While it's obvious that a brand new Range Rover would have little in common with one that was built in the 60's, the actual differences between the two are more than just skin deep.
For example, while the new Velar is meant to be a stylish and sophisticated SUV, the first car wasn't even production ready. That's because Land Rover built their first Velar-badged cars in order to hide Range Rover prototypes during tests.
This car here, a 1969 model, being tested by Auto Express' James Batchelor, is one of only a handful of pre-production models that weren't "disposed of" back in the day.
Even the pronunciation differs between how you say Velar now, and how you used to say it back in the day, with an emphasis on 'E'. According to this reviewer, that's the correct way to pronounce the car's name.
The reason why Land Rover went with Velar in the first place was because they searched for a word that could properly represent prototypes meant to disguise the soon-to-be Range Rover. Velar comes from the Latin verb "velare", which means "to conceal".
So what is the original Velar like to drive? Well, it drives just like a Range Rover should. Batchelor even went as far as to call it "majestic" in the way that it covers ground. Not bad for a pre-production car that's nearly 50 years old.
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