The vivacious Velar from Range Rover
The latest Range Rover, the Velar is a masterclass in luxury and elegance. I drove the P380 Auto and loved it. As soon as you press the fob to open the doors, you can tell it is classy.
The door handles elegantly reveal themselves from the body and just look perfect.
The base price for this model is £85,450 and you can see where the money is spent, when you use those handles to open the doors and expose you to the luxurious interior.
Climb in to the superbly comfortable seat and it envelops you, like your favourite chair. You can then set the driving position as you require with full automation. Sadly limited time prevented me from taking as many pictures as I wanted, so you will have to visit the Land Rover / Range Rover website for interior shots.
The colour shown is Silicon Silver and you can see the hues of colour as light hits it. Beautiful.
I had the press sheet inside the car and it would have taken me my alloted thirty minutes to read all the features the car has. Again this is one for the company website to browse through the huge list of superb specifications and technology.
Now lets get down to the driving.
The P380 is a 3litre petrol engine with V6 configuration and eight speed transmission. It is all wheel drive and has very decent speed figures and believe me it shifts. It never felt heavy and I can see why the 0-60mph time is 5.3secsOn the roads I was driving on I never got the chance to test this. Sadly. I also never managed to get it to the top speed of 155, which is awesome.
That is a real continent crushing capability, for those European trips. I would love to load this car up and head down to those sunny beaches in Southern France. It would also return good MPG, with motorway use coming in at 37 mpg, I think that would change slightly at 155mph though.
On that hyperthetical journey, I would certainly make use of many of the features, just some would be, the excellent Touch Pro display where you control your entertainment settings, and car setup. The brilliant heads up display provides the driver with speed indication and warnings without having to take their eyes off the road. Another useful feature is the blind spot assist, warning the driver of vehicles in close proximity to yours. Heading South down the Autoroute I would also benefit from Lane keep assist, which is a system that warns you when it detects you are straying out of your lane. Alarm and lights inicate you are drifting either way.
Well sadly I had a very quick test drive and although shore it was very sweet and I bonded with the Velar. It is a superb car which can go anywhere. It has the power and trasmission combination to allow off road use with ease and then switch smoothly to country lanes or motorways.
Words and Pictures by Jeremy Webbcopyright 2017