[Auto Home? Cheku Wenhua] With the release and launch of the new Land Rover Defender, the fate of the old guard has also attracted much attention from car fans. The reason is that the British rich man Jim Ratcliffe He was so obsessed with the Old Guard that he spent a lot of money to extend the life of this car... Jim Ratcliffe thought that he had superpowers (money) to continue the production of the Old Guard, so he tried to find Land Rover and wanted to buy the production of the Old Guard. Mold, but Land Rover seemed to want the rich man to know that even with money, he could not do whatever he wanted, so Land Rover slapped the British rich man in the face saying that he would not sell it, and after learning that Jim Ratcliffe planned to "resurrection" the old guard, for this Due to the crazy behavior of a fan, Land Rover was even forced to apply for a shape patent for the old Defender at the end of 2019. Fortunately for Jim Ratcliffe, the relevant British authorities rejected Land Rover's patent application on the grounds that the appearance of the Land Rover Defender did not have a unique style. However, Land Rover is not a good person. It recently appealed to the British High Court again. Land Rover believes that the Defender is the company's iconic model and represents the past, present and future of Land Rover. Its unique shape is highly recognizable. You must know that Jim Ratcliffe's Grenadier project has already started at this time, and the total investment has exceeded 600 million pounds. It is absolutely impossible for Jim Ratcliffe to stop at this time. God always seems to favor the British tycoon. Land Rover's appeal was once again rejected and the previous ruling was upheld. The old guard did not have appearance patent rights. Land Rover did not respond to the ruling, saying it was disappointed. You may ask what does this guy do? As the founder of the British INEOS petrochemical group, Jim Ratcliffe topped the British wealth list for the first time in 2018 with a net worth of 21.05 billion pounds. My brother has a wide range of interests. Because he loves collecting motorcycles, he acquired Belstaff, which is famous for producing motorcycle leather jackets. Jim Ratcliffe is still a sports fan. He took over Team Sky and made Ineos famous in the field of cycling events. As a Manchester United fan, he also planned to acquire this old team, but the Glazer family stated that they There is no shortage of money and no intention of parting love. Back to the topic, now Jim Ratcliffe can finally laugh out loud and produce his own "new" Old Guard. The new car continues to use the design of the old Guard as originally planned. You can easily find the design elements of the Old Guard in the previously released Grenadier. , tough and straight lines, small side windows on the roof, etc., these are the appearance characteristics of the old guard. However, Jim Ratcliffe still gave Land Rover face, and Grenadier also made some innovations. For example, the small round lights on the air intake grille constitute Grenadier's four-round headlight shape, which more or less subverts the traditional design of the old guard. . At present, the interior, specific configuration and power of Grenadier have not been revealed too much. However, even without official support from Land Rover, the powerful INEOS simply developed a new platform when building Grenadier. In order to live up to the name of the defender, Grenadier will be equipped with a powerful four-wheel drive system and adopt the non-load-bearing chassis of a traditional off-road vehicle. In order to meet the needs of hard-drive off-road vehicle users, Grenadier will adopt front and rear hard axles, part-time four-wheel drive and Differential locks, etc. show its hard power. In terms of power, INEOS selected BMW's 3.0T inline six-cylinder engine as the "heart" of Grenadier, and the transmission system comes from ZF. The technology research and development of the car is handled by Austria's Magna Steyr. As for the future production of Grenadier, the project leader said that INEOS is currently transforming a Ford engine plant in South Wales, England, and the production of body and chassis is Produced at the factory in Estarrea, Portugal. The vehicle is currently in the research and development stage, and the Grenadier prototype test vehicle will soon undergo a one-year road test covering a total of 1.8 million kilometers.
When overseas media asked about the original intention of building the Grenadier, Jim Ratcliffe said, "The Grenadier will be a powerful and reliable off-road vehicle that can handle the world's harshest road conditions like the old guard in the past." Translated Just "I really don't understand what Land Rover is thinking. Such an excellent Defender has been discontinued. New Defender? Can you please stop teasing me? Look how our Grenadier beats it! Hahahahaha, being rich is such a joy! "(Picture from Internet? Article? Autohome? Li Haopeng)