Do you live in a challenging neighborhood, like, say, Afghanistan, Sudan, Downtown Detroit, or St. Louis? Then you’ll like Land Rover’s latest offering: The new Discovery 4 Armored, a car impervious to road rage of all kinds.
Well, it’s actually the old Discovery, or LR4 as it is called in North America, but this one “enables occupants to travel across challenging terrains in confidence and safety,” says John Graham, Commercial Manager Armored Programs, Land Rover.
The car was designed in cooperation with Centigon, a division of the Belgian Carat Duchatelet group, which specializes in armored vehicles of all types. Looking from the outside deceptively like a LR4, the car comes with ballistic steel armor plating and stops bullets before they kill you. 30 pounds of TNT detonated nearby? This car will shrug it off. A couple of hand grenades tossed under the car? It will ignore them.
There is one golden rule in the personal protection business: Absence of body is better than presence of mind. A 375hp 5.0-litre LR-V8 direct-injection gasoline engine, combined with a six-speed automatic transmission can swiftly extract the car from iffy situations. Despite impressive (but undisclosed) heft, that strongbox on wheel accelerates from 0 to 60 in 10.6 seconds. One push of the pedal, and Osama will eat dust.
Covert lights and siren, flashing headlamps, and an under-hood fire suppressant system can be had as added extras. According to auto123, “interior appointments still include premium leather upholstery on the seats and sumptuous real wood veneers.”
We will try to obtain a press car to be tested under realistic conditions.
Sheesh – a missed opportunity for synergy with Farago’s new web site…
Judging from the abysmal reliability of the LR4 my business partner bought for his wife, the risk for your up-and-coming warlord is that this thing may breakdown on the seedy side of Qandahar and turn itself into a well-armored sitting-duck.
Will this vehicle protect me in the Night Side?
On a related subject, I highly recommend the documentary “Bulletproof Salesman,” about armored car supersalesman Fidelis Cloer looking for the big score in Iraq immediately – and I mean immediately – after the downfall of Saddam. Fascinating stuff.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186201/
Thanks! It’s on Netflix streaming AND in HD!
i bet it comes with std. oil slick launchers just like everything JLR makes…
So 007 drives LR in his next flick; “From Afghanistan with Love.” Bond girl? Wafah Dufour, (google image her) Osama’s niece as, “Wassa Unda DaBurqa.”
When was the last time a Bond Car lasted more than 10 miles without being sawn in half, burned, blown up, or rolled 50 times? There’s always this big deal with Bond cars, but he never actually drives the damn things!
His insurance rates must be sky-high…
Too bad Gaddafi renounced terrorism.Otherwise, that Ukrainian nurse would get the role …
Needs a bigger engine – 10.6 is too slow. It needs the armor that handles RPGs.
When was the last time a Bond Car lasted more than 10 miles without being sawn in half, burned, blown up, or rolled 50 times? There’s always this big deal with Bond cars, but he never actually drives the damn things!
Well, in Goldfinger he drove the gorgeous Aston Martin from England to Switzerland before it got smashed. That’s not too bad a road trip.
Afghan, Sudan, Detroit… baaaah. How about Ciudad Juarez? Is that truck strong enough for Mexico, where more people are killed every year than Aghanistan? That should be the new proving grounds for vehicles like this.