Tech meets tough in LR3

Last spring, I was able to drive several Land Rovers on an off-road course the company's marketers set up on the 25-acre grounds of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Endi cott House in Dedham. It was a chance to see how Land Rover's Terrain Response system worked. The system has five modes. In addition to "general" - the equivalent of the "automatic" setting on a digital camera - there are separate modes for sand, mud and ruts, rock-crawling, and for driving on wet grass, gravel, and in snow. Each mode starts out with different settings for vehicle height, throttle response, braking, and suspension travel.

It takes a leap of faith to trust the vehicle when you're climbing and see nothing but sky until you crest a steep, rocky incline and point seemingly straight down. That's when the Hill Descent feature kicks in, inching the vehicle slowly and surely down the rutted landscape that passes for a road.

"Despite all that, you have to remember that descent control doesn't change the laws of physics and doesn't fix driver misjudgment," said Bob Burns, Land Rover manager for off-road operations, in the company-supplied DVD. Still, it's an impressive system and a true off-road vehicle.

Land Rover has been to off-roading Europeans what the Jeep Wrangler has been to drivers in the United States. In 59-plus years, more than 4 million Land Rovers have been sold worldwide.

Normally, the LR3 has 7.3 inches of ground clearance. In off-road mode, the suspension boosts that to 9.5 inches and the LR3 can "wade" through 27.6 inches of water.

That same suspension will drop down two inches below normal to allow for easier entrance and egress, as long as you remember to hit the lever on the console between the seats or lock that command into the programmable key fob. The fob also is built for toughness, being able to function after being dropped 30 feet onto pavement or after being fished out of water up to 75 feet deep - two claims we didn't test, there being no backup at hand. In addition, the fob is powered by a battery that recharges when it's in the ignition.