Range Rover’s desert challenge

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JLR continues to push the new Range Rover family to its limits with the announcement of the company's latest daring feat. Starting next week, the new 2014 Range Rover Sport will endeavour to cross a span of desert known as the 'Empty Quarter' quicker than any land vehicle before it. The fact that the term 'land vehicle' is used for this challenge as opposed to 'car'; you begin to understand the enormity of the job in hand. The starting point is in a place called Wadi Adda Wasir in Saudi Arabia. From here the Range Rover Sport will travel more than 1,000km through some of the harshest terrain on the globe to its finishing point on the border of the United Arab Emirates. On the way the driver and vehicle will experience temperatures that peak at 50 degrees centigrade, on a route with no reliable water sources, continually moving terrain, and sand dunes 850ft tall. Given the journey that lay before it, you would expect that Land Rover will have fitted the Sport with various desert-trekking-related extras such as a long-range fuel tank, enormous wheels, racing seats with six-point harnesses and a maybe a rollcage. No. This expedition will be undertaken in a completely standard Range Rover Sport with standard wheels, a standard engine, a standard interior, and a few jerry cans in the boot. The man responsible for getting the Sport to the UAE is desert-racing veteran, Moi Torrallardona. Moi has previously competed in the fearsome Paris Dakar for a full decade and has an achievement of a sixth place finish under his belt; meaning that he is certainly qualified for the job.