Land Rover has released an incredible video showing its Discovery Sport towing three actual train carriages – that’s about 60 times the car’s weight.
The diesel-fuelled Discovery Sport towed the 108-tonne train – which weighed the same as a Boeing-757 – over an impressive 10km stretch of rail-track in Northern Switzerland, with no assistance other than guidance wheels to stabilise the car.
Check it out:
This astonishing feat was managed thanks to the Discovery Sport’s new 180PS Ingenium engine, providing an impressive 430Nm of torque. Nevertheless, the Discovery Sport is only certified to tow a maximum weight of 2.5 tonnes, so shifting 108,000kg is mighty impressive.
Karl Richards, who heads up Stability Control Systems at Jaguar Land Rover, said:
“Towing is in Land Rover’s DNA, and Discovery Sport is no exception. Over the years, we have introduced game-changing towing technologies to take the stress out of towing for our customers. I’ve spent most of my career travelling to the most punishing parts of the world to test Land Rovers in gruelling conditions, yet this is the most extreme towing test I’ve ever done.”
It’s not the first time a Land Rover has towed a train, mind. Back in 1989, Land Rover launched the Discovery I by having it tow a series of carriages in Plymouth to show off the (then) new 200Tdi diesel engine:
Speaking after the Discovery Sport’s Swiss feat of strength, James Platt, MD of Aquarias Railroad Technologies, the company that fitted the rail wheels, said:
“For a vehicle of this size to pull a combined weight of more than 100 tonnes demonstrates real engineering integrity. No modifications were necessary to the drivetrain whatsoever and in tests the Discovery Sport generated more pull than our road-rail Defender, which is remarkable.”
The Land Rover Discovery Sport is the first of the new Discovery family, and went on sale in December 2014. Since then, Land Rover has sold over 123,000 of the vehicles, helping it become Land Rover’s best-seller this May with 10,000-plus cars sold in just one month.
