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Forget About the Evoque Cabriolet, Here’s Its Grandfather and It’s on Sale

Amidst all the hype surrounding Evoque Cabriolet’s launch, a different type of open top Range Rover emerges, and we can’t help but feel very intrigued.
1973 Range Rover Convertible 27 photos
Photo: Silverstone Auctions
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The new Evoque Cabriolet will undoubtedly be a posh machine, an SUV only by name, and not because it lacks off-road abilities but simply because people buy it for completely different reasons. To look good, respectively.

Well, that won’t be the case with this 1973 Range Rover that’s up for auction. Whoever ends up buying this, will be getting a piece of history - altered history, granted, as the Range has gone through some pretty life-changing modifications, but it still represents a small chunk of the brand’s past.

The 1973 Ranger Rover is going to go under the hammer during Silverstone Auctions’ last event of the year, the two-day NEC Classic Motor Show Sale that will be held at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show on November 14-15.

After it started life as all Range Rovers do, this 62,500-mile “Suffix B” version was subjected to the angle-grinder treatment in the late Eighties by Special Vehicle Conversions, an outfit specializing in bespoke conversion services for Range Rover models.

The open-top Range has recently been restored to its original Special Vehicle Conversions specification, and given its low mileage, it is expected to sell for anything between £35,000 and £40,000 ($54,000 and $62,000).

Since there was an entire company dedicated to chopping off Range Rover roofs, there are several convertible examples out there, but this one is special. That low mileage is easily explained by the fate of this particular car. The previous owner won this Range in a card game during the ‘90s, and apparently he did this a lot as he had no more room for the new car in his garages, so it was put in a locker for safekeeping.

The guy who lost it heard about its fate and tried to find the car some twenty years later, in 2014. He managed to track it and then the Range Rover went through a very careful restoration session that lasted eight months and cost £20,000 ($31,000). It is now in pristine condition and is awaiting its new owner.

Not that we have anything against the Evoque Cabriolet, but think about this: park this next to the future Range Rover convertible anywhere in the world, and see which one gets more attention. And it has a 3.5-liter V8. And it’s also less expensive. Enough said.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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