Range Rover Sport conquers Empty Quarter Desert - Exclusive Land Rover video

• New documentary film shows the new Range Rover Sport’s 800km dawn to dusk drive across the Empty Quarter desert – setting the fastest recorded time for the crossing of 10 hours and 22 minutes
• Film live on Land Rover’s YouTube channel from today
• Features behind-the-scenes footage with off-road racer Moi Torrallardona as he pilots the standard production vehicle to victory
• Second installment of the Driven Challenges - follows the new Range Rover Sport setting the production SUV speed record at Pikes Peak back in June

Land Rover has today revealed an exclusive new documentary film charting the new Range Rover Sport’s challenge to complete the fastest recorded crossing of the Empty Quarter desert, which it achieved last month.

The video, which can be seen on Land Rover’s YouTube channel here tracks the team’s 849km journey from Wadi Adda Wasir in Saudi Arabia to the border of the United Arab Emirates. The team completed the challenge on November 3rd 2013, finishing in 10 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 51.87 mph (81.87 km/h), and the documentary charts the journey from beginning to end.

The short film features spectacular footage from inside and outside the vehicle, as well as epic shots of the barren environment that the team faced as they tackled the largest sand desert in the world.  Viewers will see the new Range Rover Sport pummel the desert flats at full speed, tip toe down the steepest sand dunes and navigate the myriad of obstacles that the desert threw up – including rogue camels appearing from nowhere. Sand storms, immense heat and punishing jumps are just some of the challenges that pushed man and machine to the limit.

Behind-the-scenes footage shows the man behind the drive - 47 year-old Spanish off-road racer Moi Torrallardona – and charts the physical and mental endurance that led to his success. Torrallardona said: “The Empty Quarter was an incredible challenge and one that will live with me for the rest of my life. The Range Rover Sport was the ideal tool for conquering the desert and it is great to be able to relive the challenge through this short documentary. The Empty Quarter provided a unique test for a standard production vehicle and thanks to the ability of the Range Rover Sport we came out victorious.”

The challenge was completed in 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. This vehicle was displayed at the Dubai Motor Show on the 5th November, just two days after completing the desert crossing.

The class-leading, genuine Land Rover all-terrain capability, breakthrough lightweight suspension design and innovative dynamic chassis technologies all helped the new Range Rover Sport conquer one of its toughest challenges yet.

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, the short documentary of which can be viewed here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaPiM_mish4

These feats are part of a series of global driving challenges in which the Range Rover Sport is pushed to new limits.

The video and further shots can be downloaded from www.uk.media.landrover.com

The Empty Quarter

The Empty Quarter spans four countries in the Arabic Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Temperatures regularly rise above 50°C and any crossing, no matter how well organised, must be approached with extreme caution.

All-new Range Rover Sport

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.