Land Rover's much-vaunted 385 kW Aston Martin V12-powered Range Rover has been delayed to allow designers to concentrate on the Freelander replacement.

Although the Range Rover lineup has just received a big boost from a 4.2-litre supercharged 298 kW Jaguar engine implanted into its award-winning body, it's the possibility of an Aston Martin V12 that's exciting the pundits.

According to reports the project is still in the pipeline.

Engineers have managed to shoehorn the engine into the spacious Range Rover engine bay, although there are still other "packaging problems" to be ironed out.

"Right now, the battery's in the front seat," Land Rover managing director Matthew Taylor told The Car Connection.

Aston Martin chief Dr. Ulrich Bez "is perfectly happy to let us have the engines," Taylor says.

But completing the project will take work away from other development, most notably being the replacement for the Freelander.

"The V12-project is therefore not very high on the list of priorities," says Taylor.