Land Rover introduced a new version of Range Rover Sport. It is called Range Rover Sport SVR. And that’s the end of the news. Because, SVR looks really funny and promotes its Nürburgring ability as a promotional content. However, except the lap time (8 mins, 14 secs) there is nothing innovative or exciting.
Still Range Rover Sport SVT cannot show you the world at night through a night vision camera, it cannot stop if a crash is unavoidable by itself, it can not detect pedestrians, it cannot control steering wheel in case you invade the opposite lane and it cannot understand a potential accident and get ready for the impact.
However, you can go around faster and faster in a circuit with a pre-histroic satellite navigation system and unusual air-con features. I will stop moaning about Range Rover, when they introduce innovative technologies.
The SVR’s is powered by a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine and develops to produce 550PS and 680Nm. And engine is coupled with a 8-speed automatic transmission. 0-100 km/h acceleration is 4.5 seconds and top speed is 260 km/h.
Evolution of BMWX5; first generation (E53), second generation (E70) and third generation (F15). Since the first BMW X5 was revealed to market in 1999 and resulted with a success that Land Rover and Porsche introduced vehicles to compete with the X5, Range Rover Sport and Cayenne.
It is quite rare to see all three generation of BMW X5 at the same time but BMW released footage with all X5 generations.
My personal opinion! I know X5 is not a pure off road vehicle but the level of comfort, technology and sportive driving dynamic compensates the lack of locking differentials and low range gearbox. I still go for a Land Rover Defender for serious off road experience.
The new Range Rover Sport is revealed recently and I haven’t written about it. I know the new Range Rover Sport is on everywhere but I didn’t have any motivation to write about it. The main reason is the design similarity with the Range Rover Evoque. Evoque became the epic success of Land Rover and consequently, this financial success influenced the design philosophy of the upcoming Land Rover vehicles. That’s why Range Rover Sport looks like a larger size Evoque.
Personally I don’t like this type of design similarities among different vehicles in the same brand. However, the financial pressure to keep the momentum going causes this problem. Companies don’t want to lose their financially successful design philosophy. As a result of this, the new vehicles looks like previous vehicles.
The new Range Rover Sport is 420-kg lighter than the preceding model and made from aluminium and it weights only 2.1-tonne! I consider as a great success. As a result of this diet, Range Rover Sport will a better handling and more competitive for the new BMW X5!
New Range Rover Sport is powered by two petrol and two diesel engines; 3-lt Supercharged V6 with 340 HP / 5-lt Supercharged V8 510 HP and 3-lt TDV6 258 HP / SDV6 292 HP / 4.4-lt 339 HP. All engines are coupled with 8-speed automatic gearbox.
New Range Rover Sport, fat boy slim. Why I called the new Range Rover Sport, fat boy slim? Very simple! New Range Rover Sport looks exactly the same as Range Rover Evoque, despite the enlarged size Range Rover Sport is 420 kg lighter than predecessor model. Thus, fat boy slim definitely matches with the Range Rover Sport.
The press event of the Range Rover Sport was presented by the Daniel Craig, James Bond. And the presence of Daniel Craig cost $1 million to Land Rover!
So what is new with the New Range Rover Sport?
New Range Rover Sport is now half a tonne lighter than the predecessor, which is a very big improvement thanks to aluminium structure. Thus, the handling and driving experience are definitely improved. Another important improvement is the optional 5 + 2 seating. Unfortunately, Range Rover never offered 5 + 2 seating position and lost quite a bit of market share to its competitors. Now, 7 people can experience the agile and sporty character of the Range Rover Sport. Despite the improvements in agile character, Range Rover Sport does offer serious off road capabilities, thanks to new Terrain Response 2 system, off road driving is easier than before.
The engine offered by the Range Rover Sports are; two petrol engines, 5.0-litre 510PS V8 and the new 3.0-litre 340PS V6. Also, two diesel engines 3.0-litre 258PS TDV6 and 292PS SDV6. Moreover, 4.4-litre 339PS SDV8 diesel version will be available soon to compete with the BMW X5 / X6 M50d. All engines are coupled with 8-speed automatic gearbox. And also there will be a four-cylinder petrol engine will be available in future.
New Range Rover Sport offers head up display, traffic sign recognition and Wade Sensing technology, which enables vehicle to identify the depth of the water. These technologies are quite new to Range Rover, and I can see that Land Rover wishes to keep up with its competitors.
The interior is exactly the same as the Range Rover except the gear knob. Range Rover Sport offer Jaguar F-Type gear lever, which is way better. Literally, new Range Rover Sport is less utilitarian and more luxurious, unlike the predecessor model.
My personal opinion, new Range Rover Sport does look good and offers competitive technology with respectful level of luxury inside the cabin. And I am definitely sure that, new Range Rover Sport is really fun to drive and looks way better than before! However, it will be too early to say that it is the best SUV with sport character because we don’t have the new BMW X5 yet. Until that time, Range Rover Sport is the new king.
New Range Rover Sport photos are here. A few hours ago the photos of new Range Rover Sport was leaked to internet. As I mentioned in my previous posts, new Range Rover Sport looks like a fat or larger or under steroids Evoque! Land Rover created the Range Rover Evoque and everyone loved, and now Land Rover is trying to extend the Evoque design philosophy to rest of their vehicle range to keep their sales momentum at high level.
In the meantime, Land Rover risks the exquisite design of Evoque and is getting to closer to “too common”, “became too boring” border! Repeating the same design items in many vehicles hinders the risk of losing sales! It is a risky decision and now Land Rover is doing quite well with this risk taking, but for how long?
Honestly, new Range Rover Sport look really nice. Definitely a fresh product to sporty SUV market :)
New Range Rover Sport is very closer than you think. Actually, finally we will see a new Range Rover Sport. The existing model was a bit beyond the industry’s product life cycle for SUVs. BMWX5 and PorscheCayenne product life cycles are only seven years. Every seven-year, we see new model. However, Land Rover has a different strategy; their product life cycle is definitely longer than seven years and this leads to lose momentum against the competitors. Therefore, we tend to see less Range Rover Sport on the roads.
Hopefully, the new Range Rover Sport will be revealed soon on 26th March and a new face will appear on the roads. I think, new Range Rover Sport will look something between the Evoque and the new Range Rover. Basically, new Range Rover Sport may lose the bold design and may have a department store explorer design.
The engines will be same with the new Range Rover, and Sport will be ligther as well. According to Land Rover, new Range Rover Sport will be something totally different in terms of driving experience. Land Rover says; faster, most responsive and most agile. These words are really bold statements.
I am more excited to see the new Range Rover Sport!
