fuel injection replacing the carburettors, the Range Rover became compliant to new US emission regulations. To prepare for US launch, Range Rover of North America was established in Lanham, Maryland in late 1985, with plans to import Range Rovers through the ports of Baltimore and Long Beach, California, beginning in March 1987, to be sold nationwide through a network of 36 dealers, expanding to 65 by 1988. The Range Rover was officially introduced to the US market in the 1987 LA Auto Show in January and Chicago Auto Show on February 7. The Range Rover was officially launched to the US market on March 16, 1987, and the first car was sold on the same day.

Already in 1988, Range Rover won the "Best 4x4" award by the Playboy magazine. In 1989, to establish its reputation, 8 special edition Range Rovers were prepared for the "Great Divide Expedition", a 12-day, 1128 mile trek in the Rocky Mountains in the state of Colorado, from August 21 to September 2, 1989.

On August 1, 1992, The Range Rover of North America shifted to Land Rover North America, Inc.

On and Off-road

In June 1970, the Range Rover was introduced to the public, to much critical acclaim. It appeared that Rover had succeeded in their goal of a car equally capable both on and off road – arguably, better than any four-wheel-drive vehicle of its era in both environments. With a top speed of 95 mph (153 km/h) and acceleration from a standstill to 60 mph (97 km/h) in less than 15 seconds, performance was stated as being better than many family saloon cars of its era, and off-road performance was good, owing to its long suspension travel and high ground clearance. The 1995 Classic Range Rovers would reduce the 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) time to around 11 seconds, and increase the top speed to approximately 110 mph (180 km/h).

Notable off-road feats were winning the four-wheel drive class in the first Paris-Dakar Rally in 1979 and 1981, and being two of the first vehicles (along with a Land Rover Series IIA) to traverse both American continents north-to-south through the Darién Gap from 1971 to 1972.

Conversions

The Range Rover Classic was a popular platform for conversion vehicles built by independent coachbuilders. Some examples of common modifications include ambulances, 6x4s, convertibles, police vehicles, limos, and open top hunting cars. Though some coachbuilders utilized Range Rovers simply for the chassis and drivetrain while grafting new fabricated bodies on top, most of them retained the familiar Range Rover styling elements, while upgrading the engine, transmission, suspension, or interior design. The coachbuilders include Carbodies, Carmichael, FLM Panelcraft, Glenfrome, Rapport and Wood and Pickett.

Popemobile

Two of Pope John Paul II's three popemobiles used on his 1982 UK visit were custom Range Rovers. Ogle Design penned the vehicles, the first fully bulletproof Papal transports, and they were delivered at a cost of £128,000 (equivalent to £410,000 in 2015). One of the two Range Rovers was taken back to the Vatican, and is still in use as of 2013. The other is now on display at the Cars of the Stars Museum in Las Vegas.

Police, Fire and Ambulance Service

Coachbuilders and fabricators such as Carmichael, Gloster Saro, and HBC Angus modified numerous Range Rover vehicles for first response use.

British and foreign constabularies utilized the Range Rover in both two and four door forms. From the 1971 to 1993, Land Rover Special vehicles-along with private builders-outfitted vehicles for police use.

The TACR2 was a six-wheeled Range Rover-based successor to the TACR1. Its designation stands for Truck Fire-Fighting Airfield Crash Rescue 2 Tonne 6x4 Mark 2. It was designed as a rapid response vehicle used by the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and various British fire brigades. It was built by Carmichael, Gloster Saro and HCB Angus. It is permanent four wheel drive and the trailing axle was originally unpowered. Some TACR2s have been converted to six wheel drive. After their service life ended, some were transferred to regional or airport fire service.

The Range Rover was a favored platform for ambulances across the British Isles, with builders Carmichael, Herbert Lomas, Pilcher Greene, Waldham Stringer, Spencer Abbot, and Heinel Specialbilar supplying modifications.