In order to mark the milestone achievement of building 1,000,000 Discovery models, Land Rover will embark on a 'Journey of Discovery,' travelling 8,000 miles from its birthplace in Birmingham to Beijing in China, JLR's biggest-growing market. Starting today, the 50-day adventure will be undertaken by a core driving crew of four off-road experts from the Land Rover Experience, who should arrive in Beijing on 23 April just in time for the Beijing Motor Show.

The three main aims of the journey are to showcase the Defender's unrivalled durability, retrace the steps of the 1955 'First Overland Expedition' (which ended in Singapore for political reasons) and to raise money for charity. An ambitious total of £1,000,000 is being targeted by Land Rover, which will be donated to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to support a water sanitation project in Uganda. Land Rover invited Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the world's best-known living explorer, to the event who explained why he was so fond of the brand.

"The only thing that used to go wrong was broken half-shafts. We would call ahead and get a new one parachuted in, and off we went again. You could use a coffee pot for a piston head - back then even a fool could fix one." Phil Popham, Group Sales Operations Director, Jaguar Land Rover said: "Discovery is an extraordinary vehicle and it deserves to be unleashed on an extraordinary journey. There is no better vehicle to tackle all weather, all terrain than the Discovery 4. This grueling expedition will be visiting 13 countries and covering 8,000 miles, and it's a fitting initiative to celebrate the one millionth vehicle."