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RichardB
Member Since: 03 May 2010
Location: Hants
Posts: 485
  
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| D4 - Offroad disappointment. |
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For reasons to complicated to explain I decided to turn in my 530d touring for a D4. It's on order and will, with a fair wind, turn up in July.
As a warm up, my wife bought me a day at Land Rover Experience (Chilterns) so I've spent nearly 5 hours today driving around their tracks, up and down hills, through water (love the bow-waves), mud, ruts and over unreasonably rutted rock crawls, forward and sometimes backward. And at the end of the day... I feel relaxed, chilled, no aches or pains. So what is it with this ridiculous machine? I thought it was meant to be difficult this off road stuff but it made everything easy. How disappointing. A complete lack of drama even those stupidly steep gradients are taken with absolute aplomb. All previous attempts at enforced off-roading (generally flat, slightly muddy fields etc) have involved large amounts of going nowhere or relying on momentum (i.e moderately uncontrolled sliding with associated adrenaline) to make progress, furrowed brows, curses; or (on rough farm tracks) a real danger of lower back pain (have you tried MSport suspension).
Until today, I'd no real appreciation of the true capability of the D4 - utterly awesome.
So now, if I had any doubts about my choice of a new motor, they were completely removed today. Bring it on. Even if my offroading is mainly limited to rough tracks and fields, I now know what they can really do if ever the need arises.
So a big thanks to John at Chiltern today. I've learnt many tricks and better appreciate that little terrain response gizmo and its manual overrides. I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has not tried it. Especially if you are having to wait 3 months for the new motor. Also thanks to the other guy who was meant to be sharing the session but who didn't make it; as a result, I got to spend the whole day in the driving seat 
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 5th Jun 2010 10:40 pm |
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RichardM
Member Since: 18 Dec 2009
Location: Essex
Posts: 85
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Did you do the full day level one? I was a little disappointed with the Chilterns setup, it all seemed very tame especially as everywhere is so dry at the moment and also the circuit is quite small. I only did the half day though.
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| 6th Jun 2010 12:28 am |
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mrandmrsh
Member Since: 25 Sep 2008
Location: Holmfirth
Posts: 487
 
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I have an old 110 (1987 with 200Tdi engine) as well as my D3. When I got my first D3 (a standard HSE) I took it along to an off road play day where I have been well used to taking the 110 (and other Defender and older Series Land-Rovers).
Hills that previously needed skill, judgement and just the right tough to get up or down because a doddle. I was amazed how much the dreaded electronic interference devices fitted to a modern 4x4 actually made things safer, easier and quicker.
In short, the Defender is brilliant but the D3 is a step further, just a big too big and heavy. Here's hoping for a Project Icon with significantly less weight, maybe a bit narrower, all the modern day stuff (like keeping your feet dry when it rains as well as off road technology) but with a TDV6 or similar engine and auto box. 2012 Defender 110 XS Utility 2.2
2012 D4 Commercial 255 8-speed, Active diff, lots of extras on order, comes Sept - ORDER CANCELLED (isn't divorce expensive....?)
2008/08 D3 HSE G4 - part exchanged for the 110
1987 110 CSW with 200 Tdi (now gone)
2007/57 D3 TDV6 HSE - NOW GONE owned 1/oct/08 to 31/dec/09
2007 Seat Altea Freetrack4 170 tdi (wife's car, wife now gone!)
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| 6th Jun 2010 7:24 am |
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Salty Spuds
Member Since: 05 Dec 2009
Location: The Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 86
 
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We recently did a half day full offroad at Skipton (Thanks Adrian). Having owned one of every flavour Disco 200, 300, TD5, D3 & now D4, I commented to Adrian the instructor, whilst halfway up a slimy incline with 1 wheel off the ground, "it all seems so..........effortless" We've now got just over 1200miles on the clock of the D4, 500 of which were towing & launching the boat & it just gets better. When we got the D3, it was such a quantum leap from the old style Disco, I really thought that it was the ultimate towing machine.....Wrong! The 3.0l engine / gearbox combo in the D4 is phenomenal.
<<exit gush mode>>
SS
Last edited by Salty Spuds on 6th Jun 2010 1:16 pm. Edited 4 times in total
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| 6th Jun 2010 9:18 am |
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RichardB
Member Since: 03 May 2010
Location: Hants
Posts: 485
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RichardM wrote:Did you do the full day level one? I was a little disappointed with the Chilterns setup, it all seemed very tame especially as everywhere is so dry at the moment and also the circuit is quite small. I only did the half day though.
Yes, did the full day. It was pretty dry but there were a couple of muddy trenches that were fun and did a lot yesterday through small tracks with lots of holes that clearly hadn't been driven for some weeks (given the weeds were 2-3' high). And by the time I'd dragged water from the ditches up the slopes, things were looking wetter. Didn't seem to phase the D4 one bit though. 
It's true though. The Chiltern site is pretty small and it would have been great towards the end of the day to have spent time on a wider area. Nevertheless, as a near off-road novice, I found it great to be able to practice and use different techniques on the same stretches. For example, using auto vs gear hold or turning off hill descent and going down on the gears etc) - I also had the chance to go over the rock crawl section in 3-4 different modes. Interesting to see how each copes and how it felt. Frankly, the rock crawl mode is just weird! By the end of the day, I was really starting to feel where the car was and how it was reacting - at the beginning I was just in, wow, that's amazing mode.
So my conclusion is that it's excellent for developing skills in a concentrated area over a day or getting a concentrated taster (1/2 day??) but it's not really 'mini expedition' territory!
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| 6th Jun 2010 10:34 am |
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jamesbond007
Member Since: 26 Jan 2010
Location: Algarve, Portugal
Posts: 263
 
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If you want drama, try a Defender. The Discovery does the same and much more without even raising an eyebrow. It is magic. The older I get, the better I was.
Discovery 3 TDV6 Auto (BAS remap) after Defender TD4 110 Crew Cab and 1964 SIIA 88.
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| 8th Jun 2010 3:24 pm |
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RichardB
Member Since: 03 May 2010
Location: Hants
Posts: 485
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jamesbond007 wrote:If you want drama, try a Defender. The Discovery does the same and much more without even raising an eyebrow. It is magic.
Think I'll stick with the understated competence of the D4 and give drama a miss 
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| 9th Jun 2010 8:56 am |
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