Thoughts and Musings on the Ineos Grenadier

[steve b]

The single wiper looks interesting and the rest of it looks good , very promising . The more commercial variants - Truck cab/ double cab etc. will be good to see too.

Steve 

[Bowie69]

I suspect the single wiper is broken! No way to clear the whole screen otherwise

[Anderzander]

@Snagger 🤣

Quote

Building it in France will cost a fortune.  Labour law prevents sacking of even the most incompetent and lazy staff, severely limits weekly hours and they’re always on strike.  Ineos would be shooting themselves in the foot.  But other than that, the vehicle is looking pretty impressive, and a far, far better prospect than the Pretender.

⬆️ ^{No stereotypes were hurt in the making of the above post} 

[Tanuki]

6 hours ago, elbekko said:

What on earth is going on under that rear bumper?

Indeed! It should have a towbar rather than that silly shiny bit of metal.

I'm wondering, too, about the location of the rear number-plate: a proper-height towbar would probably cause a visibility-obstruction and incur the wrath of the Carabinieri/Polizei when they find the towbar makes it harder for their speed-cameras to get a good view.

[steve b]

1 hour ago, Bowie69 said:

I suspect the single wiper is broken! No way to clear the whole screen otherwise

If it's broken , both vehicles are suffering the same fail ..?

Steve

[Anderzander]

1 hour ago, steve b said:

If it's broken , both vehicles are suffering the same fail ..?

Steve

Maybe they took the passenger side off so they can move that camera around ? 
 

If you visit the website listed on the motorbike screen you can see this is all about capturing film.
 

I wonder why the bumper has a mesh ‘intake’ in it?

[deep]

I'm intrigued by the rails where alpine lights would be on a Land Rover.  They may incur some wind noise but, wow, so very practical!

[Snagger]

11 hours ago, Anderzander said:

@Snagger 🤣

⬆️ ^{No stereotypes were hurt in the making of the above post} 

I’m half French, so I know the way the country works.

[Maverik]

18 hours ago, Chicken Drumstick said:

Some new pics of the Grenadier. Reckon it is looking really good.

 

Where did the pictures come from?

[Anderzander]

The way the rear bumper wraps around looks practical.

I wonder what the little panel above it does ? Just behind the rear arch ....

Is that a vent on the rear between the side window and the small door window ? 

The rims are interesting too - a little like a Wolf wheel stylistically I thought - but the centres sit quite flush to the face.

[mickeyw]

I just noticed those roof rails. It wasn't until I zoomed in that I realised they weren't alpine lights.

Are they grab handles, roof luggage lashing points, or an exposed part of an integral roll frame that doubles up as the first two ideas? From another angle I am seeing light sabre stowage positions
Either way I think a fair bit of crud will end up in there.

 

These waistline rails look like that load securing track.

 

[mickeyw]

12 hours ago, Anderzander said:

Maybe they took the passenger side off so they can move that camera around ? 
 

This image show the other wiper would be parked right where their camera is.

 

[Bowie69]

2 hours ago, Anderzander said:

wonder what the little panel above it does ? Just behind the rear arch ..

In one if the videos it was shown as a wet/dirty stuff stowage locker, boots etc.

[paime]

i like it better in the flesh than in the CG images. That one wiper blade has it's work cut out, though!

[ThreePointFive]

It looks oddly like a render, even in those photos. I know it's not, lighting just seems to hit it weirdly. The bonnet looks a lot better than the previous pictures.

I like the idea of the attachment points, as long as they are functionally well-considered and not done for the 'Tacticool' look or spec sheet bloating. It would be a shame if they're just water traps or using them to actually secure anything damages the paintwork (just look at some of the aftermarket external storage bolt-ons for LR).

[Bowie69]

Nice big recovery loops.

[Maverik]

11 hours ago, mickeyw said:

These waistline rails look like that load securing track.

Unwin rail. 

[jeremy996]

Interesting article in Autocar, (much the same as the Coventry Telegraph), written by Steve Cropley, (Well known motoring journalist and ex editor of Autocar), which fills in some gaps and influences. Autocar

The Q&A with Toby Ecuyer is about as far as you can get from our favourite JLR stylist:-

So you’re not a car designer?

“No, at least not until now. I grew up on a farm in Derbyshire around tractors and Land Rovers, but I was interested in cars.

“When I was about nine, I wrote to Austin Rover with some car sketches. They wrote back politely, basically saying the cars were terrible but that they had a design department and, when I was old enough, I should try to join their training scheme. Until then, I didn’t realise design was an actual job, and that really sparked my interest to know how things were created.”

How did you get into design?

“I trained as an architect and then got into boat design – long projects, 80-metre superyachts and for private customers. That’s how I got to know Jim Ratcliffe. I designed a couple of boats for him and looked after a building project. I was involved in the early talks about the Grenadier, then Jim asked me if I would like to be involved. It sounded interesting, and it has been fascinating.”

Has learning a new discipline been hard?

“Well, I’ve learned that it isn’t necessarily wrong to change horses. There are some interesting parallels in surface design and design thinking. And although I’m the design leader, there are others in the team. I haven’t done all this on my own.”

What’s it like working with Jim Ratcliffe?

“Jim loves the design process, and he gets very involved. He has brilliant ideas. My job is to help him get them onto paper. When you’re building a superyacht, you’re talking about a four-year programme, so you get to know a person really well. We had a good friendship – and a mutual enjoyment of cars.”

Is this a car to love or a tool?

“Both, really. We were very interested in vehicles that had both proven themselves in the field and found their way into people’s hearts.

“Not all modern SUVs were like this. There’s an honesty about cars in our collection that people tend to adopt and identify with, and we wanted that for Grenadier. That’s why we assembled our collection of vehicles for benchmarking. They were all vehicles that were well-respected.”

What will you think when people draw similarities to the Land Rover Defender?

“It has been fascinating, benchmarking all the cars we have. One thing I’ve learned is how little there is between cars. I mean, you only have to change a vehicle a little to make it look like something different. Shift the headlights a bit and you’ve suddenly made a Ford Bronco.”

How did you define your objectives for the Grenadier?

“We made a list of qualities we wanted to achieve: assured, robust, faithful, dependable and purposeful. We used them as a kind of checklist. Every time we had a decision to make about the car, we would run through the list to see if it met them. I’m hoping people will recognise those things in the production car.”

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by jeremy996
adding more stuff - Gerry McGovern will hopefully take me off his Christmas card list

[jeremy996]

There were questions about the loadbay - a picture has surfaced!

It looks a fair bit wider that an 110?

[Gazzar]

You'd load a pallet in that!

[Bowie69]

Seriously impressive load bay, no inner wheel arches?

[missingsid]

There are great features on this car and it has huge potential s I wish it well, BUT

 

I really wish they had used a shape that was not such a LR Defneder rip off, it shows a lack of imagination.

[Anderzander]

51 minutes ago, missingsid said:

There are great features on this car and it has huge potential s I wish it well, BUT

 

I really wish they had used a shape that was not such a LR Defneder rip off, it shows a lack of imagination.

I wondered about that .....

I half wonder if it’s simply that Mr Ratcliffe loves his Defenders - and so they’ve built one.
 

He also offered to buy the tooling didn’t he and continue their production - and apparently JLR initially seemed quite open to it and then said no - so part of me wonders is he rubbing it in a bit. 

[Retroanaconda]

Very impressive. More like the back of a van. If they could fix the front it would be a smart-looking vehicle. Sadly it seems most larger cars have horrible looking front ends these days.

I suspect there will need to be wheel boxes same as there are in small vans.

[Anderzander]

It does say you can fit a pallet in the back, so they must have done something with the wheel boxes.