Range Rover Sport SVR - more details

£93K starting price and more confirmed ahead of public debut later in the week

The Range Rover Sport SVR will be officially unveiled later this week at Pebble Beach (no, it wasn't at Wilton...) and following revelations about its lap time around that ruddy race track in Germany and 550hp power output we've got more impressive numbers confirmed.

Pebble Beach? No. Scotland? No. Photoshop? Yes.

Like a £93,450 starting price. For reference the (recently updated) Cayenne Turbo starts at £92,628. Pure coincidence there, of course.

It's swings and roundabouts in other comparable stats, the Range Rover 30hp more powerful but losing out on torque with its 501lb ft to the Cayenne's 553lb ft. The Range Rover is a tenth slower to 62mph and on the Autobahn the Porsche has another 10mph in hand once the Sport tops out at 162mph. Does spec sheet willy waggling matter in the grand scheme of things? Possibly more in this market sector than others.

But the Range Rover has tricks up its sleeve beyond that 'ring lap time. Unlike the more road optimised Cayenne the Sport remains true - to an extent - to its off-road heritage and maintains all the ability of the rest of the Sport range with a low-range gearbox and 'Wade Sensing'. Though probably not with the all-new 22-inch signature wheel and its 295/40 Continental SportContact tyres. As standard it comes with 21-inch wheels and 275/45 all-season rubber for a degree more off-road ability though it remains unlikely many will be joining the camo-clad boys for a spot of winching out in the wilds.

Sport SVR promises to do the biz on the road...

Tick your stereotypes off as we go but the SVR's off-road ability is probably about as relevant as that 'ring record to most owners. Refer back to earlier paragraph about bragging rights... Beyond some additional visual muscle - like the Sport was lacking in that already - Range Rover has also developed a special 'two stage active exhaust featuring electronically controlled valves' that lets you make noise when you want to but keeps things refined when you don't. Quad pipes mark it out from the regular V8.

In terms of what the SVR represents beyond that it's a significant step for both Land Rover and Jaguar given that it's the first mainstream model from the new Special Vehicle Operations department run by former Land Rover boss John Edwards. The Project Seven F-Type, Team Sky F-Type and continuation E-Type Lightweights on the Jaguar side have demonstrated its talents for one-off commissions, extremely limited run specials and heritage based projects but with the SVR we've got a product that'll appear in showrooms.