“Well, today is all about learning some cool stuff about the Land Rover Defender, which is kind of our original rugged go-anywhere car. We’ve got some cool obstacles we’ve created to allow us to test out the extremes of the car. So you guys can see effectively what is built into the standard car that you buy straight out the showroom.”
IC Land Automotive Vice President Chris Ward is not only passionate about the iconic, 75-year-old luxury 4×4 nameplate; he practically knows everything there is to know about it. So it wasn’t really much of a stretch to see him as “lead instructor” for the recent “Defender Experience,” staged by the Inchcape Philippines-led country distributor of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.
At a fenced-in portion of the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, the Defender 110 was put through its paces by professional, Land Rover-trained drivers to help would-be buyers and even current owners realize just how capable the vehicle is. The Defender made short work of the intimidating obstacles that would have surely daunted even the staunchest of off-roaders. From the outside, the specially built features look downright impossible to navigate, but ensconced in the front passenger seat, participants such as myself surely had a feel of how unflappable the Defender was in the face of challenges.
The Articulation Ramp demonstrated, of course, the Defender’s “superior suspension articulation, power distribution, showcasing its ability to keep all four wheels on the ground while navigating obstacles.” Actually, there were times when only three wheels were on terra firma, but the Defender handled it like a champ.
The appropriately named Witch’s Hat which “simulates tight turns and quick responses” is shaped exactly as it is named, and the driver takes its sheer, high-angle face with confidence to showcase the Defender’s agility and maneuverability.
I found myself wincing and bracing for the Defender’s undercarriage to get scraped and for the vehicle to be eventually stuck in the Toblerone, “a complex series of undulating ramps designed to showcase the Defender’s incredible ground clearance and off-road capabilities.” Happily, its approach and departure angles – along with the breakover angle, of course – proved adequate to shrug off the severe-looking test with ease.
The grand finale was the Twin Terrapod, which gives you a feeling like you’re reading to careen down a massively steep rollercoaster after almost blindly going up an equally steep incline. But as in the other exercises, the high-definition camera system of the vehicle proves a big help in scoping out the periphery. Not only did the Defender scale the slope with ease, it enabled the instructor to safely coax the vehicle down the other side through intelligent Hill Descent Control.
I asked Chris what the immense Defender flex was for, knowing that owners who will run their Defender through a similar gauntlet like this will be in the minority. “Everybody wants to keep pushing the boundaries,” he replied. “We as consumers always want more, so it’s always a challenge for us. How do we then continue to develop the car so that we can create that little bit extra, so you can go that bit further, and even for the experienced guys?”
The executive continued, “So sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know. And the way that we’ve been developing the car is to really do some serious testing, and then look at how we fine-tune all the various electronics around the car to work in harmony. To take you that bit further. So whether you’re a novice or you’re an experienced, the car will still support you.”
What that means is the Defender is a nerd, right, I asked Chris. He laughed and agreed. “The purpose of a Defender is, ultimately, not to break traction. Everything it’s doing is all about making sure that the wheels make contact, whatever surface it is; that it is linear and we’re not losing grip.” He added that the Defender’s advanced tech engages in “many, many tasks that it’s doing up to 400 times a second” such as analyzing wheel speed, G forces forward and sideward, measuring steering angles. Then it sorts these parameters and ticks off a check box.
“Okay, for this given situation, can I tick all the boxes? Because if I can, that means a car has grip, and it’s doing everything that the driver is asking. Soon, as it starts to put up one or two Xs in boxes, it means something’s not going 100% like potentially breaking grip, then it starts to deploy different tactics to compensate for that lack of traction.”
Like I said, a nerd. So the driver can just focus on having a fun and safe drive, wherever the road – or offroad – leads.
