A 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 - spans four countries in the Arabic Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. It's 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.
The 'Desert Dash' Rangie was a bog-standard Sport with a 375kW, five-litre supercharged petrol V8, running on standard tyres - the only modification was an underbody bash plate - driven by Land Rover test driver Moi Torrallardona, 47, a Spanish off-road racer who's competed in 10 consecutive Dakar Rallies, with a best finish of sixth overall.
CHALLENGING LANDSCAPE
He set off from Wadi Adda Wasir in Saudi Arabia at first light on 3 November into a constantly challenging landscape of vast sand flats, soft dunes and epic canyons, and reached the border of the border of the United Arab Emirates 10 hours and 22 minutes later, just as the sun was setting, having driven 849km at an average speed of 81.87 km/h - the route dictated by the conditions on the ground.
Torrallardona said: “The challenge of the desert is like nothing else; it's a brutal, unforgiving and sometimes deadly environment. Desert driving requires a special combination of speed, finesse and technical skill.
“You have to tackle the dunes with precision.”
“Knowing when to go flat out and when to back off takes experience and clear judgement. And you need a vehicle with the same capability - it has to be fast but also agile, stable yet responsive.”
This challenge is the second that the new Range Rover Sport has completed in recent months, following a record hill climb for a production SUV at Pikes Peak in Colorado in June.