Land Rover will take the new Range Rover Sport to the Arabian Desert where it will attempt to set the fastest time for a standard production vehicle crossing the “Empty Quarter”, one of the harshest and most challenging desert environments on the planet.
The route will start in Wadi Adda Wasir, Saudi Arabia, and will end on the border of the United Arab Emirates, a distance of over 1,000 km (621 miles) – further than the length of France.
The Range Rover Sport will be driven by Moi Torrallardona, a 47-year-old Spanish off-road racer who has competed ten successive years in the Dakar Rally, with a best finish of 6th overall.
It will be no walk in the park for the Range Rover Sport, as it will have to tackle temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius during the day and sand dunes stretching 850 feet (259 meters) into the air. So how will a production vehicle get across a terrain where usually only specialist sand vehicles are found? I have no idea, but Land Rover has a lot of confidence in the off-road capabilities of the Range Rover Sport, which will be tested to the limit.
Nevertheless, it’s an interesting choice of vehicle for this test, as the Sport has traditionally been more oriented to on-road performance than off-road trails.
By Dan Mihalascu
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