Happy birthday, Range Rover

A BRITISH bruiser beloved of footballers and farmers alike is celebrating a birthday bash later this month.

Whether you think it's a cherished classic or a symbol of global warming you can't deny the Range Rover's impact on motoring both here in the UK and abroad, and this month its makers are keen to help the luxury off-roader celebrate its fortieth anniversary.

“Land Rover has a unique history of product innovation, but the Range Rover probably remains the most historically significant vehicle we have ever launched. It is one of the most important vehicles in the history of motoring,” said Phil Popham, managing director of Land Rover, which still makes the model today at its factory in Solihull, in the West Midlands.

“The Range Rover is really four vehicles in one. It's a seven-days-a-week luxury motor car; a leisure vehicle that will range far and wide on the highways and noways of the world; a high performance car for long distance travel; and a working cross-country vehicle. From princes to politicians, from rock gods to rock climbers, from footballers to farmers, the Range Rover has always appealed to a diverse group of customers.”

Today's Range Rover - and its slightly smaller brother, the Range Rover Sport - is a far cry from the original version of 1970. which had two doors, a spartan interior and wind-up windows but for four decades the model has proven popular with royalty and rock stars at one end and farmers and the police at the other.

But in recent years it has also proven a controversial target for the environmental lobby, and in 2005 activists from Greenpeace targeted the factory where it is made as a symbol of their disdain for vehicles with high fuel consumption and emissions.

Later this year, the LRX, a further member of the Range Rover family will be added, meaning the name will appear on no less than three different cars.

I've road tested the very first production Range Rover as part of my duties as Champion motoring writer. Will it still impress forty years on? Find out here on Life On Cars later this week.