Land Rover Discovery teased – debuts September 28

Twenty-seven years after the launch of the original Land Rover Discovery, Britain’s premier go-anywhere seven-seater is moving to its fifth generation on September 28. Before that, there’s time for one more sign-off test before the new car hits the production line, and therefore one more camouflage design before the whole thing is revealed in a couple of weeks’ time.

Like it or not, the Disco has been the go-to vehicle for soccer mums everywhere, so who better to design that final disguise than children? Specifically, it’s the children of Land Rover’s designers and engineers – the band of kids, aged between five and nine, used the car as a big white canvas, drawing their favourite days out and signing their name against their work.

The doodles barely hide an exterior design that’s certainly more dynamic than its upright predecessors – like the Discovery Vision Concept that preceded it, the new Disco borrows plenty of styling cues from the Range Rover Evoque; the glasshouse is also sleeker, and the trademark roof hump has been minimised.

Land Rover has also released the first full image of the front of the new Disco, showing the sharp LED headlights, a slim upper grille and a larger lower grille with a prominent skid plate, flanked by vertical air intakes. Most of the Discovery Vision’s design has been retained, in fact.

The new Land Rover Discovery will sit on Jaguar Land Rover’s Premium Lightweight Architecture (PLA), which also underpins the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. The platform features heavy use of aluminium in its construction, and should make the next-gen car lighter than before.

Just as well – the Discovery 3 and current Discovery 4 utilise Integrated Body Frame construction that fuses a monocoque body with a ladder frame, combining the strengths of both but also making it significantly heavier than a regular unibody or body-on-frame SUV.

Technologies coming to the new Disco include a new Intelligent Seat Fold technology that enables the second- and third-row seats to be reconfigured remotely using a smartphone app, as well as a laser-scanning feature that allows the car to read the terrain ahead and adjust the vehicle’s suspension to suit it. Other fancy items include the “invisible bonnet,” which should prove useful when driving off-road.

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