DIRTY SECRET
PREVIEW: 2014 RANGE ROVER SPORT,
In a move sure to render its most fanatical offroad devotees apoplectic, Land Rover’s new 2014 Range Rover Sport is not available with the two-speed transfer case. “My God,” I can hear many of you saying, “How can it be, no two-speed transfer case?” right before scurrying away to the nearest keyboard and Googling “transfer case” and “two-speed” since you, like 99% of those reading this story, have absolutely no idea what hell a two-speed transfer case is or does.
For the uninitiated, a transfer case is the gearbox in the centre of an SUV that apportions the engine’s torque between the front and rear axles. The two-speed part, so crucial to the low-speed rock/sand/ mud stuff that Land Rover aficionados adore, has said transfer case incorporating a lowspeed gear range specifically so their Defender/Discovery/ Range Rover can crawl up the craggiest of trails without straining. Its absence, by definition, would point to Land Rover placing less importance on the off-road prowess that is both its heritage and its raison d’être.
In the end, the ado will be largely about nothing. Only the base V6-powered Range Rover Sport will be available with the lesser single-speed central gearbox and even it will offer it as an option. The 2014 Sport’s Heavy Duty package includes the company’s Adaptive Dynamics adjustable suspension, electronic centre differential, Terrain Response 2 (which automatically determines the type of terrain the Range Rover is crossing and adjusts myriad systems accordingly) as well as the multi-speed transfer case, all of which makes its $1,300 (on top of the Range Rover’s $73,990 MSRP) asking price the option bargain of the century. Rendering, again, the base model’s lack of a twospeed transfer case much ado about nothing.
And it takes but a short ride in the newly revised Sport to realize this is a Range Rover vastly improved. The most noticeable difference is the phenomenal weight savings afforded by all that all aluminum framework. The exact amount of avoirdupois shed depends on the model and engine, but the top-of-the-line 2014 supercharged V8 is said to have dumped some 340 kilograms.
The result is that even the new V6 base model is a stellar performer. Of course, that should be little surprise as Jaguar/Land Rover’s supercharged V6 is one of the best new engines of the decade and possibly the best V6 in existence. Maximum power is claimed to be 340 horsepower and, thanks to its Eaton supercharger, torque peaks at 332 pound-feet. That’s good enough for the V6-powered 2014 Sport to be quicker to 100 kilometres an hour than last year’s V8 version (7.2 seconds for the new V6 compared with 7.5 for last year’s naturally aspirated V8). What matters even more is that, again thanks to that supercharger, the V6’s acceleration is just as effortless as last year’s V8, the blower adding the low-end torque that makes revving the engine unnecessary except in the most dire of circumstances.
Nonetheless, it is the V8 that is the star of the show. It, too, is supercharged and its 5.0 litres and 510 hp motivate the newly svelte Range Rover Sport to Porsche Cayenne levels. I suspect that Land Rover targeted Stuttgart’s sport brute more assiduously than other competitors. Whatever the case, the top-of-the-line Supercharged and Autobiography editions accelerate like scalded cats (5.3 seconds to 100 km/h, 0.9 seconds quicker than the outgoing version), effortlessly ride the supercharger’s tsunami of torque and sound very powerful, yet utterly British.
On-road handling is another area where methinks the Brits have been studying their Teutonic friends. Lower and more stiffly sprung than its Range Rover sibling, the Sport is Land Rover’s Cayenne GTS. Sacrificing a little offroad ability for more dynamic handling, the Sport rolls less and, thanks to reduced polar momentum of inertia (though the wheelbase is the same, the overall length is much reduced), turns in more sharply.
The top-of-the-line supercharged V8 is even more adept, the adjustable Adaptive Dynamic suspension standard equipment as is the torque vectoring system, which distributes the engine’s torque to individual wheels according to the demands of cornering. There’s even a new Dynamic mode in the trademark Terrain Response system that stiffens the Dynamic Response’s hydraulically adjustable anti-sway bars for even less roll. The Sport, especially, the full-zoot V8 version, is truly a backroad weapon and would not be out of place being flung around a racetrack. Even the V8’s steering is a little firmer and sportier, the entry-level V6 ostensibly aimed at entrylevel luxury SUV segment.
This last is also apparent inside the new Sport. Unlike the Range Rover whose elevated price tag typically means it is but one among many fancy rides in the household, the Sport, according to Land Rover, is often the primary vehicle in the driveway. Hence, the company’s preoccupation with the available third-row seating.
That entry-level luxury segmentation is also responsible for the pressure on Range Rover Sport pricing (hence, the aforementioned deletion of the multi-speed transfer case), the base V6 starting at a fairly economical (at least compared with the base Range Rover’s $114,700) $73,900. The interior is also the biggest differentiator between the topflight Range Rover and the lesser Sport models, the latter notably less ostentatious than the former.
Indeed, the Sport’s worst feature is a dashboard so devoid of accoutrements that it looks a little Toyota-like. It is not unattractive nor does it look cheap, but there’s little doubt that it has been the greatest sacrifice to the Sport’s lower MSRP. That said, the Range Rover’s interior/comfort is much improved.
And, finally, as it turns out, the new Range Rover Sport is more capable off road than its predecessor.
In the end, new Range Rover is everything its predecessor was — butch, fast and an off-road beast — while still becoming everything the previous version wasn’t — light, smoother-riding and amazingly apex friendly. Such is the benefit of advanced technology; it makes an art out of compromise.