It all started at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. Tata owned Jaguar Land Rover unveiled its futuristic LRX SUV in black and white body styles that became an instant hit not only for its suave exterior aesthetics but also for a featured 2-liter hybrid diesel engine that runs on bio-diesel and promised 60 miles to a gallon which should make it a landmark in fuel efficiency.
Speculations were rife that it would carry the Range Rover name in time for the 40th anniversary of the marque on June of 2010. These were confirmed in September 2009 with the LRX concept car to be built for the Range Rover Line in time for its 2011 model year. But it is expected to debut in the Paris Show of 2010. Engineered at JLR’s Gaydon factory in the UK, the baby range Rover LRX will be its smallest, lightest and most fuel-efficient SUV ever made.
It’s now the summer of 2010 and there have been spied pictures of the compact 2011 Range Rover LRX circulating online. For starters, it has a BMW-like stance that carries one of the smallest rear widows for an SUV. They look like those earlier prototypes spotted in test circuits at Nurburgring in Germany last year.
Industry pundits confirm the authenticity of these production-grade LRX in the photos but opine that they had been angled in a perspective shot that tended to make the windows look smaller than they really are. What is apparent from all these spy shots is that the baby Range Rover remains faithful to the concept car that disarmed car enthusiasts at the Detroit Car Show.
If these spy shots are a PR scheme from the JLR marketers, they’re doing a good job. The excitement generated with its debut in Detroit gets spruced up anew in time for its unveiling at the Paris shoe later this year. The forthcoming baby Range Rover is certainly as attractively sculpted as the one we saw in Detroit – a low-profile SUV-coupe crossover that exudes the usual air of snobbish elitism in a Range Rover.
A first Glimpse LRX Overview
We look forward to getting our first glimpse of the Range Rover LRX production model well in advance of its official launch at the upcoming Paris Motor Show. Word has it that the highly anticipated SUV will have its regular sale run in the UK sometime in May next year with an MSRP of around £33,000.
The Range Rover LRX will be the first in the Land Rover stable of SUVs to have front wheel drive that would allow it to pass the stringent emission standard of 130g/km and an average fuel efficiency of 50mpg as mandated by the new “green” road rules.
But these figures apply to its 2-liter turbo-diesel engine from PSA. A 2-liter 4-cylinder petrol engine is expected to be offered as an option but none of the V6 road monsters which are overkill for an SUV this size. Whatever happened to the promised hybrid diesel engine features in Detroit show is anyone’s guess.
Concept cars often end their lives in the drawing board but the LRX at least got off with the hybrid diesel never seeing the light of day. Perhaps it still might in future models.