MIMS: Land Rover's future is Down Under

Making its Aussie debut at MIMS just over a month after it was unveiled to the world, at the North American International Auto Show, Land Rover's LRX is the shape of things to come for the brand. That's the message from Julian Thomson, the man who heads up Land Rover's advanced projects design division, in Melbourne to lift the covers off the compact, all-wheel-drive three-door.

According to Thomson, the LRX is a true concept car. Indeed, the advanced design studio head strongly denies it has been 'reverse engineered' from a production car, as was the case with Land Rover's first 'concept' car -- the Range Rover Sport precursor, Rangestormer.

Still, the Englishman will not go so far as to say the car will not be built. He's far happier pointing out the softroader's role (for the time being) as a 'calling card' for future Land Rovers.

"The value, as a designer, for vehicles like the LRX is to do cars that are pure uncompromised designs, which we can put up to the world, to the public, and generate enthusiasm for them," Thomson explained.

"A lot of car design is going the same way... Cars with a lot of unnecessary lines splitting across surfaces and wedge shapes -- everyone's got something like that going on now.

"What's so nice about this car is it's not going in that direction. It's very, very fresh and unique; it's got a lot of strength about it; it's got a lot of simplicity and purity about it. In terms of surface language, the car is very, very different.

"When you look at LRX it's not at all retro, but it looks like a [traditional] Land Rover," Thomson explained.

"It's got a wheel at each corner; it's got a clamshell hood; it's got a very, very strong shoulder; very, very thick roof as well; big wheel arches; [that] certain stance; lots of horizontal lines -- those are all things you had in Defender in 1948 but it is a thoroughly modern car," Thomson explained.

"Pure retro design badly done just looks old fashioned," he opined.

"Land Rover has such a fantastic heritage -- it's what makes the brand so strong, and it's why people are attracted to our product. So you have to be very careful when you do a car that it is still very recognizably a Land Rover.

"You make it as modern as you possibly can and as contemporary as you can, but at the same time it's got to be recognised as a Land Rover," he said.

"We're now designing the next generation of Land Rover products and we're clearly not about to do a new fad design language, that's not what we're about at all.

"We don't have to do that -- our customers don't want it. Our brand is very, very strong and very, very recognizable. What we are doing is a sort of radical evolution of how Land Rovers will look in the future," Thomson told the Carsales Network.

According to Thomson, the LRX's proportions are nonetheless realistic and production capable.

"We're just shooting ourselves in the foot if we set the customer up for disappointment.

"There no point in doing a great concept car that you plainly can't deliver on. I'm not saying we're going to make it [LRX] exactly like that [the concept car]. But when we do a car we make sure that it is realistic, that people can imagine driving it, can imagine getting behind the wheel and feel excited and passionate about it.

"We made this car so we can engineer it like that, if we need to," he said.

Thomson's quick to point out, however, that future Land Rovers and Range Rovers won't be "cookie cutter" designs off the LRX.

"Our cars have got different characters. This one is very sporty, the most road oriented and the most urban. As you go up the range they change subtly… There will be a lot of variance there -- and there needs to be.

"What it [LRX] does do is lay down somewhat of the design philosophy of the rest of the range."

Even for the brand's icon, the 60-year-old Defender?

"It's a car as a designer you just love to work on," Thomson enthused.

"It's the car that's been in market the longest, an incredible piece of kit, and that makes it all the more daunting to replace it.

"We'd love to replace it and we're always looking at it -- I'd be lying if I said we weren't," Thomson admitted.

"When Land Rover first came out there was nothing else like it -- now everything from a pick-up truck to a quad bike fills its role for different people.

"Where we pitch it, where we put the replacement, we took a good hard look at that… I guess [it's a case of] watch this space."