Land Rover Performance Brand mooted

Range Rover Performance Brand looks likley

When you think of Land Rover the first thing that springs to mind is off-road ability. Once that’s registered you tend to think of Range Rover too, and that means luxury. But ‘Performance’ and Land Rover don’t really spring to mind.

But what about the Range Rover Sport, you may ask? Well, yes, the Range Rover Sport is a performance model by Land Rover Standards, but its real abilities lie in making a Range Rover handle well and go well on road, rather than have anything approaching the performance of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo or the BMW X5M. But that could be changing.

Inside Line has been chatting with Land Rover’s Global Brand Director, John Edwards, who says that a performance sub-brand for Land Rover – similar to the ‘R’ branding Jaguar uses – is a distinct possibility. Which makes sense.

We’ve already mused on the likelihood of a Range Rover Evoque Sport with a 300bhp version of the Ecoboost lump in the Si4 (or even the new V6 coming from Jaguar), and the launch of the new Range Rover in a year or two opens up more possibilities.

We’re far from convinced that Land Rover will actually build a Range Rover Sport in the next generation of cars, and will instead produce a performance version of the new Range Rover.

That thought was given added credence when one of our team got in to conversation with a Land Rover tester in Spain last month, where Land Rover are busy testing the new Range Rover ahead of its debut.

They were both staying at the same hotel, and long chats revealed that handling is a very key component of the new Range Rover, with comparisons discussed between the new Range Rover and the X5 and Cayenne. Our man’s daily drive is an X5, and the man from Land Rover said they were expecting on-road manners on the Range Rover to be up there with the X5. Which will be a big leap on.

That means, despite its size, Land Rover could be planning on launching a performance version of the new Range Rover, as well as the Bentley-bashing luxury version we’re expecting.

But what sub-brand moniker will they choose to denote a hot Range Rover?

Source: Inside Line

By Cars UK