2008 Land Rover Range Rover $8400 Sport Hse on 2040-cars

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Kahn and Evanta team up for hot-rod Defender, custom Barchetta

If you're familiar with the work of Afzal Kahn, it's probably for his tuned Range Rovers. And if you live in London, you may have seen his Bugatti Veyron with the F1 license plate. But the British tuner and self-styled "automotive fashion designer" is now embarking on a far more ambitious project. Kahn is teaming up with Ant Anstead of Evanta fame – responsible for rebodying Aston Martin DB7s to look like DB4 GTs and that full-scale DBR1/2 model kit – on a new outfit called Ant-Kahn. Far more than a tuning endeavor, Ant-Kahm is setting about creating truly unique (and uniquely British) automobiles. Their first project is called the Flying Huntsman, a long-nose Land Rover Defender that we imagine will emerge as something like a British take on the 1998 Jeepster concept crossed with something Icon might concoct. It'll pack a 6.2-liter GM LS3 V8 producing 550 horsepower, mated to a push-button six-speed automatic transmission, mounted close to the bulkhead with over 15 inches of extra bodywork and set to be unveiled within the coming months. Their second collaboration is set to yield the Evanta Barchetta previewed by rendering above. "Inspired by the design language of 1950s motorsport," the Barchetta pays homage to classic British and Italian roadsters. It's being built around a tubular frame with handcrafted composite Kevlar bodywork and powered by that same LS3 tuned to 450 hp but in a much lighter form than the Flying Hunstman. Only 20 examples will be made after its debut at the Goodwood Revival come September. An Aston Martin project codenamed WB12 is also in the works, painting a picture of an ambitious startup backed by two experienced operators whose projects we're looking forward to seeing come to fruition. Ant-Kahn – The birth of a groundbreaking collaboration between two leading figures in the UK automotive industry. Ant-Kahn is a collaborative partnership between Afzal Kahn - innovative automotive fashion designer and founder of the Kahn group of companies, and Ant Anstead, founder of expert vehicle manufacturer Evanta, and star of Channel 4's "For The Love of Cars". Working together under the Ant-Kahn banner, they will lead a resurgence in British specialist vehicle manufacture, with a number of projects already underway. Their focus is on luxury and quality, using modern prototyping and manufacturing technology, while maintaining the attention to details associated with traditional coach building.

Jaguar Land Rover UK factories could shut down in two weeks due to coronavirus

COVENTRY, England — Jaguar Land Rover has enough parts from China to maintain its British production for the next two weeks but not beyond that at the moment, Chief Executive Ralf Speth said on Tuesday. Britain's biggest carmaker, which operate three car factories in its home market, joined major global companies such as Apple in warning of the impact of the virus on supply chains. The rapidly spreading virus has killed nearly 1,900 in China and stricken some 72,000 people, confining millions to their homes, disrupting supply chains and delaying reopening of factories after the extended Lunar New Year holiday break. "We are safe for this week and we are safe for next week and in the third week we have... parts missing," said Speth when asking about the potential impact on British production. He said the firm's Chinese factory would open next week and was "safe for the very first week." Sales were not currently happening in China and it was unclear when they would return, he added. The boss of Tata Motors, JLR's parent company, speaking at the same event, said the company does not have sufficient visibility regarding parts suppliers from China. "We are safe for the month of February and for a good part of March," said Guenter Butschek. "Are we fully covered at this point of time for the full month of March? Unfortunately...not." Related Video:

Jaguar Land Rover says key models in short supply, some have six-month wait lists

Care for a bit more proof that the Jaguar Land Rover portfolio of vehicles is the best it's ever been? Well, the Indian-owned pair of brands saw a record year in 2013, while 2014 has seen a 14-percent increase in sales. The crazy thing is, though, is that figure could be even higher, provided the company had the production capacity.
JLR is running a six-month waiting list on two of its most popular models, the Range Rover Sport (above) and Range Rover. According to Mark White, the company's chief technologist for body engineering, the blame can be placed on the paint shop at the company's Solihull factory, in the UK.
"We will probably max out the paint shop before we max out the body shop. Putting the second body shop in has given us the flexibility to ebb and flow the different models that go through there and meet the capacity demands we've got," White told Automotive News. "However, you always hit a bottleneck somewhere. And the paint shop is probably going to be the next biggest obstacle."