Land_Rover-Discovery
Land Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles.
It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover group, a subsidiary of Indian Tata Motors since 2008.
It is the second oldest four-wheel-drive car brand in the world (after Jeep).
The Land Rover name was originally used by the Rover Company for one specific vehicle model, named simply the Land Rover,
launched by Rover in 1948. Over the following years it developed into a
marque encompassing a range of four-wheel-drive models, including the Defender, Discovery, Freelander, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Evoque. Land Rovers are currently assembled in the company's Halewood and Solihull plants, with research and development taking place at JLR's Gaydon and Whitley engineering centres. Land Rover sold 194,000 vehicles worldwide in 2009.
The design for the original Land Rover vehicle was started in 1947 by Maurice Wilks, chief designer at the Rover Company, on his farm in Newborough, Anglesey.
It is said that he was inspired by an American World War II Jeep that he used one summer at his holiday home in Wales.
The first Land Rover prototype, later nicknamed 'Centre Steer', was built on a Jeep chassis and axles.
The early choice of colour was dictated by military surplus
supplies of aircraft cockpit paint, so early vehicles only came in
various shades of light green; all models until recently feature sturdy
box section ladder-frame chassis.
The early vehicles, such as the Series I,
were field-tested at Long Bennington and designed to be field-serviced;
advertisements for Rovers cite vehicles driven thousands of miles on banana oil. Now with more complex service requirements this is less of an option. The British Army
maintains the use of the mechanically simple 2.5-litre four-cylinder
300TDi-engined versions rather than the electronically controlled
2.5-litre five-cylinder TD5 to retain some servicing simplicity. This
engine also continued in use in some export markets using units built at
a Ford
plant in Brazil, where Land Rovers were built under licence and the
engine was also used in Ford pick-up trucks built locally. Production of
the TDi engine ended in the United Kingdom in 2006, meaning that Land
Rover no longer offers it as an option. International Motors of Brazil
offer an engine called the 2.8 TGV Power Torque, which is essentially a
2.8-litre version of the 300TDi, with a corresponding increase in power
and torque.
During its ownership by Ford, Land Rover was once again associated
with Jaguar – the first time the two companies had been under the same
ownership since the British Leyland era. In many countries they shared a
common sales and distribution network (including shared dealerships),
and some models shared components and production facilities.
Discovery I
The Discovery was introduced into the United Kingdom in 1989. The
company code-named the vehicle "Project Jay". The new model was based on
the chassis and
drivetrain of the more upmarket
Range Rover,
but with a lower price aimed at a larger market segment and intended to
compete with Japanese offerings. This was the only Discovery generation
with
four-cylinder engines.
The Discovery was initially available only as a three-door version
and the five-door became available the following year. Both were fitted
with five seats, with the option to have two further seats fitted in the
boot. Land Rover employed an external consultancy,
Conran Design Group,
to design the interior. The brief was to ignore current car interior
design and position the vehicle as a 'lifestyle accessory'. The interior
incorporated a number of original features, although some ideas shown
on the original interior mock-ups constructed inside a Range Rover
bodyshell at Conran's workshops were left on the shelf, such as a custom
sunglasses holder built into the centre of the steering wheel. The
design was unveiled to critical acclaim, and won a British Design Award
in 1989. The features that were retained included the majority of the
interior being constructed from 'Sonar Blue' plastic (with blue cloth
trim), map/magazine holding slots above the windscreen, hand-holds for
rear passengers being incorporated into the head restraints of the front
seats, remote radio controls on the instrument cluster, twin removable
sunroof panels (including a special zip-up storage bag behind the rear
seats) and the inclusion of a Land Rover-branded cloth fabric holdall in
the front centre console for oddments storage that could be removed
from the vehicle and worn as a '
handbag'
using a supplied shoulder strap (relatively few of these bags have
survived, making them collectable items). Despite such features the
interior's basic structure was the same as the Range Rover and virtually
all the switchgear and instruments came from other
Rover Group cars such as the
Maestro and
Montego. Similarly on the exterior, as well as the necessary Range Rover panels, the Discovery used headlights from the
Freight Rover van and taillights from the Maestro van. The latter would continue to bear the
Austin Rover
'chevron' logo on their lenses until production of the first generation
Discovery ended in 1998, ten years after Austin Rover ceased to exist.
Discovery I
The Series II Discovery debuted in autumn 1998 and in the US in 1999.
Land Rover promoted that the Discovery Series II had been modified with
720 'differences'. The interior and exterior was re-worked to be less
utilitarian, but it was still similar to the Series I. Every body panel
was new except the rear door outer skin. The rear body was extended to
improve load space but at the expense of added rear overhang, which
adversely impacted off-road ability. Changes to the diesel engined
models saw the 2,495 cc Td5 (in-line direct-injected straight-five engine
introduced, in line with the updated Defender models. This
electronically managed engine was smoother, producing more usable torque
at lower revs than its 300 Tdi predecessor. The Td5 engine is often
mistakenly attributed to BMW but the engine was derived from the Rover L-series passenger car engine and developed by Land Rover. The 3,948 cc V8
petrol version from the Disco 1 was replaced with the Range Rover P38
Thor 4.0-litre Rover-derived V8. There was no actual increase in
capacity over the previous 3.9-litre engine. Although the basic design
of the engine was similar it was actually quite different internally. It
used a different crankshaft, had larger bearing journals with cross
bolted caps and different con rods and pistons. The blocks were machined
differently to accept extra sensors for the Gems and Bosch (thor)
injection system and to allow the extra stroke of the 4.6 crankshaft.
For the 2003 and 2004 model year Discovery II they changed to the
4.6-litre V8 (though the 4.0 continued as the only V8 option offered in
the UK). ACE (Active Cornering Enhancement, an electronically controlled
hydraulic anti-roll bar system) was fitted to some versions, which
reduced cornering roll. Self-levelling air springs were fitted to some
models and European type-approval for seven-seat vehicles was only given
for air-sprung cars.
Discovery 3 / LR3
On 2 April 2004, Land Rover introduced the Discovery 3, marketed as
the LR3 in North America. It retained the key features of the Discovery,
such as the stepped roofline and steeply-raked windscreen. The LR3 name
was chosen for North American markets due to negative quality
associations with the Discovery name and (according to Land Rover) a
preference in the American market for alpha-numeric model designations –
the second generation Freelander was also re-designated for the North American market as the LR2.
Land Rover developed a body construction method, marketed as
Integrated Body Frame (IBF), where the engine bay and passenger
compartment is built as a monocoque, then mated to a basic ladder-frame chassis
for the gearbox and suspension. Land Rover claims IBF combines the
virtues of monocoque and ladder-frame – though it makes for a heavy
vehicle, compromising performance and agility. The LR3 was offered with a
rear locking differential.
