New Range Rover Sport sets fastest recorded time for ‘Empty Quarter’ desert crossing
Thursday, 14 November 2013 00:00
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The new Range Rover Sport has set the fastest recorded time for a land vehicle crossing of the ‘Empty Quarter’ – one of the harshest and most challenging desert environments on the planet.
The Empty Quarter – or Rub’ al Khali – is the largest sand desert in the world and the second largest desert after the Sahara. Intensely hot by day with temperatures exceeding 50°C, it is also dangerously arid. With no reliable water sources and an ever-shifting terrain, it provides a true test for man and machine.
“This feat underlines Land Rover’s ruggedness, durability and sheer ‘toughness’,” said SML Frontier Automotive Managing Director Sheran Fernando. “In Sri Lanka too, the Land Rover brand has gained phenomenally in popularity and appeal, both for its ruggedness and off road capabilities, as well as its classic yet trendy design, thus appealing to city corporates as well as odd road motor enthusiasts.”
Best-ever on-road dynamics
Developed alongside the highly-acclaimed Range Rover, the new Range Rover Sport delivers the brand’s best-ever on-road dynamics together with class-leading, genuine Land Rover all-terrain capability. It presents customers with a more assertive and muscular exterior, more luxurious interior and the flexibility provided by the option of occasional third row seating.
Exploiting Land Rover’s breakthrough lightweight suspension design and innovative dynamic chassis technologies, the all-new Range Rover Sport’s first-in-class aluminium architecture achieves a weight saving of more than 420kg.
Designed and engineered at Land Rover’s development centres in the UK, the new model is produced in a state-of-the-art low-energy manufacturing facility at Solihull, UK.
Assembly plant in Sri Lanka
“In Sri Lanka too, a Land Rover assembly plant is due to be set up by next year and this should further increase the Land Rover brand’s popularity as well as affordability,” said Fernando.
The drive team completed the journey from Wadi Adda Wasir in Saudi Arabia to the border of the United Arab Emirates in 10 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 51.87 mph (81.87 km/h), covering a distance of 849km – the route dictated by the conditions on the ground.
The time was set by a standard production new Range Rover Sport with a 510PS 5.0-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine, running standard tyres. The only modification to the vehicle was the fitment of an underbody protection plate.
Challenge of the desert
The vehicle was driven by Land Rover driver Moi Torrallardona, a 47 year-old Spanish off-road racer with extensive experience of the Dakar Rally, in which he competed for 10 successive years with a best finish of 6th overall.
Torrallardona said: “The challenge of the desert is like nothing else, it is a brutal, unforgiving and sometimes deadly environment. Desert driving requires a unique combination of speed, finesse and technical skill. It is crucial that you tackle the dunes with precision. Knowing the right time to go full throttle and the right time to slow down, takes experience and clear judgement. This unique way of driving requires a vehicle which has the same skillset – it must be both incredibly fast but also agile, responsive and well planted. The Range Rover Sport is exactly that. It is massively capable and is truly the best tool for conquering the desert.” The team encountered a constantly challenging landscape including vast sand flats, soft dunes and epic canyons. They set off at first light on 3 November and finished the challenge 10 hours later on the border as the sun was setting.
The challenge is the second that the new Range Rover Sport has completed in recent months, following its record hill climb for a production SUV at Pikes Peak back in June. These feats are part of a series of global driving challenges in which the Range Rover Sport is pushed to new limits.
