Santa’s reindeer get Christmas off, thanks to Land Rover

by Keith Morgan on Thursday, December 22nd, 2016

Top Secret Location, Lapland: Santa will deliver toys in style and comfort this Christmas thanks to Land Rover.

The prestige marque has presented him with a Discovery Sport and constructed a tiny 3.5 square-metre cabin that slides into the back of the SUV. The cleverly designed cabin has space for two adults to sleep snugly in North Pole temperatures as low as -20°C. That means Rudolph and his pals can take a well-earned break and Mrs. Claus can join her hubby on his annual circumnavigation that brings pleasure to millions of children.

Land Rover engineers carefully used every bit of the versatile Discovery Sport’s 1,698-litre rear load space to carry the wooden cabin’s components. Even the glove box, cup holders and door bins are filled with nuts, bolts and festive decorations fit for Santa himself.

 

 

The Christmas cabin was tested in Land Rover’s own cold-climate chamber, in which all Land Rovers are subjected to sub-freezing temperatures, by mountaineer and 12-times Everest climber Kenton Cool. It was then transported by Discovery Sport – not sleigh – to its final secret location in the heart of the frozen wilderness.

Kenton Cool said: “There is a growing trend for off-grid living and ‘wilderness cabins’ and only Land Rover could create a ‘go anywhere’ cabin like this. The design is cleverly engineered and incredibly robust, making it perfect for remote locations across the world.”

The Discovery Sport has been on sale for two years, and is Land Rover’s biggest-selling model, with more than 100,000 vehicles sold so far in 2016. Designed for active lifestyles, it features generous luggage capacity, innovative stowage solutions and configurable 5+2 seating. Land Rover prioritised head-, knee- and shoulder-room when designing the vehicle, ensuring excellent interior space in all derivatives thanks to a wheelbase of 2741mm.

Helen Ali, Vehicle Package Team Leader, said: “We wanted to create a Christmas  cabin for Santa, in a truly Land Rover way. The spacious and versatile Discovery Sport was perfect for this project. The seats can be folded flat at the push of a button from the load space, which is wide and square and there are plenty of hidden storage spaces like the area under the front cup-holders.

“Building a cabin that utilised all these features was a lot of fun. We could have built this in one of our bigger models, but we wanted to prove just how versatile the baby of the Discovery family truly is.”

Land Rover engineers made a virtual model of the cabin to get the most from every millimetre of space. Then they worked with specialist Danish architects LUMO to build it from sustainable materials. Designed to have a minimal impact on the environment, it rests on 212mm wooden struts that exactly match the Discovery Sport’s ride height.

keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca