Photo: Yi Jae Heon via Instagram
When the new Land Rover Defender came out, and it became apparent that it kind of did the jobs of both the old Defender (emphasis on "kind of") and the current Discovery, do you know who breathed the biggest sigh of relief?
It was actually the fifth-gen Land Rover Discovery, the SUV that used to be the brand's best-seller until the company boldly decided to take a risk with its design (granted, based on the excellent reception the Land Rover Discovery Vision Concept got back in 2014) that proved to be somewhat fatal to the long-running model.
The latest iteration of the Discovery was an undeniable flop, and I wouldn't be surprised if the reason why the new Defender came out the way it did - much more civilized than the original - wasn't just down to meeting the requirements of this new, evolving market, but also the need to plug a hole in the British company's sales that's been there since 2016, the year the current Disco was launched.
Fans of the old Defender can cry all they want, but the barebones, simplistic machine with its squared design isn't coming back. However, the loss of a small minority is the gain of a much larger group of customers who find the prospect of a practical SUV with a sexy exterior and interior design and a Land Rover badge the ideal recipe for their next vehicle. And some of them, make no mistake about it, will have to sell a Land Rover Discovery 4 (or LR4) to make room for it in their garage.
However, with the Defender occupying this new hybrid position in the Land Rover lineup, that means there's an opening - a small one, but an opening nonetheless - left vacated: that of a proper, all-out off-roader that makes no compromises in its search for ultimate rough terrain performance.
Could Land Rover possibly swap places between its two SUV nameplates and actually make the Discovery even more rugged than the Defender ever was in the process? The obvious answer would be "no," but there are a few aspects that make this possibility sound a little less ridiculous than it may seem at first glance.
For instance, with the new Defender out and about - and therefore not much left to be done to enhance its off-road worthiness out of the factory (with the main holdback being the size of the wheels and the limitation that puts on the tire options) - it's clear to see the Ford Bronco and the Jeep Wrangler are operating in a class of their own. And did I mention both are less expensive?
So, what if Land Rover decided it wanted to be taken even more seriously in the off-road community and came out with a new model to compete with those two? If the Defender proves anything, it's that they certainly know how to do it - they just need to offer a 35-inch off-road tire option from the factory and lower the price a little.
Whether the Brits would do it under the Discovery moniker is a different story altogether, and the natural reaction is to assume they wouldn't. The great thing about the world of independent automotive designers, though, is that they sometimes don't seem to care about coming up with projects that make sense.
This hardcore Discovery from Yi Jae Heon falls straight into that category and gives us a glimpse of what an SUV of that ilk would look like. It's hard to imagine something this size (even though it does seem to have lost a pair of doors, much like a Defender 90) with "Land Rover" written above its grille could ever be cheap, but since it's all make-pretend, we'll ignore that.
I'm well aware it would be a pointless endeavor, but this is definitely the kind of Land Rover model I could get behind. Since I'm a family man with no real interest in hardcore off-roading, a nice-looking Discovery 6 (one that would pretend the 5 never existed and built on the blocky aesthetics of the 4 instead) would suit me a lot better. However, the two-way battle between the Bronco and the Wrangler deserves a third contestant, and the Defender simply isn't cutting it at the moment. The SUV in this rendering, on the other hand, definitely would, and then some.
The latest iteration of the Discovery was an undeniable flop, and I wouldn't be surprised if the reason why the new Defender came out the way it did - much more civilized than the original - wasn't just down to meeting the requirements of this new, evolving market, but also the need to plug a hole in the British company's sales that's been there since 2016, the year the current Disco was launched.
Fans of the old Defender can cry all they want, but the barebones, simplistic machine with its squared design isn't coming back. However, the loss of a small minority is the gain of a much larger group of customers who find the prospect of a practical SUV with a sexy exterior and interior design and a Land Rover badge the ideal recipe for their next vehicle. And some of them, make no mistake about it, will have to sell a Land Rover Discovery 4 (or LR4) to make room for it in their garage.
However, with the Defender occupying this new hybrid position in the Land Rover lineup, that means there's an opening - a small one, but an opening nonetheless - left vacated: that of a proper, all-out off-roader that makes no compromises in its search for ultimate rough terrain performance.
Could Land Rover possibly swap places between its two SUV nameplates and actually make the Discovery even more rugged than the Defender ever was in the process? The obvious answer would be "no," but there are a few aspects that make this possibility sound a little less ridiculous than it may seem at first glance.
For instance, with the new Defender out and about - and therefore not much left to be done to enhance its off-road worthiness out of the factory (with the main holdback being the size of the wheels and the limitation that puts on the tire options) - it's clear to see the Ford Bronco and the Jeep Wrangler are operating in a class of their own. And did I mention both are less expensive?
So, what if Land Rover decided it wanted to be taken even more seriously in the off-road community and came out with a new model to compete with those two? If the Defender proves anything, it's that they certainly know how to do it - they just need to offer a 35-inch off-road tire option from the factory and lower the price a little.
Whether the Brits would do it under the Discovery moniker is a different story altogether, and the natural reaction is to assume they wouldn't. The great thing about the world of independent automotive designers, though, is that they sometimes don't seem to care about coming up with projects that make sense.
This hardcore Discovery from Yi Jae Heon falls straight into that category and gives us a glimpse of what an SUV of that ilk would look like. It's hard to imagine something this size (even though it does seem to have lost a pair of doors, much like a Defender 90) with "Land Rover" written above its grille could ever be cheap, but since it's all make-pretend, we'll ignore that.
I'm well aware it would be a pointless endeavor, but this is definitely the kind of Land Rover model I could get behind. Since I'm a family man with no real interest in hardcore off-roading, a nice-looking Discovery 6 (one that would pretend the 5 never existed and built on the blocky aesthetics of the 4 instead) would suit me a lot better. However, the two-way battle between the Bronco and the Wrangler deserves a third contestant, and the Defender simply isn't cutting it at the moment. The SUV in this rendering, on the other hand, definitely would, and then some.
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