Land Rover

Please join us for our annual spring rally. Our Rovers At Wintergreen (RAW) rally is hosted at the Wintergreen Ski Resort conveniently located in central Virginia. This location affords us access to the comforts of the resort, miles of wooded trails over scenic and challenging terrain, plus the option to enjoy fine food and drink at several of the local restaurants, breweries, and distilleries.

Mark your calendars every one, in July 2017 the Solihull Society will be returning to Leadville, CO for the annual Land Rover National Rally.  We are still busy working on final details for evening venues and the final trail list, but as those that attending the 2005 and 2009 events can attest, Leadville is made for Land Rovers, both old and new. Situated at 10,000’ above sea level, Leadville is the quintessential 1880s mining town.  Come see where Horace Tabor made his fortune, walk in the steps of Doc Holliday and the Unsinkable Molly Brown, tour old mines, reconnect with friends, and let’s not forget, run some amazing trails in the Best 4x4xFar. Trails in the area include Iron Mike Mine, Mosquito Pass, Holy Cross, Chinaman Gulch, and Wheeler Lake to name just a few. Monday 24 July – Afternoon, […]

It’s coming! It’s coming! The 2016 Land Rover National Rally is almost here! In just a few short weeks, we will be taking to the trails around Moab in our favorite Land Rovers. It will be a fabulous time in one of the best off-roading locations there is! Registration is now open at LRNR Registration. Come join us for the fun!

After the summer break, Defender Challenge by Bowler returns this weekend for its fourth round as nine teams battle it out at the Trackrod Rally, part of the annual Rally Yorkshire event. Based at Pickering Showground, the course takes in 53 miles of rally stages that twist through the spectacular Yorkshire countryside over two days and opening with the daunting prospect of challenging night stages. The FIA-approved Land Rover Defender 90 Hard Tops are modified by Bowler Motorsport specifically for rally competitions. Engines are tuned to 170bhp and 450Nm of torque and the suspension system features uprated dampers and roll bars. Lighter wheels, a full roll-cage and rally safety features complete the specification. This weekend, a number of Land Rover employees and apprentices join the Bowler technical teams to support the rally. In addition to their ‘day jobs’, enthusiasts from […]

According to Car & Driver, Jaguar Land Rover wants to colonize South Carolina, or at least a few hundred acres of it, for its first-ever U.S. factory. While nothing has been confirmed, Jaguar Land Rover is making headway in other markets as it seeks to grow annual worldwide sales to 750,000 by 2020, an increase of 76 percent over last year’s record sales of 425,006. On Tuesday, the first Chinese-built Range Rover Evoque came off the line in Changshu, which aims to produce up to 130,000 Evoque and Land Rover Freelander models annually. Back home, Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to open a new plant for the company’s Ingenium engines near Wolverhampton next week. These additions come atop JLR’s smaller assembly plants in India, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey. Brazil is slated for 2016. Saudi Arabia is another possible locale. […]

Land Rover enjoyed a massive UK sales surge last month – with more than 3,000 vehicles sold. The Solihull-based 4×4 manufacturer sold 3,044 vehicles in October compared to 1,864 in October last year, an increase of more than 63 per cent, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed. The sales rise followed a bumper September for Land Rover, with the company selling 6,230 vehicles compared to 5,788 in the corresponding month in 2010. October’s sales jump followed the success of the Range Rover Evoque and a general increase in the purchase of SUVs amid predictions of another harsh winter. Jaguar saw sales dip slightly last month, with the Big Cat selling 713 cars in October compared to 806 in October last year. SMMT figures also showed that Longbridge-based MG Motor UK sold 15 sports cars last […]

After years of plant closures in the region’s car industry (think MG Rover, Peugeot, Jaguar at Brown’s Lane), news this week that JLR will build its new engine plant near Wolverhampton will provide a major boost. This according to the Birmingham News. The new plant will be based at the i54 business park, in the Black Country’s new enterprise zone. As such, the new plant could well qualify for enhanced capital allowances which could see JLR getting tax breaks for big investments in plant and equipment (hats off by the way to AWM for their work in readying the site, local authorities and the Black Country LEP for pulling off Enterprise Zone status, and to the government for backing the investment). But as well as tax breaks, the location makes a lot of sense in other ways. Just off the […]

While Mercedes calls its cars “uber” internally when they want to give them steroids, the British marketing teams at Land Rover are currently considering a “Grande Evoque”, which will fill the gap in the lineup between the compact Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport. Once again, this is a car that’s being analyzed from a marketing point of view first and then from an automotive perspective, but we’ll let it slide because we like the new design direction the British firm has. According to Autocar, inside sources say that a final conclusion on whether to give the go-ahead or not is close to being reached. Land Rover wants to bridge the gap in price between the range-topping Evoque and the entry-level Sport. The Grande Evoque could be a five-door machine that takes the recently introduced shape and blows […]

The company, which only two years ago attempted to seek Government support as global car sales collapsed, said pre-tax profits rose from £15m last year to £1.1bn in the year to March 31. The increase has been driven by a huge rise in Jaguar and Land Rover sales in China and emerging markets, where the middle classes see the British cars as a status symbol. JLR sales rose 51pc in the year from £6.6bn to £9.9bn, which was also aided by new models such as the Jaguar XJ and favourable foreign exchange rates. “Jaguar Land Rover is now a strong, profitable and innovative competitor in the premium car industry,” said Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive of JLR’s parent company Tata Motors. Indian company Tata bought JLR from Ford in 2008, but initially suffered heavy losses as the recessions struck. Read the […]

Land Rovers began rolling off the assembly line Friday at the British brand’s first plant in India since it was bought by the Indian car giant Tata Motors. Parts are still being manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in Liverpool, England, but Land Rover Freelander 2 SUV’s are now being built in the western Indian city of Pune. India offers Jaguar great opportunities to build cars for less, Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive officer and managing director of Tata Motors, told reporters. “Clearly, India can be a very attractive sourcing base, an opportunity to source increasingly high quality but lower cost components not only for India operations but for overseas operations,” he said. Forster has already indicated that Indian engineering will also play a role in the design of Jaguar Land Rover engines. Tata bought Jaguar from Ford in 2008 for […]

There was a lot of eye rolling and worried looks when Ford sold Jaguar to India’s Tata. But based on the latest December figures, maybe there wasn’t reason to worry. Jaguar sold 1,246 cars in December in the U.S., a 24% increase from last year. Land Rover sold 3,595 of its rugged SUVs, a 37% boost from a year ago. For the full year, combined sales of both brands dipped 14%, not bad considering how the overall auto industry saw sales plunge even more. Needless to say, execs are happy: “Three consecutive months of Jaguar and Land Rover growth is a great way to end 2009, and a sign of better times to come,” said Jaguar-Land Rover North America President Gary Temple. “We start 2010 with sales momentum, strong product lineups for both brands, and the launch of the 2011 […]

There is a very nice and concise history of Rover cars over at The Telegraph. I am not going to reprint it here, but do take a look at the article for a trip down memory lane.

Executives at Jaguar Land Rover, the Midlands carmaker, are drawing up plans for an extended shutdown of its UK plants and a new round of staff layoffs as it struggles to cope with the slump in the world car market. Preparation for the closures comes just days after the company released its new flagship, the latest version of the Jaguar XJ beloved by prime ministers and top British executives.

Jaguar has emerged from its stuffy, country-club period, the one that saw it essentially remake over and over and over again the original XJ for 41 years. Jaguar now wants to be sexy and modern. Founder Sir William Lyons would most certainly approve. He was never a man to look backwards, to live in yesterday, endlessly reliving the great triumphs of the past. He was a forward-looking, innovative fellow. His cars of the 1950s and into the 1960s were cutting-edge and daring for their time. That’s what Jaguar is trying to recapture. “It’s about making Jaguars that are quintessentially Jaguars,” O’Driscoll said. But this is a nervous business. Jaguar, now part of Tata’s integrated Jaguar Land Rover Group (JLR), is not swimming in dough. Far from it. Tata Motors’ Indian business, which relies mostly on truck sales, made a profit […]

In an attempt to turn Land Rover an environmentally friendly shade of British Racing Green, the U.K. government is giving the SUV-maker £27 million ($38 million) to defray the cost of developing a compact SUV based on their LRX concept. Land Rover says the new two-door (which they call a “cross coupe”) will be the “smallest, lightest, and most efficient” the company has ever produced. With the exception of the County Classic, we think it might be the most attractive as well. Whatever superlatives it claims, it could very well show up as a 2011 model after it gets an official go-ahead from management. “We welcome the Government’s support for this project, which would form a key part of our future product plans and which we very much want to put into production,” Land Rover Managing Director Phil Popham said […]

Jaguar Land Rover has announced it is cutting 450 staff. […]

British car manufacturers have won a four-year delay to the introduction of European rules designed to force them to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars. Jaguar Land Rover was granted a special deal after Britain joined ranks with other car-producing EU states to water down fuel efficiency targets proposed last year. The highest levels of fines for failing to comply with the targets will not come into force until 2019, not in 2015 as previously proposed. The deal means manufacturers will be able to delay investing in expensive carbon-reduction technology for several more years. MEPs and the 27 EU member states have agreed to abandon plans to force the industry to reduce average CO emissions from around 158g/km last year to 130g/km by 2012.

Jaguar Land Rover’s importance to the West Midlands has been spelled out as business minister Lord Mandelson considers a rescue package for the embattled UK car industry. The Indian-owned company is critical for the future of the region, according to Mick Laverty, chief executive of development agency Advantage West Midlands. And JLR chief executive David Smith urged the government to support the industry’s “jewel in the crown” with funds to help it to survive the recession and credit crisis. Mr Laverty and Mr Smith were speaking at a round table meeting held at a Birmingham restaurant that was hosted by government manufacturing adviser Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, head of the Warwick Manufacturing Group. He claimed that JLR would have “gone into thin air” in the present crisis had Ford sold it to private equity interests instead of Tata Motors of […]