Masters Of The Universe

From farmyard refugee to essential accessory - the off-roader has come a long way in two decades.

- Jason Barlow

‘We’ve got the lot – every car is here in our great first issue.’

Back in October 1993 that was a ballsy cover-line and an unforgettable image, but now it looks like a dispatch from a parallel dimension.

Here’s why. You have to count five rows back on that rammed cover image before you get to an SUV. It’s a first-gen Land Rover Discovery, the three-door with the stepped roof and stripes. Behind it is a Jeep Cherokee, only a Fiat Cinquecento’s width away from a Daihatsu Fourtrak. Remember that? Farmer’s vehicle, right? Searching beyond row six is akin to reading the Snellen chart at the optician’s, but you can make out a Jeep Wrangler, a Mitsubishi Shogun and an Isuzu Trooper. Good for towing horseboxes or boats. Bad at everything else. A decade or more after style commentator Peter York first wrote about Sloane Rangers, only the original Range Rover – by now a superannuated 23-year-old – had designs on something grander than mere utility. Who would have guessed that this very aspiration would be one of the defining narratives of the next 23 years?