Driving A $135,670 Range Rover To The James Gandolfini Service Area

As a Texan in the process of becoming a New Yorker, it’s hard to admit when New Jersey does something well. When you go to get your license at the NYDMV they make you take an oath to recognize the superiority of the pizza, sports, music, film, and bodegas from New York over any other adjacent state.

Whenever I drive to Connecticut, I bristle at the sign that recently posted sign that says “Pizza Capital of the World.” New York is literally right there! Though I respect a good bit of trolling, that’s just wrong.

New York does have some great rest stops, don’t get me wrong. I especially like the two-story one with the Panda Express as you head up towards the Catskills. New Jersey, though, not only offers above par State-operated rest stops, it’s also refreshed them recently with a bit of style.

You see, they renamed the stops along the Garden State Parkway, swapping cold geographic monikers for names of famous New Jersey residents. Atlantic is now Frank Sinatra. Vauxhall is Whitney Houston. Forked River? The incomparable Celia Cruz. The only one that’s a bit of a wash is the switch from the Cheesequake Service Area to the Jon Bon Jovi Service Area. No disrespect to Jon, it’s just a funny name.

And lest you think they’re all named after musicians, there’s also the Toni Morrison Service Area in Ocean View, the Connie Chung Service Area in Brookdale South, and the James Gandolfini Service Area in Montvale. Named for the enormously talented and sadly deceased actor from The Sopranos, the Gandolfini Service Area is the one I pass most often and never visit.

I often mention getting press cars as a perk, and it is, but it’s also a responsibility. When I borrow a car I want to drive it enough to give it my full attention so I can relay the best information to you, our dear readers. Sometimes life intrudes, and you don’t get to do the miles you hoped you’d get to do.

Enter the Land Rover Range Rover SE, the plug-in hybrid version of Britain’s most iconic and important SUV. I love these, and if you want a fuller dynamic review I suggest reading Parker’s write up from our road trip. I wanted to do a lot with this vehicle, as Range Rover is one of my favorite brands. Life intervened, and my time to return my comfy British steed was approaching. I need to do something. I need to go somewhere. I needed to make it count.

This is where fate, and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, bailed me out. I wanted to top off the battery on the RR, and the James Gandolfini Service Area features an appropriate charger.

The Most Comfortable Way To Get There

It’s at least the second time I’ve borrowed a Range Rover plug-in and the company already gets credit for extending the EV-only range to over 50 miles. That is an actually usable range, and is impressive in something this large.

Everything about the RR is designed to make your life more comfortable. The seats are as smooth as Billy Ocean and cradle your ass like one of the minor characters on Mad Men. The only car with seats this good are the ones in our old Aztek, which is one of two things those vehicles have in common (the other is that both have a tailgate that drops down, which is clutch, only the Aztek’s doesn’t feature a supple carpet).

It’s meant to make you feel like you’re riding in the fancy, upper part of the Queen Mary. This doesn’t mean it’s ship-like in any other way, or at least not Oceanliner-like. If there’s a nautical equivalent it’s the Battleship HMS Howe; imposing, powerful, and unstoppable.

There is a reason why people who have all the money in the world buy Range Rovers. Sure, there’s an implied status, but the emperor is well-clothed. Overly well-clothed, maybe. I was sent a list of all the ways this particular car was optioned and it feels like all the choices were made. In addition to the main information about the model, the build sheet has an additional three pages. Small font. Two columns.

Here’s just a glimpse:

This one comes in Santorini Black with the Shadow Exterior Pack and Ebony perforated Windsor leather seats, as well as the Ebony headlining and Grand Black Vaneer options. This is to say… it’s black and has a lot of different interior and exterior bits that are various shades of the color. Add it all up, and it’s $135,670 (delivered) from a starting price of $122,300.00.

Power comes from the turbocharged 3.0-liter AJ20 (yes, an AJ!) inline-six mated to an eight-speed transmission, paired with an electric motor backed by a 32 kWh battery pack. That’s good for a combined 454 horsepower.

This isn’t the most powerful, the longest, the shortest, the most extravagant, the least extravagant, the fastest, or the slowest Range Rover. It is, in many ways, the median RR.

A Charger, A Donut, And Respect To One Of The Best To Do It

What do I require from a service station? I’m not special, like anyone else I want a place to fill up one tank and empty another. I enjoy food choice, so I’m not stuck trying to remember if there’s anything served at Blimpies I consider fit for human consumption (Enough Said about that establishment, the better)

The James Gandolfini Service Station fulfills these basic needs and more. I’m not saying it was a True Romanice, but there’s a Nathan’s hot dogs, a Dunkin Donuts, and a Burger King. While I wouldn’t mind a fast food Chinese or maybe something of The Mexican variety, there’s enough there to get a good meal.

This is one of those stations that has one of the minor charger brands, and since I wasn’t in a hurry I just plugged in without thinking too hard about how long it might take to go to full (like basically every EV, the first 80% comes quick, the last 20% comes slowly). Mostly, I was amused that I was using a charger marked “James Gandolfini 2.”

Having plugged in, I made my way inside. This was the middle of the day on a weekday, so things were quiet. Quiet, but with intensity, like the late actor. Having had one of those weeks, I was mostly in the mood to ingest a small caffeine unit. Maybe a green tea and a donut?  The little electronic kiosk didn’t want to accept my order of iced green tea, so after futzing with it for longer than I care to admit I decided it would be easier to just chat with a human.

Being in no real hurry, I wandered over to the Wall of Frame presentation. It’s a nice tribute, and includes a Playbill from his turn on Broadway in God of Carnage, for which he was nominated for a Tony (he didn’t win, but that would have been a funny speech, all things considered). It focuses heavily on his time on The Sopranos, which makes sense.

It’s one of those curious things about his chosen profession. Gandolfini became a household name because of a TV show he didn’t land until he was nearly 40.

The actor died on a trip to Italy when he was only 51, and it’s easy to dwell on all of the films he didn’t make, all the roles that didn’t happen. If you go back and look, though, he was in so many recognizable roles in so many films over the years. I think I’d rather focus on that.

Did you forget that Gandolfini and Viggo Mortensen have a great turn in  Crimson Tide? Maybe I’ll watch that tonight.