Land Rover have launched a new visitor attraction at their Solihull manufacturing plant, ‘The Range Rover Story’, which is the new interactive exhibit created to celebrate 50 years of the iconic and highly revered SUV.
The Land Rover Range Rover has been manufactured at Solihull plant since 1970, but its history goes back to 1967 when the first prototype was conceived, codenamed Velar. The exhibit is created to take visitors on a time-travelling voyage from its inception in the mid-1960s, through to the introduction of the Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Evoque. The exhibition culminates in an unveil of the new Range Rover Velar.
Roger Crathorne (known as Mr Land Rover) dedicated 50 years’ service to Land Rover and has been heavily involved in the creation of the exhibition. He said: “The exhibit tells the incredible story of the Range Rover, from the original Velar prototype through to today’s new model. At the time I began my career in 1967 as a Technical Assistant on the Velar Team, the intention was never to build a luxury vehicle. Over the 50 years since, the Range Rover has come a long way. We wanted to develop a more comfortable on-road Land Rover that would combine the comfort of the Rover with the Land Rover 4×4 capability to support a growing leisure market.”
Nigel Blenkinsop, Operations Director at Solihull, said: “We are hugely proud to build the Range Rover Velar at Solihull, the birthplace of both the Land Rover and Range Rover. Here, we have invested over £2bn in recent years to enable us to triple production. Our business is now Britain’s number one car manufacturer.”
The new Velar is the third new model in a year to be launched at the Solihull plant, following the new Jaguar F-Pace and the new Land Rover Discovery.
Story: Sahej Patheja
