Opulent, fast and adroit on the road
Performance and luxury makes for a generous slice of the good life
If you have a nomadic heart and a hankering for the high life, the Range Rover Autobiography might just be the ideal vehicle. It blends go-anywhere ability with luxurious opulence, but it was not always that way. The original debuted in 1970, with two doors and a utilitarian interior designed to be hosed out should the need arise. However, in the 1980s, Range Rover started to move upmarket and toward the stature it has now attained.
For those looking to get into the high-end Airbnb business, the long wheelbase Autobiography might just be the place to start; it provides a home away from home. There’s leather galore, amenities aplenty including four-zone climate control and, of course, lots of space, thanks to the 198-millimetre stretch in the wheelbase over the standard Range Rover.
With the rear seats upright, it has space for 909 litres of cargo. Power the seats flat and there are 2,345 L — almost enough space for a double bed. Of course, it has built-in rearseat entertainment screens and a 1,700-watt Meridian sound system to amuse on a rainy night. Or one might opt to stargaze through the oversized panoramic moonroof.
Up front, the Autobiography has very comfortable and fully articulated seats, along with a new infotainment system. Unlike previous iterations, this version is quick to react and it’s intuitive. The instrumentation can also be tweaked to deliver a conventional look — with or without the “torch” effect of rings around the dials — or put a full-sized map in its place. One of the nice touches is a chiller in the centre console box.
However, there are a couple of small but annoying nits. The head-up display is for the birds, and on the tester it slanted to the left when put in its lower position, making it more distraction than assist. The other issue is less onerous, but equally annoying: The heating wires embedded in the windshield glint when driving toward the sun, which was distracting.
The list of advanced technologies covers all aspects of safety. A 360-degree camera provides allaround park-distance control, lane departure and keep assist come with a driver monitor, which can detect a drowsy driver. The Range Rover also features adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go function, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, automatic high beams and autonomous braking. That’s an impressive array, but it also has the ability to parallel and perpendicular park all by itself; the driver simply selects the appropriate gear and controls vehicle speed.
The Autobiography is powered by a 5.0-L supercharged V8 engine, pushing out 510 horsepower and 461 pound-feet of torque, motivating the aluminum-bodied behemoth from rest to 100 km/h in 5.5 seconds, in spite of its 2,400-kilogram curb weight. It is quiet when needed, yet also sounds the part when the gas pedal is mashed.
The Range Rover is seriously quick, although the fuel consumption when the engine is used to the max is not for the faint of heart; an enthusiastic drive left the trip computer showing 23.1 L/100 km. The overall average was a more palatable 15.3 L/100 km.
The power reaches all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission with a sport mode and paddle shifters. Being a Range Rover means it’s more than capable of, well, roaming the range; the Terrain Response 2 system offers a number of driving modes, all of which tailor everything from the engine, transmission and centre differential to the chassis, ensuring optimal traction. Throw in the active locking rear differential and a two-speed transfer case, and the Range Rover Autobiography has the wherewithal to climb just about anything short of the CN Tower.
The Autobiography feels rewardingly light on its tires when the road twists and turns. The reason is the advanced electronic assistants. The Adaptive Dynamics system monitors the vehicle’s movement up to 500 times a second to minimize unwanted body movement. Dynamic Response improves things by using hydraulic roll control front and rear. The result is a remarkably flat attitude, even as the big Range Rover begins to move laterally on its enormous P275/40R22 tires.
The Range Rover Autobiography is not your grandpa’s Land Rover, and it is a very distant relative to the original. It is opulent, supremely fast and very adroit on the road, while possessing the ability to go just about anywhere the owner’s heart desires. Mind you, would one seriously go off-roading in a $162,350 rig? I think not, but at least the rest of the world knows you can.