Land Rover has subjected its new diesel-electric Range Rover Sport Hybrid to a most grueling test. They used it to travel from the UK to the Arctic Circle, most of the time towing a two-and-a-half-ton Airstream trailer.
Land Rover has subjected its new diesel-electric Range Rover Sport Hybrid to a most grueling test. They used it to travel from the UK to the Arctic Circle, most of the time towing a two-and-a-half-ton Airstream trailer.
Solihull engineers teamed up with Airstream, who provided a special winterized trailer to support the Range Rover's crew during the adventure. They drove from Gaydon, in the Midlands, to Airstream's headquarters in Germany where they collected the trailer. Form there, they went on to Land Rover's cold weather test facility in Arjeplog, Sweden, where engineers test the vehicles' performance in temperatures that often dip down to -40 degrees and lower. From there, they traveled on to the Arctic Circle to complete their journey.
The crew encountered some of the worst weather in Scandinavian history, with record snow depths, roadway ice, gale-force winds and overall unpredictable conditions. They even towed the eight-plus meter long trailer across the five-mile long Øresund Bridge through the remnants of Hurricane Ole.
The Hybrid Sport is fitted with Land Rover's much celebrated Trailer Stability Assist system, that uses the vehicle's brakes to individually control each wheel in order to stop any trailer sway that begins to develop, before it becomes a problem.
That, combined with the sophisticated Vehicle Supervisory Control system that blends the hybrid motors' 170Nm of torque with the 600Nm produced by the V6 3.0 litre turbo diesel engine, and the vehicle's other state of the art performance, safety and comfort features, allowed the crew to arrive safely in "unruffled luxury," according to Land Rover's press release.
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