• Sign Up! To view all forums and unlock additional cool features

    Welcome to the #1 Range Rover Forum and Range Rover community dedicated to Range Rover owners and enthusiasts. Register for an account, it's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the Range Rover Forum today!

2016 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Td6 Update 2: Mile Cruncher

Messages
483
Likes
2
#1

You could argue the United States and Europe got it the wrong way around. Hybrids, which do their best work in stop-and-go traffic, are ideal for Europe's cramped cities. And diesels, which are most efficient cruising long distances at constant speeds, are perfect for the U.S.' wide-open spaces. Yet hybrids are more popular here, and diesel's still a European thing, mainly for reasons that have more to do with tax policy than logic.

A 3,000-mile road trip from L.A. to Death Valley, then up through Nevada and Utah to Denver, and back to L.A. via Las Vegas was an opportunity to test the cruising credentials of the Range Rover Td6's 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6. The idea was to drive the lowest paved road in the lower 48 states-282 feet below sea level through Badwater Basin in Death Valley-and the highest, the climb up to the 14,130-foot summit at Mt. Evans in the Colorado Rockies. Mother Nature had other ideas, however. Late spring snow meant Mt. Evans was closed, and the highest we could get on our alternate, Pikes Peak, was 11,387 feet before the weather closed in and shut everything down.

No matter. The journey gave us ample opportunity to take in the epic landscapes of America's west, and plenty of seat time in the Range Rover Sport Td6.

It's a different driving experience compared with the supercharged eight-cylinder Range Rover Sport I drove last year. The 254-hp turbodiesel doesn't have the overtaking urge-or the rapid response-of the 510-hp 5.0-liter V-8. Passing moves require more planning, and transmission kickdown feels more lethargic. That said, this 5,326-pound SUV will cruise at 100 mph, the engine turning just 2400 rpm.

The diesel engine seems happiest at about 2,000-2,100 rpm, so the best strategy for the long climbs on the interstate was to tap the shifter into sport mode to initiate a downshift before the engine started to labor. Using the eight-speed automatic in manual mode, downshifting on the entry to corners to keep revs in the sweet spot was the key to maintaining momentum on winding mountain two lanes. The Range Rover Sport Td6 doesn't get paddles on the steering wheel, but flick the center shifter across to manual mode and, like a racecar's sequential shift, it works with the vehicle's kinematics: You push forward to downshift, pull rearward to upshift.

Driven without regard to fuel saving, the diesel Range Rover Sport averaged an impressive 26.5 mpg over 3,011 miles. The worst mileage of 22.5 mpg came on the long uphill haul across Nevada's windswept basin-and-range; the best of 30.0 mpg came, surprisingly, on a 527-mile loop through the towering Rockies around Breckenridge, Colorado.

[img
]http://i.imgur.com/UdFu2xG.jpg[/img]


Text Source: Motor Trend
 


Top