P38 vs Disco off road?

On Saturday I went down to Berkshire 4x4 for a off road "lesson". The car I drove was a old manual Disco. This was the first time I'd driven off road and I was absolutely amazed at what this car could do.

I was told they use older cars because they prefer the fact they have no traction control and have a proper diff-lock lever. "Traction control is all very good" they said until you get the sensors covered in mud and it shuts down and you are left with nothing.

A couple of times I got stuck because of cross-axle traction problems. This was overcome every time with a slide of the diff-lock lever.

Now, my 1998 P38 auto has no control over the differential presumably because the traction control helps out. But, I read that up to 1998 you only have traction control on one axle. Is his correct? If so what use is that if one front and one rear wheel are slipping? Will you only have ONE wheel with grip getting any drive?

I was told that they would let me take my own car to their course any time I want without charge. Am I unduly worrying about getting stuck. It is a pity they did not have a P38 I could have used instead of the Disco, just to get a feel for it.

True the traction control was on the rear only, then changed to both axles. That's only if its fitted however, and I'm pretty sure its not on my 98 DSE.

The centre viscous coupling will only allow a certain differential between the speeds of the front and rear axles, so it won't allow one wheel to spin freely, but will allow slip when the car goes around corners. So if say one rear wheel is slipping the traction control will slow it, transfer drive to the other side and to the front axle. If that's slipping also then yes you are stuck without a locking diff or traction control in the front too.

The mud-clogging-sensors is true, but that's the compromise LR made in the design to give the cheapest system that includes traction control and ABS functions along with a emulated locking diff.