Pre-production renderings of Milner Off-Road’s Evoque-inspired LRM-1 cross-country rally machine have mysteriously appeared online, after allegedly being filed with the Chinese patent office.
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The images bear a striking resemblance to this LRM-1 produced by Milner Off-Road.
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Pictures of the rally Evoque first appeared on Chinese website auto.sohu.com, where it was described as a ‘Land Rover Aurora’. Online commentators speculated that it could be the next Bowler Nemesis or Rally Raid UK Desert Warrior, designed exclusively for the Chinese market – perhaps for a China-only rally series. But they clearly didn't know what they were looking at.
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to spot the similarity between the renderings and the sensational Milner-built vehicle campaigned in the 2013 Britpart British Cross-Country Championship by Ryan Cooke.
We spoke to Tim Marsh from Milner Off-Road, who confirmed that the company had no part in filing the Chinese patent. ‘That is definitely our truck – no doubt about it,’ said Marsh. ‘These are our own pre-production renderings of the LRM-1 but they were never released to the public.’
So how did Milner’s images come to be filed with the Chinese patent office? The plot thickens…
BY: Theo Ford-Sagers
from http://www.lro.com
