IOTD: Land Rover makes an impact in Paris with the all-new Range Rover (w/DOWNLOAD)

The fourth-generation Range Rover became the centrepiece of an exclusive display outside the Paris Opera last night, celebrating the model’s 42-year history.

Land Rover also used the event to mark its role in the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, in which field agent ‘Eve’ drives the Land Rover Defender Double Cab Pick Up.

Paris was the all-new Range Rover’s first major appearance since it was revealed back in August, made even more significant since it shared the stage on Thursday morning with Jaguar’s eagerly awaited F-TYPE.

The all-new Range Rover comes in both Vogue and Autobiography versions, with a choice of 3.0-litre TDV6 diesel, 4.4-litre SDV8 diesel and Supercharged 5.0-litre LR-V8 powerplants.

But back to Land Rover. The Range Rover celebration outside the historic Paris Opera featured four decades of the model, including the rare special edition Range Rover CSK – a two-door model named in honour of Range Rover’s first creator, Charles Spencer King, the outgoing Range Rover Vogue and of course the new lighter, more spacious and luxurious fourth-generation Range Rover.

Since the original ground-breaking Range Rover of 1970, successive models have remained true to its luxury SUV ethos, but none has taken quite the stride forwards as this latest version.

With a huge weight saving of 420kg over its predecessor, the new Range Rover offers a completely different driving experience, while later in 2013 the company will introduce what it describes as “the world’s first fully capable hybrid SUV” with a target CO2 of 169g/km for its diesel-hybrid powerplant.

For fans of the marque, we thought you’d like to download a wallpaper image showing each Range Rover generation. Just click on the buttons below and save them to your desktop.

Download

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(Click to download in size 1920 x 1280 px)

Images: Jaguar Land Rover.

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