Car companies are always on the lookout for unique ways to promote their four-wheeled wares, but they’re not always successful. Land Rover, however, has done a decent job of not only making vehicles that people want to buy, but also marketing them in special ways.
Since it’s not exactly a family run-around, the marketing team behind the Range Rover Sport has been keen to demonstrate its product’s pedigree. Memorably, Daniel Craig’s Bondian charm was harnessed for the New York launch of the Sport, and most recently, sticking to all things British and good, they pulled off a race with a Supermarine Spitfire.
The two machines hit the gas on a Sussex runway, with the Sport accelerating to the end and then returning, while the Spitfire took off, did a loop, and then sped back towards where they both started. The result? Pretty close, but the Sport edged it – although comparing the airborne to the ground-based appeared far from clinical.
No matter, the Sport entertainingly pitted itself against a machine that helped save Britain from Nazi invasion – and what’s more, it won.
It seems that despite being one of Indian auto-giant, Tata’s, most profitable arms, Range Rover’s marketing relies heavily on the product’s British pedigree. And it seems to be working pretty well so far..
The race took place as part of the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed, at Goodwood Aerodrome in Sussex. The Sport, powered by a 5.0 supercharged V8, hit a top speed of 130mph before braking for the turn. A 1,750bhp V12 Merlin engine powered the 1945 Spitfire, and while it lost this particular race, a wartime re-run may not have presented the same outcome, armed as the Spitfire was with 8 machine guns.
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