Range Rover Sport SVR: PH Fleet

As the return date looms Dan has to face facts - he's now a Range Rover man

I hadn't expected the SVR to still be around at this point but, last I heard, the car that'll be replacing it on the PH fleet - coming from the same organisation - is yet to be built. This is a good thing, given it enabled a couple of last minute tweaks to the spec and gives me more time to enjoy the SVR's twilight period in my hands.

The first 'blue V8 club' meet not too well attended

You'll have detected from my earlier updates I really wasn't sure about spending extended time in a Range Rover Sport. I've always respected them, if not the way some owners choose to deploy them on the roads. I know they're a minority among a much larger number of decent folk who appreciate the Sport's qualities, but I didn't want the SVR's shoutiness to imply guilt by association. Didn't last long. And the journey from Range Rover agnostic to Range Rover Man took just a fraction of the 15,000 miles I've currently racked up in it.

Having spent plenty of time on the inside I got a chance to experience the SVR as an onlooker the other day too. I'd arranged to meet James in the Surrey Hills for an after work bike ride and had an unexpectedly good run to the rendezvous point in the Lexus GS F. I paced about in the evening sunshine wondering if I was in the right place, there being no phone reception to call James and check. Then, from somewhere a good distance away, a low rumble. Ah! That'll be him! By the time he arrived I was grinning like an idiot - the noise of that V8 and the whipcrack bangs and pops echoing through the trees was unmistakable from (literally) miles away. In this age of false exhaust bumper trims (recent culprits on test include the AMG GT, Audi R8, Akrapovic equipped Megane and many more) I love that it comes from proper slash cut plain pipes too.

Interesting the other day when using the car four-up for a family day out too. My mum was riding in the back and as we accelerated up the motorway slip road I could hardly hear her. Now, many would see drowning out rear seat witterings as a bonus. But I have ridden in the back of the SVR and what's amusing to the driver is borderline noise terror to those on the rear bench. I had a similar experience riding in a V6 petrol F-Pace recently - from the back seat the noise was, frankly, ridiculous. As discussed previously I usually run in 'loud' when on my own but with a push of the button I could once again hold a conversation with my mum, whereupon she praised the acoustics and said it was unusually easy to chat with those in the front.

Fun for driver and passengers? Yep!

And when we hit the backroads I was also able to make some entertaining progress without having to switch the exhaust to loud to drown out squawks from the back seat. I think it's credit to the body control in the SVR suspension settings that such a big, supposedly top-heavy vehicle can motor along twisty, up and down B-roads at a rate that can satisfy a keen driver without prompting moaning from passengers. The SVR is 'softer' and more 4x4-like than a Cayenne, X5 or similar and does move around on its long travel suspension. But the damping is so good you have to be going unsociably fast before it starts to feel even remotely wallowy and the way it can pick apart a B-road like a car half its size and weight remains astonishing. I suspect the seating position helps all parties; as a driver I can see over the hedges, spot hazards early, open out the corners and carve a wider, smoother line while as a passenger these longer sight lines prevent the queasiness you'd get from being flung around in a 'normal' car. The low shoulder line and tall glass house helps too - lack of visibility was one of the Cayenne Turbo S's biggest 'dynamic' flaws when I tested it back to back with the SVR.

It'll be interesting to see if they've managed the same trick with the new SVAutobiography Dynamic version of the full-fat Range Rover announced just the other day. In my new guise as an unashamed Range Rover advocate I look forward to finding out!

FACT SHEET
Car: Range Rover SVR
Run by: Dan
On fleet since: November 2015
Mileage: 20,650
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 compatibility 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: Now even Mother Trent gives the SVR a seal of approval

Previous reports:
Sport SVR makes an instant splash on the PH Fleet
Get me to the church on time
No soggy bottom for Dan, despite Christmas flooding
Sport loses its spark
The (off) road leading home
A bit of paddling at the seaside
SVR goes tunnelling
Le Mans and back, plus a trip to SVO HQ