RangeRover Velar

REPORT 4 £ 67,740 OTR/£72,145 as tested/£880pcm WHY IT’ S HERE Is there more to the Velar than style alone? DRIVER Ollie Marriage

LET’S TALK DYNAMICS. TRICKY ONE, THIS, BECAUSE THE VELAR ISN’T

pitched as an especially sporty SUV. That’s big brother RRS. The Velar’s the stylish one, for urbanists. But this is an R-Dynamic Velar which – forgive this false assumption – I had thought meant it got sportier suspension. This had left me puzzled until I looked it up. Nope. R-Dynamic is a cosmetic thing: kickplates, integrated exhausts and different bumper design. The adaptive dampers are the same as those fitted to other Velars. Which explains a lot.

Look at the body roll. That’s not dynamic. But that’s in wound-up Dynamic Program mode. To be fair to this 2,029kg SUV, it’s actually a pretty fair communicator. It’s not nearly as aggressive and responsive as a BMW X3 M40i or a Porsche Macan, but the chassis does supply information. A bit bluntly maybe, but you know where you are with it. You can hustle it about if you want, and the balance between tyre grip, roll, heave and chassis precision is actually well managed. It’s just not a sharp-handling sports SUV. If that’s what you want, wait for the 550bhp Velar SVAD, due shortly.

So the Velar is sporty-ish. It looks the part and with a thumping 516lb ft of torque fed through all four wheels it ain’t half effective at getting itself out of slow corners in third gear. This means pulling paddles, because, left to its own devices, the 8spd gearbox is slow on the uptake. It’s also sluggish when pulling away and occasionally the torque converter fails to lock up properly. More torque than the transmission can handle, perhaps? And more weight than the brakes can handle. OK, that’s not quite true, but they do need pressure to get it slowed. The pedal really ought to have more bite.

But aside from gearbox and brakes, the Velar – as I’ve said before – is a rather lovely daily driver. It’s quiet, calm inside and rides well on smooth roads. It’s relaxing, and puts sporty driving to the back of my mind.