Heavy metal
SV replaces SVR and with the loss of a letter comes a gain in image The old Range Rover Sport SVR was a brash boisterous car for brash boisterous people The new one has curated wellness tracks The signature colour is now an understated bronze not a punchy blue Someone’s pinched the exhaust’s lips closed And applied technology to the handling The hottest Range Rover Sport has been civilised
So naturally you’re thinking the old supercharged V one of the thirstiest beasts in the automotive jungle will have been replaced by a hybrid six? Think again For all the talk about curated wellness tracks Range Rover knows its audience So this uses a BMW sourced twinturbo V as seen in the M
Power climbs well over bhp from the old SVR allowing the mph time to fall by almost a second Of course it’s not nearly as fast as an M since it weighs the best part of
tonnes but this is a deeply thunderously swift car With this much power the old one would have been a liability Not this one Many tall heavy SUVs use active antiroll bars to hold themselves level through corners The SV has gone beyond employing cross linked hydraulic dampers that pump fluid around to resist not just roll but compression under pitch and dive You chuck it around all you like it stays level No other fast SUV bar the Ferrari Purosangue has chassis tech to match this But this isn’t as dynamic and sharp as that Nor is it as nimble and crisp as a Porsche Cayenne or Lamborghini Urus But that’s not Range Rover’s MO This is intended to be a burly capable secure and engaging SUV And it mostly achieves that Used hard the D Dynamics system feels taut but when the dampers don’t have to work so hard they seem to lose concentration and the ride is softly turbulent Still it’s a better more refined cruiser than anything that you’d consider a rival
A quicker steering rack improves response and connection around the straightahead and optional mm Brembo carbon brakes give it impressive stopping power for a car weighing this much That’s the caveat you have to keep applying to the SV This is for those who believe a sports SUV isn’t a contradiction in terms
If you’re a more discerning car enthusiast and the mention of the BMW M has got you thinking then wait for the Touring That’ll be faster and more fun to drive with its clever switchable WD system This doesn’t have so many traction tricks up its sleeve The system is more rear biased than in other versions but it decides where the power goes not you On track it’s not an SUV that’ll happily slide around but on road it covers ground swiftly and easily and with more precision than you expect from something this big and heavy
There are drawbacks The carbon brakes have no pedal feel at all so it’s actually quite hard to work out how much force you need to apply And whatever you do don’t spec the
inch carbon wheels Yes together with the carbon brakes they save almost kg from the unsprung weight but if Range Rover really cared about making the SV dynamic it would have stripped half a tonne out But that’s expensive to do and hard to sell to buyers More power is cheap and more carbon is very saleable And largely pointless Those carbon wheels are very very vulnerable
Back to those wellness tracks Range Rover commissioned Coventry University to develop them to “help promote mental and physiological wellbeing” They go hand in hand with the BASS ‘Body and Soul Seat’ which consists of four hockey puck like transducers fitted in the backrest of each of the front seats They’re connected to the speaker W Meridian sound system and vibrate with the music so you get to feel it as well as hear it The wellness tracks are all well and good but you’ll soon discover the Foo Fighters tingle the bits wellness struggles to reach and work more harmoniously with the V
The rest of the cabin looks minimalist but operationally is anything but Prepare to wage war with the touchscreen and steering wheel pads Yes even for the aircon Apart from that the SV doesn’t demand you compromise The seats aren’t overly aggressive the environment is calming and even at full bellow the V isn’t too overt The SV is a pretty sophisticated machine
And inevitably not a cheap one The initial run of Edition Ones are sold out even at For contrast the old SVR was k This is much more advanced the engineering is impressive and obviously Range Rover is hoping the move upmarket will mean it retains its value better I’m not sure about that Peel back the sophistication and tech and this remains a thirsty heavy backward looking SUV while simultaneously being the most dynamic Range Rover ever Buyers will love it At least it’s now less obnoxious for the rest of us
“IT COVERS GROUND WITH MORE PRECISION THAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOMETHING THIS BIG AND HEAVY”