Gran Turismo 6: HELLO EVOQUE

This is the luxury crossover in question. It's called the Range Rover Evoque, one of the many new cars you can drive on Gran Turismo 6 and it's also one of the cars I demanded GT6 to feature it...well sort of because the one I have in the game is the sportier Dynamic version...in three-door Coupe trim.

Anyway, the Evoque, what is it? Why would the Evoque just wanna say HELLO GT6?  Here's a little story about this posh spice...

Premiered in 2010 and went on sale in the Autumn of 2011, the Evoque is basically the production version of the Land Rover LRX Concept, as seen on the 2008 NAIAS. It may look like an SUV but it also looked like a sports car, therefore it went against conventional SUV looks and feels.



Unlike its bigger brothers, the Evoque doesn't have a huge separate chassis, a low-range gearbox, and a big engine. It's based on the Freelander 2 platform and just 90% of the parts were revised for road clearance purposes. There are numerous engines for the Evoque to choose from such as a 2.2L diesel engine or the one I have in my Evoque in GT6 is a 2.0L turbo engine which produces 236HP of power and 250.9ft-lb of torque.

Legend has it that to compensate for the lack of a low-range gearbox, the Evoque features a clever tech called TERRAIN RESPONSE and even though the Evoque doesn't look like an off-roader, it still behaves like any off-roader. It even has magnetic iron filings in the suspension to quickly adapt the shock absorber firmness regardless of any road.





I had to admit that by the time I drove this crossover on GT6, it's good to say that the ride is pretty much excellent and even though it's just a mini-RR with a bit of posh spice in mind, not to mention the whole Victoria Beckham gig, I find the Evoque to be rather amusing to me. Despite being a bulk of a crossover, the Evoque still fares like a sportscar in the handling stakes and as for the off-road stakes, the Evoque still fares surprisingly well...but only just.



I love this car. It rides excellent, it's better off-road, and it has a charismatic appeal to stand out. The Evoque may not be quite a stunner in the world of Gran Turismo 6 but it's still a crossover well played to face the world.



Is it a proper Range Rover or just a big designer's purse? You decide the outcome in case you have one in your GT6 car collection.

Things to know about the Evoque:
1) It's a crossover that sees the departure of SUV conventions most Land Rovers had.
2) JLR invested over 27 million British Pounds Sterling worth of government grants to produce this at their Halewood plant
3) Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham was heavily involved in the Evoque's detailing.
4) It scored five-star overall in the Euro NCAP rating
5) Since its launch, JLR received over 18,000 pre-orders for the Evoque