Had a really good afternoon yesterday driving a new Discovery Sport HSE at the LRE East of England site. Great fun, great car with lots of bells and whistles and as you would expect extremely capable. The only down side was that for me I prefer the slightly higher driving position on my F2. I could get used to a DS if Mr Lottery was kind to me but I would still keep my F2, and see if I could buy back my rust free 1998 Disco 1. Oh, and then there is that Series 1 I have been hankering after.

If you haven't done it yet I can recommend driving someone elses brand new Land Rover at a LRE site.

J

I had a very good morning at Eastnor, with the plus of seeing some of the LR test guys around the course. But they have a looooong waiting list for the Disco Sport. Plus I suspect the instructors may not be that keen - mine was concerned about ground clearance off road. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

Double post for some reason

Last edited by DirtyDuck on 17th Nov 2017 1:55 pm. Edited 1 time in total

Not especially taken with the LR experience in Honiton.

Yes, you get to see what a DS (nearest thing to an FL2) will do and some tips and tricks, but it's not a hugely demanding environment* - you have some "set piece" areas, but the rest isn't all that difficult. No excitement, no deep mud, minimal deep water. It's a demonstration more than an experience. Was hoping for more of a "mud safari" with a bigger variety of easy and hard areas and some sense of distance covered. We ended up doing most things twice, and even then were only driving the car for under 2 of the 3 hours.

Useful for sure, but I would have felt very disappointed if I had paid £300 for it, or taken a day off work for it - it was "free" with the car. Just left you wanting to go off and find some challenging terrain where you have to make some decisions.

*An impossible environment for any saloon car and many soft SUV's of course, but few choices to make as a driver.

A few years ago a neighbour invited my son to go with him to the Honiton LR experience. At the time my son was a trainee agronomist who spent his days driving around farm tracks and was making do with a diesel Renault Clio as his first work car. His view was that his Clio would have coped with about 90% of the Honiton course. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Apart from the "set pieces", I think that's not far off the truth.

I was wondering what I was expecting and what would have made it better and I realise that what I wanted was something where I'd have to make a judgement of what to go for and what not to (with guidance of course) - that is how you really learn. This is just contrived to be something that is 100% possible, whatever you do and to demonstrate each of the modes and it's differences - for that it works - rather than blindly setting sand or ruts etc, you have some idea why each is better. Although setting them without that knowledge works too!

Letting you loose across the Bovington tank ranges for example would be fabulous - loads you'd have to say no to.

I enjoyed my day at Honiton in a DS.

I was impressed by how easy the DS managed the slow, controlled progress through quite tight gaps, up and down dale.
As it's a £40K+ car I would not want to have a car that slipped and slides into the greenery.

Also when I was sat in the back, while my brother drove, I could hear how hard the car was working to control the individual wheels and brakes.

This was a vastly different (better) experience to that I remember driving in the snow on the continent (many years ago) and made our old military Land Rovers seem very crude indeed.

And the car heating is much better now. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

"As it's a £40K+ car I would not want to have a car that slipped and slides into the greenery."

That wasn't what I was after either. I guess having already tried both a DS and our own FL2 on muddy tracks and grass, I didn't need to be convinced they were impressive, just wanted some hard terrain to go off and enjoy those qualities, and discover the limitations.

DirtyDuck wrote:

Apart from the "set pieces", I think that's not far off the truth.

I was wondering what I was expecting and what would have made it better and I realise that what I wanted was something where I'd have to make a judgement of what to go for and what not to (with guidance of course) - that is how you really learn. This is just contrived to be something that is 100% possible, whatever you do and to demonstrate each of the modes and it's differences - for that it works - rather than blindly setting sand or ruts etc, you have some idea why each is better. Although setting them without that knowledge works too!

Letting you loose across the Bovington tank ranges for example would be fabulous - loads you'd have to say no to.

Aah memories, weekends with the AWDC back in the eighties
Dave DAVE.
I.A.M. F1rst Driver.
Gone 2003 Discovery TD5 Auto,
Gone 1986 Defender 90 Station Wagon
Gone 1984 Range Rover 3.5 Vogue Manual.
Gone 1970 Series 11A/3 SWB 3.5 V8 Hybrid
Gone 1964 Series 11A LWB Van
Gone 1966 Series 11A SWB Van
Gone 1964 Series 11A LWB Station Wagon,

Can recomend the 11 to 17 LR driving experience for kids and the factory tour

I enjoyed the factory tour too but have not been on a driving experience ....yet

did the Honiton one last year with a friend who had just got"another d4"it was interesting but all driving was in the woods,they only tricky bit was as you went up one particular steep section the bend at the top was very tricky and you could not see the track,i would not have fancied that bit without the excellent camera,s.
previously I went to ashford(kent)for 2 in disco 3s and one in a freelander 2 in thick ice and snow,swmbo and I were well impressed with the fl2,there were only a few places we could not go as we did not have the articulation of its big brothers.
this site (now closed)was excellent.you did 30 mins in class then out on the road finishing the last 90mins in the woods and the steep quarry. gone
P38 v8 auto no problems,great howle from exhausts when giving it welly
Td5 auto head gasket,no5 pot not uncommon but good car.
1st Tdv6s manual epb problem fixed under warranty(stealer said"never heard of this before,i suggested he looked at d3 forum.
2nd Tdv6 se auto epb
3rd Tdv6 xs auto 2008,swmbo,s favourite.

Is Eastnor better than Honiton? (I have another voucher I would like to use soon)

Which is the best LR site in UK? (out of interest) FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Yes, the Ashford site was brilliant. But it was all mud and off-road fun and clearly didn't have all the (slightly boring) technical humps and bumps that LR now require.
For the present set-up, I doubt if the Eastnor site can be beaten. After all, it's LR's own testing ground, so it has everything you could wish for. The only question is, how much of that are they prepared to use on the day? I've driven a fair bit off road, and I thought Eastnor in a DS was good fun (and instructive). The instructor will tailor the course depending on your choice of car. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

" ..... I doubt if the Eastnor site can be beaten. After all, it's LR's own testing ground, so it has everything you could wish for...."


It is my understanding that Eastnor has two off road tracks. One that ONLY ... Land Rover 'employees' use ......... and the other is for Experience clients.