Do so and you’ll find this chassis, anchored to the road with Pirelli all-season tyres, isn’t one overly endowed with grip, which is perhaps why the ESC is quite conservatively tuned. Given the car’s reasonably good balance and the progressiveness of the weight transfer, you’re unlikely to trigger the electronics during normal driving. Grip levels are also well matched to the ability of the chassis, and the overall driving experience is not one defined by particularly notable levels of agility or precision but rather by dynamic coherence and surprising polish in the controls.
No ladder chassis or full-time four-wheel drive here, but a conventional monocoque architecture and on-demand Haldex driveline still deliver more off-road ability than most are ever likely to need. This platform heralds new electronic wheel-management controls, which can direct torque across the axles to maximise traction. All the driver needs do is keep their foot deep into the throttle, at which point the Terrain Response brain, which also controls the locking rear diff, takes matters into its own hands. Modes include Sand, Grass-Gravel-Snow and Mud & Ruts, with differing levels of slip and torque profiles for each.
The car can also be optioned with Land Rover’s ClearSight Ground View camera, which projects images from beneath the car onto the 10in cabin display, appearing to render the bonnet invisible. On the 45deg gradients the car can climb, such technology no doubt proves useful.
COMFORT AND ISOLATION
You can tell within 50 yards that the Discovery Sport was not designed solely with endless ribbons of smooth Tarmac in mind. Even at speed there are edges to the ride, and this chassis picks out ripples and ridges more enthusiastically than any of the junior Land Rover’s premium rivals. A jostle here and a thud there are the price paid for genuine off-road ability.
But equally, for a car with 600mm of wading depth and class-leading approach, breakover and departure angles, the Discovery Sport is still unusually well mannered. Vertical movements are supple but generally stop show of any hint of bounce. The car operates slickly at a cruise, too, it’s fluid primary ride doing more for the everyday cause than the low-profile tyres on a more sporting alternative might manage.
However, acoustic isolation is where the greatest improvements have been made. Ninth gear drops motorway engine speeds to a slither above tickover and all but silences the powertrain, and developments for the platform have seemingly banished a good degree of vibration and tyre roar. The Discovery Sport doesn’t operate with quite the chapel-like calm of an Audi Q5 but neither is it comprehensively outclassed by the best in this segment.
Then there is the fact that no rival offers such a commanding driving position, which is equal even to the Porsche Cayenne in terms of height from the ground. This contributes to a feeling of security and wellbeing that is, much like the driving controls, unmistakably Land Rover.
