Range Rover celebrates 50

June was to be a special celebration month for the Range Rover, because it launched in June 1970 under the British Leyland Motor Corporation (which was renamed BL in 1978). Unfortunately, all planned gatherings have had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 social distancing rules.

I always fancied a Range Rover, but never managed to steer one. The five-door model arrived in 1981 and that grabbed my attention at the time, what with the colour-coded alloys on the poshest Vogue models. I did try to buy a down-atheel model within the past ten years for our ‘banger’ tours around Europe – yet was unsuccessful (or fearful of the potential V8 fuel costs).

The five-door EFI models were once sub-£500 MOT failures. Not any more – prices of Range Rover Classics have soared in recent years.

Today’s Range Rovers still look the part, and they can shift too – the Sport SVR model is able to shove you to 60mph from rest in 4.3 seconds.

All Range Rovers have great on-road presence, but for me the mid-’80s/early ’90s models with colour-coded alloys were the ones to have – until they went out of my price range!