For £125,000, is this restomod Range Rover the classiest 4x4?

We’ve slobbered over an old Rangie before. No, not back in the 1970s when it was new. We’re not that old. But we have come across the work of Kingsley Cars, who take old Range Rovers and apply the Singer / Eagle / Alfaholics treatment to make them better-than-new. 

Heck, we’ve even driven one. And we liked it a lot. 

But now, Kingsley has turned its attentions to the Range Rover Classic – in iconic three-door and five-door form – and launched it just in time to beat the expanding London Ultra-Low Emission Zone which will increase the area in which drivers of diesels made before September 2015 and petrol vehicles made before 2006 have to pay £12.50 to access London.

The Classic, being over 40 years old at heart, gets an OAP exemption. Which is sort of ironic really, given the two engine options are both hulking great V8s. Choose from a 4.0-litre 220bhp engine, or a 4.6-litre 270bhp V8 reputedly capable of up to 25 miles per gallon. 

Kingsley says their Range Rover Classic Reborn is “a driver-focused, technology-oriented facelift to ensure its city-dwelling owners can commute and beat the ULEZ in style". And it’s a proper job too. 

You get a beefed-up automatic gearbox to go with your more reliable engine, a totally stripped, re-welded and rust-proofed shell, and upgraded brakes, stronger wheels and suspension more at home bumbling around city roads than conquering the Sahara. Which is probably netter for what owners will have in mind.

Optional extras? Oh yes. Plenty of ‘em. You can have vario-assisting electric power steering to aid those tight parking manoeuvres outside Salt Bae’s silly steakhouse. And sensors. And a reversing camera. No excuses for dinging your posh new paintwork, basically. 

You can specify a 700-watt stereo, Apple CarPlay, and LED headlights. And if that all sounds too ‘tech’ for you, then worry not. Instead of leather seats, try tweed instead. There are heated seats. And yet, not a mirror-tint window in sight.

So much classier than a brand-new Range Rover, wouldn’t you say? Though it’s priced to compete with one: prices pre-options kick off at £125,000. And that’s a lot for an old farm hack, but a bit of a bargain for a car even the Queen of England will suffer a pang of ‘want’ for.