Flybe / July 2019

32 / 116

32 / Flight Time / JULY 2019
Take-off / Motoring
A speed hump, perhaps. Maybe
a kerb outside Little Waitrose. Or a
pothole on any given stretch of road
you care to name. For most drivers
of a sports utility vehicle (SUV), that’s
the extent to which they’ll dip into
the capability of their high-rise
home-from-home on wheels.
The rest of the time, while the
benefits of an elevated driving
position and a sense of security from
the elements might manifest, the
truth is there’s nothing to be seen
that a more comfortable, better-
handling, nicer-looking and more
economical saloon or hatchback
couldn’t handle. Fashion over
form wins out, it seems. But, oddly
enough, you can’t blame the
genre’s founding father for any of
this. As is so often the case, this road
to hell is paved (or, a lot of the time,
not paved) with good intentions.
In this instance, when the makers
of the go-anywhere Land Rover
workhorse decided to build a car
a farmer could hose out and drive
to the pub for a ploughman’s –
thereby creating the Range Rover
– who was to know where the
“luxury” SUV path would ultimately
lead? To witness 4x4s and faux 4x4s
awash with tinsel and TV screens
that could no more climb a grassy
slope than ford the aftermath of a
car wash.
And so this is a timely reminder
of what the daddy can do. This,
aboard a 21st-century Range
Rover, atop air suspension, in air-
conditioned comfort, enshrined by
sumptuous leather, surround sound
and deep-pile carpets, is a graphic
demonstration that beneath all of
this splendour a Range Rover is still
a Land Rover.
That’s how, in the grounds of
Eastnor Castle in the Herefordshire
countryside, I find myself peering
anxiously out of my driver’s
door window as muddy water is
approaching the door handles. It’s
how, 10 minutes ago, I was driving
off the edge of a fully-blown cliff,
that required the car to catch its
own weight via its engine and
transmission to reassert control.
And, it’s why I’ll shortly be on a
concrete hillock looking directly
down at the ground through
the windscreen while the rear
passenger’s legs threaten to dangle
past me.
It’s extreme, this place, in every
sense. Sixty-six miles of trails –
including steep inclines, articulation
tracks, ruts, open ground and
deep water – where instructors
with police or military backgrounds
demonstrate to Land Rover
customers or would-be customers
just what the cars can do. A half-
day course is £225, a full-day £549.
Oh, and this is where, for
decades now, it has doubled as
a secret test facility to test the off-
road capability of every new Land
Rover.
Which, given where we came
in, seems a lot of trouble to go to
for a school run. But then you’d
have a Swiss army knife without
any intention of military service,
wouldn’t you? Or choose a warm
holiday destination but pack SPF
20. Because sometimes, even if you
never need it, you want to know
you’ve got it.
THE DETAILSRange Rover
Vogue
4.4-litre V8
339bhp
545lb/ft torque
0-60mph in 6.8
seconds
top speed 135mph
eight-speed
automatic
combined
26.6mpg
243g/km CO2
From £89,970
Range Rover
Vogue
MOST SUVS WILL NEVER
SEE OFF-ROAD, THAT MUCH
WE KNOW. BUT THE DADDY
OF THE GENRE SETS AN
ABSOLUTE STANDARD