Classic Range Rovers are achingly cool, but they’re also really slow, really thirsty and really don’t like corners. But British restomod outfit Inverted reckons it can fix all of those things – with a little help from Tesla.
For the not inconsiderable sum of £225,000 ($281,000) plus 20 percent VAT if you’re based in the UK, Inverted will sell you a fully restored and uprated classic-shape Range Rover that will leave an original for dead on a straight bit of road, and might actually make it around the bend at the end of it.
The original 1970 Range Rover developed just 135 hp (137 PS) from its 3.5-liter Buick-derived aluminum V8 and took a yawning 13.9 seconds to reach 60 mph (96 km/h). Later versions gained more power with the addition of fuel injection and extra capacity, but even the final 4.2-liter Classics couldn’t muster more than 200 hp (203 PS) and needed almost 11 seconds before you’d see 60 mph on the speedo.
Thanks to the addition of 450 hp (456 PS) of Tesla powertrain, though, Inverted’s Range Rover will do the job in only 5.0 seconds. It retains a four-wheel drive system, but the axles are uprated to cope with a 443 lb-ft (600 Nm) torque output that’s around double what the donor car originally had to cope with, Alcon brakes are added to provide suitable stopping power and there’s an optional handling pack consisting of 25 percent stiffer springs, adjustable shocks anti roll bars.
Related: Everrati Adds $282k Range Rover Classic And $227k Defender To Menu Of Retro EV Conversions
Depending on what the customer wants Inverted will source either a two- or four-door donor Range Rover for each of the six projects it will carry out each year, putting each through a comprehensive rebuild process that always has one eye on sustainability, which helps explain, or maybe excuses, the use of pre-owned rather than new Tesla batteries, which at first glance looks a bit stingy given the asking price.
The original interior still looks dated, and not in a cool way thanks to all those air vents, the heating control panel and ugly clock, but the surfaces are coated in smart, sustainable leather and Harris Tweed, the original instruments are swapped for three individual clocks and you get Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and a reversing camera. You also get up to 200 miles (322 km) of range, a 6.6 kW onboard charger and the ability to charge at 100 kW when using public chargers, which is poor by modern EV standards but allows you to take the battery from 20-80 percent in 34 minutes.
Inverted’s car has a ton of benefits, including being exempt from UK road tax and the London congestion charge, a lower price than the $282k Everrati wants for its Range Rover EV, and of course it’s miles quicker than a gasoline version. But for less money you could buy a restored Range Rover Classic from Kingsley that looks just as good and has a powerful 4.6-liter V8 for an enhanced version of the original V8-powered Range Rover experience. Which would you pick?
