Blog: Range Rover launch

While other manufacturers are turning to online video streams or small private events to reveal their newest models, it was refreshing to see Land Rover go for an old-school, celebrity-studded, champagne-soaked extravaganza. From what I’ve seen the new Range Rover is fully capable of taking the hype, and everything else, in its stride.

The location - the Royal Ballet School in London’s sprawling Richmond Park - couldn’t have been more apt. Originally commissioned as a hunting lodge by George I in 1727, it was occupied by the Queen Mother for many years and home to Queen Elizabeth II as a baby. In short it’s a British institution – just like the car launched there last night.

It was fitting that a handful of our triumphant British Olympic team were in attendance, including Zara Philips, Victoria Pendleton and Greg Rutherford, as well as a selection of models, pop stars and England rugby players, to lend the event a very Range Rover-esque balance between elegance and rugged charm.

Any partygoers under the impression that the Range Rover is a gin palace on four wheels, or built primarily for the school run in Chelsea, were put firmly in their place when it made its spectacular entrance. Appearing suddenly at the back of a man-made lake, it plunged into the water up to its bonnet, waded across and clambered over a series of rocks before rolling onto the stage.

At first glance, it’s all too easy to dismiss this new Range Rover as a lightly fettled version of the current car, but given the chance to see it in the metal and talk to the engineers, it was clear the phrase ‘all-new’ barely does it justice.

At the heart of all the new model’s gains is an aluminium body-shell that weighs 180kg less than the previous generation’s steel structure. In fact it’s lighter than a BMW 3 Series’ shell and weighs just a few kilos more than the MINI Countryman.

By stripping 420kg out in total, the knock-on gains include higher fuel economy, improved safety and better handling. OK, so we’ll have to wait until we drive it to confirm the latter, but I’d bet my house that it feels significantly more agile from behind the wheel.

It’s not often a new model take such a giant leap forward and takes such a huge chunk out of the competition. And it’s even rarer when the outgoing car is already ahead of the pack. Make no mistake, the new Range Rover has rewritten the rule book, and ranks firmly as yet another British success story this summer.