Range Rover Sport SV review: Totally unnecessary – but you would have one if you could (2024)

The word “sport” is not one you might readily associate with Range Rover, but it’s one that has become irrevocably attached to this most revered of off-road brands. Although, it doesn’t make huge sense when you think about it. Why, after all, is a sporty Range Rover necessary? Isn’t this a vehicle designed for gravel tracks, muddy fields and wading through rivers?

It is and it isn’t. While the cars are enormously capable in the rough, built with the latest driver aids and technological prowess, it’s difficult to imagine a huge percentage of Range Rover owners driving theirs off-road. You’re more likely to see one on the inner-city school run or in the collections of your favourite sports team’s starting 11 (or XV). Which is where the Sport model comes in.

The demand for ever more powerful, larger and luxurious SUVs is only increasing. It is the market segment that all luxury car makers are relying on to ensure growth and stability. Fifteen years ago it would have been impossible to imagine a Ferrari or Aston Martin SUV, yet both are best-sellers for each company.

And this is where Range Rover was ahead of the curve. Its first Sport model was launched in 2005, when the closest car the Italian sportscar maker had to an SUV was the long, low, V12-engined 612 Scaglietti grand tourer.

Originally designed to be slightly smaller, lighter and quicker than the full-fat Range Rover, the first generation, range-topping Sport came with a supercharged 4.2-litre Jaguar V8 engine and brakes from Italian specialist Brembo as standard.

The next generation in 2013 raised the bar. This time, the range-topping model bore the SVR moniker, or Special Vehicle Rating, and it was the most performance-oriented Range Rover ever. It had quad exhausts, an optional carbon-fibre bonnet and a rear diffuser for cleaner aerodynamics. It also had the 5-litre V8 engine borrowed from the Jaguar F-Type sports coupé, with 550bhp. It’s the type of expensive SUV you would be likely to see blasting around classier postcodes of towns and cities, popping and banging with its raucous, machine-gun-like exhaust note. And it was preposterously rapid.

Fast-forward to 2024 and there’s a new, top-of-the-line Range Rover Sport and, among other things, it’s lost the “R” part of the badge. The Sport SV is the new flagship performance model and it’s the most powerful Range Rover ever: 626bhp, 0-60mph in 3.8 seconds. Huge Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes. These are all things you’d expect on a low-slung supercar and yet they are found in this 2.5-ton SUV. “The mission was to develop the most technologically advanced, dynamic, capable performance Range Rover Sport ever,” said Geraldine Ingham, the global managing director, at the car’s launch in Portugal.

While the bald performance figures are present and correct, the looks have changed and this isn’t the super-aggressive, loud and obnoxious car it once was. The overall look and feel is one of refinement and grace rather than shouty aggression. The body is silky smooth rather than angled, with fewer indents, rakes and pointy bits. The quad exhausts remain, hinting at the power within, but the diffuser is gone, while the rear loses the big Range Rover’s elegant lights, replacing them with a more conventional squinting set-up.

This new-found elegance is evident in the way it sounds, too. The old SVR’s supercharged 5-litre V8 was punchy, to say the least. The new 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 unit has 50 more horsepower, but it’s softly spoken and barely audible in comfort mode, effortlessly wafting up to four people along in absolute comfort.

Dial in the SV Mode setting and the exhausts open up a little, but it remains a pleasant background noise rather than an all-consuming orchestra. This engine is shared with the latest BMW M5, and while it doesn’t set your soul on fire, it provides more power and torque than you’d ever need.

The handling is more impressive. Around the notoriously challenging Portimao circuit, the SV is confidence-inspiring. You might argue that a Range Rover has no place on a race track, but after just one sighting lap it’s easy to forget you’re behind the wheel of a two-and-a-half-ton behemoth. The steering is precise and the front end easy to place.

Noticeable is the lack of body roll, which is thanks to the fancy new 6D Dynamics suspension, a semi-active system that reduces pitch and roll. Most impressive of all might be the brakes, which as tested were the huge Brembo carbon-ceramic items that stopped the car as quickly as it went.

Driving a Range Rover on the road is one of life’s great motoring luxuries. It envelops you like a warm duvet, cocooning you from the stresses of the outside world. Behind the wheel of a Range Rover, every street feels like it has been freshly tarmacked, traffic a momentary distraction.

Everyone else on the road might despise you, but that’s OK. You have massaging seats. The Sport SV delivers on this resolute luxury, but with the addition of 626bhp and the confidence that you can out-accelerate most high-performance sports cars.

It is two vehicles in one. A limousine that retains the Range Rover’s famed off-road abilities, as well as a threateningly quick V8-powered device that redefines what a sports utility vehicle is.

Do you, or anybody else, need one? Of course you don’t. But if power, size and comfort are what you’re after, there are a few options. Its rivals are equally bonkers. There’s the Bentley Bentayga, the Aston Martin DBX and the Lamborghini Urus, three wildly powerful, hugely expensive machines. They all represent the pinnacle of performance SUVs, but the Range Rover wins for its sheer breadth of capability.

Is it worth its £171,460 (without options) price tag? That’s a bit like asking if a one-bedroomed London penthouse is worth it. You’d get more value for money elsewhere, but if you could have one, you probably would.

Related Topics

• Land Rover,
• Motoring,
• Luxury motoring