The new Land Rover Discovery might look like a softer car than the model it replaces, but a towing stunt has proved it's still a seriously capable vehicle. A bare-bones Discovery TD6 has pulled a 110-tonne road train through the Australian Outback, upping the ante over the train-towing stunt from Land Rover last year.
Australian road trains are famed for being the biggest, longest, heaviest road-going loads in the world. They aren't allowed in built-up areas, instead sticking to the remote highways criss-crossing the sparse Outback, and measure up to 53.5 meters (176 ft) long.
The train pulled by the new Discovery was even longer than that, though. Rather than the legally mandated four trailers, the Disco towed a seven-trailer rig with a 12-tonne tractor to operate the hydraulic brakes on the trailers. Total weight? 110-tonnes – that's 10 tonnes more than the Ingenium-powered Discovery Sport pulled last year.
With 190 kW (255 hp) of power and 600 Nm of torque on tap, the Discovery TD6 is only rated to pull 3,500 kg (7,716 lb) on the road, but it required no significant modifications for the stunt. Land Rover says the car survived the 16 km (9.9 mi) pull unscathed, hitting 44 km/h (27 mph) in the process.
"Towing capability has always been an important part of Discovery DNA and the raw weight of the road train tells only half the story here," says Quentin Spottiswoode, Land Rover Product Engineer. "Pulling a rig and seven trailers, with the rolling resistance of so many axles to overcome, is a huge achievement."
You can check the Land Rover video of the stunt below.
Source: Land Rover
