Velvet Motorworks' Modified L322 Range Rover Is A Reverse Restomod

Generally, the restomodding process involves taking a classic car and fitting it with some modern componentry. These renderings, though, show a noughties L322 Range Rover that’s an overhaul by Estonian firm Velvet Motorworks to make it look like a classic ’70s model, and it’s making our brains hurt a bit.

Backdating, as Velvet calls this process, isn’t a new concept in this world – all of Singer’s ‘Reimagined’ Porsche 911s start life as ’90s 993-shape models and are tweaked to look older than they really are. But it’s thrown us a bit to see what feels like a relatively new car getting a similar sort of treatment, and we’re just now realising that the L322 came out in 2001, which was almost 25 years ago… oh god, we’re so old.

Still, the closest approximation we can really think of to this is the strange retro rebodies that come out of companies like Mitsuoka. Despite being made to look older, though, Velvet plans to give the L322 some modern touches too. They include ‘modern chassis tuning’ with a view to improving on-road manners, modern safety features and an updated interior incorporating Apple CarPlay.

It also plans to fit a switchable valved exhaust, which should sound pretty good, because it’s using Rangies with the supercharged petrol V8 as the base for this old-meets-new creation.

For now, we’ve only got these renders, which, as well as the retro front end, show a rear bumper that’s been cut away, presumably for a better departure angle, and some big, knobbly BFGoodrich All Terrain rubber. Velvet, however, says it’s already putting plans in motion for its first prototype build, with a view to debuting it in the second quarter of next year, before launching a limited production run towards the end of 2026. Stay tuned for more.

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Mike joined Car Throttle as a Staff Writer at the start of 2024, a role that sees him driving the news desk, as well as reviewing cars and (often unsuccessfully) pitching features on obscure Italian hatchbacks.

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