THE TRACKS ARE ROUGH

I have the Terrain Response dial turned obviously to sand, and keep it mainly in first gear in the manual Command Shift option occasionally snicking up into second. On the F2 you have to turn off the Directional Stability control (DSC) manually to prevent it cutting power just when you least want it. On the Discovery 3 this is done automatically.

Playtime over, it’s time to get back on the trail. The four cylinder puma engine Defender 110Utility, my first experience of driving one in sand. I engage second gear low range and rev the heavily laden Defender hard, holding the gear for some time through the deepest sand section before engaging third.

Then we are out of the tracks and I shift to high range. The six speeds and wide ratios mean you can stay in high range longer than you would in earlier models, such as our TD5 110. The gearchange is faster, too, allowing you to snick easily down into first as yet another wash out or river bed creeps up on you.