Tuesday 6th March 2018

Range Rover SV Coupe: Geneva 2018

Gaydon returns to its roots with a two-door Range Rover. Except it's got 565hp. And costs £240,000

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Of course, this has been coming for a while. Coupe versions of SUVs are not new by any stretch of the imagination - Land Rover being the first to remind us that when the Range Rover launched in 1970, it was as a three-door model - but typically they are not full-size or else not what Gaydon would call luxury. Consequently, it claims a 'world's first' with the SV Coupe, a £240,000, four-seat, V8-powered monolith.

The limited edition model (999 examples globally) unveiled at Geneva will be hand-built by JLR's Special Vehicle Operations, and marks the first time that the new division has endeavoured to remake a current Land Rover product in styling terms. Clearly the foundation is the Range Rover, although with the exception of the bonnet and lower tailgate all the Coupe's exterior panels are new, including the front and rear bumpers.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover's chief designer, said: "The Range Rover SV Coupe is a celebration of the Range Rover bloodline. With a dramatic two-door silhouette, this breathtaking four seat coupe alludes to its unique heritage whilst being thoroughly modern and contemporary. Beautifully realised, superbly engineered, the Range Rover SV Coupe delivers the most distinguished, luxurious and exclusive Range Rover ever built."

It's also the first one you can spec with 23-inch wheels, which rather gets to the meat of what the Coupe is all about. Inside, it has been taken "to a new level of luxury: accommodation comparable to private jets and yachts". What that means is that front seats adjust 20 ways, the back seats 10 ways, they all come clad in specially selected semi-aniline leather (from a single tannery) and feature bespoke foam and a unique graduated diamond quilt design. And they're surrounded by wood veneers, multiple 10- and 12-inch touchscreens, a standard panoramic roof and a 23-speaker Meridian sound system. And that's just for starters.

It also qualifies (very marginally) as the fastest full-size Range Rover ever. The Coupe gets the same 565hp 5.0-litre supercharged V8 as the SVAutobiography model, with the same eight-speed ZF 'box and is 8mm lower than a standard car thanks to a bespoke air suspension tune that's intended to make it 'more driver-focused'. It'll still tow 3.5 tonnes though, and wade through 900mm of standing water - it'll just do 165mph as well.

With the full suite of off-road conquering systems onboard (two-speed transfer box, active locking rear diff, Terrain Response 2 etc) expect the Coupe to be no less able than its five-door siblings either. You even get a five-year Care Package which includes servicing and maintenance. So it's just the small matter of that asking price; which is sufficient to buy his and hers Range Rover Sport SVRs - with enough change leftover for a Caterham Seven 310R. But who's counting, eh...

[TrickyTrevM5]

I think this looks cool and reminds me of the teaser photo for the original sport all those years ago (it looked nothing like the photo in the end if you recall)

I love my full size vogue, so this is awesome in my book.

I know that lots of very wealthy people will buy it. But 240k is too much.

that's market forces though.

for 240k, i'd buy a 458 and a vogue autobiography instead.