All-new Range Rover Sport SV revealed with 635hp
Replacing the SVR was a potentially thorny issue for Land Rover. It has engineered quite the solution...
How to solve a problem like SVR? The original model, launched back in 2015, was Land Rover at its niche-filling, tongue-in-cheek best. Knowing that the raucous concept was likely to rub some of the tweed-wearing faithful up the wrong way, it drove the car so deep into the Halfords’ accessory aisle that no one could possibly mistake it for a core product. Consequently, its status as a shouty outlier provided the perfect cover: any criticism of its garishness could be deflected with a cheesy grin and a knowing shrug. The car was its own thing, from a new division. And its buyers liked cheese.
The problem, if indeed we can call it that, was that Land Rover did its job a little too well. The SVR sold like fondue at a stale bread convention. It went exactly how it looked: loud. And proud, too. JLR’s venerable 5.0-litre V8 has found many homes over the years, but rarely has it been so well matched with its setting. Moreover, freed by the SVO billing, Land Rover turned up the fun factor just as fast SUV demand threatened to hit fever pitch. On the zeitgeist dartboard, three years ahead of brazenly silly stuff like the Lamborghini Urus, the SVR was a bullseye.
At the time, of course, this was all well and good. But eight years later, and the sticking plaster covering up the SVR’s out-there reputation has clearly fallen off. Land Rover, alongside Jaguar, is in the process of moving even further upmarket than it was a decade ago, and (according to the line being trumpeted at the preview event) there’s no longer any room in its tidied-up range for such a maverick halo model. Instead, the manufacturer wants something that, in form and function, blends seamlessly into the new groove established by the latest Range Rover Sport, more a derivative of its namesake than ever before. The shiny new SV is the product of that thought process.
Accordingly, several things have disappeared along with the letter ‘R’. One is the addenda-happy styling. Land Rover likes to talk a lot about ‘reductive design’ these days as a fundamental point of difference, but the relative conservatism of the SV is undeniable evidence of the principle in action. No one could accuse a car sporting carbon fibre-tipped quad tailpipes of being shy and retiring, yet clearly the bodykitted appearance of its predecessor has been replaced with something a bit more cohesive. Whether or not you prefer the more assertive, airflow-friendly front end and reprofiled flanks to what went before is going to have much to do with how much you like the current Range Rover Sport in the first place (this goes double for the interior, where much of the architecture is carried over - save for some new trim choices, a nattier steering wheel and much lovelier sports seats).
If some of the bung-a-spoiler-on-it flair has gone, the underlying sense of fast SUV menace has not. The new model rides 10mm lower than standard by default, but can sink by as much as 25mm depending on the drive mode you’re in. Moreover, Land Rover has (optionally) filled the arches with 23-inch carbon fibre wheels - claimed as a world first, and saving nearly 9kg per corner compared to standard - and wrapped them in ginormous 285 (front) and 305 (rear) section all-season tyres. So not only is the SV drawn downwards onto the striking new rims, they also appear pushed out to meet the bodywork in a way that could politely be called ‘phat’. Factor a raft of other easter egg styling details - including the (optional) return of the bespoke carbon fibre bonnet and colossal (optional, and a first for a Range Rover) carbon ceramic brakes with eight-piston calipers - and the car earns its performance flagship status in the flesh.
This is handy because the SV is not necessarily going to shout about it when running. At least not in the same way as its predecessor did. As expected, the SVR’s supercharged motor is the second feature cast aside, replaced by the BMW-supplied, twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 and eight-speed auto. The new model will not want for power, outputting as it does 635hp - a 60hp upgrade - with peak torque now cresting at a loftier 553lb ft. Or an overboosted 590lb ft, if you’re in Launch Mode, which is probably what you’ll need to engage if you want to replicate the claimed 3.6-second-to-60 mph sprint time. At the same time, the mild-hybrid status of the new engine means that combined emissions have fallen by around 15 per cent.
Unabashed throatiness will have decreased, too. BMW has often coaxed a wonderful exhaust note from the same unit, but no Land Rover engineer we spoke to was prepared to place it on the pedestal next to the outgoing V8. No great loss if you weren’t a fan of the first-generation SVR’s look-at-me flatulence, yet the exuberant V8 soundtrack was indisputably part of the fun-first mindset that distinguished the car from many direct rivals. Again, all the better for aligning the new SV with the hybridised Range Rover Sport variants that sit beneath it in the lineup - and almost certainly more efficient and better refined - but potentially more persuasive on paper than to-die-for in the real world.
Likely sensing this experiential shortfall, Land Rover has sought an alternative must-have: the chassis. The SVR achieved remarkable gains with precious few hardware changes, highlighting the impressive bandwidth permitted by the L494’s air suspension. But this time round, the manufacturer has gone all-in by fitting a hugely sophisticated new system dubbed ‘6D Dynamics’. The combination of hydraulically interlinked dampers, height-adjustable air springs and pitch control is said to be another world first, and has not only dispensed with the requirement for conventional anti-roll bars (an 8kg saving), but also provided the SV with ‘a near-level stance during extreme acceleration, braking and cornering’.
Clearly, the decision to develop and fit cross-linked dampers - a feature only made familiar by McLaren’s long-term association with the technology - was not made lightly; not just because it requires the additional complexity of a third ‘control’ chamber for each damper and clever management of the kinetic pressure to feed them, but also because there’s the small matter of incorporating up to 25 metres of hydraulic pipework under 35bar of pressure (climbing to as much as 140bar under heavy cornering loads). But the proof, Land Rover claims, is in the pudding: not only has roll resistance dramatically increased over and above the capabilities of active anti-roll bars - think 2,300nm of torque compared with 1,500nm - but the sense of here-we-go pitch that characterised the SVR’s standing starts has now been emphatically counteracted by as much as 4,000nm thanks to front-to-back interlinking.
To what end? Well, infinitely superior handling for one thing, but also the kind of comfort that comes from being able to better control each individual wheel. Land Rover says it targeted lateral acceleration in excess of 1G on its standard-fit Michelin Pilot Sport All Season tyres - and achieved 1.1G in testing, a 22 per cent improvement over the SVR on summers. It went to the trouble of developing a new rear subframe and suspension links to help it get there (the car is treated to increased wheel camber, front and back) and applied bespoke SV settings to the all-wheel drive system, the all-wheel steering and the active locking rear diff. The new EPAS rack is said to have the fastest ratio of any Range Rover to date. And a new SV Mode, accessed via a button on the steering wheel, earns you that additional 15mm of lower ride height (among many other things) to ‘deliver the most dynamic and visceral experience possible’.
Yet from speaking to the engineers, there’s a sense that much effort has been expended retaining (indeed, enhancing) the essential capabilities that make the SV an appropriate Range Rover Sport flagship. For all its V8-based derring do, the SVR did a laudable job of playing the comfortable, capable off-roader when required; evidently, the SV has been designed and built to dramatically exceed those benchmarks without resorting to excess. And while some of its new features contribute to additional weight gain even as they toil against the side effects (the 2,560kg unladen EU kerbweight easily outstrips its predecessor), there seems little question that Land Rover is targeting class-leading status for its sleeker, steelier follow-up.
Certainly, it is being marketed that way. Not only has Land Rover restricted the first year of production to ‘select clients’ via invitation - a surefire way of combating the perceived lack of exclusivity that some argued blighted the SVR - it has kicked off with a highfalutin SV Edition One specification that starts at £169,900 (rising to as much as £190k with all the weight-saving carbon fibre components added). This means that anyone lucky enough to qualify for a phone call almost certainly had the option of seeking out a Bentley Bentayga or Aston Martin DBX, which sets a remarkably high bar for the near term, especially in the wake of the sold-out first run. Meeting it would be a foolproof way of putting the old SVR firmly in the rear-view mirror - and go a long way to establishing precisely the kind of performance dynasty that Land Rover thinks befitting of its future.
The car looks great and will no doubt drive even better, but I'm not convinced by the price nor by the invitation only buying process.
The car looks great and will no doubt drive even better, but I'm not convinced by the price nor by the invitation only buying process.
Why they insist on such changes so soon in the life of a new model, presumably requiring further supplier and production line changes, when it’s clear they should focus entirely on production efficiency is beyond me. They can clearly sell more Range Rover and Defenders than they can make at the moment. Mine, on order since July 2021, was even made more than 2 months ago but still not delivered because of “missing parts”. The cash flow implications on that across the company are mind blowing.
The business is so badly run it makes me fear for their future, even with a desirable product line.
And the interior - just f
k off. NONE of it will work in 5 years time. What a load of rubbish - imagination free design, by idiots. Why is a £5 Chinese screen suddenly luxury?! Land Rovers always leave the same impression - a great car mechanically, over-complicated with badly designed suspension systems, poor engine choices and budget interiors covered in leather. The Discovery Sport is the only modern LR product which had integrity in its design - sadly ruined by terrible quality control. I should want an Evoque, but I won't go near one!
Why they insist on such changes so soon in the life of a new model, presumably requiring further supplier and production line changes, when it’s clear they should focus entirely on production efficiency is beyond me. They can clearly sell more Range Rover and Defenders than they can make at the moment. Mine, on order since July 2021, was even made more than 2 months ago but still not delivered because of “missing parts”. The cash flow implications on that across the company are mind blowing.
The business is so badly run it makes me fear for their future, even with a desirable product line.
I even read in Autocar that warranty claims are down by a third...
Why they insist on such changes so soon in the life of a new model, presumably requiring further supplier and production line changes, when it’s clear they should focus entirely on production efficiency is beyond me. They can clearly sell more Range Rover and Defenders than they can make at the moment. Mine, on order since July 2021, was even made more than 2 months ago but still not delivered because of “missing parts”. The cash flow implications on that across the company are mind blowing.
The business is so badly run it makes me fear for their future, even with a desirable product line.
I even read in Autocar that warranty claims are down by a third...
£170k for one of these. Blimey.
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