Land Rover revs up for Disco dynamite

• NEW CAR NEWS – LAND ROVER DISCOVERY SPORT

LAND ROVER has dropped the biggest hint yet towards the design of the new Discovery Sport model which will be built at the company’s Halewood plant in Liverpool.

A version of the Disco clad in a camouflage wrap confirms that the new compact SUV will come as standard with 5+2 seating when it goes on sale in the UK next year.

As if ‘peeling back’ the outer layer of the vehicle, the camouflage reveals that the Discovery Sport will have two seats in the third row, enhancing both its versatility and appeal as a compact, family SUV.

Prototype cars sporting the new camouflage design left Halewood to embark on final testing and development activity across several continents.

And design director Gerry McGovern said: “As you would expect from a Discovery, the versatile Discovery Sport will feature  5+2 seating in the UK, offering spacious load space and configurable seating, while still retaining a more compact footprint than traditional 5-seat SUVs.

Meanwhile, super SUV the Range Rover Sport SVR has lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife race circuit in Germany in 8 minutes 14 seconds, making it the fastest production SUV around the famous track.

The feat was carried out by a Land Rover driver testing a standard production example of the potent new performance flagship model.

The SVR, which made its dynamic debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June, returned to the Nurburgring this month to continue an exhaustive testing schedule.

It is powered by an uprated version of Land Rover’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine, which has been tuned to deliver 550PS – a 40PS increase over the existing V8 Supercharged derivative.

The handling characteristics of the SVR have been honed on the Nurburgring because the undulating circuit’s challenging layout represents the ultimate test for high performance vehicles.

Mike Cross, chief engineer for vehicle integrity, said: “The Nurburgring is a benchmark for vehicle development and testing, and cars become stronger, more durable and faster over its 13 miles and 70-plus corners.

“We wanted to see whether an SUV could behave like a performance car in this challenging environment. The results are spectacular and the Range Rover Sport SVR has demonstrated outstanding on-road performance capabilities.”