Remember the old Range Rover Sport SVR? Painted bright blue, a pair of Recaro seats that wouldn’t look out of place in a Project 8 and the factory exhaust system set to obnoxious? His replacement is nothing like that, and that’s a very good thing. What you are looking at is one of the fastest and most complete SUVs of all – which it should be, because despite what you thought about the old SVR, in terms of good financial performance there is no model in the Land Rover range that comes close.
The latest Range Rover Sport feels more like a small Range Rover than an SUV with real sports decks, even with the P530 V8. Its refinement, comfort and quality of materials are much closer to luxury than anything sporty, something the SV addresses and then some.
A chassis that doesn’t look right on the base of the new SV-powered F-Type. The air springs are retained, but have been recalibrated to benefit from a series of hardware and software changes, including new hydraulics that have allowed chief engineer Matt Becker and his team to eliminate anti-roll bars. There is also a new rear subframe, the rear wheel steering has been revised and the rear differential is new as well. Integrating this perfectly is the new 6D dynamic control system to control pitch and slope, replacing the standard Dynamic Response Pro anti-roll system.
Could updates like these turn the 2.5-tonne SUV into something more like a car you can interact with and not regret choosing if you find yourself on a road with more corners than an English highway lined with Costa coffee branches? Land Rover must think so, because our first taste of the SV is at the Portiamo circuit…
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In SV mode there is directness and balance in the way the steering reacts to the input, allowing a clean line to be written through the different corner angles of the track version. The level of weight and response feels natural and natural, its willingness to allow corrections without shocking the systems is unexpected from a car in this sector.
Much of how SV guides cleanly up to 6D motions (the term comes from the six degrees of axis a rigid body can move in three-dimensional space). It works by transferring fluid from one side of the car to the other, controlling pitch and roll to keep the car as flat as possible. While there’s still a certain amount of roll that allows you to lean in, the system prevents excessive sag for such cars struggling to control under hard corners and brakes – JLR says it can provide 1.1g of side load on a standard all-season tyre, and 1.2g on the optional rubber Michelin Pilot S 5. Throw the rear-wheel steering and the SV feels absolutely right on the track. When you flow from entry to apex to apex exit with such aplomb, you almost feel guilty for being so impressed with the capabilities of a car you’d expect to see parked on the pad and not cutting the apex.
The torque limit of the ZF eight-speed automatic prevents BMW’s 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 from offering on-throttle revving like Aston Martin’s DBX707 and Ferrari Purosangue offer, but this is an SUV that can also handle the kind of off-road terrain roads you’d expect a Range Rover to handle, and adjusting the top-speed limit is, most likely, very low on the owners’ priority list.
In fact, the SV has been designed and upgraded to run on standard Michelin Pilot 4 S tires and forged wheels, instead of the optional 23-inch carbonfibre wheels with S 5 rubber fitted to our test car. On the track it feels incredible purchase, communicating any slip on your toes as cleanly as possible, allowing you to build confidence and tap into the V8’s grunts. If you find yourself at the Nürburgring with your SV, the 5 S tire will now last eight laps before bursting into oblivion, whereas the previous SVR would destroy a set of tires in two.
Sourced from BMW, the hot-vee V8 produces 625 and 590lb of torque, and for what it lacks in drama compared to the old 5-litre supercharged V8, it makes up for in a more traditional and subtle sound. Your neighbors will approve, holders of BO55 number plates below that. Protecting the gearbox from torque loading makes downshifts slower than you’d like when enjoying all that performance, and can lead to a second pull of the left-hand paddle when you think the gear you asked for isn’t coming. . Performance is on another plane of the SVR’s past, with 62mph arriving in 3.8 seconds (or two-tenths quicker if you go for the carbon wheels and sticky tyres).
Carbon ceramic brake discs, the first to be fitted to a Range Rover and manufactured by Brembo, are optional and measure 440mm at the front, 390mm at the rear and their eight-piston callipers have an X pattern to increase braking performance. A few laps of the tracks didn’t find them wilting, and unlike most carbon ceramic setups, the pedal feel isn’t covered by dead spots in the ride, which is great for tuning.
Apart from the most recent home of the Portuguese Grand Prix and on the roads between Faro and Libson, the RR Sport SV is a much smoother machine than its predecessor. In Comfort mode, it seems more closed than the Sport P530 that uses the same engine and adds a touch of humor to the body control while the 6D software works to prevent unnecessary noise and flex, or symptoms of ‘head shaking’ as one engineer described it. . that.
Fitting 23-inch carbon wheels with carbon ceramics saves more than 70kg in unsprung mass, and on rough terrain where your eyes tell you to prepare for the shakes and shakes of the terrain to come, the SV is more built than you’d expect. A normal sport would struggle to pick up the impact, while Aston’s DBX and Ferrari’s Purosangue will certainly let you know exactly what the wheels and tires are dealing with.
And just as impressive as the SV is on the track with its eagerness to enter, mid-corner balance and acceleration energy, the same is true on the road. If anything it’s more appealing because, beware of the cliche, the way it lowers itself around you makes it easier than expected to keep the car where you need it. Any ambiguities and inaccuracies are discarded. It’s no M5 CS, but it jumps to the top of the heap in its class in how it handles itself when asked to deliver its credentials.
Of course, there’s no need for a 635bhp, 2.5-tonne SUV that’s as capable on and off-road as the SV is. But you can say that about most cars, and the SV showcases technology that changes the driving experience for the better. Making such supercars more precise, and therefore easier to control and control, must be a good thing. And the Range Rover Sport SV is a very good thing.
Price and rivals
How much does it all cost? £171,640 gets you a seat in the Range Rover Sport SV, but you’ll need deeper pockets to opt for carbon wheels (£6,900) and ceramic brakes (£7,000) for the latter version. Against the new £154,000 Porsche Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid, that’s a leap, although Aston Martin’s DBX707 starts at £191,160 and against the Range Rover it loses some of the advantage it once enjoyed.
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