Watch as Spitfire races Range Rover

Published Jul 9, 2013

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If you want to rev up your brand image, put a classic aircraft in the picture - ask Red Bull, Breitling and Ray-Ban, they've all done it. And for maximum 'wow factor', make sure that plane is a Spitfire, iconic symbol of the 1940 Battle of Britain, and living proof of the oft-repeated engineering statement, "If it looks right it'll fly right."

No aircraft before or since has so perfectly combined beauty, grace and power; nearly 80 years after the prototype, K5054, first flew in March 1936, it remains the most recognisable aeroplane in the world.

So when Jaguar Land Rover was invited to take a leaf out of the Top Gear stunt book with a race between their seriously upmarket new Range Rover Sport - the fastest Land Rover yet - and an aircraft at Goodwood in Sussex ahead of this year's Festival of Speed, there was only one candidate.

THE CAPE TOWN CONNECTION

The aircraft in this video, SM520, started life as a Spitfire HF IXe high-level fighter in November 1944. In 1948 it was sold to the South African Air Force and eventually became one of several Spitfires lying derelict in the SA Metal scrapyard at Maitland, Cape Town.

It was rescued in 1981 and in 2002 was converted into a replica of a TR-9 two-seat trainer, of which a handful were delivered to the Royal Netherlands Air Force after the Second World War.

It has a supercharged, 27-litre V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine rated at 1300kW, giving it a maximum airspeed of 640km/h; take-off speed is about 130km/h.

The race - the first of its kind at the Goodwood airfield - involved a straight drag down and back on the runway, with a U-turn at the bottom end. It was particularly challenging, being run on the bumpy all-grass airstrip, notorious for being a low traction surface - which didn't matter for a propeller-driven aircraft but was a potential issue for the Rangie.

CHALLENGING TERRAIN

The Spitfire was flown by Matt Jones of the Boultbee Flight Academy in Chichester, which is where SM520 is now based, while Jaguar Land Rover chief vehicle integrity engineer Mike Cross was at the wheel of the Range Rover Sport, a five-litre supercharged V8 with 375kW on tap.

Even though grass is one of the most challenging surfaces on which to get traction, Cross still managed to clock an indicated 208km/h before hitting the brakes for the mid-race turn, relying on the new Range Rover Sport's torque vectoring system, which selectively brakes the inside wheels to help maintain traction during cornering.

Cross said afterwards: "It's always difficult to get traction from a standing start on grass, but I got a good launch off the line.

"I was surprised by how bumpy the airstrip was as I accelerated up to 200km/h - and of course another big challenge was to brake in time for the turn-around - but the car felt composed throughout the whole run."

Want to find out who won? Watch the video.

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