RSS_Auto_Poster
Well-known member
Written by Tom Harrison
At this week"s launch of the new Land Rover Discovery, we grabbed five minutes with Land Rover"s design boss Gerry McGovern the man behind the new" Land Rover design language first applied to the Evoque, then every Land Rover since. Top Gear: Discovery, Range Rover and Defender are all iconic names. How hard is it to design something new that"ll wear one of those nameplates? Gerry McGovern: "We have a simple strategy. Land Rover is the master brand, then three specific families Range Rover, then Discovery and Defender. The Defenders haven"t come yet, so most of the focus has been on Range Rover, and now we"re starting to see the Discoverys. We"ve deliberately brought Discovery and Range Rover a bit closer together to make room for the Defenders when they come."With all of them it"s about recognising their roots, but designing vehicles that are modern and well proportioned. They need to have a family resemblance. You need to look at a car and say that"s a Range Rover or that"s a Discovery. You need to be able to see certain cues in them that pull them together. When you look at them closely, they have their own identity, their own unique characters. If you look at Discovery Sport, there"s elements of that that connect to this. The stepped-down waist, the visible C-Pillar, there are certain visual cues. But then it"s also all about the way, if it"s a Discovery, you design in the versatility, if it"s a Range Rover how you design in the luxury and when Defenders come, how you make it incredibly durable in its design." TG: There"s been mumblings on the internet of a more ruggedized version of the Disco from SVO. What"s the deal with that?GM: "One of the reasons we"ve set SVO up is we"ve seen tuners taking 99 per cent of our intellectual and creative property and changing a few things generally not very well eroding the guarantees and then charging a premium for it. We are going to design what people want. Now if somebody wants to come along and have something bespoke we can do that. We can do limited editions. What SVO is about is taking a particular car to a particular price point there"s no limit. There"s the design, the power output, all sorts of things we offer through SVO. And you"re right that with [the Disco] and Defender, it does lend itself to an incredibly rugged, capable vehicle. But as I said, [the standard Disco] is incredibly capable as well. But if people want it to look more overtly rugged, why not?"
Date written: 1 Oct 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5263
At this week"s launch of the new Land Rover Discovery, we grabbed five minutes with Land Rover"s design boss Gerry McGovern the man behind the new" Land Rover design language first applied to the Evoque, then every Land Rover since. Top Gear: Discovery, Range Rover and Defender are all iconic names. How hard is it to design something new that"ll wear one of those nameplates? Gerry McGovern: "We have a simple strategy. Land Rover is the master brand, then three specific families Range Rover, then Discovery and Defender. The Defenders haven"t come yet, so most of the focus has been on Range Rover, and now we"re starting to see the Discoverys. We"ve deliberately brought Discovery and Range Rover a bit closer together to make room for the Defenders when they come."With all of them it"s about recognising their roots, but designing vehicles that are modern and well proportioned. They need to have a family resemblance. You need to look at a car and say that"s a Range Rover or that"s a Discovery. You need to be able to see certain cues in them that pull them together. When you look at them closely, they have their own identity, their own unique characters. If you look at Discovery Sport, there"s elements of that that connect to this. The stepped-down waist, the visible C-Pillar, there are certain visual cues. But then it"s also all about the way, if it"s a Discovery, you design in the versatility, if it"s a Range Rover how you design in the luxury and when Defenders come, how you make it incredibly durable in its design." TG: There"s been mumblings on the internet of a more ruggedized version of the Disco from SVO. What"s the deal with that?GM: "One of the reasons we"ve set SVO up is we"ve seen tuners taking 99 per cent of our intellectual and creative property and changing a few things generally not very well eroding the guarantees and then charging a premium for it. We are going to design what people want. Now if somebody wants to come along and have something bespoke we can do that. We can do limited editions. What SVO is about is taking a particular car to a particular price point there"s no limit. There"s the design, the power output, all sorts of things we offer through SVO. And you"re right that with [the Disco] and Defender, it does lend itself to an incredibly rugged, capable vehicle. But as I said, [the standard Disco] is incredibly capable as well. But if people want it to look more overtly rugged, why not?"
Date written: 1 Oct 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5263