“As slow as possible, as fast as necessary”, that’s the best way forward when off road, according to our instructor at the Land Rover Experience, an event held at Aamby Valley for Land Rover customers to experience how extreme the new Discovery Sport can get off road.

The 5km course was actually an excursion into the wilderness and not a specially prepared off-road trail. It included a stream crossing where the water level was well over the exhaust and lower door sills, climbs and descents with angles that made walking down difficult and plenty of ruts, rocks and ledges. No matter what the course threw up at the Discovery, it just carried on, all the while cosseting us in lovely Connelly leather hide seats and climate controlled interiors.

The Discovery Sport’s Hill Descent Control feature made easy work of the descents, handling all the braking and leaving you with only steering duties. However, it needs you to override your instinct to brake and actually have faith in the car. The stream crossing too was a breeze with the 600mm water wading depth and of course, Land Rover’s Terrain Response system, of which we called to duty the Mud-Ruts and later Grass-Gravel-Snow settings. The course also had us articulate the cars over boulders.

And even after an hour of hard driving, there was hardly a sign of exhaustion on any of participants faces, a testament to just how the Discovery makes easy work of pretty much most off-road scenarios. Look out for more details on the Land Rover Experience in our upcoming February issue.

Sergius Barretto

Land Rover Experience photo gallery