Thread: First "review" driving the LRX prototype

Lifted from the Times Online motoring pages:

Land Rover LRX

Yes, I know – pretty amazing, isn’t it?


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Andrew Frankel


The rusty Chevrolet pickup shuddered to a halt and its young owner almost fell out of its cab trying to get a closer look. As a breed, native New Yorkers eclipse even Parisians in their ability to exude indifference, but while it’s a carefully cultivated French affectation, here in the Big Apple you know they really don’t care.
Except for today. In 20 years of testing some fairly outlandish cars, I’ve never known one have such an effect on the public as this Land Rover had on the population of Manhattan island. It is said that you know you have arrived when you get stuck in your own traffic jam – well, on the day I became the first person not directly involved with its creation to drive the LRX, it caused hold-ups all the way from downtown to Hell’s Kitchen, past Harlem to the Bronx. Whenever I stopped, pedestrians gathered in little clumps. And after I had answered the inevitable questions about what it was and why it was special, I’d get asked the same thing: “When can I get one?”
It’s a good question, and if you ask Land Rover, the official answer will be entirely noncommittal: we’re dipping our toes into the water to see if there’s a business case, and lots of other wise-sounding, well-practised phrases. In fact what you’re looking at is, after the 1948 original and the 1970 Range Rover, the most important Land Rover in the company’s 60-year history, and Land Rover’s claims to be undecided whether to make it are about as credible as Clarkson announcing that he’s voting for the Greens.
The truth is, as Land Rover well knows, that it can’t afford not to make this car. In one stroke, the LRX will redefine a company known for making a breed of vehicle that legislative and social pressure may soon ostracise, if not outlaw. Land Rover has recognised that, however grim the future of transport when the price of oil becomes permanently parked above $100 a barrel, people will still want to feel good about their wheels. They’ll still want to show their new car to their friends and watch the neighbours’ curtains twitch the first time they bring it home. And, however worthy all the egg-shaped eco-blobs I fear will be foisted on the market, none will have that effect. The LRX, in contrast, is by far the best-looking car of any make to squeeze into the SUV category. It will use less than half the fuel and produce less than half the CO2 of any Range Rover or Discovery. Admittedly, not all of what you see will make it into production. This, after all, is a show car designed to catch people’s attention. Its design did not need to be delayed by tedious legislative and budgetary problems. Then again, Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s design chief, told me the LRX I drove was no flight of fantasy and there was nothing on it that could not be put into production.
Expect its basic architecture to be retained, including the striking confluence of its falling roof and rising hip lines. The production car may have five doors instead of the three on this prototype, but that’s about it. The only substantial changes are likely be found inside. Here the tan leather and metal cabin will probably be toned down, though if its space efficiency is to be retained, its ultra-slim seats will need to stay.
Another feature I hope Land Rover doesn’t ditch is the iPhone that’s integrated into the LRX’s control systems. It acts as a key as well as allowing you to play and display music and video and make calls, and sums up how much thought and care has gone into making this prototype a next-generation car.
The real beauty of the LRX lies deeper than its styling and gadgets, though. The two largest car markets are engaged in a VHS/Betamax-style battle to determine what fuel will dominate in the short and medium term until someone works out how to produce a truly clean power source for a price the market will stand. On one side of the Atlantic the Europeans have thrown their weight behind diesel; on the other the Americans – to whom diesel is what you put in products designed by Peterbilt – are foursquare behind the petrol-electric hybrid.
Land Rover’s solution is as simple as it is elegant and combines the best elements of both schools: the LRX will use a 2 litre diesel-electric hybrid motor that will emit 120g/km of CO2 – better than most family cars on the road.
Better still, the hybrid drive is not simply there to reduce emissions and fuel consumption; it will also improve the LRX’s off-road ability by supplying carefully controlled squirts of power to the rear wheels as required to keep it moving through the mud to aid its standard, mechanical four-wheel-drive system.
Driving it is a blast. Much to the chagrin of the attendant PR staff, who didn’t want money matters discussed in public, McGovern had told me it cost £1m to build, and it was that cheap only because they were able to use a Freelander as a donor chassis. It occurred to me while I was driving it that there was no spare to take over if I made a mistake. And in New York, where the traffic drives at you as a matter of course, that was a tad unnerving. There was no rear-view mirror, and the ones on the outside were near enough useless for the task of threading through heavy city traffic. The only people more scared than me were the Land Rover staff, who looked on with all the care and concern of doting parents watching an only child.
The tyres were hand-cut and hand-painted and not designed for road use, and under the bonnet lay an engine of indeterminate configuration and origin. Indeed its chaperones would not even lift the clamshell bonnet to show it to me but did admit it was “cobbled together from bits of scrap we found out the back”.
Such is the way with almost every functioning concept I’ve driven. But inside I still felt like a king, albeit a mildly petrified one. And for all its avant-garde appearance, it remains unmistakeably a Land Rover. Outside it has presence that belies its diminutive proportions while inside it has kept Land Rover’s distinctive commanding driving position. I drove it only slowly and like all concepts it creaked, rattled, bumped and ground itself from place to place. Read nothing into this: all its technological trickery is under development for a later date. For now, all it contains is the bare minimum to make it move.
Throughout my day in the LRX I couldn’t help thinking of all those great concept cars we’ve seen that lost their magic when they were translated into production models. The LRX is only Land Rover’s second concept. I reminded myself that its first, the fabulous 2004 Range Stormer, resulted in the visually decidedly less than fabulous Range Rover Sport.
Let us not get too far ahead of ourselves: McGovern says he will fight to protect his design from any attempts to dilute or diminish it on the way to production, but the final result will not be seen for a couple of years. In the meantime I can say only this: the LRX has the potential not just to transform the future of Land Rover but also to inform an entire generation of car design. It really is that good. How much of that potential will be realised is something the industry and car-buying world will be watching with interest.
Vital statistics (predicted for production model)
Model Land Rover LRX
Engine 2000cc, four cylinders / electric
Power 150bhp
Torque Figure unavailable
Transmission Six-speed manual
Fuel 50mpg
CO2 120g/km
Acceleration 0-62mph: 9sec
Top speed 125mph
Road tax band B (£35 a year)
Price From £30,000
On sale Expected 2010
Rating
Verdict The future of private transport

Cool. Will have to get one for the missus !