Land Rover goes electronic

By Alastair Sloane

Englishman Tom Sheppard used to drive Land Rovers back and forth across the Sahara Desert. He wrote a book about Land Rovers: how to drive them, fix them, shelter from mad dogs and the midday sun in them.

How a roll of wire could replace a broken this or that and get him up and running again. How dental floss could be used to repair worn boots or to patch a canvas roof.

Sheppard liked things that had cogs and wheels and were immersed in grease.

Things he could get his hands on. Electronic thingumajigs were dodgy at the best of times.

He applauded mechanical simplicity and precision. He appeared in magazine advertisements for Rolex watches, saying how their mechanical reliability made life less of a gamble in the back of beyond.

If his compass broke, he could take a makeshift bearing using the position of the sun and the hour hand of his Rolex.

If his Land Rover broke, he could unscrew this and that, replace a propshaft, or get the sand out of a diff to get the vehicle going again.

That's why he is disparaging about the trend these days towards viscous couplings, electronically controlled, hydraulic front and rear differentials that replace mechanical bits and pieces to engage high- and low-ratio four-wheel-drive.

An expeditionary expert like Sheppard is not one to stand in the way of progress but he calls viscous units "pots of syrup."

They are okay in town and around vehicles, where the system directs drive to the rear wheels once the front wheels lose grip on slippery seal.

But they are not so good on fair dinkum four-wheel-drives which are subject to greater stresses on components - in Sheppard's case, weeks in and out of soft sand towing a trailer.

A viscous differential that starts to leak hydraulic fluid, thereby leaving a vehicle with drive to two wheels instead of four, isn't something Sheppard wants to see at the bottom of a sand dune.

The same goes for electronic traction control: it works well but it's just another thing that could go wrong in testing conditions.

What he thinks of the new Land Rover Discovery and its traction control isn't known. But he has been a fan of the Discovery since it was launched in 1989. He will probably remain so, since the new model largely uses mechanical propshafts and the like.

The new Land Rover Discovery was launched in the bush near Rotorua on Wednesday.

It has been under wraps in Auckland for some time, except for company workouts over an off-road course near Helensville.

The Discovery, depending on equipment, is priced between $69,000 and $89,000. It looks pretty much like the one it replaces. So does every Land Rover. There's no work for DNA scientists at Solihull in the English Midlands.

But despite its carry-over appearance, 95 per cent of the componentry is new.

The Discovery will be Land Rover's last new model to have a traditionally strong separate chassis and live axles. Sheppard might grumble about this.

Costs and safety requirements penalising intrusive ladder chassis design, especially in the United States, have forced Land Rover to switch to a unitary platform.

Engineers are said to be working on an independent suspension system that gives ground clearance normally achievable by live axles only.

The five-door Discovery sits on a wider and longer body, which allows an optional third row of removable, front-facing seats.

It has a new-look grille, repositioned rear tail-lights and comes with the choice of two engines: a 2.5-litre, five-cylinder, direct-injection turbo-diesel or 4-litre petrol V8.

The diesel produces 101kW at 4200 rpm and 300Nm of pulling power at a mud-plugging 1950 rpm.

It is considerably quieter than the engine it replaces, thanks to the five-cylinder design which, engineers say, make it better balanced and smoother.

The V8 unit produces 135kW at 4750 rpm and 340Nm at 2600 rpm. Peak torque is lower in the rev range than the previous V8 Discovery.

The newcomer gets a new suspension set-up, too - manually controlled self-levelling air suspension in the rear and coil springs in front.

This system, coupled with electronic aids like Active Cornering Enhancement (ACE), limits body roll and helps to prevent the Discovery cornering like Marge Simpson's hairdo.

The Discovery also comes with the Freelander's Hill Descent traction system, which keeps off-road descents under control.

Inside, the Discovery remains a thing of beauty, offering superb visibility from the driver's seat.

Acclaimed designer Sir Terence Conran mapped out the interior in the original 1989 model. The new model stays true to his pen and includes improved seating and air-conditioning, a 12-speaker stereo unit, new facia and a new range of colours.

Much of the pre-launch interest in the Discovery centred on what has become known as the "curry hook", literally a plastic hook on the driver's side of the centre console on which a takeaway bag of food can hang.
Sheppard would no doubt find another use for it altogether in the middle of the Sahara.