Free range
Meet the third generation of one of the performance SUV pioneers The Range Rover Sport first launched in back when quick xs were still in their infancy Now everyone is at it giving the lads and lasses in Gaydon a tougher task than ever keeping theirs relevant
The Sport follows a few months after the full fat Range Rover’s reinvention
It’s per cent stiffer and sits mm lower to help justify its suffix and comes with fourwheel drive as standard hooked up to an array of petrol diesel and hybrid powertrains
Yep diesel soldiers firmly on here and kicks the range off at a smidge over That gets you a D three litres six cylinders and a mite under bhp in base SE trim ‘Base’ being purely a relative term in the Range Rover universe of course We wish you the best of luck spending just that though options pile on easily and the flagship P with a bhp twinturbo V engine under its clamshell bonnet kicks off at a stocky
There is a plugin hybrid at launch too while a fully electric version lands in The former comes in two specs offering either or bhp peaks Both claim to offer miles of electriconly range let’s call it in the real world and Land Rover reckons per cent of its customers’ journeys can potentially be covered with zero local emissions And of course zero engine noise
The entry D diesel is just about quick enough to feel interesting and no more but it’s not a hugely expensive upgrade to the more potent P petrol if a bit more pace is what you’re after In fact with its bhp inline cyl engine the latter feels like a sweet spot in the range It certainly feels a touch more in keeping with world affairs than the P and its range topping twinturbo V however ‘right’ eight cylinders can’t help but feel in the familiar silhouette of a Range Rover body
Pick of the range though is probably either plugin hybrid option We’ve driven the PHEV in its gutsier P e guise and while around a second slower than the V to mph ¡hitting the benchmark in secs¢ it’s more than brisk enough in real world driving and the novelty of slinking around cities silently in something so grand might never wear off Just watch out for errant pedestrians wandering out in front of you
The handover between engine and motor is supremely slick too making this the most refined car in an already cultured range EV mode also works wonderfully offroad for what it’s worth How many hundred grand SUVs ever scurry over rocks or through
ravines is up for debate but instant torque delivered amidst library quiet makes for a very satisfying way to go green laning If that’s your thing
If your journeys are usually so short then there’s naturally an argument you don’t really need a plush k SUV But there’s rarely been a great deal of rationality applied by anyone purchasing a car in this increasingly crowded corner of the world If threetonne lumps must crawl around urban environments then we’re at least all significantly better off if they’re doing so more eloquently
It’s a big old beast with a bunch of batteries aboard there’s no denying that Land Rover claims an unladen weight “from kg” for the PHEV which means that you will soar past three tonnes by filling yours with fuel family members and their belongings But most mainstream manufacturers appear to have long since given up on fighting size and weight concentrating instead on mitigating their effects with technology
The latest Sport certainly packs an arsenal of that An optional handling pack brings allwheel steering an electronic differential brakebased torque vectoring and something called Dynamic Response Pro a V antiroll programme to help the car corner somewhat flatter than physics might otherwise allow Low gearing as well as hill descent and terrain response systems gives it Land Rover’s usual x cred too
There’s evolution and revolution all at once here Smart plugin hybrids launch the thirdgen Range Rover Sport and a fully electric version follows soon after but those loyal to the brand and buying their umpteenth example ought not to feel too frazzled by the new aesthetic inside and out Land Rover knows how to nod back to its tradition better than most And in a world of increasingly gnarly performance SUVs the comparatively plusher edge of the latest Sport does exactly that Just watch the price as the options pile on
“THE HANDOVER BETWEEN ENGINE AND MOTOR IS SUPREMELY SLICK”