TOMB RAIDER LAND ROVER DEFENDER
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ May 22nd 2001 ]

Paramount Pictures upcoming motion picture Tomb Raider will feature a range of Land Rover vehicles each sporting their own unique technical specifations. Christopher Goodwin provides us with further details on the Defender helmed by Lara Croft star Angelina Jolie:

This vehicle is based on the Land Rover Defender 130 or 110 crew cab, it is not and never will be available in the US because the DOT and EPA forbid the import of defender models except the D90. The 110-inch-wheelbase rig customized also sports a roof rack with four front-mounted safari lights, aluminium tread plates and bumpers, and a winch on each of the four sides. The grey truck has technology as sophisticated as a notebook computer, a GPS navigation system and wireless telephony, as well as a shovel and an axe for when Lara is feeling primal.

Sporting an onboard satellite navigation system, a self-contained breathing environment and packing two surface to air missile launchers bolted to the roof of the Bonatti Grey aluminium, the Land Rover Defender will also feature an "Emergency Kill Button", sure to be absent from most show-room models across the UK. The Defender was built by Land Rover's Special Vehicles Operation team, the same division on LR that builds the prototypes for the military and things like the Camel Trophy (which LR is no longer involved in). Land Rover has also managed to squeeze a pack of it's Discoveries into the mechanical cast list each driven by Powells henchmen while Lara's evil adversary himself will helm a Range Rover. An official spokesman for the company told the press recently: "Tomb Raider is a great fit for us, as the movie will take audiences on a wild ride all over the globe, from the jungles to the deserts...It will be a Land Rover adventure."