Range Rover Demos its Capability by Towing an Airstream to Morocco & Back!
With a newly-launched Airstream 684 Series 2 aluminium travel trailer hitched to its
electrically-deployable tow bar, a Range Rover Autobiography with the 339PS SDV8 engine
was chosen for the challenge – to drive from Airstream’s European home in the English Lake
District to the top of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco – and back…
More European Airstream owners choose Land Rover products to tow their “silver
bullets” than cars from any other manufacturer so all-new Range Rover and Airstream made
for an appropriate pairing. The journey started at the factory where Airstream finishes
its European specification trailers in Tebay, just a few miles from the Scottish border,
to Oukaimeden, which is the highest ski resort in Africa. En route, it encompassed Land
Rover’s state-of-the-art factory in Solihull, Frank Gehry’s amazing aluminium Marques de
Riscal building in the Spanish wine region of Rioja, the beach near Casablanca, the desert
outside Chichaoua and the race track at Marrakesh, where Land Rover was based for the
launch of the new car.
Often on the move for more than 12 hours a day on every type of road imaginable – from
the empty motorways of Spain to the precipitous hairpins of the High Atlas – the all-new
Range Rover coped imperiously with the challenge of towing a 2,399 kg Airstream 3,676
miles in just 11 days.
Ben Samuelson, whose firm Samuelson Wylie Associates planned and executed the trip,
was deeply impressed by the new car: “The new Range Rover’s towing ability is nothing
short of stunning. It pulled the two and a half tonne Airstream like it simply wasn’t
there.
“It didn’t matter what we, or the weather, threw at it – it just did the job we asked
of it without question, while truly cosseting us with its extraordinary luxury and
refinement. Halfway through Spain, we encountered horrendous side winds, the type that
sees articulated trucks tipped onto their side, but the Range Rover’s Trailer Stability
Assist meant that any sway in the trailer was dealt with before it ever started. And
mountains. What mountains? With 700 NM of torque from that mighty V8 diesel at our
disposal, there wasn’t an incline that slowed us down at all, even with a gross train
weight of well over five tonnes. What was possibly even more impressive was the way that,
even after repeated 12-hour driving days, we’d step up into that exquisite cabin in the
morning and still appreciate its sense of occasion.”
And the overnight stays were no less luxurious…
“You can compare the Airstream to a boutique hotel – albeit a mobile one – and taking
this combination of rig on your travels injects some serious style and comfort. The moment
that really summed up the magic of a journey like this was waking up in the Airstream on a
sunny morning next to the beach just outside Casablanca – only a few days after towing it
down a crowded British motorway through typically dismal autumnal British weather. A hot
shower was followed by breakfast rustled up in a luxurious Corian-worktopped kitchen and
that morning’s Times newspaper downloaded onto the iPad via the Airstream’s satellite
broadband. I think we proved that luxury and adventure are not mutually exclusive…”
