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48 years of Range Rover: the evolution of the world’s most luxurious SUV

19 January, 2017

When talking luxurious, refined, well-engineered, and pioneering designs, there is probably one SUV that springs to mind … Range Rover. 

Since its inception in 1969 (as a prototype), the brand has evolved into one of the world’s most elegant and sophisticated SUVs, with any number of who’s who celebrities driving one, and it has since cracked more than one million units sold (1.7 million to date, to be exact).

Forty eight years on and it’s hard to sum up the brand’s heritage in a simple two-minute space, but it was long enough for Range Rover to celebrate this motoring icon through a specially commissioned animation — created to mark key dates in history for the legendary SUV.

You can see that today’s incarnations retain many of the original design hallmarks established way back when in 1970. These include its ‘floating’ roof design, distinctive clamshell bonnet, continuous belt line, and practical split tailgate.

Timeline: 
1969 Range Rover Prototype (Velar)
1970 Range Rover Classic (two-door)
1973 Range Rover Classic (Suffix C)
1981 Range Rover Classic (four-door)
1994 Second-generation Range Rover (P38a)
2001 Third-generation Range Rover
2012 Fourth-generation Range Rover
2014 Fourth-generation Range Rover Long Wheelbase
2015 Range Rover SVAutobiography
2016 Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic

Breakfast of champions – Brink

17 March, 2026

Some older readers may recall the amusing late 60s advertisement for a breakfast drink using World Champion racing driver Graham Hill which was made while he was out here competing in the Tasman Series.
“Drink Brink” was the phrase, subtly altered by Graham’s characteristic lisp into “Dwink Bwinkl” which drew a grin or two.
Southland Mini racing enthusiast Howard Kingsford-Smith has preserved a little bit of Mini racing history when he re-created the “Brink Mini” some 25 years ago.
“I bought what remained of the original car and made a replica I suppose or look-a-like of the original Brink Mini from Cathy Henderson about 25 years ago,” Howard explained.

The motor car as an art form

12 March, 2026

We have certainly come a long way since the exhibition entitled 8 Automobiles, shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the autumn of 1951, the first exhibition concerned with the aesthetics of motor car design.
It was here that the often-used term ‘rolling sculpture’ was coined by curator Philip C Johnson, director of the department of architecture and design, when he said, “An automobile is a familiar 20th century artefact, and is no less worthy of being judged for its visual appeal than a building or a chair. Automobiles are hollow, rolling sculptures, and their design refinements are fascinating. We have selected cars whose details and basic design suggest that automobiles, besides being America’s most useful objects, could be a source of visual experience more enjoyable than they now are.”