Vehicle Story
If you know, you know. Land Rover only built 200 Range Rover CSKs, and they’re among the most desirable Range Rovers ever. Named after the designer Charles Spencer King, whose illustrious pen had given shape to the very first Range Rovers, the limited edition CSK was a tasteful and deeply exclusive package.
Most of the changes weren’t very radical, but the overall package was a sublime combination of aesthetic tweaks and mechanical changes. The 3.9-litre Rover V8 was tuned to 185bhp, making the CSK the fastest Range Rover that Solihull had built, and anti-roll bars were added front and rear together with improved dampers to sharpen up the handling. While most Classics were automatic by the Nineties, and all had four door, Land Rover brought back the earlier two-door format for the CSK, and most received five-speed manuals. All were finished in Beluga Black, with chrome bumpers, spotlamps and unique five-spoke alloys, plus a range of interior upgrades. Distinctive, recognisable, sophisticated, and not at all brash.
From its launch in 1970, the Range Rover had been a pioneer – a social statement, capable, and downright lovely. Its lightweight V8 engine and rock-solid steel chassis gave it durability and power in spades, and off-road nothing could match it. Despite being a proper workhorse, with a huge tailgate to swallow anything from hay bales or picnic hampers to tool boxes and expedition gear, its road manners were impeccable – increasingly so as the decades progressed.
Although most Range Rover Classics went through a rough patch in the 2000s, rebounding in the 2010s, the CSK has always been special. Opportunities to buy a genuine one for restoration very rarely crop up.