subject: The secret is out – all-new Range Rover breaks cover [print this page] When most new cars enter the final phases of their testing before general release, secrecy is paramount. Manufacturers clad their new models in all manner of body-shielding covers in order to protect their highly-prized secrets from rival car-makers' gaze while carrying out all-important real-life tests intended to iron out any glitches before production goes into full swing.
But Land Rover is taking a different tack with the new Range Rover model, destined for showrooms in summer 2011. A fleet of several hundred pre-production models is now roaming the streets of ten of the world's biggest cities, clad not in the usual neutral body armour, but in highly distinctive camouflage' disguises which actually tell people that the car underneath is the new Range Rover Evoque.
During their time spent wearing the one-off liveries, the vehicles are being evaluated in some of the toughest driving conditions in the world, as part of which feedback from covering millions of miles will be collected and evaluated, and then fed back to the Range Rover designers to enable them to make final tweaks to their new baby. The cars, built at Gaydon in Warwickshire, have been dispatched to London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Madrid, Moscow and Milan so it's fair to assume that they will be seen by several million people while they are out and about on their routine run-ins.
In their testing phase, it is also expected that the new Range Rover Evoques will encounter all types of weather conditions, as well as being subjected to the rigours of daily driving around some of the world's most traffic-clogged cities. A total of 20 countries were to be visited by the new Range Rovers, and they will be accompanied by engineers from the UK factory as they undergo their testing, which will be extended to 20 countries in all. In that time, more than 17,000 individual tests are expected to be carried out in conjunction with the 120 individual component suppliers which have helped kit out the cars.
The whole programme will have to be completed to a tight schedule in order for everything to be ready for the worldwide launch of the Range Rover Evoque, which is scheduled for the summer of 2011.
And the testing programme is being keenly watched by the staff at the Leeds Range Rover and Guiseley Range Rover dealerships. They are confident that the smallest and most fuel-efficient Range Rover ever produced will be delivered to them ready to handle the toughest Pennine road conditions and that's just what the test programme is designed to discover.
An extensive choice of new Range Rover and Land Rover models is available, all produced in the UK. Leeds and Guiseley Land Rover and Range Rover dealers also offer a carefully chosen selection for anyone looking to buy a used Land Rover or used Range Rover.
The secret is out all-new Range Rover breaks cover
