Range Rover Sport SVR: PH Fleet
Go large or go home - Dan faces down his anti-SUV prejudices with the arrival of a Range Rover Sport SVR on the PH Fleet
The V8 eruption unleashed on first press of the starter button silenced a lot of those doubts. And an hour into the hectic long-haul drive that was my first experience of the car I'd very much decided I was a Range Rover Sport kind of guy. So much for principles, eh?
Call it hypocritical but however strongly I cling to my anti-4x4 ideals all it takes is a few minutes in a Range Rover and I'm completely won over. It happened when I had a couple of weeks in the outgoing supercharged Sport. It happened when I drove a 'proper' Range Rover to Wales and back. And it's happened barely days into custody of this SVR.
Mooching along in typically apocalyptic M25 traffic on that first drive was a case in point. I know it's one of the less appealing aspects of the SUV mindset but I just felt above it all and wonderfully calm as a result. Those DRLs burning into my back bumper that'd usually have me getting all Stressed Eric? Fill your boots mate, all you're getting is a nice view up the slash cut exhausts. And if the road ahead clears I'll be gone, leaving your windows rattling in my wake. Yup, a man could get used to this.
Saying that I do find myself overly compensating for some of the less appealing characteristics of other SUV owners, especially in town driving. Meaning I end up being obsequeously polite to my fellow road users, to the point they're a little freaked out and unsettled. This, and the fact 'my' Sport doesn't have a private plate, are two things I like to think mark it out from the crowd.
And then I took it on a cross-country drive across North Yorkshire, along a road not dissimilar in elevation changes and corners to a certain 13-mile German circuit that crops up frequently in official literature relating to the SVR (eight minutes, 14 seconds if you didn't get the memo). Early on there's a seemingly vertically inclined hairpin bend, open enough to spot the exit in good time and greasy enough to encourage vigorous exploration of the SVR's 550hp. An alarming amount of road started being used as the power went to the wheels - mine is on the standard 21s and all condition tyres, with a promise of a swap to optional 22s and Contis later - but I had room to spare and keep my foot in. From where the SVR squatted, did some clever stuff involving torque vectoring and differentials and continued round the corner in a perfectly balanced four-wheel drift. From this point slipping into maximum Queef would be all too easy but, truly, this Mega Rover is a bit special.
What I like is how seriously it takes the business of being, fundamentally, a rather silly device. It's a very British self-awareness I think sees the Sport swerve around the overbearing seriousness of its German rivals. It's also - relatively - a much more handsome vehicle to my eyes. Crunching the numbers it's incredible how much choice there is at this level though; the SVR starts at £95,150 and gets air suspension, electronically controlled locking centre and rear diffs, fully active anti-roll, multi-level air suspension and the default eight-speed auto shared with most rivals. These are all familiar from 'regular' Sports but tweaked, tightened, sharpened and generally beefed up for the SVR.
The familiar supercharged 5.0-litre V8 has 550hp and 501lb ft of torque, which is actually a little weedy compared with the Germans. The £93K Cayenne Turbo has 520hp and 553lb ft, the £118K S version 570hp and 590lb ft. An X5 M and related X6 M have 575hp and 553lb ft (and proved monstrously fast in our recent drag races) while the new Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S (and equivalent Coupe) have 585hp and 560lb ft. Both start at comparable mid-90s money too. All pack comparably sophisticated chassis tech with various forms of electronically controlled diffs, (centre of) gravity defying active anti-roll and multi-mode air suspension.
Only the Sport retains any sense of actual off-roaderness though, the low-range gearbox, 850mm wading depth, huge suspension travel and bevy of Terrain Response modes all very 'proper'. And already tested too, as you'll see from the lead photo. OK. My dad got his Fiesta through the same puddle. But I've already found an off-road short cut into town I'd probably not venture down in any of the rivals.
I remain conflicted though. There's a nagging doubt the SVR is the kind of car I shouldn't like. But rather can't help loving. Will this novelty last the long haul though? Watch this space.
FACT SHEET
Car: Range Rover SVR
Run by: Dan
On fleet since: November 2015
Mileage: 4,339
List price new: £106,635 (Basic list of £95,150 plus £450 for Solar Attenuating Windscreen with Laminated Hydrophobic Front, Rear Door and Quarter Light Glass, £600 for 8 inch High Resolution Touch-screen with Dual-View (includes one set of WhiteFire headphones), £4,000 for Meridian Signature Reference Audio System (1700W) with radio and single slot CD player, MP3 disc, file compatability and conversation assist with 23 speakers and subwoofer, Contrast Painted Roof - Santorini Black, Sliding Panoramic Roof including Powered Blind, £185 for Adjustable, Auto-dimming, Heated, Powerfold Memory Exterior Mirrors with Approach Lamps (approach lamps include illuminated Range Rover graphic), £700 for Surround Camera System with Towing Assist, £750 for Wade SensingTM with Blind Spot Monitoring with Closing Vehicle Sensing and Reverse Traffic Detection, £600 for Traffic Sign Recognition and Lane Departure Warning, £1,000 for Head Up Display, £900 for Park Assist featuring Parallel Park, Parking Exit, Perpendicular Parking and 360° Park Distance Control, £1,500 for SVR Carbon Fibre Engine Cover and £800 for Digital TV)
Last month at a glance: First impressions count!
Yet part of me thinks 'Coming to a drug dealer near you' is possibly an appropriate moniker (or driven by WAGs), such is the image of a large SUV that guzzles our precious resources.
Let's be fair, the capabilities of this car are absolutely amazing, astounding speed with agility that but a few years ago would have been unheard of, an ability to cross terrain that would leave its market-place competitors floundering, yet can post and incredible lap-time around the 'ring.
Yet the elephant in the room for any vehicle like this is that most will be registered as dealer demonstrators and/or company cars for M.Ds, and then at 3-4 years old will fall I to the hands of more, well, 'normal' people, albeit well-heeled ones.
But it won't be long after that until we start seeing them become what we used to euphemistically call 'council estate cars' (and no offence meant to readers who do live there). By that we meant appearing on housing estates where the owners are able to afford the car but not the maintenance (after all, those costs are still those of a near £100k car)
In the mean time, let's rejoice in the roars and bellows of a behemoth that governments will no doubt soon be trying to excise from the market place, and who will want to replace the glorious profligacy with something that doesn't cause an iceberg to melt every time the driver flexes his or her right foot....
But it won't be long after that until we start seeing them become what we used to euphemistically call 'council estate cars' (and no offence meant to readers who do live there). By that we meant appearing on housing estates where the owners are able to afford the car but not the maintenance
Good taste and class 'whispers' - this just doesn't.
A highly impressive vehicle no doubt but now in my eyes not aspirational - looking forward to hearing how you get on with it in the long term though.
I'm sure it's an enormously capable vehicle but however good it is, an SUV will never be an option for me simply because I despise the driving position. You've got the wonder how long manufacturers will continue to sell conventional estate cars in the UK, though.
I too was anti-SUV. Financial advantage coerced me in to a pickup truck and to be honest I love it. The naff aspects of the truck would be completely removed by one of these.
I still like having a sportscar and a performance saloon but so long as it's fast and can still do carefree overtakes uphill in a strong headwind with a full load, a big V8 SUV would do fine.
I am sorely tempted to get one (and it wouldn't be noticed where I live) but I my head still tells me to get rid of my mortgage first.
JLR would benefit massively from poaching Audi's "tarting up" man
Im no fan of hot Audi's but they do look a lot less Halfords than this - and I'd still have one as is
Cheers
A fast Range Rover Sport styled by someone from Audi would look every bit as forgettable as, well, an Audi!
I think that one of the reasons that many sensible people scorned the old RRS was precisely because it was built on the Disco platform and yet you were being asked to pay a comedy premium. Made even more farcical when it was the diesel option. This new RRS seems to have a lot of those people over, such as myself, as it is its own car.
I was having lunch on Sunday with a friend who has owned one of the baby Rollers for the last year and he passed the remark that as nice as it was it was beginning to bug him that it was, underneath, a BMW minicab.
The DB7 will always be haunted by this, as will that small Jag. Even the Evoque has had this complaint levelled at it.
And as you allude to, all the premium German SUVs (maybe not the GL? But including the Bentley) will always have the curse of the 'Emperors new clothes' about them.
This effect hasn't just been seen in the automotive industry but almost every premium goods sector on the planet has seen its foundations essentially removed in search of increased sales volumes and profit margins. Whether it be Saville Row suits that have never been in Saville Row, let alone tailored there or the endless traditional English clothing brands stitched together overseas in sweatshops. English shoes made in India. Products just picked from an industry catalogue by supposed 'designers' who then just have their name glued onto a product they played no part in designing or manufacturing.
One thing you can say about the top Rangies is that they are designed from the ground up by the chaps in England, they are built by the chaps in England. They are the real deal. Not some cheap branding exercise as is the way for most 'luxury' goods just whoring their core history to vend ubiquitous products. Like a pair of Hollands, the modern buyer might be a little bit wide but the values that they are buying into are 100% the real deal.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff