A Swedish auto components supplier is saying they’ve received an order from Land Rover for an all-wheel-drive system for a new car to go into production by 2011. That's right; a car.

What is this??

Can we call it the LRXL?

Spies hanging out at the Nurburgring in recent months have reportedly been watching a Range Rover flying around the track. It’s rumored that Range Rover’s supercharged engine is getting redefined to keep up with high-performance rivals from BMW and Porsche.

“I can’t see the Land Rover hiding behind that MINI!”

Can you imagine…a Land Rover the size of a MINI? That’s this year’s teaser from the Frankfurt Auto Show in what has become a Land Rover “tradition” of teasing audiences with a future concept.

Speculation throughout the auto industry continues to ebb and flow it seems with each passing week. The big question: is Ford planning to sell off Land Rover and Jaguar – and even perhaps Volvo – in an effort to recapture some much needed capital?

The answer, as usual, depends upon whom you want to listen to.

January 4. Cobo Hall, the Motor City. The arena lights are dimmed and high power spotlights illuminate the center stage. Fog fills the arena. From the far right, a pair of headlamps cut a swath through the haze. Ceiling mounted spotlights dance across the arena floor, now and then illuminating the moving headlamps affording us tantalizing glimpses of the vehicle prowling the stage. As the music rises to a crescendo, sixty five hundred journalists from around the world hold their collective breaths, as Range Stormer climbs to the limelight of center stage. It is unmistakably a Range Rover, but it's not like any Range Rover we’ve ever seen. After the briefest of hesitations (the Detroit Auto Show is after all a SHOW), the vehicle's doors begin to pivot upward in an elegant curve. The Range Stormer features gull wing doors! As Mathew Taylor, Land Rover's Managing Director, steps out of the "Stormer" the hall erupts in cheers. Taylor walks a short distance and as the stage's turntable begins to spin the 'Stormer, he just points at the car and smiles.

Here's one for the women: It seems Land Rover is introducing a Women's panel at the product development stage to make sure that women's wants and needs are accommodated and integrated into future Land Rover vehicles. (Is this what happened over at VW, resulting in the little vase thingy on the dash?)

There is much more that's new on the new Range Rover than the addition of those gills behind the front wheel arch. Its third re-design in its 31-year history includes a unibody structure instead of the traditional body-on-frame...independent front and rear suspensions instead of the old solid axles...and BMW engines in favor of the old engines from GM.

It could make 0-60mph about two seconds faster, stop about seven feet shorter and do the quarter mile in under 16 seconds...and it could be coming to a select few Rover dealers in the near future.

You know it's new the minute you lay eyes on it: the brushed metal power vents on the sides, the European-style crazy lights in front and back...and inside! Cherry and walnut blend, with brushed aluminum fascia that reminds one more of a luxury yacht than a luxury car.

Yes...it's been dubbed "the Landie" and it will be in showrooms as early as 2006; which is now less likely as the Premier Automotive Group CEO Wolfgang Reitzle who championed the cause departed in April.

Have you see the tricked out Defender 110 used in the movie "Tomb Raider"? Software sensation Lara Croft, (a.k.a. actress Angelina Jolie), uses it to fight crime and the elements, and it's more than up to the task.

As if "The Landie" weren't enough of a sea change for Rover, there's also talk of an entire line replacement.

It looks like Land Rover may be set to do a little downsizing once again. Not the company...the vehicle line-up.

No doubt we'll be overcome in the next few months with news about the new Kalahari Disco II, which recently made its debut at the big New York Auto Show.