26 SEPTEMBER 2019 leisurewheels.co.za
the systems in the vehicle. How
would these computers stand up
to 24 hours of abuse?
With bucket loads of power,
air suspension and a luxurious
cabin, the Discovery offered the
perfect combination of real off-
road ability and driver comfort.
Many have criticised the
new Discovery for not being a
real 4×4. Off-roading diehards
seem to think this large SUV
belongs in Sandton and not
Sodwana despite the best efforts
of adventurers like Kingsley
Holgate to convince the public
otherwise. Since 2019 is the
30th anniversary of the Land
Rover Discovery, what better
gift than a world record.
We had a couple of things to
prove: first, how far could we
drive on a sandy 4×4 track in24 hours and second, that we
could do it in a stock-standard
Land Rover Discovery.
Land Rover was on-board
with this attempt and a
Discovery was made available.
The vehicle was stock-standard
apart from some genuine Land
Rover accessories in the form of
aluminium front and rear skid
plates and some seat covers. The
vehicle was devoid of luxuries
like 21-inch wheels and a tyre
pressure monitor.Instead, this particular model
was fitted with the optional
19-inch highway terrain tyres
offered to customers when they
order their Discovery. Their
taller sidewall allowed us to
drop the tyre pressures and
create a decent footprint, while
the on-road biased tyres actually
offered better floatation across
the sand. The absence of the
tyre pressure monitoring system
meant that even though
we would be dropping the
pressures well below the
recommended readings, we