Saturday 23rd January 2016

Range Rover Sport SVR: PH Fleet

No soggy bottom for Dan, despite the Christmas flooding

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As a bit of a music snob I maintained a somewhat snooty attitude towards Adele, more so to the millions who buy her albums out of apparent duty rather than any sense of musical appreciation. Then, in the midst of some particularly desperate Christmas channel hopping, I stumbled across a Graham Norton special featuring chat with the lady herself between interludes on stage to belt out another tune or two.

And I had to face an unexpected realisation. I rather liked her bawdy personality. My taste or not I couldn't help but respect the fact she absolutely nails what her audience wants. And delivers it to them with utter professionalism and considerable swagger. Dammit, even her band were a cut above the usual over-earnest session fruggers.

What the hell was I doing spending my Christmas watching Adele being fawned over by Graham Norton? Well, I wasn't going out. No white Christmas for me. Rather, plenty of opportunity to demonstrate the Sport's 850mm wading depth, if I'd felt sufficiently tactless to explore this ability. I did wonder if a little Christmas cheer could be brought to the residents of Hebden Bridge by getting a £100K Range Rover conspicuously swamped in the town square. But decided against it.

Hence plumbing the depths of the seasonal TV schedules. And facing the fact my view of Adele actually mirrors that I have toward the SVR.

It's not really my thing. I'd usually be contemptuous of the kind of people who'd buy it. But I have to admire the execution. And respect the way the people who build it fully appreciate what their customers want out of a car. Actual meaningful examples of this? ZX Spectrum infotainment display aside the interior is lovely; stylish, well built and with way more character than any of the immediate rivals. Praise be for the steering wheel too! I know it's a detail but the fact it's round and free of excessive girth or stupid indents for fat-thumbed Neanderthals is refreshing in this day and age.

It's just a quality product at the end of the day, one blessed with above average talent and charisma. But before I got chance to really enjoy this revelation it was once again taken from my grasp for another public event, in this instance hauling gear for the PistonHeads stand at Autosport before taking pride of place on it.

As you read this I'll be back behind the wheel and enjoying a rather exciting and PH-relevant exploration of its true talents. Ones based around the hopefully exciting things that can be achieved with a 550hp V8, torque vectoring diffs and a loose surface. More on this in due course. But if this is what confronting your prejudices involves I'm man enough.

I'll draw the line at letting Adele put the £4K Meridian speakers to the ultimate test though.

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FACT SHEET
Car: Range Rover SVR
Run by: Dan
On fleet since: November 2015
Mileage: More
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: Hello from the other side as Dan's SVR is 'borrowed' once more

Previous reports:
Sport SVR makes an instant splash on the PH Fleet
Get me to the chruch on time

Photos: Ben Lowden (NEC shots) and Chris Teagles

[P4GNO]

I suppose if you are spending that much you may as well spend another £1500 on a carbon fibre engine cover that no-one except the service dept. is going to see.

[Don1]

Saw this at Autosport. Tiny boot - really disappointing.

[Turbobanana]

Nice Adele references - very topical.

Shame Christmas was ruined for many by too much rain. Must have been caused by Skyfall

Sorry.

[Tim16V]

Didn't realise these had hit £100k so easily now. Good luck to them though if that's where the market stands.

[Fetchez la vache]

P4GNO said:

I suppose if you are spending that much you may as well spend another £1500 on a carbon fibre engine cover that no-one except the service dept. is going to see.

Was going to mention this. Is this it? Srsly?

[treetops]

Was behind one yesterday, really wanted to be impressed but wasn't, just looked ordinary. Same colour as the above too.

I think I'd rather have a used Bentley or something.

[CSK1]

... or a proper Range Rover, L405 that is. I'd take the previous proper Range Rover gen L322 5.0L Supercharged over this any day.

[giblet]

I'm still impressed by the sound they make. Heard you rev it as you arrived at Ginetta for the last PHSS and it sounded filthy for a Range Rover. Saw one the other day on the road, a bit bling but better than the usual tarted up effort from Kahn et al.

[Oliver-2optb]

Looks lovely, as you say if you are into that sort of thing?
How does it compare to the FSTI which must be on a similar footing in some respects?

[MrTurner]

giblet said:

I'm still impressed by the sound they make. Heard you rev it as you arrived at Ginetta for the last PHSS and it sounded filthy for a Range Rover. Saw one the other day on the road, a bit bling but better than the usual tarted up effort from Kahn et al.

It was me who asked for the aural performance when leaving. I'm disappointed my XFR with such a similar engine sounds so much tamer than the SVR. If any one has an idea of how to get a similar sound (including adding valves for "sports" mode) I'd be really keen to hear!

[giblet]

MrTurner said:

giblet said:

I'm still impressed by the sound they make. Heard you rev it as you arrived at Ginetta for the last PHSS and it sounded filthy for a Range Rover. Saw one the other day on the road, a bit bling but better than the usual tarted up effort from Kahn et al.

It was me who asked for the aural performance when leaving. I'm disappointed my XFR with such a similar engine sounds so much tamer than the SVR. If any one has an idea of how to get a similar sound (including adding valves for "sports" mode) I'd be really keen to hear!

I've been trying to convince my brother to get an aftermarket exhaust for his XFR as I agree about it sounding so tame for a car with the same engine as the SVR and the F Type R. I did a bit of searching for him and the X Force Varex setup caught my eye.

More info on the following links -

http://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xf-xfr-x250-44/v...

http://www.jaginfo.org/showthread.php?24417-X-forc...

This lets you have 3 different modes. Fully closed which is ideal for early morning startups, half open for a bit of noise and fully open for nutter mode.

The backboxes aren't cheap though, I had a quick look and a pair including shipping and customs charges would be £800 or thereabouts.

[oldtimer2]

From my reading of a Range Rover Sport forum, actual owners of SVRs seem to like these vehicles. In several instances they have replaced exotica like the R8 or a Porsche. Whereas the exotica were little used, their SVRs get used a lot - not least because they are much more versatile and practical. Besides which they provide plenty of grunt, fun and noise on demand.

[I WISH]

I'd love to know just how Dan knows that millions of people are buying Adele albums out of a sense of duty. Has it become suddenly trendy to diss those who like Adele ..... in a similar way to those who made ill judged comments about Brothers in Arms in the 80s just because it sold by the truck load.
I quite like Adele. Perhaps not enough to buy an album .... but I respect those who get great pleasure from listening to her.
I don't particularly enjoy thrash metal ..... but I don't criticise those who do.
There's nothing quite as bad as musical purism and a "knowing" trendy trashing of something that falls out of favour with those who feel that they're too cool to like a mainstream artist.

[Dan Trent]

But that's the point! My supposed musical snobbery was made to look a bit silly when I had to face the fact Adele is talented, charismatic, self-deprecating and knows exactly what her fans want. I wanted to think I was too cool to be impressed. I was wrong!

Anyway. Back on topic. We'll have more on this in due course but as I'm here I thought I'd share a couple of amusing shots from our day out with the SVR at Blyton yesterday. Throws some interesting shapes on the track, that's for sure!

Cheers,

Dan

Edited by Dan Trent on Friday 22 January 16:22

[SuperchargedVR6]

Impressive bulk management!

[dlockhart]

with a £1500 engine cover I would be nervous about taking it to a garage.

[Sheepshanks]

dlockhart said:

with a £1500 engine cover I would be nervous about taking it to a garage.

It's something you soon get used to when you own a RangeRover.

[Impasse]

Sheepshanks said:

dlockhart said:

with a £1500 engine cover I would be nervous about taking it to a garage.

It's something you soon get used to when you own a RangeRover.

Yep. It happens once a year, every year for me. Bad times.

[RoverP6B]

Adele isn't talented. Her songs are lyrically and musically inane and her voice is nothing special - the records are autotuned to hell. She sells because she has the corporate might of the BRIT School, BRIT Awards and a major record label behind her. As Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer rightly observes, "If you went to the BRIT School, you don't count!".

On the other hand, the Range Rover SVR seems to be a very capable all-rounder - family estate, a bit of a driftmobile, off-roader, grand tourer, bloody quick in a straight line and makes one of the better automotive noises of recent years.

[V8LM]

oldtimer2 said:

From my reading of a Range Rover Sport forum, actual owners of SVRs seem to like these vehicles. In several instances they have replaced exotica like the R8 or a Porsche. Whereas the exotica were little used, their SVRs get used a lot - not least because they are much more versatile and practical. Besides which they provide plenty of grunt, fun and noise on demand.

SVR is my daily. Wonderful car.