7 photos
Building one of the world’s most capable SUVs without putting it to good use is a tragic waste. “Good use,” here, meaning saving lives in otherwise unreachable and remote terrain — not just volunteering to drive the car pool for a week. Which is why it’s incredible to see something like Project Hero. Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations team modified a Discovery for the Austrian Red Cross in order to help save stranded or lost adventurers and aid response teams during avalanches.
But if you think SVO added a lift kit, skid plates and a supercharger, you’d be wrong. Land Rover is so confident in the Discovery’s capabilities, not a single modification was done to enhance the SUV’s off-road prowess. What SVO did add was a roof-mounted, tablet-controlled drone that can take off and land even while the car is in motion and transmits a live feed to emergency responders. The rear cargo area can be converted into a field workstation and comes with radio equipment and extra power supply points. Additional LED lighting up front also let search and rescue missions continue after the sun goes down.
Loud exhausts and extra horsepower are great and all, but as far as usefulness goes, the Project Hero Land Rover Discovery might be SVO’s best job to date. Granted, this is one special edition Land Rover you’d probably never want to see in the wild.
