Land Rover Eyes Hardcore 4x4s

Land Rover vehicles are already off-road capable, but the company wants to take things further.

Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division is already responsible for several hot projects and now the company is turning its attention on developing more hardcore off-road models sporting the Land Rover badge. According to the division head John Edwards, SVO wants to focus on developing four different types of cars: on-road performance cars, all-terrain performance cars, luxury derivatives and collector’s editions like the Jaguar Project 7. The all-terrain performance cars are something the division hasn’t developed yet but is looking forward to pushing the Land Rover nameplate to new heights.

“Land Rover has that all-terrain capability built into all its products, but we need to give customers the permission to use it,” said Edwards. The focus for SVO? Simple, it’s all about making the performance “usable” and making Land Rover more “abusable rather than too precious.”

Though Edwards didn’t say which nameplates will get the serious off-road treatment, he did hint that the Defender and Range Rover models are high candidates. Recent rumors revealed that the Land Rover Defender would be getting attention from SVO so don’t be surprised if that’s the first one out of the gate.