By Jeff Glucker
Stuffing a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 into the snout of a Range Rover Sport delivers a recipe for good times. The mighty mill doles out 626 horsepower. Power gets to the ground via a quartet of 23″ wheels. These aren’t simple alloy rollers, though, as this Rover wears carbon fiber hoops. Behind the wheels? Carbon ceramic brakes. And keeping the action steady is Land Rover’s intriguing 6D Dynamic suspension system.
The Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two behaves as a sort of McLaren SUV. It’s wild, from its price tag to its performance.
Let’s talk more about that 6D suspension for a moment. You have an adaptive air suspension working in concert with hydraulically controlled cross-linked dampers. Pitch, roll, dive, and every angle in between are reduced to deliver a more composed and comfortable in-cabin experience. While I’d love to experience that experience in an off-pavement environment, this isn’t the Rover for that party. I’ll have to wait until I get my hands on the new Defender Octa for that.
On the road, however, this Range Rover Sport SV is a monster. Terrifically quick through the corners, yet as luxurious and comfortable inside as you would expect it to be. It’s a beast that spits in the face of physics, pees on your wallet and then lights it on fire, yet would still look at home in the drop-off line for your kids’ school or at the valet stand at the fanciest dinner spot in town.
What a machine… and it should be since it sits far north of the $200,000 mark, as tested.