Land Rover DC100 concept from freeamfva's blog

Land Rover DC100 concept

Mike Boyd, chassis and vehiclecapability delivery manager, describes his department, Jaguar Land Rover Research, as the ‘Q' branch of the company, alluding to the James Bond-like technology in development. It's a job he obviously relishes and he's bursting to tell us all about the ‘toys' he gets to play with —and those that are coming down theline in future products from Jaguarand Land Rover.To get more news about davincidynamic, you can visit davincimotor.com official website.

Today we're at a small ski resort in France called Megève to get up close and personal with one such product — a preview to the replacement of Land Rover's most iconic model, the Defender.

The DC100 concept was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show at the end of 2011. In Germany it was displayed in open-topped Sport guise and in the more conventional shape pictured here.

Since then it has been repainted twice as it's hawked around the world to various shows, and we're about to take the wheel. Knowing that we're going to drive a virtually priceless show car adds to the nerves, but they're soon forgotten on seeing the DC100 on the snow for the first time. It looks stunning. Motor show lighting, no matter how good, never flatters a car and the concept's lines are far more at home in daylight. The contrast between the lustrous red paintwork, the white snow, blue sky and dark green trees is nothing short of spectacular.

While there's been some controversy over the direction of the design and engineering of the next Defender, we think the show car has got the style spot on. It's undoubtedly a Land Rover evolved from the likes of the Series 1, but it's in no way retrospective.

In profile the concept is reminiscent of the Skoda Yeti and it shares a bold face with that crossover, though the proportions are very different. The Land Rover is distinctly square in stance, as emphasised by the wide wheel arches covering huge 20in alloys and chunky off-road tyres. The view from the back is pure Defender, though with attitude. Take a closer look and the concept car jewellery is more obvious. The roof over the luggage compartment appears to be made of solar cells and the C-pillars are constructed of a lattice so that the driver can see through them. Indeed, their design, and the all-round visibility offered by the high, upright glasshouse, hints at more than just a one-off show car for cheap publicity. As too does the back-to-basics interior that looks like it would survive a hose-down.

That is until our minder removes the centre console and appears to join two wires together to start it up. I'm told to press the large brake pedal while he fires the engine into life. Under the square bonnet is the Range Rover Sport's V8 engine and it sounds fantastic, even at idle. Not that we can hang about, as apparently the fuel tank only holds five litres of petrol. Don't expect that limitation in any Land Rover you canbuy soon.

We're told to keep the speed down to preserve the integrity of the clay body work, but even so the DC100 effortlessly shrugs off the conditions and burbles up the mountain. Its damping is too soft for a production car's though and we bob over the bumps. The turning circle is impressive, however, and the view out makes it easy to place the car. That said, on full lock, while traversing ruts in the snow, one of the tyres catches the inner wheel arch and our minder winces. It's a lesson we learn from though and soon we're confidently following the route.The Range Rover's engine makes short work of the show car and I only needto tickle the throttle to maintain momentum. Allied to the V8 engine isa ZF automatic transmission, whichmakes the whole experience particularly relaxed, despite the obviously fragile nature of the concept.