LAND ROVER’S LRX – Shrink to Fit
The Land Rover’s LRX is compact, premium and precision-tooled to take anyone else who suspects that SUVs are the work of the devil. Desirability, performance and, most importantly, sustainability are the latest buzzwords.
The LRX is the first Land Rover to appear since Gerry McGovern took over as design director. Its stance and basic proportions are spot-on, but it’s the LRX’s profile that;s most distinctive. The tapered roofline, body-side crease and upswept rear end all combine to create the sort of visual thrust that’s not normally the preserve of an off-roader. There are huge front wheelarches – with a sly nod to Land Rover’s trademark bonner castellations – 20in alloy wheels, and a clever continuous window graphic.
Land Rover claims that the LRX’s reduced frontal area will benefit fuel consumption and emissions, but it’s still every bit as aggressively sculpted as 2004′s Range Stormer concept. The seats are trimmed in a vegetable-tanned leather and the door trim is fashioned out of recycled plastic bottles. The electronic display uses floating LCD graphics to create a 3D effect, and the information is displayed in layers according to its importance. Interior lighting, meanwhile, can be adjusted to match whichever drivetrain mode has been selected: green for economy, red for sport, blue for standard.