Saturday 28th November 2015

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

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From the low-slung driver's seat of a BMW M4 to the lofty heights of a Range Rover Sport SVR is quite a climb, whether you're measuring it in horsepower, cost, perceived status or - literally - seat height. You'll know the BMW has been a slow burner, blossoming into full-on love affair as the loan has progressed. There is some overlap meaning I'll be jumping between the two (file under 'tough job', etc) but when I first hoisted myself into the SVR and looked down on the world around me I couldn't escape the nagging doubt I didn't really feel like a Range Rover Sport kind of guy. The M4, in contrast, feels very much 'me'.

Engine note helped change Dan's mind

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.

Four-wheel drifts are easy in 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.

Good place to look down on the world

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.

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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!

[rtz62]

Part of me would so want to own one of these, it does everything that any reasonable person could want )passing petrol station forecourts excepted).
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....

[rtz62]

Debaser said:

rtz62 said:

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

Does anyone really care about all that?

Do I take it that your comment is about my post, or just about the points I've made?
Appropriate user name if it's a criticism of my viewpoint...
I Just love it when all some people can do is slate a persons point of view.
No, the initial purchasers won't care, as the vehicle will in all likelyhood be a company perk, and the second owner will see the big saving they have made over new.
I am one that fully appreciated how amazing this car is, and would prefer one over any of its competitions, bar none, but I was just throwing some thoughts out there into the ether.
With regards to the 'it's trading at a premium', well that's fine in the very short term for the 'speculators' but surely the corollary is that it will fall quicker after that initial burst?
I think my comment about the car still having the maintenance costs of a £90k+ car are valid, although tempered by the knowledge that many will subsequently take cars like these to specialists, which will reduce costs.
Looking at some PH ads, it's amazing how little, relatively, a Posche Cayenne Turbo can be had for, and the same goes for a Range Rover Supercharged.
As I said previously, a lottery win would see one of these on my drive, no question, although SWMBO prefers the Cayenne. Strange woman....