Hear the Lamentations of the Boulders: Land Rover Prepping Burly SVX Off-Road Models

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We’ll start with an apology to any fans of two-door Subarus who have found this page via a wayward Google search. Because the SVX that brings us here isn’t the compellingly bizarre Giugiaro-designed 1990s coupe—one of the biggest automotive flops of the past 25 years—but rather Land Rover’s plans to use the acronym for some butched-up off-road models.

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As with most of the interesting stuff happening at Jaguar Land Rover, this is the work of the company’s newly formed Special Vehicle Operations division. And, yes, it involves more acronyms. In a recent interview, SVO boss John Edwards told us that it plans to launch SVX models to provide “added capability” alongside the performance-orientated SVR and luxurious SVAutobiography versions the division is also charged with creating.

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If the SVX plan doesn’t include a revival of the Series II Forest conversion, it most definitely should. (Note genteel attire of driver.)

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But while we’ll see SVR and—we believe—SVAutobiography versions of both Jaguar and Land Rover products, SVX will be exclusive to Land Rover. There are no more details to go on at the moment, but we’re told to look at events like the Camel Trophy and Dakar Rally to see the inspiration for the new direction, which will combined increased performance with radically improved off-road performance. So something like a Bowler Wildcat then? Or a Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6×6? “It could be either of those things, it could be both,” said Edwards, enigmatically. “This is the third side of the product triangle, and one that we think has got huge potential.”

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• We Fill in the Blanks with Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Ops (Including, Yes, a Mega F-type)
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• 2015 Range Rover Sport SVR: Locked, Loaded, and Ready to Tussle with Cayennes
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• Next Land Rover Defender to Spawn Family of Rugged, Attainable Models
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We don’t yet have any timelines, or even hints about which of the company’s products will get the SVX treatment first, although the next Land Rover Defender is probably the most obvious candidate. Edwards did admit that, having seen both SVAutobiography and SVR models, it would be logical for us to expect to see an SVX “relatively soon.” So this is good news for people who think Land Rovers have gone a bit soft since they started putting carpets in them.

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from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1dyq3tp