Monday 8th July 2013

Range Rover Sport vs Spitfire

Best of British showdown melds Range Rover and Goodwood hype machines to formidable effect

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What, you thought the hype campaign for the Range Rover Sport would calm down a bit now the thing is 'out there' and done with the whole motor show/embargo/celebrity launch event fuss and nonsense?

How naive!

Spitfire takes off at 80mph; what about the Sport?

Still, you can't fault Land Rover for coming up with inventive ways of having fun with the 510hp supercharged Sport. Ragging it up Pikes Peak for a production car record looked like a giggle, even if it's no longer gravel at the top, somewhat diluting the 4x4 message a bit.

And in a new pre-Festival of Speed, pre-public (official) 'dynamic debut', one of those spurious Top Gear-esque races has been held on the adjacent Goodwood airfield. Against a Spitfire. Despite its best efforts, even Land Rover can't hype the new Sport into the sky so the race was instead across Goodwood's bumpy grass strip and back with Mike Cross in the Land Rover and a chap named Matt Jones in the Spit.

What exactly do a Range Rover Sport and a Spitfire have in common? Well, beyond predictable 'best of British' stuff we'll dust off some plane-spotter's geekery and assert they're both based around aluminium monocoques. Which in their respective times puts them at a technological advantage over contemporaries - for context the (mainly) fabric and tubular frame Hurricane that fought alongside the Spitfire can be thought of as the body-on-frame equivalent of the previous Sport. They've both got superchargers. And they both sound pretty immense, though even the Range Rover has to concede on that score to the Spitfire's Rolls-Royce Merlin. Though the idea of the Range Rover with unsilenced stub exhausts does appeal.

Takatakatakataka!, etc...

Anyway, it is what it is. Which is to say a bit of harmless fun and nice way to carry on the weekend's sporting based patriotic fervour into the week in a most definitely PH-friendly way.

Watch the vid here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fatboy69]

That was good.

I wont spoil it for those who havent yet seen it.

Cant believe how quick the Range Rover was! Try getting an X5 to do that...... Ha. You cant as it doesnt 'do' off road does it??????

As for the Spitfire. What can you say? A true masterpiece of British engineering.

What a great film.

[Oddball RS]

Chav tat vs a world beating thoroughbred.

[CraigD82]

Hopefully there won't be any haters or trolls surfacing on this thread!

Pointless but a great vid to spend 4 minutes not working...

Loved the long range shots of the Range Rover tanking down the grass runway and the close finish.

[griffgrog]

That makes me want - a spitfire!

[JaguarsportXJR]

Shameless publicity or not, you can't help but smile at that.

[Asterix]

That Spitfire is simply stunning.

The stars were certainly aligned when they came up with that beautiful aircraft.

[rhinochopig]

Oddball RS said:

Chav tat vs a world beating thoroughbred.

Granted the two seater does spoil the clean lines of the single-seater, but to call it chav-tat - a little harsh.

[PascalBuyens]

Pointless race, but fun to watch, and it at least shows that the new Sport should be capable of some VERY decent offroading...

[Garlick]

Chav tat indeed...

All the tests show it to be a superb car, the styling has improved 100% and yet folk still shout 'chav' when the word Sport comes after Range Rover.

[J4CKO]

The New RR Sport looks quite good, trouble is when people buy it and spoil the illusion.

[Asterix]

Garlick said:

Chav tat indeed...

All the tests show it to be a superb car, the styling has improved 100% and yet folk still shout 'chav' when the word Sport comes after Range Rover.

I wouldn't go with Chav Tat per se, but it's rather blingy - there's no denying it.

[anonymous-user]

I don't know of any 'chavs' that could afford a Range Rover Sport...

[Daveyraveygravey]

Let me be the first to say - can we have the same video without the music? The ONLY sound that video needs is the Merlin

[dukebox9reg]

GravelMachineGun said:

I don't know of any 'chavs' that could afford a Range Rover Sport...

Tulisa

Jordan

Many many WAGS

I have to say I do like it, but prefer the styling on the full fat RR

[PascalBuyens]

Daveyraveygravey said:

Let me be the first to say - can we have the same video without the music? The ONLY sound that video needs is the Merlin

Funny that such an "old engine" still has the best sound to date, doesn't it?

[Andy ap]

There was a range rover in that video? oh right......yawn. Anyway still great to see the spitfire out there I'd like to see a mosquito do that race and watch the rangie get well and truly pissed on!

[Carnnoisseur]

griffgrog said:

That makes me want - a spitfire!

Exactly this, completely in awe. Like the Range also.

[J4CKO]

GravelMachineGun said:

I don't know of any 'chavs' that could afford a Range Rover Sport...

Come to Cheshire, all will become clear !

To be fair, I dont think most owners are Chavs but there does tend to be an element of showiness, which I suppose isnt a bad thing, dont want everyone driving beige Ladas, not what I aspire to but each to their own, a British made car that people want, I find it difficult to knock that these days.

[steveww]

PascalBuyens said:

Funny that such an "old engine" still has the best sound to date, doesn't it?

Spitfire Merlin vs BRM V16 - close call.

The sound of a Merlin engine still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

[Monsterlime]

Mmmm....that Spitfire.