So we’re finally here. Six years since three blokes walked into a pub and started to talk about a car. Nothing unusual there, of course, except that one of those blokes was Sir Jim Ratcliffe, British squillionaire, Lancastrian owner of petrochemicals-giant Ineos and ardent Manchester United fan.
And the pub? The Grenadier, Belgravia boozer, a tiny former officers’ mess notable for its OO-gauge size, its decent house bitter and the ghost of Cedric, the card-sharp grenadier whose torment still moves folk to stick their spare readies on to the ceiling to settle his debts. Oh, and it’s also now owned by Sir Jim; of course it is.
And the car? The Grenadier, part off-road utility, part Land Rover Defender tribute act (Ratcliffe was refused permission to buy a licence to produce the old Defender model when Land Rover closed the Solihull production line in 2016). So, there’s pique there, yes, but this is a serious effort. Grenadier has been designed by Toby Ecuyer who previously designed yachts; it’s been engineered by Magna, the Canadian-owned Austrian-based specialists that also built the Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen (or G-Class). The beam axles come from the Italian firm Carraro and German specialist Gestamp builds the massive chassis frame. Engines and transmissions? Take a bow BMW and ZF.
