Jaguar/Land Rover Officially Launches Engineered to Order Division [Beijing Auto Show]

The Beijing auto show debut of Land Rover's Range Rover Evoque Special Edition with Victoria Beckham had us initially scratching our heads. Not necessarily because we were perplexed by Mrs. Beckham's taste, or even by the fact that it exists, but because the few examples that will come here likely will run around $100K. That's more than twice the price of a base Evoque. But such exercises in extravagance are par for the course from Jag/Land Rover, which now has officially launched an in-house group to create them: the Engineered to Order division. It's worth noting that the ETO team has been pumping out products for a while now: It executed the ludicrously luxurious Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate Edition (interior pictured above). Beijing also hosted the debut of the $155,875 Jaguar XJ Ultimate, for example, which costs some $37K more than the next most-expensive XJ. (Following a similar theme, the fast-pussycat brand offered Vanden Plas and Daimler versions of its cars for years.) The group's purview is not limited to further fancying the already pretty fancy, however; it also handled the Jaguar XKR-S. In addition to elegance and performance upgrades, ETO is equipped to engineer armored and specialist vehicles. So, if your pulse quickens at the thought of a bomb-resistant F-type or a 600-horse LR4, call ETO and it will no doubt be eager to help. For a substantial fee, of course. Comparison Test: 2011 Audi A8L vs. 2011 BMW 750Li, 2011 Jaguar XJL Supercharged Comparison Test: Acura MDX vs. Audi Q7, BMW X5, Land Rover LR4, Lexus GX460 First Drive: 2012 Jaguar XKR-S Coupe from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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