Land Rover begins 50^th anniversary celebrations for the original luxury SUV with snow art installation at its Arjeplog cold weather test facility in Sweden with World Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua OBE.

The 260m-wide artwork filled the centre of the steering pad at the test track where all future Land Rover models are put through their paces during development.

Land Rover’s Arjeplog facility uses a frozen lake to provide the perfect conditions for engineers to test and assess the latest models. Renowned snow artist Simon Beck created the 53,092 sq m anniversary logo by walking more than 45,000 steps across the powdery surface inside the steering pad, accompanied by a quartet of the latest Range Rover SV models.

Since 2014 the expert engineers, craftsmen and women at Special Vehicle Operations have been responsible for designing and producing the fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive Range Rover models in the luxury SUV’s 50-year history. The elevated luxury, performance and capability of the SV family represent the pinnacle of Range Rover development.

Customer experience

Arjeplog is also home to the Jaguar Land Rover Ice Academy, where customers experience the thrill of dynamic ice driving, under careful instruction from world-class driving experts. World heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua OBE experienced the extreme conditions as part of the celebrations, where he learned the art of winter driving under the expert supervision of Academy instructors.

World heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, said: “I’m really looking forward to June because the Range Rover family will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of Britain’s finest exports and I’ll be defending my world title belts. I’ll be travelling to my fight with Kubrat Pulev in London on 20 June in my new personalised Range Rover SVAutobiography and I can’t think of a better way to arrive. Nothing can match its combination of comfort and capability – I guess that’s what you get after five decades of experience.”

Innovation

The luxurious Range Rover family will mark 50 years of pioneering innovation and peerless refinement in June, on the anniversary of the introduction of the two-door Range Rover in 1970. Since then, the Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Evoque and Range Rover Velar have expanded the family into a four-strong line-up of the world’s most desirable and advanced SUVs.

The original Range Rover was the four-wheel drive SUV that introduced anti-lock brakes, electronic Traction Control and Automatic Electronic Air Suspension while the 2012 Range Rover pioneered aluminium body architecture in large SUVs. In 2015 the Range Rover was the first vehicle to be fitted with Land Rover’s innovative All-Terrain Progress Control – now available across the Land Rover line-up.

Prof Gerry McGovern OBE, chief creative officer, Land Rover, said: “Over five decades the Range Rover has evolved into the most desirable luxury SUV in the world. Its peerless combination of sophisticated design, refinement and capability has struck an emotional chord with customers all over the globe.”

The team of skilled engineers and designers at Land Rover SV have applied their unique expertise to a succession of Range Rover models and four examples were available in Arjeplog for Joshua to try, as he learned to circle the slippery 260m-diameter steering pad and negotiate the various ice tracks carved into the frozen lake.