LAND ROVER SEEKS ONE CANADIAN CAPABLE OF TAKING ON THE WORLD IN THE LAND ROVER G4 CHALLENGE COMPETITION

Henderson, NV, December 8, 2002 – Selected adventure racers from all over Canada converge today on the outskirts of the Las Vegas strip to compete to represent Canada in the Land Rover G4 Challenge. Only two candidates will go forward from the competition held today at the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, Nevada, to an International Selections phase to be held in England, in January 2003. And from there, one Canadian champion will start the Land Rover G4 Challenge next March.

For more than 50 years, Land Rover vehicles have inspired adventurers from around the world to seek out new places and push the limits of both man and machine. That tradition will be reaffirmed on March 30, 2003, when the inaugural Land Rover G4 Challenge begins in New York City.

This global adventure competition will pit 16 international competitors from 16 nations against each other as they spend nearly five weeks driving on- and off-road in Land Rover vehicles. While mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, climbing and rappelling, they will make their way across three continents in their quest to take first place for the nations they represent and to win the grand prize – a new Range Rover worth $104,000.

“The Land Rover G4 Challenge epitomizes the spirit of Land Rover,” says Jacques Parent, vice president for Aston Martin Jaguar Land Rover Canada. “The competition was designed to reward teamwork, ingenuity, strategic thinking, athleticism and, most of all, a positive, can-do attitude. While in the end there can be only one winner, in a sense, all 16 competitors will win simply by qualifying for this grueling event.”

All Land Rover Models To Be Integral Part Of Competition

The Land Rover G4 Challenge is so named because it is a global competition in which entrants will drive all four Land Rover four-wheel-drive models – Range Rover, Discovery, Defender* and Freelander – in four consecutive stages in four different time zones. The different stages will test the competitors’ physical capability and mental alacrity as they are called on to navigate a wide variety of terrain (by whatever means they deem most appropriate) in their quest to reach electronic location markers with preset point values.

The competition vehicles, in their striking “Tangiers Orange” paint scheme, are specially equipped to carry a full complement of equipment – from kayaks and mountain bikes to skis and a GPS system. These highly functional vehicles will also be home to the competitors who will “live” in their Land Rovers during each of the stages. It is an intense competition that will last nearly five weeks and cover almost 4,000 miles of the eastern U.S., Australia and South Africa. The final leg of the Land Rover G4 Challenge will take place in the western desert region of the United States.

National Selections

The selection process to find the 16 competitors is nearly complete. Each nation has held its own National Selection event to choose two finalists. More than a thousand of qualified adventurers from around the United States and Canada submitted applications in the hope of being selected.

First Of Four Stages Starts In New York City

Stage One of the Land Rover G4 Challenge will find the competitors driving Land Rover Freelanders from New York City to New England, beginning on March 30, 2003. The Challenge will then move on to Cape Town, South Africa, where competitors will pick up Defenders and take on Table Rock in the heart of Cape Town before moving on to tasks in the wilds of the Great Karoo Desert. Australia and Stage Three are next, where competitors will pick up Range Rovers in Sydney and make their way into the great Australian Outback. The competition will wrap up back in the United States where competitors will use Land Rover Discoverys to move from Las Vegas to near Moab, Utah.

The nations represented in the Land Rover G4 Challenge are Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, Belux (Belgium & Luxembourg), France, Gulf Region (UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon), Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa, Turkey and the USA.

“The Land Rover G4 Challenge is the ultimate adventure,” notes Parent, “and it adds a fresh, thoroughly modern chapter to Land Rover’s already storied history of adventure competitions.”

Land Rover North America, established in 1986, imports and distributes Range Rover, Discovery and Freelander vehicles manufactured for sale in the U.S. by Land Rover in Solihull, England. Land Rover’s worldwide operations are wholly owned by Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan. For information about the Land Rover Retailer nearest you, call 1-800-FINE 4WD or log on to us.landrover.com.

The Land Rover G4 Challenge web site hosts a dedicated media section where the latest news and images for download are available on http://www.landroverG4challenge.com/pressroom.

Defender is not available in North America.