Velar as luxurious as it is capable
BRIAN HARPER
DRIVING.CA
Alesund, Norway — The Velar is a pleasing intermingling of simplicity and elegance and is easily the most visually engaging of Range Rover’s now four-model lineup. In order of size, there’s the Evoque, Velar, Range Rover Sport and full-size Range Rover.
Created from a clean sheet using Jaguar Land Rover’s lightweight aluminum architecture — the same platform used by Jaguar’s hot-selling F-Pace crossover — the Velar is defined by the company’s designers as being “visually reductive” and a preview of the next generation of Range Rover vehicles.
There’s the formal, horizontal feature lines, the floating roof and the tapered upsweep at the rear. Then there’s the added touches, such as the slender LED headlights and the flush, deployable door handles that, while helping emphasize the SUV’s looks, also contribute to a coefficient of drag of only 0.32, making it the most aerodynamic Land Rover/Range Rover model ever produced.
The cross-pollination of Jaguar and Land Rover components doesn’t end with the platform; there are also the powertrains. The base engine is the 180-horsepower, 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ingenium turbodiesel that delivers a robust 317 pound-feet of torque. But the engine that characterizes the Velar as the most road happy of Range Rover’s lineup is the 380-hp supercharged 3.0-L V6 gas engine. For a 2,000-plus-kilogram vehicle, a 5.7-second zero-to-100km/h time is nothing to be ashamed of.
The Velar ate up distances in quiet comfort, the only sound penetrating the cabin being the hum from the tires, and even that depended on the road surface. Then there are the sport ute’s off-road abilities, which, typical of Range Rover’s formidable reputation, are ridiculous, far exceeding what any rational driver would subject it to. Rutted dirt trails as well as several man-made exercises put up by Land Rover staff, designed to test the Velar’s suspension and wheel articulation and climbing skills, were readily dispatched.
In addition to all-wheel drive with Intelligent Driveline Dynamics and Adaptive Dynamics damping technology, a suite of traction technologies, including Terrain Response, Active Rear Locking Differential and All Terrain Progress Control, are at the driver’s fingertips. When equipped with the available (on V6 models) air suspension, ground clearance is 251 millimetres.
Rather oddly, instead of providing Velars in the more popular trim levels — base, S, SE and HSE in standard and sportier R-Dynamic — Land Rover chose to assemble a flotilla of top-line First Editions. This is an all-singing, all-dancing model of which approximately 50 units will be offered in Canada for the first year only and at a suggested price of $95,000.