When you are a confirmed Land Rover and Range Rover nut, accepting an invitation to attend the launch of the new 2011 Range Rover in Portugal does not involve much deliberation (although perhaps the same cannot be said for my managing director who allowed me to go off in the eye of a deadline storm!).

Porto is Portugal’s second largest city and capital of the country’s beguiling north. Known mainly for its trade in port wine, which travels along the east-west trending Douro River that starts in Spain, Porto has for its long history been known as a cosmopolitan trading centre.

It still has a blue-collar working class feel, but it is a sort of Vasco da Gama working class with a timeless style.

You will see an array of architectural gems from Roman, Gothic, baroque, neoclassic and Renaissance eras in this scenic city built into the granite cliffs at the mouth of the Douro.

Behind the wheel of the new Range Rover, we set off with our GPS co-ordinates already punched in. Green vineyards meander and fill every breadth and width of the hills and slopes of the Douro Valley, broken up only by the peppered sleepy villages of the Portuguese.

Our destination was the Quinta da Pacheca.

The estate is one of the most well-known properties in the entire Douro Valley and one of the first to bottle under its own name. This gorgeous estate dates back to the 1700s, when it was named after its aristocratic owner, Mariana Pacheca Pereira. The vines pertained to an order of monks for centuries before that.

Here we were greeted by the Range Rover team that included Roger Crathorne – “Mr Range Rover” himself – who was part of the original Range Rover engineering team in 1970; and Paul Walker, the chief programme engineer for Range Rover International.

After already having experienced the smooth and refined power of the new Range Rover on the drive to our destination, we were now able to learn about what the manufacturer had done under the bonnet of this beauty.

Now, I do not need any PR blurb to tell me that the existing Range Rover is already the world’s best luxury all-terrain vehicle – this is pure fact.

But the wealth of enhancements to the 2011 model showed me that the best was about to become even better!

Range Rover has now added two new functions to its patented Terrain Response system for added safety and peace of mind. A new LR-TDV8 4.4-litre ‘super-diesel’ engine is now the new baby, coupled with an eight-speed transmission. Yes, that’s right – eight!

Range Rover has come under huge pressure to reduce its cars’ fuel consumption, and this drivetrain is part of that process.

It has done a brilliant job of mating a particular engine with the perfect gearbox. The new eight-speed automatic is very smart, never seeming to hunt for the right gear in the way that can be so infuriating in other cars. It is set up well for the engine, which produces 235kW and, much more importantly, a whacking 700Nm at only 1 500rpm – meaning the gearbox can select higher gears to keep consumption down.

There are other clever tricks, such as only charging the alternator on over-run and on braking; running the power-steering pump only when required; and by the fitment of ceramic glowplugs. As a result, Range Rover can claim official combined-cycle consumption of only 9.4l/100km. Not too shabby at all, particularly considering this car weighs in at 3.2 tonnes.

Before we embarked on our trip to the magnificent Aquapura Hotel resort, where we would be spending a fruitful evening, we had the opportunity to race around the vineyards in a host of old classic Range Rovers, which included one of the first with only the chassis. That was great fun, goggles and helmet to boot.

There was also the first open-top Range Rover that was used by the Queen of England, a fire engine, and an ambulance Range Rover.

We then tested this incredible vehicle further on the very tight Portuguese mountain roads on the way to our resting place. The sound of the engine purring is quite incredible for a diesel and made me smile every time my foot hit the accelerator.

Inside the vehicle, Range Rover has made some impressive refinements. Now backseat passengers have television, DVD and their own radio entertainment. The seats recline and move forward and backward, and they are air-conditioned and heated as you may wish. There are individual climate zones, too.

I would love to rattle on about the incredible hotel and surrounds, but I need to move on to the most exciting part of our Portuguese journey – the off-road bit.

What an astounding pleasure! The Range Rover team really pulled out all the stops here.

This was a serious off-road track, not for sissies, and definitely raised the bar on anything I had experienced before.

We knew we were in for a bit of fun when upon our arrival we were surrounded by a team at the off-road start and had our tyres whipped off in record track time and replaced with off-road specials. From there, we went through extremely narrow ravines, deep dongas and rivers, and climbed up and down mountains like rock dassies on crack!

This may be a regal chap, but he sure likes to get down and dirty – the Range Rover’s off-road options literally drive this car by itself, timing everything perfectly from gradient control to hill start assistance and more. We tackled (if I can even call it that) incredible inclines and declines with absolute ease.

Sadly, the day had to come to an end and we headed back to the town of Porto to do some sightseeing and savour Portuguese local cuisine on the seafront before the long journey home.

I am pleased to report that Range Rover has maintained its number-one spot in my book, both on-road and off-road. One only needs to look at the current figures worldwide to see I am not alone in that thinking. In the second quarter of 2010, sales of Range Rovers were up 54% in the United Kingdom, 25% in the United States, 35% in South Africa, and a simply whopping 135% in China. Nothing to sneeze at!

In conclusion, I would like to quote (steal?) from my partner-in-crime on this adventure, Alex Parker, who writes for BDFM Publishers and had this to say in the latest edition of Business Day’s Wanted magazine.

“How good is this car? Let me count the ways.

“No matter what your life is about, whether you’re a businessman, farmer, trader, mountain-biker, birder, canoeist or hiker, the Range Rover suits.

“It fits almost every single motoring application. It will tow and carry, it will cosset and comfort, it is quick but frugal, elegant and imposing.

“Ultimately, one gets the impression that Range Rover looked at the world – every last ugly, difficult, beautiful corner of it – and built a car for it. A very, very good car indeed.”

Could not have put it better myself, Alex! ▲

Robbie Stammers