Video

Land Rover Discovery tows 121-ton Aussie 'road train'

It pulls a truck and seven trailers for miles

Over the years, automakers have performed a wide range of towing stunts to prove the capability of their trucks and SUVs. Recently, Porsche used a Cayenne to tow the huge, double-decker Airbus A380 42 meters, and of course who could forget when a Toyota Tundra towed the Endeavor space shuttle? Now Land Rover's newest Discovery gets a turn at towing greatness, in this case towing a 121-ton Australian "road train," which is a semi-truck with multiple trailers.

This isn't the first time Land Rover has done towing stunts, since multiple generations of Discovery have towed heavier-than-recommended loads. Usually these were railcars. So this load is a bit unique. It's also heavier than a normal road train. According to Land Rover, road trains in Australia are restricted to a maximum of four trailers. This train is seven trailers, plus the semi-truck and some ballast. The total weight of 242,000 pounds is about 31 times the 7,716-pound towing capacity of the diesel Discovery. Also interesting to note is that the diesel Discovery has a slightly lower maximum towing capacity than the gas-powered version, which is rated up to 8,201 pounds.

As you'll see in the video above, the Land Rover does manage to move the huge line of trailers. In fact, it managed to tow the road train 9.9 miles and hit a top speed of 27 mph. This stunt was done with the diesel Discovery, which uses a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 making 254 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque. This particular engine is available in U.S.-market Discoveries, and we expect that roughly the same engine will appear in the light-duty diesel F-150.

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