Range Rover designer dies in bicycle accident - Polidicks

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/04king.html?src=busln[/url] [release][img]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/07/04/business/dogKING-obit/dogKING-obit-popup.jpg[/img] Charles Spencer King, a British engineer who led the team that developed the Range Rover as the ultimate vehicle for the landed aristocracy, and who watched in dismay as his creation became an international symbol of gas-guzzling conspicuous consumption, died June 26 in Coventry, England. He was 85. The cause was complications of injuries sustained in a bicycle accident near his home in Cubbington, England, his son, Chris, said. Mr. King, whom everyone knew as Spen, grew up in Surrey County in southern England. He left public school at 17 and went to work for Rolls-Royce, where he helped develop gas turbine engines. In 1945 he was hired by his uncles, Maurice and Spencer Wilks, who resuscitated the Rover company after World War II. Mr. King first gained attention in 1952 when he set a land speed record of 152 miles an hour for gas turbine cars in Jet1, which he had helped design. “He was a go-fast and turn-tight type guy,” said Bill Baker, a retired spokesman for Range Rover of North America and a longtime friend. Mr. King brought his taste for speed to the Range Rover, which he designed in the late 1960s. Equipped with a powerful V-8 engine, huge tires and coil spring suspension, a first for four-wheel-drive vehicles, the Range Rover was made to leave London on a Friday night for a 100-mile-an-hour sprint to a country estate, and rev up Saturday morning for a pheasant hunt across the rocky English countryside. The Range Rover was featured in an exhibition at the Louvre Museum in the early 1970s as an exemplary work of industrial design. In 1987 it was introduced in the United States, where it became prized less for its superior performance than for its exclusivity. To a generation of rappers, professional athletes and striving suburbanites, the Range Rover became the ultimate four-wheeled status symbol, which Mr. King regretted. “Sadly, the 4x4 has become an acceptable alternative to Mercedes or BMW for the pompous, self-important driver,” Mr. King told The Daily Mail in 2004. “To use them for the school run, or even in cities or towns at all, is completely stupid.” Mr. King left Rover in the 1970s to design aluminum engines for the Triumph Stag and TR8, powerful convertibles in the English sports car tradition. He retired in 1985 and founded a consulting company. “He was just a natural engineer,” Chris King said. Instead of a sport utility vehicle, Mr. King preferred to drive zippy German cars. He owned a Volkswagen Golf R32 DSG with paddle shifters. Charles Spencer King was born on March 26, 1925, and grew up in Surrey, England. In addition to his son, he is survived by a daughter, Penny Walker, and two granddaughters. This year a detached retina prevented Mr. King from driving. A competitive skier and sailor, he avoided elevators, preferring to take stairs two at a time well into his 80s. Mr. King was bicycling on June 8 near his home, a converted 14th-century manor, when he was struck by a van.[/release] The Range Rover: Easily the classiest way to cross the African savannah.

[IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/superirony.gif[/IMG] He should have stuck with the gas guzzlers.

Don't feel bad. He's up in heaven turning the clouds black

[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;23094154] The Range Rover: Easily the classiest way to cross the African savannah.[/QUOTE] Until it breaks down. I watch Top Gear, I know what I'm saying.

And who said cycling was good for you? :saddowns:

It was those damned Decepticons.

[QUOTE=Second-gear-of-mgear;23097636]Until it breaks down. I watch Top Gear, I know what I'm saying.[/QUOTE] im sure a range rover is more resiliant than say a hilux

[QUOTE=Second-gear-of-mgear;23097636]Until it breaks down. I watch Top Gear, I know what I'm saying.[/QUOTE] But when it does, they are usually very easy to fix. I know what i'm saying. I have one.

It was those damn enviromentalists :argh:

[QUOTE=Second-gear-of-mgear;23097636]Until it breaks down. I watch Top Gear, I know what I'm saying.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure that most of the Vietnam episode Jeremy was going on about how reliable his range-rover was.

[QUOTE=Dotmister;23101135]I'm pretty sure that most of the Vietnam episode Jeremy was going on about how reliable his range-rover was.[/QUOTE] Bolivia

[QUOTE=abcpea;23100971]im sure a range rover is more resiliant than say a hilux[/QUOTE] defender probably, the newer ones, not so much.

Sucks for him, especially when he obviously looked after his body (avoided using elevators, took two steps at a time well into his eighties).

[QUOTE=Thomo V2;23101113]But when it does, they are usually very easy to fix. I know what i'm saying. I have one.[/QUOTE] You just gotta turn a bolt until it stops emitting steam.

[QUOTE=Karbinev2;23102359]defender probably, the newer ones, not so much.[/QUOTE] Except the Defender isn't a Range Rover. We're talking about this fucker: [img]http://classiccarsales.ie/files/cars/images/big/Land_Rover_Range_Rover_Classic_bdde6c872888840026c2c0aa35da7fca.jpg[/img] Not this notoriously unreliable Land Rover: [img]http://www.dap-inc.com/acc/acc-img/susp/d2-lift-kit-1.jpg[/img]

What makes this sadder is that the new Range Rover looks like shit and is exactly what he wouldn't want it to look like.

[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;23103218]Except the Defender isn't a Range Rover. We're talking about this fucker: [img]http://classiccarsales.ie/files/cars/images/big/Land_Rover_Range_Rover_Classic_bdde6c872888840026c2c0aa35da7fca.jpg[/img] Not this notoriously unreliable Land Rover: [img]http://www.dap-inc.com/acc/acc-img/susp/d2-lift-kit-1.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] Elitist.

How is it elitist to say that the Discovery S1 was notoriously unreliable?

when i saw this thread from the front page i thought it was going to say Range Rover designer dies in Range Rover accident

There was some famous road safety public speaker who died while drink driving. You really don't see the old ones of these around anymore, just tons of new ones being driven by idiot mothers with annoying kids in the back. You might see one rusty one in the remote countryside occasionally but it's like seeing an original LDV Pilot.

[QUOTE=cheesedelux;23114098]There was some famous road safety public speaker who died while drink driving. You really don't see the old ones of these around anymore, just tons of new ones being driven by idiot mothers with annoying kids in the back. You might see one rusty one in the remote countryside occasionally but it's like seeing an original LDV Pilot.[/QUOTE] Shit, you could say that about any decent off-road vehicle. Fucking soccer moms.