Range Rover Sport 2009 Review

What do you do with a 2.5 tonne off-road sportscar? If you are Land Rover you give it a little more flash and a lot more dash. The Range Rover Sport has always been a bit of an enigma a bulky, extremely capable off-roader that has pretensions of mixing it with the quick boys on the hard-top. Neither fish, nor fowl ... but tasty none-the-less.

For the 2010 upgrade the Rangie Sport has been given a gentle exterior make-over to bring it into line with the new corporate identity three-bar grille and style cues for the full-fat Range Rover, two for the Sport and a single bar, or finger as Land Rover director of design Gerry McGovern likes to describe it, for the Discovery and a far more substantial going over for the interior and mechanical packages.

"It's a case of an evolution on the outside and a revolution on the inside," McGovern says. "The four key attributes of the Range Rover ... functionality, sustainability, premium and desirability ... are all there, but our customers believe less is more. They do not want to be challenged by complexity."

To that end, the Sport's instruments and switchgear have been rationalised with the result that there is claimed to be 50 per cent fewer buttons with many of the functions now linked through a touch screen that is a close relative of the one in the Jaguar XF.

The functionality of the satellite navigation has been greatly enhanced by running it through a 40gb hard drive that not only speeds up the various operations but allows for some fairly sophisticated graphics.

Unlike in the Discovery, the terrain response dial has not been moved into the dash, which is a pity. But the Sport does win a major function change in the inclusion of a dedicated on-road setting for higher-speed driving. The Dynamic setting is designed to take advantage of the Sport's sophisticated new adaptive damping and not inconsiderable suspension tweaks.

Driving

At speed on the highway -- and the Sport is capable of considerable speed -- the new supercharged V8 (the only model on which the adaptive damping is standard) is by some considerable margin more settled and refined than the outgoing model. The ride quality over general lumps and broken surfaces is excellent and although there was no opportunity to test it on the launch drive the engineers insist that the issue of resonating bounce over corrugations has been addressed.

The downside of the new suspension architecture is that the chassis tuners have been forced into a slight compromise on steering at least on the supercharged model with adaptive damping. Nobody at Land Rover will go on record but one chassis engineer conceded privately that the steering is a little less sharp on turn-in and slightly more vague off-centre than had been targeted shortcomings dictated in part by the Sport's need to be both sportscar and mud-walloper.

Drivetrains

Under the bonnet the Sport gets a trio of new engines and retains an old favourite. The hero engine is destined to be the 3.0-litre sequential twin turbo diesel, a 180kw and 600Nm unit Australia will also see in the Discovery 4.

The parallel sequential turbo system differs from twin in-line turbos in that for much of the time only a single turbocharger is employed. However, with the two turbos effectively eliminating lag the diesel's huge urge is on tap from near the bottom of the rev range through to peak power. However, if it is good off the line it is brilliant in the mid-range where the big car positively leaps at any opportunity to overtake.

The high-performance card in the engine deck is the all-new 375kW 5.0-litre supercharged which replaces the outgoing 4.2-litre unit bringing 29 per cent more power and 12 per cent more torque (625Nm) while reducing fuel consumption by 6.9 per cent and emissions by 7 per cent.

As aggressive as it is, the supercharged eight is still a smooth unit with a nice line in induction tuning for those who like to hear their supercharger dollars working.

As a pair with the naturally aspirated version of the engine (276kW and 510Nm) the V8s feature a couple of industry-first technologies with central spray-guided direct injection and torque-activated variable timing on all four camshafts.

All three of the new engines are coupled to a revised ZF six-speed automatic.

Rounding out the engine portfolio is the carry-over 3.6-litre V8 diesel with an unchanged 200kW and 640Nm.

Equipment

Depending on the trim level there is plenty of fruit in the Range Rover Sport. On the menu is climate control, bi-xenon lights, active cruise control, 20-inch rims, Bluetooth, five external cameras for panoramic surround views of the car, keyless entry, leather, satellite navigation and a nine-speaker Harman/Kardon audio system.

That's just the luxury stuff. The functional off-road gear includes the dial-a-situation terrain response, hill descent control, air suspension and low-ration gearbox all available at the twist of a knob or push of a button.

The ‘off-roading for idiots’ programming of the terrain response means that with just a moderate amount of commonsense and a few simple rules of thumb there are precious few places where a Range Rover Sport will not take you in comfort and confidence.

During the launch drive in Scotland, albeit under the watchful eye of the Land Rover Experience team, the Sport utilising the new 3.0-litre twin turbo diesel tackled glutinous mud ruts, a bonnet-deep river crossing, seemingly impossible climbs and descents and rock crawls without a moment of concern. Impressive stuff.

Range Rover Sport
Price: TBA but expect from $100,000
Engine: 5L/V8 supercharged 375kW/625Nm; 5L/V8 276kW/510Nm; 3L/V6 twin turbo diesel, 180kW/600Nm; 3.6L/V8 turbo diesel 200kW/640Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic; all-wheel drive
Economy: 15L/100km (V8 supercharged), 13.9L/100km (V8), 9.2L/100km (V6 diesel), 11.1L/100km (V8 diesel)