How many laps can an SUV like the Range Rover Sport complete on a circuit without changing the brake pads?

The demands a circuit places on a vehicle’s brakes are enormous. And even more so when it comes to a vehicle whose design, particularly in terms of size and weight, is not exactly intended for lap after lap or for setting fast lap times.

Even so, Land Rover has put the Range Rover Sport SV through a very special test. The most powerful Range Rover in history, with its 635 CV plug-in hybrid powertrain, is also the first model from the British brand to be fitted with carbon-ceramic brakes. Specifically, its 440 mm discs are among the largest that can be found on a series-production vehicle.

And to put these brakes to the test, Land Rover took four units of its Range Rover Sport SV Edition One, equipped with this carbon-ceramic braking system that the sporty SUV can optionally fit, to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, with the aim of completing a two-week driving test on the circuit.

In the end, each vehicle completed an average of 215 laps of the Portimão circuit, which is 4.6 km long, totalling 987 km. The brand adds this to the 1,609 km the vehicles had already covered before the test, although it does not specify the driving conditions. What really matters is that figure: almost 1,000 km driven by each car on the circuit without needing to change the brake pads, which at the post-test inspection still had 30% of their service life remaining, indicating they could have covered at least twice that distance again.

What we don’t know is the pace at which the test drivers were going, although we do have one data point: at the first right-hand corner after the main straight, one of the many heavy braking zones on the circuit, the SUV had to brake from 240 km/h, enduring decelerations of more than 1.1 g.

The optional ceramic brakes of the Range Rover Sport SV

Besides a much greater resistance to prolonged stress and high temperatures, one of the main advantages of ceramic brakes is the reduction of unsprung mass. On the Range Rover Sport, they represent a saving of 34 kg compared with the standard steel-disc brakes. Furthermore, the pads wear down more slowly not only because of their compounds, but also because carbon-ceramic discs cool down faster.

On the Range Rover Sport SV, this wear performance is also attributed to the front Brembo Octyma calipers developed exclusively for this model, the largest ever used on a Range Rover, with eight pistons in a cross layout to distribute pressure more evenly. The bronze colour distinguishes the calipers on carbon-ceramic brakes, while on versions with steel discs the calipers are yellow; in both cases a black finish is available.

Range Rover Sport SV – Image gallery