All-New Range Rover. DRIVEN in Morocco

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Something that really got the media machines cranking about the 13MY was its all-new aluminium space frame, which shaved a staggering 420kg off the overall weight. Here in the sands the vehicle’s weight is hardly a concern, but the knowledge that the Ranger Rover tips the scales at 2330kg still rattles around my head as we roll across the summit of one dune after another.

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Saying that, sizeable ground clearance and 520bhp from the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 mean we’re never even close to bogging down.

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And it’s a similar story on the rockier section of our route, after a quick break for some sweet Moroccan tea. Land Rover clearly isn’t going easy on its peerless leader, as the trickier sections of our climb prove. An impressive 625lb-ft of torque and good visibility allow us to roll unhindered across the rocks, the Range Rover remaining unscathed by the terrain and the 4WD system ploughing through obstacles at will.

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Perhaps what’s most impressive though is not just the ease with which the Ranger Rover pulls itself across the rocks, but the comfort with which this is done from the wheel. I’d expected to be rattled from side-to-side and possibly out of the window given the size of the sometimes-lumbering 4×4.

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But there are no sore backs or stiff necks, even after 500km across a mix of very different surfaces. A special acoustic lamination across the windscreen and the resultant lower noise levels make a big difference on the highways too.

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This even includes a belt along (very) muddy tracks at high altitude. Almost sheer drops into the valley beside the Atlas mountains are difficult to ignore, and it’s here we put the all-new Terrain Response system to the test, which analyses the current driving conditions and automatically selects the most suitable vehicle settings. Once again, potential disaster just feels like a drive in the country: at no point does the Ranger Rover so much as drop a wheel.

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What really stuns me is its performance on the road. We take a while to feed our way through a succession of rural villages…

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…much to the delight of the townsfolk…

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…before hitting the twisting stretches of road that snake their way back to Marrakech.

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And it’s remarkable. Somehow this big hulking 4×4, whilst being taken to school through a quick-fire succession of lefts and rights, feels balanced. Even nimble.