Charles Spencer King, a British engineer who led the team that developed the Range Rover as the ultimate vehicle for the landed aristocracy, and who watched in dismay as his creation became an international symbol of gas-guzzling conspicuous consumption, died June 26 in Coventry, England. He was 85.

The cause was complications of injuries sustained in a bicycle accident near his home in Cubbington, England, his son, Chris, said.

Mr. King, whom everyone knew as Spen, grew up in Surrey County in southern England. He left public school at 17 and went to work for Rolls-Royce, where he helped develop gas turbine engines. In 1945 he was hired by his uncles, Maurice and Spencer Wilks, who resuscitated the Rover company after World War II.

Mr. King first gained attention in 1952 when he set a land speed record of 152 miles an hour for gas turbine cars in Jet1, which he had helped design.