Your Inner 1990s Yuppie Needs This Convertible Range Rover

The new-for-1995 P38-generation Range Rover was the glowing success that Land Rover needed it to be, bringing upmarket equipment and premium trim to a rapidly growing SUV market. The Lucas-operated 4-liter Rover V8 soldiered on with 190 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque at hand. It was instantly popular among the influential SoCal yuppie scene, selling by the shipload, moving approximately 170,000 units between 1995 and 2001. One of those popular five-door SUVs was upfitted into a two-door convertible by German body shop Styling Garage, allegedly commissioned for Prince Jefri of Brunei, because apparently a BMW E30 cabriolet just wasn’t good enough. The result is as interesting as it is rare. 

RM Sotheby’s

The talk on the town about this car is that it was delivered new in 1995 to a private garage beneath the Beverly Hills Hotel, presumably the Bolkiah royal family’s private garage. In 30 years of its existence, this Range Rover has only been driven 16,400 miles, most of them since it was acquired by its second owner in 1999. It’s sad to think that a vehicle built exclusively to enjoy the sunshine and quality roads of Southern California has enjoyed so few of them. Forget collectors, you need to buy this thing and treat it to a few hundred thousand miles of cherished drivership. 

Styling Garage had its work cut out for it when this project began. The designers on hand had to completely re-engineer the visuals of this car, while retaining as much of the structural rigidity as possible. Not only did they re-profile and lengthen the door in order to make this vehicle a simple two-door, but the rear haunches were redesigned to keep the beltline where it belongs. A beefy rear bulkhead reinforcement was added to keep the chassis stiff. They didn’t just cut the top off and replace it with a fabric top, there’s more to it than that. 

Just look at that supple white leather interior and tell me you don’t want to sink into that seat and hit the open road. This seems like it would be the perfect vehicle for a weekend trip to Tijuana or up the PCH. Pick pretty much any coastal route and blast some Madonna with the top down, it’ll probably fix whatever ails you, my friend. 

If you’re the kind of buyer who wants a weird 30-year-old British convertible SUV (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t?), then you’ll have to head over to RM Sotheby’s current online auction and get to bidding. As of this writing the drop top Range Rover has been bid up to $50,000 with 6 days remaining. The pre-auction estimate puts the vehicle somewhere between $100,000 and $125,000.