Dear 001,
The Range Rover story seems to have caused a stir with a number of Autospies readers quite rightly outraged that the lovely Range Rover is being molested by Ford, but don't dispaire, for although the RR is being worked on by Land Rover - things are not as bad as they seem.
The white Range Rover featured in the spy shot was a customer car, evident from two things...
Firstly: it was wearing a YX number plate which represents Yorkshire, not a B number plate for Solihul (Birmingham) as it should have.
Secondly, Land Rover do not test in white as it makes features too difficult to hide and thirdly, that RR was wearing an after-market lens kit for the headlights, I know because our company has bought them also.
However, this did prompt me to contact a colleague at LR and he tells me they are indeed working on the Rangie but only on a project to replace the engines in the entire range as Ford want to scrap the BMW deal ASAP. It seems the new 4.3-litre Jaguar sourced V8 (retuned for torque, but still offering 290-bhp) will replace the 4.4-litre BMW unit. Jaguar has also donated the 2.7-litre V6 diesel (and the 4.0-litre V8 diesel) too.
Amazingly, if rumors are to be believed, Aston Martin is also offering a similarly detuned version of the Vantage V12! Now that would be a monster top-of-the-line model. The obligitary alloy wheel upgrades, some minor tidy-ups, and some additional trim/equipment options are all that will change on the current car, which is great because there is nothing wrong with it.
My spy told me that this was definately the extent of the mofifications because LR are too busy with the with the Freelander replacement, the new Rangie Sport and also developing the running gear for the new Jaguar S-Type off roader (see other story).
Regards,
Dr. Victor Van Nostrom