Take It Off, Range Rover. Take. It. Off.

Is a topless SUV still an SUV?

By The Editors
November 11, 2015 9:00 am

No matter the marque, SUVs tend to share certain characteristics.

One of those characteristics: a roof.

Except, of course, the new Range Rover Evoque Convertible, a sporty update on the classic British Land Rover, a car born on a farm in Wales in 1947 by cross-breeding a jeep chassis and transmission with a Rover engine and gearbox. Back then, the nod to utility motoring was most evident in the central placement of the steering column: drivers piloted these nascent Land Rovers more like a tractor than a car.

Nearly 70 years later, Tata Motors (Land Rover’s holding company since ’08) sells nearly 200,000 Rovers worldwide. Starting next spring, some of them will be the two-door Evoque Convertible. The cloth roof folds down in 18 seconds; drivers can choose between a gasoline or diesel engine.

We think it looks a little bottom-heavy — but how nice it will be to ford rivers, cross glaciers and do all those Rover-y things with the wind in our hair.

Images via Land Rover

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