Range Rover Generations: A Visual History of a Modern Icon

When it comes to icons, the automotive world has only a handful. Many brands try to claim iconic status, but it’s almost always just empty marketing fluff. True icons are rare – more than just products, they’re instantly recognizable and evocative of something larger.

Over the last 55 years, Range Rover has cemented itself as a true icon of luxury – and, more than that, of a particular sort of aspirational (and obviously affluent) lifestyle. That kind of status can’t be hacked or faked, and other brands would kill for it.

The lineage of every Range Rover is blindingly obvious, especially when you put them together. Their design DNA is instantly apparent. Only a handful of other vehicles in the last 100 years have such a consistent visual identity. That – along with benchmark-setting refinement, capability and class – are what give Range Rover such cultural cachet and has cemented its iconic status.

We could try to describe the character lines, creases and other design cues of every Range Rover to tell you how they’re all so similar yet different. But it’s better to just show you; put them all together, and they speak for themselves.

1970: Range Rover I (Classic)

In hindsight, it’s hard not to see the original Range Rover – known as the Range Rover Classic – as a stroke of genius. But the truth is, it was born from sharp observation. In the 1960s, Charles Spencer King, nephew of Land Rover founders Maurice and Spencer Wilks, recognized very early on that a new type of lifestyle was emerging. People had careers and families, but they still yearned for adventure. So Spen King created a new type of vehicle, combining Land Rover’s all-terrain ability with new on-road performance and modern design. The result was not just the archetypal luxury SUV, but a car ahead of its time – known for its innovative features like permanent four-wheel drive, a split tailgate and an automatic electronic air suspension. It became the archetypal luxury SUV, and the first car displayed in the Louvre. The two-door version was first, followed later by a four-door. Both were an instant hit.

1994: Range Rover II (P38A)

A hit like the Range Rover demanded a follow-up. This is where many artists, musicians and/or creators tend to lose the plot. It’s the dreaded sophomore slump. But Range Rover took its sweet time (until 1994!) and simply refined the formula that had worked before. The new chassis was longer in wheelbase, which granted more passenger space. It also featured a semi-monocoque design, which further improved the SUV’s roadgoing manners, as did the cutting-edge (for its time) electronic air suspension.

2001: Range Rover III (L322)

If you had one of these in the early Y2K era, you’d made it. By this point, the Range Rover had already become a major status symbol. More than that, however, it had also become cool. Celebrities drove them (or were driven in them). Rappers bought them. Royalty loved them. It cut across cultural lines like few vehicles before or since ever could. That combined with some excellent V8 engines and independent suspension on all four corners helped the Range Rover move upmarket. It was also during this third generation – which began in 2001 – that the Range Rover vehicle’s unique Terrain Response system was introduced. Building decades of all-terrain know-how into one intuitive control system, Terrain Response is like having a driving expert at your fingertips, helping you make the most of the vehicle’s capabilities. These are still excellent SUVs. (We still check the classifieds for clean used examples.)

2012: Range Rover IV (L405)

Early in the fourth-generation Range Rover’s history, the British SUV crossed a major milestone: six-million Range Rovers had rolled off the production line between 1970 and 2015. The L405 (as it’s known to hardcore gearheads) was really the first Range Rover of the modern era. Get into a late-model example today and it still feels fresh. The big news back when it launched in 2012 was the fact the new Range would be moving to aluminum construction for much of its chassis and body panels – delivering combined strength and lightness as never before, as the world’s first all-aluminium SUV. It also marked another milestone: a powerful electric hybrid version offered zero tailpipe emissions for the first time.

2021: Range Rover V (L460)

The fifth generation debuted in 2021 with little to prove. It was the benchmark in its class, and it has remained the benchmark. Range Rover offered it in long- or short-wheelbase configurations, with five or seven seats and all-wheel steering. There is a plug-in hybrid. An EV is in the works. It can be family transport or a luxury-limo, or both. There’s almost nothing it doesn’t do exceptionally well. More than 50 years after the original, it still carries the same signature cues: floating roofline, clamshell hood and continues waistline.

As Range Rover’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, said, “it is possible to respect your DNA and still project forwards – and that is what we have done. The modernist nature of our design philosophy doesn’t follow fashion or trend. It’s free from superfluous detail, resulting in a form which speaks to modernity, yet is full of charm.” Indeed. And here’s to the next 55 years.

The post Range Rover Generations: A Visual History of a Modern Icon appeared first on Sharp Magazine.