WANT LUXE,CHARM AND POWER IN ONE PACKAGE? RANGE ROVER SPORT SVR IS ALL YOU NEED

EXPERIENCE THE POWER, STYLE & FLAMBOYANCE OF RANGE ROVER SPORT

Text & Test Driven by Hani Musthafa    Photos: Flywheel

Range Rovers have always been one of those extraordinary cars that never needed an introduction. Range Rover; the name is enough! Now, this is the second generation Range Rover Sport, one of the fastest British SUVs ever made. Being built with the same DNA of Range Rover Sport, SVR has excelled in every single aspect of being a fully loaded SUV. This new breed coming out of JLR’s performance school is incredibly powerful by built and stunningly sporty in looks. And the snarl of rage coming out of the exhaust pipe is simply phenomenal. The car that will go up against Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Cayenne GT in Indian market is one heck of a behemoth.

It’s kind of a loud and quick but large luxury SUV that might at least a bit put some supercars to shame. For the engineers at SV, it’s their everyday activity customising and tailoring vehicles to customers’ needs and in 2015 that customer happened to be a new James Bond movie. Spectre! Well, yes. The 2015 James Bond movie if you assumed it right. Of a number of concepts provided, SVR was the one that they needed as it met their condition of having a car with incredible capability and awful lot of power. The vehicle was meant to be taken for an incredible chase scene in the Alps and they found the right product. The car has surprised a lot of people with its appearance in the movie; everything black, as black as the big tyres. But, here in India for those who know, the colour that comes to their mind when they hear SVR is a spunky blue what they at JLR call Bali Blue.

Except for some intelligent detailing of bumpers and lights, SVR has the same silhouette of the Sport. To define the design in a broader manner, the front bumper and larger air intakes make it more menacing than before. The rear bumper has been wholly revised and is skirted with a diffuser. The quad tailpipes in them give a clear clue of the supercharged V8 monster living underneath the hood. The beautiful curvy tail lamps with the SVR badge make the rear lose its evilness if only the exhaust noise doesn’t interfere. But, the car as a whole with the grille, air intakes, ducts, pillars, the big spoiler, mirrors and the roof finished in black make it look like a daring devil.

The inside of the SVR is in fact based on the standard Range Rover Sport. The fascia is almost the same but the execution is way better and stylish than before. The confidence giving commanding position it offers at the main seat comforts you well with an astounding cabin. You get proper sports seats at the front and rear with fixed headrests. No matter where and how this sports sleeper goes the well-bolstered seats keep you in place. You get to see loads of SVR badges on the seats and B-pillar. The centre console is finished in carbon fibre and the interior as a whole looks dope with no sign of ill. Although the interior is full of sportiness it has not compromised a bit on space. The practicality is amazing and the boot space too is notable but loading very heavy bags to that height might be an ache in the butt. SVR is feature loaded. Apart from regular pieces of equipments, you get a brilliant Meridian surround sound system with 19 speakers, panoramic sunroof, touch-screen system, TFT instrumental display and park assist with a camera.

The 2.4-tonne mammoth is powered by 5.0 litre supercharged V8 that produces 503hp at 6000rpm and 625nm of torque at 2500rpm. The rage can be felt the moment you engage the giant motor, the sound from the rear tells you where the car is taking you but you can’t even imagine at what momentum. You go sprinting towards the end of a road on the back of an angry torque that lets you sleep not scream. Zero to 100kmph comes up in 5.3 seconds and the maximum speed it can go up to is 260kmph. Remember, it’s a 5-seater big size SUV, not a little 2-seater sports coupe.

The reduction of body weight by the use of aluminium has helped a lot to achieve all these amazing figures. It’s not only that, the 8-speed ZF gearbox is fantastic that it makes most of the performance dramas of the SVR quick and interesting.

The dynamics have been improved to a great extent, as a result, the SVR drives incredibly well on the road and off the road as well. SVR gets a retuned suspension that lets the car stay stable at all times during the drive, especially at sharp turns. It feels solid and tough through bends but the high-up sitting position is good for only cornering not off-roading. With the quick and smooth steering it in fact, asks for more to be thrown harder against tight curves. It’s fun. Needless to say, the offroading capability of Land Rovers is well known for all its hi-tech multi-terrain technologies and systems they come equipped with.

Very few vehicles can venture off-road and haul five passengers in luxurious comfort but Range Rover Sport SVR is one of them. But, here in India, most of the SVRs will be owned to be driven on-road and they should know this mammoth can sound even brutal inside tunnels and around hillsides. Noise isn’t always good but that coming out of the exhaust pipe of a V8 is a pure rapture. The sensation of power is all that we crave for and it’s a great start for JLR’s performance division and we can hope better and greater SVs coming. The Ex. Showroom price (Kochi) of the Range Rover Sport SVR is 2.4 Cr*. It’s clear again, great things don’t come cheap.