By Design: Land Rover DC100 Sport

As a designer, Gerry McGovern is rather like American muscle cars of yore: neither handles curves too well, but give them a straight line and there's no catching them. His MGF roadster and various Lincoln concepts were less than convincing, but his multiple off-road designs have been outstanding. From the highly successful Land Rover Freelander -- Europe's four-by-four best-seller from 1997 to 2002 -- to the terrific Range Rover Evoque, his Land Rover designs are winners. His grasp of how to modulate the surfaces of a box-shaped mass to make it attractive eludes most designers.

There was never any styling per se on the original Land Rovers. Their bodies were made of aluminum sheet that was bent and riveted without the benefit of compound-curved stampings. The first one was built on a Willys Jeep frame with Rover passenger-car engines and components. Two 80-inch-wheelbase prototypes were shown at the 1948 Amsterdam motor show, and the basic design has been a success ever since, with successive models having longer wheelbases: 86 and 107 inches in 1954, a two-inch increase in 1956, and another two inches for the short one and an inch for the longer model in the 1980s.

Land Rover has been owned by various entities, including Rover (of course), British Leyland, British Aerospace, BMW, Ford, and now Tata, a longtime purveyor of four-by-four cars of even less refinement than the 1948 Land Rover. It's a good match, however, probably much better than any of the previous proprietors. Two DC100 concepts were shown at Frankfurt, one a closed vehicle probably much like what will be built in series production in a few years, the other this Sport version, a fairly silly and impractical pure show car. Two seats only, a rollover structure that takes up far too much interior room, and a nearly frameless windshield top are all frivolous "entertainment" elements. But I'll be surprised if a successor to the Defender were not made available as a completely open model with a properly framed windshield and at least four seats.

Read more: http://www.automobilemag.com/features/by_design/1202_by_design_land_rover_dc100_sport/viewall.html#ixzz1kfsCf98T

Range Rover Evoque Wins North American Truck of the Year: Detroit Auto Show 2012

There probably weren’t too many surprises on this one. Since it’s introduction, the ‘baby’ Range has been making waves in the luxury SUV field, augmented by awards left right and center.

Although it faced fairly stiff competition from the updated 2012 version of Honda’s popular CR-V and the latest BMW X3, in terms of design and engineering, the Evoque was judged the overall winner in the 19th annual North American Truck of the Year awards, which took place on January 9th at Cobo Hall in Detroit, just prior to the opening of this year’s North American International Auto Show.

This represents the third time that a European branded vehicle has won the title, the last was back 2003 when the Volvo XC 90 took the honors. Interestingly, the only other European SUV to ever win North American Truck of the Year was the first generation Mercedes ML back in 1998, recognized as a game changer in the segment, much as the Evoque is today.

The North American Car and Truck of the Year awards are administered by a group of 50 automotive journalists from both the US and Canada, with the awards financed entirely by member dues (no advertising or commercial support for automakers or auto related businesses is accepted).

Read More: http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2012/01/range-rover-evoque-wins-north-american-truck-of-the-year-detroit-auto-show-2012.html

Chicago Land Rover