Land Rover and Bowler agree to a brand partnership

Saw this on the 'net and thought some of you may be interested.

http://www.motoringchat.com/blog/categor...-features/

Bowler and Land Rover have agreed to a brand partnership that will see ‘Powered by Land Rover’ on the Bowler EXR Rally car and EXR S road car.

Under the agreement, “Powered by Land Rover” badging on Bowler’s competition cars, across its marketing materials and will also be highlighted in joint event and promotional activities.

Since the first Bowler Wildcat vehicles were produced, based on the Land Rover 90 and powered by TVR tweaked Rover V8 engines, they have developed worthy evolutions of Land Rover products. Now they will benefit from access to components – powertrain and chassis engineering – and technical and development support from Land Rover.

The agreement also provides a secured piece of ongoing parts business, allowing Land Rover’s engineers to stretch themselves creatively and technically on an extreme performance-orientated programme that will future developments to the road-going Land Rover range.

The latest models in the Bowler range – the EXR rally raid competition car and the road-going EXR S – both use modified engines, chassis and other components from the Range Rover Sport.

Both the EXR and EXR S use a modified version of the Range Rover Sport chassis, and both cars use modified versions of the 5.0-litre V8 engine used in Range Rover models. The EXR uses a FIA-restricted naturally-aspirated 5.0-litre V8 engine, while the EXR S uses a 550bhp version of the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 which will provide supercar performance.

Drew Bowler, Managing Director of Bowler, said: “We’re delighted to announce this partnership, which brings very positive benefits to both Bowler and Land Rover. We’ve only ever used Land Rover powertrains, and this relationship will give us access to current Land Rover technologies, and a great platform from which to support our racing activities and develop future models.”

He continued: “We’re really looking forward to promoting and selling both the EXR and EXR S on a global basis, and the partnership with Land Rover will help us and our customers in terms of aftersales and parts availability”

Mark Cameron, Land Rover Brand Experience Director, Global Marketing, said: “Bowler vehicles demonstrate the kind of performance, ride, handling and chassis dynamics that a vehicle powered by Land Rover is capable of when taken to the extreme and liberated of most practical constraints.

“For over twenty years, Land Rover’s technology has powered Bowlers on some of the toughest and most gruelling off-road sporting events in the world. We’re proud to have been part of Bowler’s success and, just as its latest models come to market, this new formal partnership will fully acknowledge the role of Land Rover technology in Bowler’s high performance all terrain cars.”

Bowlers will be seen competing in this year’s Baja 1000 rally raid in the Ukraine and Rally Reykjavik in Iceland, and next year in the Tuareg Rally in Morocco and Silk Way Rally in Russia.

At the end of the month Bowler will have a large presence at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (28th June – 1st July 2012), where it will run five rally cars on the Activity Field, allowing fans and spectators to experience a Bowler in race conditions, and where the company will also be previewing the new EXR S road car.