Whitley, West Midlands - As the new Discovery Sport - the slightly more macho replacement for the long-running Freelander - enters its final testing phase ahead of its global reveal on 3 September, Land Rover has given us a glimpse of just what goes into the development of an SUV with a reputation for toughness to uphold - along with some eyebrow-raising statistics.
1.2 MILLION KILOMETRES
According to programme director Murray Dietsch, the Discovery Sport prototypes have been driven about 1.2 million kilometres during the testing and development phase, in temperatures ranging from -36° to 42°.
They were tested on 40-degree inclines and 45-degree downslopes and in water to a depth of 600mm; in fact a total of 11,720 test results have been recorded.