The plain and undisputed fact is that when God realised man wanted to go up hill and down dale, he created camels and horses. Perhaps he also created Land Rover, too, and I had fully intended to ask Him while I was busy clinging to the side of my Freelander and watching the ground loom ever closer the other day.

Somehow it slipped my mind as I was slightly pre-occupied with the fact that usually when you have only two wheels in contact with the ground, you are on a motorcycle and not in a car. Not that I am a wimp, of course, although I had refused the chance to test myself on Land Rover’s spectacular, man-made off-road course on the grounds of inexperience, lack of talent . . . and fear. Fair points, all well made to the Land Rover instructor I thought.

But in the interests of my reader (how are you by the way?) I braved a ride around the course for reasons I still cannot fathom. Let’s be honest, you are not going to buy your new Freelander and immediately set off up a mountain, risking that lovely paintwork, are you? Or maybe you are if you are one of the barmy brand of extreme sports buffs or slightly deranged by more money than sense.

Well, Land Rover thinks you might and, if I had to climb every mountain, ford every stream, to quote the genius that was Oscar Hammerstein, I am with them. And the Freelander, Land Rover’s “baby” model. Never been much of a 4 x 4 man myself but there is one that I have lusted after for a couple of years. It so happens that I was on a visit to M-Sport, which builds Ford’s World Rally Cars, up in Cockermouth, close to the Cumbrian coast, where Malcolm Wilson, the company’s brilliant owner, had cleverly revamped some Freelanders as recce cars for the Safari Rally and lined them up in his factory, each one with beefed-up rally suspension, full rally seats and safety harnesses, although they were otherwise standard 2.5-litre V8 Freelanders.

My reaction was immediate: “Tell Land Rover to build it.”

Well, Malcolm did and somebody listened because along comes the Freelander Sport, which leads the revamped model range for 2004 into showrooms in the next few weeks.

The new Sport version sits about an inch lower than the regular Freelander and gets its own decals, and very nice it is too. It comes with the acclaimed 2-litre diesel, which is a bit agricultural for me (but I don’t like diesels either). That engine offers a bit more grunt if you are planning to tow your speedboat, or whatever you people with leisure time tow, and, of course, a nicely economical 37 miles to the gallon. But I like the somewhat less sensible 2.5-litre V6 petrol, because it sounds hornier, even though it will guzzle gas quicker than a teenager let loose on a jug of vodka and Red Bull.

The exteriors on the rest of the range are little changed, although given a slightly more recognisable Land Rover “family” look, while there are new interiors. They looked a bit tacky in a car that will retail in the £20,000 sector but maybe Land Rover thinks that Freelander cabins are always full of muddy feet, sandy bottoms and Labradors so it is better to have wipe-clean surfaces and robust switches and toggles, even if they do look as if they came from B & Q.

But I could almost live with a bit of black plastic on the grounds that the Freelander is, by any standards, one of the most versatile vehicles on the road, particularly the lowered Sport version, which you might think would be a bit clumsy off road with its lowered suspension. But when Land Rover tells you this is the best car in its class at the price, I think we might have to believe it.

Sending me out on a demonstration course that defied gravity and my nerves was impressive enough but there was also a treat just to underline Land Rover’s claims for its new “baby”. A neat section of forest had been cordoned off so that David Galanders, a former Scottish rally champion, could show me what that M-Sport Freelander was capable of. Remember, this is pretty much a standard 2.5-litre Freelander straight from the showroom, including the five-speed automatic transmission and 130-horsepower V6.

And this thing handles exactly like a rally car, amazingly ironing out the bumps and coping with huge leaps and ruts at speeds that would be very respectable in competition. David was even able to slide through corners, something I thought should be impossible in a relatively tall vehicle with four-wheel drive. It was another ride from hell, only at 100 times the speed of my off-road experience.

The fact that I emerged safely proves that, even though I didn’t pop the question to Him upstairs, God must have created Land Rover.

ROAD TEST: Land Rover Freelander 2.5 V6 Sport

How much? Around £24,000, to be confirmed
How fast? Top speed 113mph, 0 to 60mph in 10.1sec
How thirsty? 22.7mpg on average but guzzling 16.5mpg in town
Under the bonnet? 2.5-litre V6 pumping 137bhp through five-speed automatic transmission
Good points: Goes almost anywhere Land Rover-style but rides on the road like a decent saloon
Bad points: Thirsty and interior a let-down
Worth buying? A must-have if you are into leisure pursuits on a budget