The engine is a new inline six cylinder displacing 3.2 liters; it was designed by Volvo and is used in the S80 sedan and XC90 SUV. It's very high tech and extremely small: only 24 inches long, small enough to be mounted transversely, an exceptional thing, yielding benefits in a number of areas, maybe most importantly in the safety structure, specifically the front crumple zone.

Volvo might have outdone itself with this new engine, and that's saying something. The acceleration is smooth and strong, taking the 4255-pound LR2 from 0 to 60 in 8.4 seconds, and it delivers an estimated combined 21 miles per gallon. There's a nice little inner growl, the engine's exhaust note a bit deeper than most BMW inline sixes. The horsepower is 230 at 6300 rpm, with a solid 234 pound-feet of torque peaking at 3200 rpm, a good low range for efficient acceleration. And 80 percent of that torque is available at a rock-bottom 1400 rpm. You'd only need a V8 if you tow a boat or horses or something, and then not even necessarily.

The least expensive LR3 costs nearly $8000 more than the LR2 and uses an older V6 engine with only 213 horsepower, making the LR2 look even better.

The new six-speed automatic transmission brings the most out of the engine. It's got three modes: Drive, Sport and Command. Slide the lever to the left for Sport, and the shifts get quicker and come later; after you make one shift manually you're in Command mode, and it stops shifting by itself (most of the time). But if you forget you're in Command, it won't always help you. We were in sixth gear one time, and slowed down for a 35-mph speed zone in a town; when we got through the town and accelerated, nothing happened because the gear was too high. It wasn't just slow, really: nothing happened. We downshifted two gears and all was well again. Okay, we were punished for forgetting; but we like that better than a transmission whose programming is annoyingly overprotective, because it invariably does things you don't want it to, and doesn't do things you do want it to. On the other hand, you can simply select Drive and the transmission does everything automatically.

The ride is excellent, maybe even exceptional. Our 400 hard miles with no stiffness or soreness attests to that. Way out in the country on a long straight road, we hit a series of deep long dips at 100 mph, and the LR2 stayed true, even when the front wheels got a bit light at the top, once. Land Rover says the LR2's monocoque structure is nearly twice as rigid as the competition (whomever that might be), and is exceeded by only the Porsche Cayenne. This airborne test was our way of finding out. The LR2 passed.

Land Rover tested the LR2 on the 13-mile Nurburgring circuit in Germany, where the best and sportiest go for their development. We drove miles of curvy roads more suited to a sports car, and the LR2 handled the challenge remarkably well for an SUV, thanks again to the chassis rigidity, the rubber-mounted front and rear subframes, and the long travel and large diameter of the gas shock absorbers.

Corner Brake Control (CBC) helped keep the rear end stable when we were braking in a corner.

The anti-lock brakes (with electronic front-to-rear distribution and brake assist) use big vented rotors, 12.5 inches in diameter in front and 12.0 inches in rear, and they took all the pressure we put on them for the slow corners, some of which came after long straights at high speed.

The all-wheel-drive system is exclusive to the LR2, and is as high-tech as anything else available, including from Land Rover. It's designed by Haldex, the leader in the field. Most systems use hydraulic coupling of the driveshaft to the rear differential, but in the LR2 it's electronic. On dry pavement, 97 percent of the torque goes to the front wheels, but the rear wheels can accept 100 percent of the torque, for short periods, if it's needed there. The sensors detect slippage after a wheel spins a mere 15 degrees. And they transfer the torque in just 150 milliseconds.

Land Rover instructors took us around an off-road course they had set up, which included a number of technical challenges. We used all three off-road modes of the Terrain Response System: Grass/Gravel/Snow, Mud/Ruts, and Sand. Turn the knob to the appropriate icon, and a number of dynamic settings are adjusted, including the response of the engine, transmission, differentials, stability control and hill descent control. Traction was never an issue, nor was ground clearance; we crossed a stream that was 20 inches deep, the stated maximum for the LR2.

It was the Hill Descent ontrol that seemed most magical. We paused at the top of what seemed like a cliff, and inched over the edge, letting the HDC do its thing to keep the speed at less than 6 mph but controlling the throttle and ABS. The LR2's HDC has an added element that prevents the vehicle from accelerating from 0 to 6 mph too quickly; Gradient Release Control (GRC) simply keeps the brakes applied a bit longer. And we could have gone over the cliff backwards, because HDC works in reverse, too. Land Rover has been putting this technology thoroughly to the test for many years and it shows.