ed.poore
Active Member
- Posts
- 448
- Location
- Wild West Wales
It's a long story that started just before Christmas when I had a phone call from some people representing that I'd expressed an interest in test driving a Land Rover. The only place I can think where they might have got this information was when a group of friends and I went to MPH in Earls Court and went in the LRs in the Experience Team paddock.
Anyhow, due to weekday commitments what they were offering (the Range Rover Sport) I couldn't make so on the weekend was either a choice of the D4 or the Freelander 2. Went for the D4 needless to say.
So my "guest" and I drove up this morning to their test facility (shared with Jaguar and Aston Martin) in Gaydon at the Heritage Motor Centre. Parked up and hopped on a bus which took us into the facility.
We arrived at a big marquee which house some dinner tables, a coffee / tea / biscuits stand and various vehicles on display which you could view / sit in:
I then drove out of the compound, we dropped off the instructor at the gates and headed out onto the road following a pre-programmed waypoint route in the SATNAV. They included a driver changeover as well so my guest took over then.
Got back into the compound and picked up the instructor. We then headed off to the braking zone where Geoff (guest) was told to floor it up to 70 and hit the brakes hard, impressive stopping. The instructor then said to do it again but this time hit them harder and duely did. Then finally when we were coming to the end there was a warning sign which Geoff was told to do 70mph past and then slam on the brakes as hard as we could. The instructor then said: "take a look at the sign", to say we were flabergasted was an understatement we'd hardly travelled more than 30yds past the sign. There was a slight slipping of some tyres but the Terrain Response kept the vehicle straight and under control.
We then drove back to the marquee where they showed us the "Trailer Assist" which is basically the rear-camera plus some computer graphics which shows you where the tow-hitch would be (wasn't actually fitted to ours) and where we were going based on steering angles (yellow line). Following those, Geoff who's never towed a trailer would have hitched it up, for the truly lazy ones if the trailer has a stand you can lower the air-suspension, reverse, raise it and automatically hitch the trailer.
There was another demonstration of the cameras in the bonnet (junction view), side-mirrors (kerb view, i.e. down) and towing view (behind looking down the sides of the trailer). There's also a similar feature to trailer assist which you tell it the size of the trailer by moving lines on the screen and it'll predict where the trailer's going to go when you reverse.
I then took over and we headed back to the "ice-road" which is a silicon based thing which does a really good job of simulating ice so basically hit the brakes with the passenger side on ice and the drivers on tarmac. Very controllable to say the least. Then there was a slalom continuing onto the ice and with the Terrain Response on road mode it held it's line reasonably well with a bit of a slither. We then did it again with it turned off, slid considerably more sideways (probably going sideways at about 30°, the traction control is never 100% off).
Then we headed onto the circuit where we took the first corner at 50mph (about 10 faster than I would normally have done) and then floored it down the next straight hitting 110mph, it was only as we crossed 100 that you could begin to hear the wind rushing past and about 110 when it began to run out of puff, but up to 110 it was relentless acceleration. Geoff did a stint as well and there was a slight buffeting about 112mph (bit of a bumpier bit of road) but apart from that quite comfortable.
The whole bit of this section was driven in a range topping 3.0 TDV6 HSE and apparently on-the-road price was about £45k. I've got to say the engine was fantasic, road stuff was increibly comfortable and lots of toys to play with (digital radio, tv, iPod, Bluetooth, SatNav, electric seats, mirrors, cameras and so on).
The next bit we did was jump into a 3.0 TDV6 XS which lacked the electric seats and cameras and had slightly different trim (missing arm-rests as well which was a bit of a downer) and then proceeded onto the off-road bit.
All I can say is that I'd really like to try that in my Series III because it felt waaaayyy too easy in the D4 so I'm not sure if it was pushed at all or whether it truly makes life that easy. Apparently (but we didn't hear it from the instructor) the D4 will sit quite comfortably at 100 on the motorway.
Then we finished the day by having a really good lunch provided and then bus ride back to our own vehicles. All of this was free of charge (bar the cost of getting there) and there were no outright sales pitches, just facts about the company and the capabilities of the vehicles.
So I think I'm gonna start saving...
Anyhow, due to weekday commitments what they were offering (the Range Rover Sport) I couldn't make so on the weekend was either a choice of the D4 or the Freelander 2. Went for the D4 needless to say.
So my "guest" and I drove up this morning to their test facility (shared with Jaguar and Aston Martin) in Gaydon at the Heritage Motor Centre. Parked up and hopped on a bus which took us into the facility.
We arrived at a big marquee which house some dinner tables, a coffee / tea / biscuits stand and various vehicles on display which you could view / sit in:
- Freelander 2 (middle of the rangeish)
- Defender 110 (XS Utility?) (with the new engine, two rows of seats and hard-top tub on the back)
- Range Rover TDV8
- Range Rover Sport Autobiographia TDV8
- Discovery D4 3.0 TDV6 HSE
I then drove out of the compound, we dropped off the instructor at the gates and headed out onto the road following a pre-programmed waypoint route in the SATNAV. They included a driver changeover as well so my guest took over then.
Got back into the compound and picked up the instructor. We then headed off to the braking zone where Geoff (guest) was told to floor it up to 70 and hit the brakes hard, impressive stopping. The instructor then said to do it again but this time hit them harder and duely did. Then finally when we were coming to the end there was a warning sign which Geoff was told to do 70mph past and then slam on the brakes as hard as we could. The instructor then said: "take a look at the sign", to say we were flabergasted was an understatement we'd hardly travelled more than 30yds past the sign. There was a slight slipping of some tyres but the Terrain Response kept the vehicle straight and under control.
We then drove back to the marquee where they showed us the "Trailer Assist" which is basically the rear-camera plus some computer graphics which shows you where the tow-hitch would be (wasn't actually fitted to ours) and where we were going based on steering angles (yellow line). Following those, Geoff who's never towed a trailer would have hitched it up, for the truly lazy ones if the trailer has a stand you can lower the air-suspension, reverse, raise it and automatically hitch the trailer.
There was another demonstration of the cameras in the bonnet (junction view), side-mirrors (kerb view, i.e. down) and towing view (behind looking down the sides of the trailer). There's also a similar feature to trailer assist which you tell it the size of the trailer by moving lines on the screen and it'll predict where the trailer's going to go when you reverse.
I then took over and we headed back to the "ice-road" which is a silicon based thing which does a really good job of simulating ice so basically hit the brakes with the passenger side on ice and the drivers on tarmac. Very controllable to say the least. Then there was a slalom continuing onto the ice and with the Terrain Response on road mode it held it's line reasonably well with a bit of a slither. We then did it again with it turned off, slid considerably more sideways (probably going sideways at about 30°, the traction control is never 100% off).
Then we headed onto the circuit where we took the first corner at 50mph (about 10 faster than I would normally have done) and then floored it down the next straight hitting 110mph, it was only as we crossed 100 that you could begin to hear the wind rushing past and about 110 when it began to run out of puff, but up to 110 it was relentless acceleration. Geoff did a stint as well and there was a slight buffeting about 112mph (bit of a bumpier bit of road) but apart from that quite comfortable.
The whole bit of this section was driven in a range topping 3.0 TDV6 HSE and apparently on-the-road price was about £45k. I've got to say the engine was fantasic, road stuff was increibly comfortable and lots of toys to play with (digital radio, tv, iPod, Bluetooth, SatNav, electric seats, mirrors, cameras and so on).
The next bit we did was jump into a 3.0 TDV6 XS which lacked the electric seats and cameras and had slightly different trim (missing arm-rests as well which was a bit of a downer) and then proceeded onto the off-road bit.
All I can say is that I'd really like to try that in my Series III because it felt waaaayyy too easy in the D4 so I'm not sure if it was pushed at all or whether it truly makes life that easy. Apparently (but we didn't hear it from the instructor) the D4 will sit quite comfortably at 100 on the motorway.
Then we finished the day by having a really good lunch provided and then bus ride back to our own vehicles. All of this was free of charge (bar the cost of getting there) and there were no outright sales pitches, just facts about the company and the capabilities of the vehicles.
So I think I'm gonna start saving...
