A Range Rover in a royal procession commonly travels at precisely 9mph. When flanked by personnel from the armed forces, this is reduced to the normal marching speed of 120 steps per minute, equating to 3.4mph. However, most Range Rover and other car speedometers register speeds up to and beyond 100mph and monitoring exceptionally slow speeds on a standard speedometer is extremely difficult. This conundrum was the reason behind CAI’s engineering team designing a Smiths speedometer for the British Royal Family’s Range Rover that only measured speeds between 0 and 20mph.
Smiths Instruments have strong historical links with the Royal Family and it is believed that the first Smiths speedometer was manufactured for King Edward VII in 1904.
The Royal Family has strong links with Jaguar Land Rover that date back to 1948 when her father King George VI was presented with the 100th production vehicle. In 1951, the then-Princess Elizabeth was pictured standing in an open-top Land Rover as she deputised for her father presenting the King’s Colour to the Royal Air Force in London’s Hyde Park. The following year, on her ascension to the throne, she took delivery of her first Land Rover and has used them ever since.
In April 2017, Jaguar Land Rover launched “The Range Rover Story” at their manufacturing plant in Solihull, Birmingham, UK. This is an interactive exhibition to celebrate 50 years of the most popular SUV in the world. One of the sections in the exhibition is devoted to their strong historical connection with the British Royal Family.
Jaguar Land Rover approached CAI to design and build a 0-20mph speedometer for a Range Rover selected for use in Royal Processions. Smiths Instruments had designed and supplied the gauges for many vehicles build by Land Rover including the series 1 Range Rover and CAI hold the original design records. The original speedometer used to measure the marching speed of the Royal Procession was remodeled by the CAI engineering team. They customised a standard speedometer, re-programming to measure the slow speed of a march. The finished gauge is authentically and classically Smiths and is displayed in the ‘Range Rover Story’ exhibition.
CAI specialise in accurately reproducing historical gauges, whilst updating using modern design and programming techniques. CAI works closely with Jaguar Land Rover on a range of classic car projects, resurrecting classic old gauges and developing new instruments with modern day technology.
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