The all-new 2018 Discovery is the most off-road-capable model in Land Rover鈥檚 lineup. Period. But the brand, once known for its innovative, extremely capable trucks, has refocused almost exclusively on luxury in the past few years. So here鈥檚 my question: Are modern Land Rovers still capable of serious off-road travel? I spent a week driving one across Peru to find out.

What Is It?

This fifth-generation Discovery is built like a luxury car, albeit one with true four-wheel drive, including a low-range transfer case. Gone is the body-on-frame build of the past, replaced now with a modern unibody design. Gone too are the live axles, replaced with four-wheel independent air suspension.

With a starting price of $53,085, the Discovery competes with the Volvo XC90 and the BMW X5 in the midsize luxury SUV category. Like those cars, the Discovery can seat up to seven people, but the folding third row is best for children or short trips. Plus, seating people there seriously compromises luggage space.

Power comes from a supercharged 3.0-liter V6 with 340 horsepower backed up by an eight-speed automatic transmission, returning 18 miles per gallon. There鈥檚 also a new turbo-diesel that delivers an impressive 443 foot-pounds of torque and a much nicer 23 miles per gallon.

Who Is It For?

Midsize luxury SUVs like this one are versatile workhorses for individuals and families who value space, a tall seating position, and the ability to carry or tow large loads. They also offer nice interiors and a responsive driving experience. The Discovery checks all those boxes, just like an Audi Q7 or a Mercedes GLE, with the added ability to go off-road.

Design

The previous two Discovery models (named the LR4 and LR3 in the United States) carried Land Rover鈥檚 distinctive boxy body. This fifth generation departs from traditional design language with a sleek, aerodynamic shape that borrows more from a Ford Explorer than a classic, alloy-bodied British truck.

There are a couple nods to the Discovery鈥檚 heritage. Squint hard enough and you might notice the very modest step in the fifth-generation鈥檚 roof or the off-center license plate mount on the tailgate.

Step inside and things get much more familiar. Land Rover has been making the nicest SUV interiors for a few years now, and this new Discovery benefits from lessons learned on cars like the new Range Rover. The leather is beautifully supple, and the touchscreen replaces most of the physical buttons to create a radically simple space. Like other models in the range, the speedometer, tachometer, and the space between them are all one large, customizable information screen that can put important data like navigation where the driver can see it best.

Two huge, optional sunroofs make the Discovery feel exceptionally airy inside, making up for the lack of alpine windows over the back seats of this new model.

Off-road functions are simplified into a Terrain Response dial, rather than a separate transfer case lever. Simply dial in the type of obstacles you鈥檙e navigating, and the computers will adjust suspension height, the center differential lock (and optional rear locker), traction control intervention, and throttle response to suit the conditions.

Driving It

It certainly doesn鈥檛 drive聽like a truck. Throughout a solid week of 10-hour days, the new Discovery treated me to a quiet interior, a soft ride, and an easy driving experience, no matter the terrain.聽

There鈥檚 a lot going on underneath the Discovery to make this versatile breadth of capabilities possible. Off-road duties are handled by a curious mix of new and old technologies. Where other SUVs have ditched the traditional locking center differential of true four-wheel drive for all-wheel drive systems with all manner of complicated clutches, the Discovery is old-school, complete with separate low-range gearing that is also now a rare sight. But those greasy bits are now controlled by the Terrain Response computer instead of levers. The optional locking rear differential evenly splits torque across that axle, maximizing traction, but Terrain Response also tweaks individual brake calipers to minimize wheel spin and facilitate forward progress in even the slipperiest conditions. That鈥檚 helped out by the air suspension, which is independent but mimics the articulation capabilities of live axles.

Sound like a lot to keep track of while you鈥檙e driving? Terrain Response makes it dead simple.

At its maximum height, that air suspension also gives the Discovery 11.1 inches of ground clearance, and approach, departure, and breakover angles (the height and steepness of obstacles you can drive onto, off, and over) that are closer to those of the new Jeep Wrangler than they any other luxury SUVs.

For this trip鈥攐rganized as a prize for Land Rover owners who won an off-road driving contest that I was聽able to tag along on鈥攖he Discoveries were lightly modified with all-terrain tires, roof racks, and luggage dividers that kept our camping gear from sliding from the cargo area into the rear seats. Those are boxes you can tick at any dealer. Over five days of ten-hour drives, none of the 14 Discoveries on this trip was unable to overcome any of the obstacles we faced, none got so stuck that another Discovery couldn鈥檛 yank them free, and none had any mechanical failures aside from a driver-error-induced crash that temporarily broke some cooling system components on one of the vehicles (we were able to make repairs in the field).

That they did all that in luxurious comfort is remarkable. These may not be the rough-and-tumble trucks of yore, but they can still hack it off-road.

Likes

• Class-leading off-road capability.
• Roomy, luxurious interior.
• Top-of-the-line driver aids.

Dislikes

• Unimpressive fuel mileage.
• Forgettable exterior design.
• That old Land Rover character is missing, even if it did come with oil leaks.

Should You Buy It?

Need a large, practical vehicle to cart your family, friends, dogs, and gear all over the place? With the Discovery, not only can you do that in luxury, you can do it off-road.

The post Can the 2018 Land Rover Discovery Still Go Off-Road? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Any pilot will tell you there鈥檚 nothing in the world like the sensation of flying. The months of unglamorous training, procedures, writing聽checklists, and scanning聽weather forecasts usually goes unmentioned. And that's not even considering聽how聽arduous and expensive it is to get a license to begin with. Icon wants聽to change all that, not only with this its new amphibious personal aircraft, but also with the accompanying聽training program.聽聽

First, a little backstory. In 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration established a new category of small aircraft聽and an entry-level license to go with it. That 鈥溾�� license requires less training, with the idea being to expand聽the appeal of aviation to more people. Icon鈥檚 founder, Kirk Hawkins, saw that as an opportunity to create a totally new product specifically targeted at hobbyist pilots. After 10 years of development, we finally got the chance to fly the final product. is not your uncle鈥檚 Cessna.聽

The sleek, fully-carbon composite fuselage was designed with styling, as much as safety,聽in mind. (Lead designer Klaus Tritschler used to pen BMW motorcycles.)聽In a world populated almost exclusively by garage-built, cobbled-together light aircraft, the A5 looks even better up close than it does in photos. Better yet, its form follows function鈥攖hose cool-looking wings are designed to prevent聽stalling聽or spinning, and, should all else fail, there鈥檚 a parachute hidden聽between them.聽

I hopped in the A5 for the first time, windows removed, with Kirk in the right seat. We fired up the Rotax 912, pulled away from the dock, and throttled up. Before I even had time for a second thought, the plane bounded into the sky. The Icon breaks freely from the water in these calm conditions. In your standard Cessna, you鈥檇 be climbing for all you鈥檙e worth at this point, and were your engine to go out, you would plummet聽back to earth. But here in the A5, with the safety of water beneath us, we uneventfully leveled off at 100 feet to聽go soaring around the lake. With an astounding field of view through the canopy, you feel like you're in the front car of the world鈥檚 best roller coaster鈥攋ust here you鈥檙e in control.聽聽

One of the key goals of the A5 is its ability to avoid stalls and spins, even in the hands of inexperienced pilots. And man, this thing just cannot be coaxed into losing lift. If you haven鈥檛 experienced one, a stall is a sudden loss of lift聽and it is scary as hell. In general flight training, you鈥檙e taught a 鈥渟teep鈥� turn that maxes out at 45 degrees: any further聽and you risk stalling. But in the Icon, you can fly circles that would fit inside a football field. And through all that, the controls remain friendly and light. If you can鈥檛 enjoy flying this A5, you should probably stick to terra firma.聽

All of our takeoffs and landings in the plane occurred within 1,000 feet. That鈥檚 short enough to land at just about any airstrip, no matter how remote, and gives you access to relatively small bodies of water. But聽its top speed of 109 miles per hour will get you from home to lake pretty quickly. A full, 20-gallon tank of av gas (it can also run on regular automotive gasoline)聽will get you about 450 miles. That鈥檚 enough to get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but if that鈥檚 the kind of flight you regularly need to take, you鈥檙e better off just buying a ticket. Save the Icon for experiencing the fun of flight, not the formality.聽

How do you normally fly an airplane? In a word: cautiously. You鈥檙e constantly running your eyes over every instrument, listening for strange noises, and otherwise trying to stay within your envelope of safety. The Icon does a good job providing you all the tools necessary to do that job, right up front, in an uncluttered dash, where you can easily keep an eye on them. And they鈥檝e added a high-tech indicator that you wouldn鈥檛 typically find on other light aircraft. That helped me keep the plane out of the danger zone鈥擨 wish I鈥檇 had such an instrument when聽I was learning to fly. Data like this will be a key part of the company's聽new training program, arming beginner pilots with the information they need to learn to fly safely.聽

I completed my own Private聽Pilot license a little over a year ago, and have rented a bunch of different light aircraft ever since. I may not be the most experienced airplane reviewer out there, but I can state categorically that flying the Icon is an entirely different experience than piloting any other light aircraft聽out there. I was able to stop thinking about the mechanics of what was taking place聽and just enjoy the ride. I mostly found myself wishing there were a couple extra panes of glass to expand my view of the earth sliding past below. Can you imagine using this thing to reach remote lakes and campsites that flightless adventurers will never experience?聽

At over $190,000, I don鈥檛 think I have enough organs to sell to buy one, but that didn鈥檛 stop me from fantasizing about folding the wings up聽and trailering it home behind my car. My garage has just enough space, even if my bank account doesn鈥檛 have enough Franklin's.聽

We may not have reached the era of the flying car, but with the Icon A5, I think we have at least reached the age of the easy-to-fly聽airplane. It allows you to focus on where you want to go, not just how you plan to get聽there.聽

The post This Is the Airplane That Will Teach You to Love Flying appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.