This LS Swapped Land Rover Is All Sorts Of Awesome
By Paulo Acoba
The third generation Land Rover Discovery received a lot of flack from owners and journalists alike for poor first-year reliability. Well, one Reddit user handily solved that problem by throwing in a Corvette engine under the bonnet, lovingly referred to as an LS Swap.
Check out his official image thread here!
According to Reddit User “William48151623” (which from now on, we’ll refer to as Will), everything about this build was absolutely custom. The experience he had was similar to what many Land Rover owners experienced over the life of their ownership. But what he did about his predicament can be chalked up as a moment of gear head genius.
"“The car belonged to my mother and was her daily driver. At about 190k miles, the air suspension went bad and the motor blew a head gasket. She started getting price quotes for an OEM replacement motor/suspension. For s**** and giggles I reached out to a shop in my area that specialized in LSx swaps (Rakich Performance) to even see if an LS Swap could even be done. He said it could be done and at that point I was sold so I bought the car from my mom and sent it to his shop so he could get started. Never having been done before, everything had to be fabricated custom.”"
From the factory, the original British V8 snagged from Jaguar made 300 HP and 315 lbs-ft of torque. Great amounts of power, but not all that reliable as experienced by his mum. This new American powerplant is now putting out 380 HP which can be bumped up to 450 HP thanks to nitrous.
According to Will, “It’s the ultimate sleeper that seats 7!”
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Supposedly Will brings it to local Chevy meets where he’ll park next to a row of Corvettes. New meet attendees, upset at the sight of a vehicle from across the pond parking with “Yank tanks”, will often voice their opinion to the owners of those Corvettes. A simple pop of the LR3’s hood puts their mind at ease.
Hat tip to Will for keeping things short and sweet with this build. When life gives you Land Rover Discovery lemons, you make LS swapped lemonade.