Range Rover Sport SVR
FIRST DRIVE Powerful upgrades and luxury elements sweep us off our feet
Can power upgrade of luxury SUV blow us away?
THE Range Rover Sport SVR was the first production car to emerge from Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) skunkworks back in 2015. Since then there has been the Jaguar F-type SVR and Range Rover Svautobiography, as well as a handful of special editions. Soon, it’ll be joined by the Jaguar F-pace SVR (Page 12), too.
To ready the Sport for this family feud, SVO has fettled its original project for 2018. Headlining the changes is the brand’s latest 5.0-litre V8. Fittingly, the Sport SVR now has 567bhp and 700Nm of torque, the same as the F-type SVR and XJR 575. That’s 33bhp and 80Nm more than the old car, which makes it four tenths of a second faster from 0-60mph. Top speed is up to 176mph.
Naturally, the SVR gets a new nose like the rest of the Range Rover line-up, so there are slimmer LED lights with a new daytime running light graphic and grille. There’s a fresh front bumper with larger air vents to improve brake cooling, and a new rear bumper with different exhaust tips. The bonnet is carbon fibre, with large air slots to reinforce the SVR being the lairiest Range Rover Sport.
There are new colours, 21 or 22-inch wheels, and various styling packs. Land Rover claims the Carbon Fibre Exterior Pack (pictured) is ‘tasteful’, but it’s anything but. Here, the bonnet gets a strip of lacquered carbon fibre, as does the grille, wing vents, mirror covers and trim on the front bumper and tailgate.
On the inside you’ll find the twinscreen set-up pinched from the Range Rover Velar, which is now used across the Sport range. There are new trims, colours and sports seats, which are 30kg lighter than before. It’s suitably luxurious, and fit and finish are up there with the flagship Range Rover SUV.
Apart from the newly tweaked V8, JLR’S engineers have mostly left the SVR alone. There has been some work to reduce pitch under hard acceleration and braking, and the damping has been tweaked to improve turn-in, body roll and mid-corner stability – but the SVR of today is broadly similar to what went before. However, while it’s hard to feel the differences, the good news is that the SVR has always been agile, and remains so. There’s still a marked step-change from the ‘regular’ Autobiography Dynamic model, though,
“You quickly realise that something weighing over 2,500kg has no right to be this fast”
with the SVR generating colossal grip. It’s a different animal from, say, a BMW X5 M; the Brit’s brutish character makes the Bavarian SUV seem muted.
The most thuggish part to the SVR is the engine. Acceleration is thunderous and feels frankly ridiculous when you’re sitting up so high. In addition to that, you can’t help but feel that something weighing more than 2,500kg has no right to be quite this fast.
Happily, the extra power and torque is spread through the rev range, and you can feel that extra surge every time you squeeze the throttle. Hearing that supercharger is a joy, too. Ridiculously, the changes have added a extra glitz to what was already a pantomime car.
Flick to Dynamic mode and the SVR’S already mental character changes to ballistic. With the exhaust baffles open, the steering weighted up, and the gearbox in its most aggressive setting, the SVR feels like a proper weapon.