I thought I'd share my experience of towing a Brian James race transporter with my Range Rover and now my Cayenne. Both have electrically deployable towbars which work well although the Cayenne one is a bit high and both have air suspension.
2016 Range Rover Autobiography – 4.4 SDV8 diesel – 335 bhp and 740 N-m of torque
2020 Cayenne Turbo – 4.0 petrol – 541 bhp and 770 N-m of torque
The trailer, race car and equipment is probably around 2,500kg. I have towed race cars about for 30 years and when I am towing I like to get a move on so I tow car performance and surefootedness are important.
The Range Rover is superbly comfortable and has plenty of low down torque and decent power.
Boot space is great with a low boot floor and the square shape means you can get plenty of kit in there.
Exhaust note is quite muted being a diesel but it still has a V8 growl.
Brakes always had plenty of stopping power.
Fuel economy towing is around 17-18 mpg compared to 30 mpg without the trailer on the back.
The downside of the comfort is the wallowy handling. Towing the transporter is like towing a caravan, so going past the bow wave of air off the front of a truck does unsettle the trailer which would feed back into the car and unsettle that. The other downside is just around Land Rover ownership with frequent trips to the often incompetent dealer and annual servicing although it never let me down.
The Cayenne is massively powerful with startling acceleration even with the trailer on so you can out drag cars fairly easily and it means the distance needed to overtake a slower car was a fair bit shorter than the Range Rover.
Boot space is not so good, a high boot floor doesn’t help and the rounded shape means I can only get in about 60% of what the Range Rover would take.
The exhaust note under load is awesome with the sound bouncing back off the front of the trailer making me smile!
The PCCB brakes work well at hauling the car down from speed without fuss.
Fuel economy is about 14-16 mpg compared to about 22 mpg in normal use.
Of course the ride quality is not on par with the Range Rover. The benefit of the much better body control means that with the bow wave test, the trailer gets unsettled however the Cayenne remains stable and then in turn that reduce the trailer movement, it is a huge improvement and definitely worth the compromise in ride comfort. I haven’t owned the car long enough to properly test the reliability but so far all is well, with just one trip to the dealer for a major ‘expensive’ service which was painless.
So in conclusion, they both make great tow cars with enough power to easily keep up with and outpace regular traffic.
The Range Rover would be a better choice if you had an open trailer and you have to carry more kit in the car and also if fuel economy is important to you.
For me though the Cayenne is the winner, the performance is on another level, the economy bearable ( my 2020 Nissan Navara with a 2.0 turbo diesel only managed 14 mpg towing this trailer) and the body control means that the car tells the trailer what to do and not the other way round !
2016 Range Rover Autobiography – 4.4 SDV8 diesel – 335 bhp and 740 N-m of torque
2020 Cayenne Turbo – 4.0 petrol – 541 bhp and 770 N-m of torque
The trailer, race car and equipment is probably around 2,500kg. I have towed race cars about for 30 years and when I am towing I like to get a move on so I tow car performance and surefootedness are important.
The Range Rover is superbly comfortable and has plenty of low down torque and decent power.
Boot space is great with a low boot floor and the square shape means you can get plenty of kit in there.
Exhaust note is quite muted being a diesel but it still has a V8 growl.
Brakes always had plenty of stopping power.
Fuel economy towing is around 17-18 mpg compared to 30 mpg without the trailer on the back.
The downside of the comfort is the wallowy handling. Towing the transporter is like towing a caravan, so going past the bow wave of air off the front of a truck does unsettle the trailer which would feed back into the car and unsettle that. The other downside is just around Land Rover ownership with frequent trips to the often incompetent dealer and annual servicing although it never let me down.
The Cayenne is massively powerful with startling acceleration even with the trailer on so you can out drag cars fairly easily and it means the distance needed to overtake a slower car was a fair bit shorter than the Range Rover.
Boot space is not so good, a high boot floor doesn’t help and the rounded shape means I can only get in about 60% of what the Range Rover would take.
The exhaust note under load is awesome with the sound bouncing back off the front of the trailer making me smile!
The PCCB brakes work well at hauling the car down from speed without fuss.
Fuel economy is about 14-16 mpg compared to about 22 mpg in normal use.
Of course the ride quality is not on par with the Range Rover. The benefit of the much better body control means that with the bow wave test, the trailer gets unsettled however the Cayenne remains stable and then in turn that reduce the trailer movement, it is a huge improvement and definitely worth the compromise in ride comfort. I haven’t owned the car long enough to properly test the reliability but so far all is well, with just one trip to the dealer for a major ‘expensive’ service which was painless.
So in conclusion, they both make great tow cars with enough power to easily keep up with and outpace regular traffic.
The Range Rover would be a better choice if you had an open trailer and you have to carry more kit in the car and also if fuel economy is important to you.
For me though the Cayenne is the winner, the performance is on another level, the economy bearable ( my 2020 Nissan Navara with a 2.0 turbo diesel only managed 14 mpg towing this trailer) and the body control means that the car tells the trailer what to do and not the other way round !
