There’s no low-ratio gearbox, but there is respectable ground clearance, approach and departure angles and wade depth, particularly on the optional air suspension this car has fitted.Īll of those numbers are worse than full-sized Range Rovers but also superior to any other car in this sector. Which, in a car like a Range Rover, is a lot more than it ought to be necessary in ‘lesser’ off-roaders.
Predominantly, the driveline is the same as in Jaguars: it’s a rear-drive car first and foremost, with a clutch at the gearbox that can push power to the front wheels as and when necessary. There’s a longitudinal engine in the front – we’ll come back to that – driving through a ZF eight-speed gearbox to all four wheels. Put simply, the mostly aluminium monocoque it sits on is the same as the Jaguar F-Pace’s. It feels like the zenith as if Range Rovers hereafter will need a new set of guidelines.īeneath the skin, the Velar is an entirely logical extension of the Range Rover line-up: more rugged than an Evoque, but less so than the Range Rover Sport or full-fat Range Rover. HSE brings you the 21in wheels that would have seemed ludicrously large just a few years ago but fit the Velar’s concept-like looks to a tee.Ĭar makers talk about identities and design languages: the Velar looks like the ultimate and most successful interpretation of how much more dynamic Range Rover has been trying to make its range. Our Velar arrived in HSE trim, which a lot of buyers will consider a minimum requirement for a car that looks like it has not long stepped off of a motor show stand. Whether or not that level of attention is actually deserved on a fitness-for-purpose basis will be the second objective of this road test. Taken without any additional context, those facts alone ought to guarantee the kind of feverish new-buyer interest that the Evoque generated in 2011.
Taking a view on the philosophy behind the Velar, and where it leaves Gaydon, will be one objective of this road test.Īt the outset, it’s merely possible to acknowledge a few home truths: the Velar plainly looks the part, can be had with comparatively economical Ingenium engines and can also be bought in entry-level trim from around £15,000 less than a Range Rover Sport.
In this garb, perhaps even more so than the stoutly mechanical Evoque, the Velar smacks of a modern, immodestly expensive crossover – the kind of car many would describe as the antithesis of Land Rover’s usual off-road-capability-centric modus operandi.
Naturally, four-wheel drive and Land Rover’s Terrain Response system are both standard, even at the base of the line-up – but so, too, are four-cylinder engines, coil suspension and an usually low ride height for a Range Rover. Its predominately aluminium platform is the same architecture used by the latest Jaguar XE and Jaguar XF. The Jaguar F-Pace is an even closer blood relative, despite starting at £10,000 less than the Velar. Because this new Range Rover is unequivocally car-based. Unlike its full-sized siblings, the fourth addition to the Range Rover line-up is the product of something other than Gaydon’s full-fat approach to SUVs. Range Rover Velar First Edition P380 2017 reviewīut our preferred description refers to more than just the Velar’s dimensions.
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