THE NEW RANGE ROVER Sport has set the fastest recorded time for a land vehicle crossing of the Empty Quarter (Rub Al-Khali), one of the harshest and most challenging desert environments on the planet.

The Empty Quarter is the largest sand desert in the world and the second largest desert after the Sahara. Intensely hot by day with temperatures exceeding 50°C, it is also dangerously arid. With no reliable water sources and an ever-shifting terrain, it provides a true test for man and machine.

The drive team completed the journey from Wadi Ad Dawasir in Saudi Arabia to the border of the UAE in 10 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 81.87 km/h (51.87 mph), covering a distance of over 849 km - the route dictated by the conditions on the ground.

The time was set by a standard production new Range Rover Sport with a 510PS 5.0-liter supercharged V8 petrol engine, running standard tires. The only modification to the vehicle was the fitment of an underbody protection plate.

The vehicle was driven by Land Rover driver Moi Torrallardona, a 47-year-old Spanish off-road racer with extensive experience of the Dakar Rally, in which he competed for ten successive years.

Torrallardona said: “The challenge of the desert is like nothing else, it is a brutal, unforgiving and sometimes deadly environment. Desert driving requires a unique combination of speed, finesse and technical skill.

Locally, Mohammed Yousuf Naghi Motors (MYNM), the authorized dealer for Jaguar and Land Rover in Saudi Arabia, contributed to the success of this adventure by providing logistical and technical support to the team throughout the planning and actual stages of this race.

Amr Badghaish, marketing director at MYNM, said: “We are proud that our Empty Quarter was chosen for such a challenge and we spared no effort to provide the team with all needed support to make this a successful mission. This event confirms the advanced technologies and high performance of Land Rover vehicles.”

The challenge is the second that the new Range Rover Sport has completed in recent months, following its record hill climb for a production SUV at Pikes Peak back in June. These feats are part of a series of global driving challenges in which the Range Rover Sport is pushed to new limits.

The Empty Quarter spans four countries in the Arabic Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and Yemen. Temperatures regularly rise above 50°C and any crossing, no matter how well organized, must be approached with extreme caution.

Developed alongside the “highly acclaimed” Range Rover, the new Range Rover Sport delivers the brand’s best-ever on-road dynamics together with class-leading, genuine Land Rover all-terrain capability. It presents customers with a more assertive and muscular exterior, more luxurious interior and the flexibility provided by the option of occasional third row seating.

Exploiting Land Rover’s breakthrough lightweight suspension design and innovative dynamic chassis technologies, the all-new Range Rover Sport’s first-in-class aluminum architecture achieves a weight saving of more than 420 kg.

Designed and engineered at Land Rover’s development centers in the UK, the new model is produced in a state-of-the-art low-energy manufacturing facility at Solihull, the UK.