In the old days, there was no replacement for displacement, but that's not so true anymore. Take Land Rover as an example. The British marque managed to pull 100-tonnes (110 tons) worth of train with a Discovery Sport powered by a bog-stock 2.0-liter Ingenium diesel engine.
You might have expected such a feat to be aided by a heavy-duty low-range gearbox, but Land Rover didn't bother fitting one to the Discovery Sport. Instead, it relied on the 134-kW (180-hp) Ingenium diesel's 430 Nm (317 lb.ft) of torque and the standard nine-speed gearbox to get the carriages moving. Considering the car is actually rated to tow just 2.5 tonnes (2.76 tons), that's an impressive feat.
Driver Karl Richards didn't even need to worry about maintaining a stable speed during the 10 km (6.2 mi) trek along the Museumsbahn Stein am Rhein in Switzerland, thanks to Land Rover's all terrain progress control system, which acts like low-speed cruise control in rough terrain.
The only modification made to the SUV was the fitment of small stabilizer wheels from Aquarius Railroad Technologies. They're not nearly as large or dramatic as the steel wheels fitted to Smart's Forrail, but were enough to make sure the car tracked straight and true on its journey.
Impressive as the Discovery Sport's feats are, it's still got a long way to go before being welcomed into the Vehicles Towing Way More Than They're Meant To Hall of Fame. After all, Volvo used one of its trucks to pull 750 tonnes earlier this year, while a Nissan Patrol towed 170.9 tonnes worth of cargo plane in 2013.
A video of the train pull is below.
Source: Land Rover
