The Land Rover Freelander underwent a rather convoluted development programme; it started out as a joint Rover Cars/Land Rover project to produce a vehicle to compete in the emerging SUV market, as epitomised by the Suzuki Vitara…
The initial projects crystallised into the Rover Oden and Land Rover Pathfinder. It was the latter that survived into maturity and, once the project was sanctioned by management, in the mid-1990s, it was renamed CB40 and subsequently became the Land Rover Freelander.
The new SUV generation: Oden and Pathfinder


Land Rover Pathfinder


Project CB40

Styling sketches

Pictures taken from ‘Meet the ancestors’ by James Taylor, Land Rover Enthusiast magazine and Autocar magazine.
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I remember seeing them on test using Maestro van bodies with the four wheel drive running gear underneath heading to Bath
hi,
i remember the landrover disco/discovery 2 cars alway together with jaguar badges driving around the m50 in dublin anyone know was this the norm !,around 2000 to 2002 ish.
Oden looks more like a “Roverised” Honda.
The codename CB40 was derived from the location of much of the engineering team at the start of the project – Canley Building 40.
The same applies to the second-gen Range Rover – P38A.
Block 38A is at Solihull and also housed the Freelander team when they moved from Canley in the mid-90s and much of the third-gen Range Rover team from 1999.
Both buildings have since been demolished.
I saw a Mk1 Freelander yesterday and thought it still looked stylish and “right”
Indeed there have been a series of well styled models, the Freelander 2, Disco Sport and RR Evoque are all good looking cars, stunning in the case of the Evoque 1.
Never understand why didn’t the go with the oden as well. A soft roader added to the range developed at the same time would not have cost much more, and would have increased Sales as they would be aimed at different markets.
Was the R8 used as a starting point for Oden/Pathfinder? Though it has been said there was no relation between what became the Freelander and the Honda CR-V, is it possible there is some connection to what became the smaller Honda HR-V?
The idea is that the HR-V is said to be related to the smaller Honda Logo with the latter reputedly being based on a shortened and modified previous generation Civic/Civic-derived platform to reduce costs, similar to how the 3rd gen Honda City was based on the 4th gen Civic (with claims the 2nd gen City was derived from a shortened 3rd gen Civic based on their near matching width).