Gaydon, Warwickshire, 24 September 2009
Land Rover has confirmed today that a production version of its exciting LRX concept car will be built. The new car will debut next year and join the Range Rover line-up in 2011. Designed and engineered at Land Rover’s state of the art Gaydon facility, the new Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle the company has ever produced. The new car will be built at the multi award-winning plant in Halewood, on Merseyside, subject to quality and productivity agreements and will be sold in over 100 countries around the world.

Phil Popham, managing director of Land Rover said: “The production of a small Range Rover model is excellent news for our employees, dealers and customers. It is a demonstration of our commitment to investing for the future, to continue to deliver relevant vehicles for our customers, with the outstanding breadth of capability for which we are world-renowned.”

“Feedback from our customer research also fully supports our belief that a production version of the LRX Concept would further raise the desirability of our brand and absolutely meet their expectations.” Phil added.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover design director said: “The new vehicle will be a natural extension to the Range Rover line-up, complementing the existing models and helping to define a new segment. It will be true to the concept and have many recognisable Range Rover design cues including the signature clamshell bonnet, the floating roof and the solid ‘wheel-at-each-corner’ stance.”

More details of the new small Range Rover will be released next year.

Tip:

Air Intake<br> Water and engines do not mix very well, and when they do it almost always results in bent pistons, valves and crankshaft commonly called “hydro-locking”. If you think this sounds expensive you're right. The positioning of the air intake is critical to how well a vehicle can handle a crossing. For example certain Toyota 4x4 models have their air intake directly behind the headlight, which is great to allow cold air into the engine but unfortunately is equally as great in directing water into the engine (An easy fix for this is to remove the plastic tubing from the air cleaner to the headlight when crossing water). NEVER attempt a water crossing where the water depth is above the air intake height. If you intend doing regular water crossings, its a good idea to fit a snorkel as it raises the air intake to your roof line. It doesn't mean you can use your xx4 as a submarine!