Greg Potts
INVERTED RANGE ROVER
It’s hard not to drive a Range Rover Classic with a smile on your face, and that smile gets a little bit wider when you realise that it’s unlikely to break down. You see, this Inverted take on the two-door Classic starts with a complete back to bare metal restoration before the gearbox, fuel tank and lots of other oily bits are ripped out and replaced with a 450bhp Tesla Model S electric powertrain.
Inverted reckons this reborn Range Rover will now hit 60mph from a standstill in just 5.0 seconds, but set off in the normal drive mode and it doesn’t initially feel all that rapid. In this prototype there’s a little bit of pedal travel to get through before the motor kicks in (that’s because of issues adding in regen), and you actually only get the full 450bhp if you click into Sport mode.
For the majority of the time the motor will give you 80 per cent of the grunt, or in Eco mode that drops to 50 per cent. Even so, that is still 225bhp, which is more than enough get up and go when you really mash the throttle.
This motor usually drives both of the rear wheels in a Model S, but here it’s rotated 90° and drives each axle through the original permanent four-wheel-drive system. That means there’s decent grip, and when you do eventually build up the courage to stick it in Sport mode and press the reluctant throttle right to the floor, it takes off like one of Elon’s rockets.
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