Range Rover field test

Modern Range Rovers leave me cold. I think they're hideous and vulgar and have absolutely no desire to own one. The original, retrospectively known as the Range Rover Classic, on the other hand has long been a favourite of mine and I think its simple, rugged yet elegant shape is a design classic that looks great. I'd never actually driven or even sat in one though, until now that is.

A proper Range Rover in what should be its natural habitat

The Saturday just gone was the fifth running of Hagerty Insurance's Festival of the Unexceptional and there will be a full report on that event in due course, but this year it was decided to make a weekend of it and hold an after party in the Field of Dreams for invited guests. A nice man called Ian from Hagerty owns the blue Range Rover that can usually be found at the events they sponsor, and when he turned up on Sunday I cheekily asked if I could have a go. "Sure", he said, "the keys are in it", so I clambered in and off I went across the field to realise my dream of driving a classic Range Rover.



This particular Range Rover is an early four-door model built in 1983, towards the end of the state-owned British Leyland era. It has what I'm told is a genuine 36,000 miles on the clock, has been owned by the same family from new and only returned to the road last year after a period in store, so it should be a good one. It certainly looks good: the pale blue suits it and the early eighties was to me the best era for the Range Rover, after metallic paint and alloy wheels had appeared (as optional extras though) but before the extraneous plastic trim started to be added. It was a very expensive and exclusive car that including the option pack would have cost £16,000 when new, equivalent to over £52,000 today.

So it looks the part, but what's it like inside? My first impression was that it is very obviously a British Leyland product from the same stable as cars like the Maestro and Montego. For a luxury vehicle it really doesn't feel very special though. This one is from that transitional period, modern enough to escape the wipe-clean vinyl interior of the earliest cars but before the Range Rover became the gadget-laden SUV we know today. The dashboard is a simple blocky design made of the same brittle brown plastic as lesser models, and parts bin components are very much in evidence.

The interior door handles for instance are identical to those used on the Maxi, much to my surprise. The seats are trimmed in velour rather than leather, there's no air conditioning or central locking (both expensive options), and the only obvious prestige features are some strips of wood tacked on to the door cards that look like afterthoughts, themselves part of an option pack. Talking of doors, I was disappointed to find they shut with a clang instead of the thud you'd expect from such an expensive car, aggravated on this one by worn hinges causing the driver's door to drop. The whole thing frankly felt a bit flimsy with none of the solidity and ruggedness I was expecting.

Brochure photo showing the underwhelming interior and new for 1983 auto box

Okay, apart from the commanding seating position the interior is nothing special, so maybe actually driving the thing will make a better impression? 1983 was the first year that automatic transmission (Chrysler TorqueFlite) was available in the Range Rover and this car is so equipped. I don't know if they're all like this, but the lever is extremely stiff, needed a very firm shove to get it out of park and then engaged drive with a clunk. That really surprised me on such a low-mileage car so perhaps it needs more use to loosen it up.

Admittedly I didn't actually drive it on the road, just across a bumpy field at no more than 30mph, but the ride and handling didn't impress either. The best car I've ever driven in that field is a Citroen Visa diesel thanks to its light weight, soft suspension and abundance of torque, and as a purpose-built off-roader I was naturally expecting the Range Rover to show the little Citroen how it's really done. It didn't though: while not exactly jarring it soaked up the bumps no better than a road car and I could see the bonnet shaking in front of me. Compared with a leaf-sprung Land Rover it's no doubt the last word in comfort but I've never driven one of those so I can't comment.

The appalling handling is what really got me though. Turn the wheel at little more than 20mph and the whole car leans over like it's trying to eject its occupants. You really need to wear a seatbelt just to keep yourself in the seat, and cornering basically involves throwing it into the bend and hanging on for dear life while it feels like the doorhandles are scraping the ground. This one is too early to have anti-roll bars but I don't know how much difference they make and its boat-like manners would soon induce travel sickness. There's nothing wrong with it and I'm told that's perfectly normal and they're all the same. Making good progress requires plenty of confidence that it isn't going to fall over, but it's never going to be a comfortable chariot for anything even slightly twisty.

On the plus side, it is very easy to drive though. The standard power steering is light but still has some feel and isn't completely dead like modern electric power assistance. Power delivery from the 3.5-litre V8 is smooth and it builds up speed almost imperceptibly, but the noise is a bit underwhelming as the burble is quite muted in the cabin at low speeds. I guess you have to thrash it to get the best response but I didn't have space to do that and didn't want to break someone else's car he needed to drive home in. One thing that did amuse me was the speedo needle, which at low speeds bounces all over the place just like the one in my dad's old Morris Minor, so I think I was doing about 25mph but couldn't be entirely sure.

Although considered large at the time, by modern standards the first-generation Range Rover is not a big car and the current model towers over it. It sits on a 100-inch wheelbase, the overall length is only slightly longer than a Ford Focus and it is considerably narrower. Gross weight is just 2.5 tonnes and it belies its imposing looks by really not feeling at all unwieldy, just like a taller family estate. The elevated driving position gives a great view ahead and the flat front makes parking easy, so I can see the appeal of the 'Chelsea tractor' as a road car. I don't think I could put up with the roly-poly handling though and the fit and finish isn't good enough so it just doesn't feel like something that would now be a fifty grand car.

As Shania Twain once sang, that don't impress me much

They say never meet your heroes. In the case of the Range Rover that's certainly true. It's a perfectly functional and very practical car, but for one so iconic it just doesn't seem very special and didn't live up to the hype. It almost felt like driving a Metro that had taken a massive overdose of steroids and the reality of this dream car quite frankly left me disappointed. Maybe this one just isn't a very good example of the breed but I wasn't really impressed with it and would think twice about spending the large sums of money these early Range Rovers are now worth. Thanks anyway to Ian for the experience, even if it wasn't as good as I'd hoped.