A lack of rust, peerless originality and historical ties to the UK have made Australia the key source of vehicles for Land Rover Reborn, a restoration program that gives 70-year-old classics a new lease on life. It helps that the man at the head of the program is Victorian expat Michael Bishop, a Gippsland boy who bought his first of many Land Rovers in the 1980s.

Australian cars have proved so original that the first fully restored car under the program was from Queensland and the reference vehicle for Land Rover Reborn is a 1940s example found on a farm in western NSW – literally out the back of Bourke. Bishop’s team compare cars from around the world to that car to see what needs to be replaced as part of their program.

Launched at the Essen motor show in 2016, Land Rover Reborn was originally pitched as a run of 25 cars restored to original specifications so that they appear as new. The original allocation sold out within a week, so the manufacturer extended its run to 50-or-so models that are at least 50 years old.

Bishop’s Australian contacts have helped supply the program with cars for wealthy collectors willing to spend £80,000 (more than $130,000) on early examples of the type. Some come from rural properties, while others are from the Snowy Mountains region where the Land Rover’s rugged design and go-anywhere practicality earned plenty of respect.

Australia became a home to thousands of Land Rovers, which means Bishop’s crew is spoiled for choice, and can afford to be fussy about the cars they restore before on-selling them to collectors.

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Discovery Sport, tested in TD4 150 SE guise by the Australia’s Best Cars judges, shrugged-off challenges from its two main rivals, Hyundai’s Santa Fe and Kia’s Sorento, impressing with its nine-speed automatic transmission and innovative Ingenium four-cylinder, turbocharged diesel engine.

The Australian Best Cars award is one of the world’s most exhaustive independent vehicle test programs, its judges approaching the process with a strong consumer focus which makes the comprehensive test procedure practical and objective, as well as thorough.

Praising the Land Rover Discovery Sport’s modern, functional and luxurious interior, awards judge Darren Moody from the Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania said the popular SUV fares well in the value-for-money stakes.

The judges were also taken with the Discovery Sport’s impressive and unstoppable off-road ability.

“As you would expect of any car wearing the iconic Land Rover badge, the Discovery Sport is just as good off the road as it is on the road,” Darren Moody said.

The abilities of the famous ‘Disco’ Sport, along with its modern functionality, helped tip the scales in its favour in this year’s awards, as did the pricing, which equalled that of its Korean rivals.

Its superior resale value and the Ingenium diesel engine’s impressive fuel economy and low carbon dioxide output also came in for special mention.

“Its equipment levels and ability,” Darren Moody said, “allow it to hold its own in most circumstances.”

Both the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe were finalists in the Australia’s Best Cars ‘Best All-Wheel Drive $50,000 — $65,000’ category.

Land Rover’s new all-aluminium Ingenium four-cylinder, turbo-diesel engine was introduced to the Discovery Sport range late last year for the 2017 model year (17MY) and is now used extensively throughout the model mix.

The new engine, with its all-alloy construction, is an impressive 24 kilograms lighter than the cast iron, 2.2-litre, DW12 engine it replaces and more powerful as well with power and torque outputs of 110 kW/380 Nm for the Td4 150 variant and 132 kW/430 Nm for the Td4 180.

Combined fuel consumption is a miserly 5.3 litres/100km and carbon dioxide output is 139g/km.

Commenting on the Land Rover Discovery Sport’s success in the Australia’s Best Cars competition, Land Rover Australia Managing Director, Matthew Wiesner said “The Discovery Sport has been an outstanding sales success for Land Rover since it’s launch in 2015. We believe the Discovery Sport is the world’s most versatile premium compact SUV and the perfect vehicle for Australia”

This year’s Australia’s Best Car award winners were decided by nine judges representing the country’s major automobile clubs – the NRMA, RACV, RACQ, RACT, RAA, RAC and AANT – with testing carried-out at the Australian Automotive Research Centre’s proving grounds at Anglesea, Victoria.

This latest win adds to Land Rover Discovery Sport’s already-bulging trophy cabinet.

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Is there such a thing as a standard Land Rover? One of the joys of Land Rover ownership is the personal stamp we all put on our cars. Very few new vehicles ever get left totally showroom standard, virtually everything ends up receiving some sort of personal touch.

Indeed, modifying them is a huge part of a Land Rover’s appeal. It might be a simple compass fitted to the dashboard, but equally, it might be another axle, a rear crane, or a huge V8 engine. You name it, someone has done it, thought of it; liked it or hated it.

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