RANGE ROVER CSK THE ORIGINAL SUV
While doing his apprenticeship in Lower Hutt during the 1970s a young Paul Cocker heard the rumble of a V8 passing by. When he looked up he saw his first Range Rover. The sight and sound of that vehicle made an impression on the teenager that lasted a lifetime.
The Range Rover, thanks to Charles Spencer King, went into production in 1970 boasting an iconic shape that would last until 1996. The vehicle that would create the ‘sports utility vehicle’, or ‘SUV’, moniker came about because Rover decided it was time to add a bigger four-wheel-drive vehicle, one with a 100-inch wheelbase, to the model range. Land Rover made a 109-inchwheelbase model but the standard vehicle had a 88-inch wheelbase.
The new model would be more suitable for road use than the existing Land Rover, which was considered to be predominantly for rural use. To make sure it could cope on any road it came standard with the Rover 3.5-litre V8 engine. The body design was originally sketched by King and went into production with
