Land Rover Range Rover Sport SVR First Drive Review

This Blue Whale you see in the pictures is the fastest Land Rover ever made. Few years back, the idea of having more than 200bhp in an SUV was laughable. But times change and how! This 2.4 tonne mammoth makes a mighty 542bhp and can sprint from nought to a hundred in sportscar rivalling 5.3 seconds. Let me introduce you to the Land Rover Range Rover Sport V8 Supercharged SVR(by the time you finish reading the long name the car might have already reached the moon). It is an SUV that is not only happy at being a comfortable cruiser but is also one of the fastest SUVs to lap the Nordschleife Nurburgring. The question is how have they done that? You already have the Sport supercharged version which, with 500bhp on tap is quick enough in a straight line. But it’s a tall car that shares its centre of gravity, and aerodynamic qualities with a robust army truck. Which is where the SVO men come in.  SVO is the high performance division of Jaguar Land Rover. Just like AMG is for Mercedes and M is for BMW, SVO independently engineers, manufactures and customises JLR vehicles.

Unlike other tuning firms SVO haven’t gone overboard with the styling of the Sport SVR. The changes are subtle which makes the performance oriented Sport a sleeper. The design of the SVR features a more sculpted front bumper, with larger air intakes to make it even more intimidating than before. The rear bumper is completely revised too, which is flanked by a large diffuser underneath. The menacing quad tailpipes hint at the fire breathing supercharged V8 under the hood. All the grilles, air intakes, front quarter ducts, pillars, mirrors and the roof are finished in black which makes the car look pure evil. The SVR comes with 21-inch alloy wheels, wrapped in 275/45 R21 all-season tyres as standard.

As the SVR’s cabin is based on the standard Range Rover Sport, you get the same dashboard which is tastefully designed and beautifully executed. The layered dash looks really attractive and the round air-con controls are beautifully finished. You get a commanding driving position and the visibility outside is simply phenomenal. You also get bespoke sports seats both at the front and the rear with fixed headrests. As expected the seats are beautifully crafted, are snug and well bolstered, and keep you in place even when you drive hard. Obviously, there are some additions to let you know you are not sitting in the standard Range Rover Sport. The centre console is finished in carbon fibre, there is no sign of the Indian friendly beige in here and the overall ambience is luxurious and sporty. You also get loads of SVR badges on the seats and B-pillar.

Despite having sporting pretentions, the SVR has a very practical cabin with loads of storage spaces for the front as well as rear passengers. The boot capacity is huge but thanks to the high ground clearance its set quite high which makes loading large bags a pain. The SVR, is loaded with high-tech features. Regular equipment apart you get a brilliant sounding 825w Meridian surround sound system with 19 speakers, panoramic sunroof, a touchscreen system with a six DVD changer, a TFT instrumentation display and parking assist with camera. The touchscreen system though is not very intuitive and feels dated as compared to BMW’s iDrive or Audi’s MMI system.

This is the section of the review where the Sport SVR should shine and it does. The SVR is powered by the same 5.0-litre supercharged V8 that does duty on the standard car. But in the SVR it's tuned for 543bhp which is 40bhp more than the standard car and the same as the F-Type R. The motor makes its intentions clear as soon as you push the start button as it comes to life with a deep gurgle.

With a massive 2466kg to haul around does the Range Rover Sport SVR feel quick? Answers, and the horizon, come flying at you the moment you give this potent V8 motor the beans. There’s a pause as the drivetrain prepares itself and all hell breaks loose. Where the standard car gently presses you into the seat, the SVR pins you down and holds you there till it is done clawing up the tarmac. First few gears serve to squish your internals, while the last few haul you in one long relentless tidal wave of torque by the time which you are on the wrong side of 200kph. It’ll max out at 260kph, and it’ll get there without breaking a sweat and with you sitting in comfort of the silent cabin. That a 2.4-tonne SUV can behave like this is simply absurd and completely unexpected. Zero to 100kph comes up in 5.3 seconds, it’ll growl past 150kph in 10.6sec and 200kph is dismissed in under 20 seconds. It’s one of the quickest SUVs we’ve ever tested and what makes these figures so impressive is the fact that it is still a Range Rover. It still has a heavy low range gearbox and Terrain response system to take you where most other SUVs will only dream of going. To experience this kind of performance elsewhere, you’ll have to drive two-seat sportscars. The 8-speed ZF gearbox is fantastic and makes most of the incredible power on tap.

But the SVR’s party trick is its exhaust system. In normal mode it is quiet and well behaved. But as soon as you push the trick exhaust button the butterfly valves open and it just sounds incredible. It’s got a deep burble at idle, sounding like hairy chested V8 muscle car at part throttle and howls like a supercar as it nears its 6500rpm redline. This makes driving through tunnels or hillsides a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Land Rover has tuned the standard air suspension with adaptive magnetorheological dampers, and active anti-roll bars—for better body control and less roll. They have also given it a stiffer rear subframe bushings and all this results in a car that belies its height and weight. The SVR doesn’t flatter the faint-hearted but once you understand the physics of a tall SUV, it is hugely rewarding. This is a car in which you need to build up speed progressively through corners. It’s best to finish braking before you turn in and then feed in the throttle gently upto the apex before flooring it as you exit. Under hard acceleration, you will feel the front go light as the sophisticated AWD system determines which wheel has the most amount of traction. Lifting off or braking mid-corner unsettles this mammoth, but the all-wheel-drive system and sophisticated stability programme will ensure that you don’t swap ends. Its only in tighter corners you feel the 2.4tonne weight as the active antiroll bars lose their war against body roll.

The ride is pretty impressive and it feels as comfortable as a Range Rover should. Although stiffer than the standard car, the air suspension does a good job of isolating the passengers and the ride is flat and consistent at any given speed. It’s only over sharp bumps that the SVR gets caught off-guard as the suspension tends to crash through them. Even in Sport mode, you hardly feel any jolts and body movement is well controlled which makes it very usable on not very smooth roads too.

Good things don’t come cheap, and in the Range Rover Sport SVR’s case this statement is more than true. The SVR is priced at a stratospheric Rs 2.04 crore (ex-showroom, Delhi). But as Range Rover will sell only a limited number of the SVR, you get such exclusivity which even Rolls-Royce owners will crave for. It is also an SUV which is apt for any given situation - be it taking your grandparents in comfort, thrilling you when you are in the mood to drive fast, and to take you even further when there is no road in sight. In their first attempt this is a phenomenal achievement by the SVO division and they have managed to pack in different personalities in one hugely rewarding SUV.

The Range Rover Sport SVR’s main rivals are the BMW X5M and the Mercedes GLE63 AMG. Although they are much cheaper the Range Rover they aren’t as versatile as the SVR.

Photography by: Kapil Angane

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