Everything seems to be tested at the Nurburgring these days, even Rolls Royces and Range Rovers. Welp, a 2014 Range Rover Sport development mule was going around the course earlier today when it angered the off-road Gods who promptly disabled it.
These images, which first surfaced on Bridge to Gantry (head over there for the rest), show a Range Rover Sport with a fairly obvious problem on the right hand side. There are some skidmarks on the road and the RRS is facing the wrong direction, but I'm not 100 percent sure there was contact. Perhaps there was a mechanical failure? A suspension issue?
I spoke to Land Rover, who said "We can confirm that there was an incident involving a development vehicle, Range Rover Sport, at the Nurburgring earlier today. The camouflaged engineering vehicle was undergoing routine testing from the JLR test centre. No-one was injured."
Obviously, great news that the driver is ok, and it's very sad to see the pretty new Range Rover Sport in any state of disrepair. However, I can't help but think that this is the off-road Gods staring down and dropping a gentle hint that this car should only be climbing dunes in Morocco or escaping raging flood waters in South America.
And that is it. No more Nurburgring for SUVs. Please.