2021 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Reviews

Peter Barnwell road tets and reviews the Range Rover Sport TDV6 SE with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

Stuart Martin road tests and reviews the Range Rover Sport SDV8 with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

Tim Vaughan road tests and reviews the Range Rover Sport SDV6, with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

Like its big brother Range Rover, the all-new Range Rover Sport has been on a serious diet. Compared with the previous generation Sport the new one is as much as 420 kg lighter

Aluminium was once used solely for saucepans, soft drink cans and aeroplanes. Now it's singularly responsible for taking the fat out of SUVs.

History will probably judge the new Range Rover Sport as a pivotal vehicle in Land Rover's 65 year career.

There’s barn-storming and then there’s barn-flattening. The supercharged V8 in the Range Rover Sport could achieve both.

The 2014 Range Rover Sport range is:

In the course of a few crowded hours one afternoon this week we charted the extremes of the passenger vehicle spectrum.Leaving the smooth tarmac of South Wales we swept along gravel surfaces that could belong to a stage of the World Rally Championship. There followed a dissection of B to C hardtop that could hardly have been incised more sharply in a roadster.Then, on England's original off road torture ground, we descended a slope so towering and precipitous that it can't be walked. That behind us, we sauntered to day's end along the motorway at 150km/h, the supercharged V8 barely ticking over.  The next day we drove up into, through and out of a 747. But that's another story. All of this was accomplished in one vehicle (and on one type of tyres).The top line variant of Range Rover's new Sport is a polymath, a renaissance figure, one whose breadth of fully realised abilities should not be possible in a single SUV. There are undoubtedly rivals that perform some or even most of the Sport's feats, some of these with marginally more competence.None bring off the lot with the Sport's all-pervading sense of driver cosseting ease. The second generation Sport needed to stand further apart from its senior sibling than did the first. It does so and writes its own ticket for any form of journey you care to undertake.On sale in November, prices are up by some one per cent for an altogether better car. The turbo diesel line-up starts at $102,800 for the TDV6 SE, powered by a 190kW/600Nm 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6. The SDV6, with a 215kW version of that engine, is $113,600. The higher spec HSE is $125,800 and the flagship Autobiography $145,500.If diesel doesn't do it for you, the HSE grade also comes as a 250kW/450Nm 3.0-litre supercharged petrol V6 for $123,100. The gloriously excessive 375kW/625Nm 5.0-litre supercharged V8 is $161,600 in HSE Dynamic grade and $182,400 as Autobiography Dynamic.It's a gaping price range for what is essentially a variant of the Range Rover "proper" (the previous Sport was built off Land Rover Discovery underpinnings) yet in keeping with the diversity of this Rangie's range. The base car, which is priced at the level of an over optioned Evoque, gets as standard 19-inch alloys, leather trim, six-way driver and four-way passenger electrically-adjustable front seats, rear parking sensors with rear camera, dual-zone climate control, and eight-inch touchscreen with hard disc drive and satellite navigation.To that the spicier SDV6 adds high- and low-range gearing, adaptive suspension, Terrain Response and 20-inch alloys. It's here that the Sport lineup really begins. HSE spec chucks in paddleshifters, xenon headlights, nicer leather, yet further adjustable front seats and steering column, aluminium tread plates and front parking sensors.The fully blinged Autobiography raises the player's game to 21s, high-beam assist, 18-way electrically-adjustable front seats, front seat cooling and heating, mood lighting, centre console fridge and Meridian audio. The V8 Supercharged variants cop amazingly enabling dynamic suspension and torque vectoring with an active rear locking differential. Elsewhere it adds $8100.Indeed, in keeping with being a serious rival to top end BMW X5s and Porsche Cayennes, the Rangie doesn't stint on big priced options - try $1420 for the blind spot monitor that can had on a $50K Commodore, $3,200 for climate control and an outrageous $4200 for premium metallic paint. Transforming this five seater SUV to seven costs a further $3700 for all grades. A hybrid diesel is en route.There's so very much of this, a tech four de force. Yet the Sport's coolest aspect is in rendering you largely ignorant that this vast battery of trickery is at work. It's this seamlessness - from the eight speed ZF auto to big brained automatic terrain selector - that makes the Sport the luxury vehicle of the 2013.Yet possibly the most impressive aspect is what's not there; as much as 420kg and at least 230kg in weight saved over the previous model, reducing acceleration times and fuel figures alike, an equation in which the all aluminium platform is chief denominator. The drive enhancements take the Sport, indeed Land Rover a whole, into a new realm.Retaining and even enlarging upon Land Rover's traditional offroad competencies, the Sport thoroughly deserves that much abused appellation. The steering is direct at three turns lock to lock. It's a new system, as is the four-corner air suspension which delivers greater than average travel.Upper variants get a dedicated Dynamic mode in the Terrain Response system, tying down the body and reducing roll when the hardtop corkscrews, abetted by slotting the gear shifter into sport. But left to its own devices, the auto selector is adept enough to identify and adapt to conditions. Dynamic Active Rear Locking Differential combines with torque vectoring to keep nose and tail in the designated direction under intense duress.One bespoke tyre suffices for the Sport's multitude of tasks - Pirelli Scorpion Verde. No need to risk a manicure changing rubber between rock crawling and B road hauling. Very roughly speaking, the Sport's a visual blend of the Evoque and the senior Range Rover. Longer than its predecessor at 4.8m, it's still shorter than comparable SUVs and most of the big luxury sedans it's going to blow away sales wise.A black pack, which eliminates shiny bits, is pretty mean looking on an icy white Sport. The cockpit is a masterpiece, distinctly Rangie but it's own thing too. It is, yes, sporty.Love that gear shifter, hand fillingly functional but cool. The rotary dial is still there, but confined to selecting drive modes. Thumb operated toggles on either side of the steering wheel control ancillary functions.There's limo like legroom for rear seat passengers, the outside two of whom are cosseted in buckets as supportive and comforted - indeed as heatable or coolable - as the front. Optional is a powered third row occasional 5+2 'secret' seating, which folds away into the floor. As a five seater it will take that many adults and suitcase for each.  Cabin quality has to be felt to be appreciated.Yet to be crashed, and unlikely to be, it's reasonably assumed the Range Rover's five star NCAP rating applies here. New items reflect the polar extremes of the Sport's ability - traffic sign recognition, perpendicular park assist, depth sensing for wading a creek, and active lane assist. Flank guard alerts you to the imminence of a car park scrape. Vast Brembo brakes provide awesome stopping power, augmented by tremendous feel through the pedal. More mundane, but crucial, the spare tyre is full size.Again, you have to ask can the same car be so variously outstanding? Dynamically, the supercharged Sport V8 keeps pace with a Porsche Cayenne - some five seconds from to 100km/h from standing makes it by same distance the fastest ever Land Rover model. Yet it crawls on rocks and wades a creek to almost a metre's depth as readily as the doughty Discovery.The company calls it the "fastest, most agile and responsive" vehicle in its history. This is possibly an understatement. The narrow, sheep infested mountain roads of Wales would keep one of Audi's or Benz's faster grand tourers honest. I doubt any would handle these with the aptitude of Sport V8. Such body roll as there is hardly any more noticeable than the RS4 wagon we'd driven the previous week, despite the Sport being some 500kg heavier.Its immense output goes to the ground as immediately as you wish, and seemingly in any cornering attitude, seldom activating the electronic safety nets. It just shouldn't be this adept - especially when a little over an hour later it is descending a 45 degree dirt gradient like a lushly upholstered mountain goat with minimal driver input.Yet while performance reaches new highs for an SUV with this badge, ride remains that of Range Rover - cosseting and unruffled, even while tastefully tuned note of the bent eight is roaring. Driving the top diesel in similar conditions the next day should be a massive anti-climax and in truth anything feels underdone after the visceral punch of the supercharged petrol monster.That it isn't a bum note has much to do with it sounding hardly at all like a diesel. Or feeling overly like one. Launched on a runway drag contest it cannot scale the top model's heights but it's speed rises steadily and surely, born along by almost equivalent torque. In the real world, the SDV6 will leave little cause for complaint.Only the extra ask for items that should be standard on a car of this stature prevent a full five star rating for the V8. It is an exceptional achievement and surely the luxury car of the year.

There are classic oxymorons that keep garden-variety morons like me awake at night. Think about 'military intelligence', or 'a little big' -- or even perhaps 'adult male'. Among those brainbenders is the term 'sporty SUV'.But our first drive of the 2014 Land Rover Range Rover Sport in sunny Welsh countryside proved the label's validity. We strafe a lightly used airport runway at 240 km/h in the Sport, before running it through half a meter deep river of muck. Could you do that in a Cayenne, an X6 or an ML? Possibly. Would you ever consider it? Unlikely.Relatively long story short, the confusingly accurate "sporty SUV" label isn't just stuck on the Range Rover Sport--it's earned.Here's the even shorter story on how the Range Rover Sport's grown better: Range Rover. The first-generation car was a steel body on a frame; now it's an aluminium spin-off of last year's brand-new Range Rover, with just a few inches of height and length subtracted to suit it for a differently shaded personality. The same crash diet that shaved 318 kg from the bigger ute nips about 363 kg from the Sport. In performance terms, that's like kicking out four adults before hot laps.In essence the Sport's a slice off the Range Rover, but there's plenty of influence from the smaller Evoque in its profile. It's almost pure Range Rover from the doors forward, save for a slimmer nose and winged headlamps, but the roofline picks up the Evoque's sleekness and its rounded rump. The cockpit? It's all Range Rover, with calm stretches of leather and wood devoid of the busy clusters of buttons that had cramped the Sport's style.Two drivetrains are on tap this time, and they divide camps neatly, into nicely done and awesomely hot. A new supercharged, 250 kW 3.0-litre V6 engine is the new base engine, delivering a nice 90-degree V6 snarl and sub-7-second acceleration, in tandem with a sweet paddle-shifted ZF eight-speed automatic.The supercharged V8 comes from a different planet entirely, one maybe with a timeshare in the American South: it barks out 375 kWr with NASCAR authority, ripping off 5-second runs to 100 km/h.With either, the Sport's ride/handling worldview tilts firmly to sport. The bigger Range Rover specializes in coddling; the Sport's air dampers and variable-ratio steering quicken up the pace, and with the V8's Dynamic setting, dial out much of the innate lean and scrub dictated by its height and weight. It's much closer now to the benchmarks set by the uber-utes from Germany.At the same time, it's an incredibly capable muckraker, with either the base Torsen four-wheel-drive setup, or the more advanced dual-range system, with its active rear locking differential. With more ground clearance than ever, the Sport can extract itself from almost anything the bigger Range Rover can, and its slight size advantage might let it squeeze through where the executive-class Landie might not--say, an abandoned 747, like the one we were guided through carefully, from cargo hold to a first-class arrival through the nose.The Sport's cabin has never looked better, and extra room in almost all dimensions solves one of the least happy aspects of the first-generation ute, though the second-row seat isn't quite as supportive as the Range Rover's. These are the sacrifices, folks. If you're an occasional user of a third-row seat, the Sport gives in to convention with a pair of semi-usable jump seats that fold away tidily when not in use. We suggest if you're beyond Highlights for Children, you don't try to clamber in them.All 2014 Range Rover Sport models come nicely equipped, including custom Meridian audio systems (three in total, ranging up to 1,700 watts and 23 speakers); advanced safety systems aided by cameras; an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment interface that frankly could use a couple of Palo Alto software geeks and a quick reskin; and of course, the latest generation of Land Rover's Terrain Response 2 traction management system.The Range Rover Sport shares nearly all its structure and powertrains with the bigger Range Rover, and it shows--on the scale, on the way it keeps an even keel when it's sunk knee-deep in mud.The new 3.0-litre supercharged V6 is an assertive-sounding engine at full throttle, with a hearty snarl that subdues quickly as the Sport flicks into higher gears, back into a more relaxed part of the powerband.But it's really the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 you want, if only for the NASCAR intake and exhaust riffs that were frankly the inspiration for its soundtrack. It's scored at 375 kW and 624 Nm of torque, and ripping off a 0-100 km/h run in 5 seconds is in the realm of Cayenne Turbos and Grand Cherokee SRTs.Top speed is 225 km/h, unless the Dynamic pack's specified--it's lifted to 250 km/h. Either way, the Sport's stick shifter is in control--it's not a rotary like the control in the Range Rover or Evoque--unless you flick the paddle shift controls, letting the ZF automatic do what it does best, click off clean shifts without any drama.The Range Rover Sport's more obviously, and vastly, better on pavement than it was in its first lifetime. A procession of electronic assistants get tuned for more focus and more grip than they do in the bigger Range Rover. If you don't see as much daylight between the bigger ute and the Sport, you'll feel it, particularly in the V8 versions.The Sport's stock and trade are some of the same air suspension and electric-steering bits as in the Range Rover, but that flagship's setup is deliberately set for a more relaxed feel. The Sport's most neutral state, when its ride height is set to normal via a console-mounted switch, and its Terrain Response system dialled into street driving, still yields quicker steering responses with more deliberate counterweight and a much calmer ride than the first-gen Sport.The extra technology in the V8 Sport crafts a handling personality that's strikingly different from the base Sport, from the Range Rover, and about as deft as the other ultra-powerful SUVs (even if the SRT Jeeps and Cayenne Turbos are still ultimately, slightly, quicker).If it's not quite the thunderclap that is the Cayenne Turbo or the SRT Jeep, the Range Rover Sport makes up for the tenth or two of acceleration with unbelievable off-road talent. The basic, lighter-duty setup  is a new four-wheel-drive system with a Torsen limited-slip differential and anti-lock brakes limiting wheelspin, and a 42:58 torque split that can shift to 62 percent front, or up to 78 percent to the rear.It's offered only on the V6, and wasn't ready in time for our first drives. The more rugged version, standard on the V8 and optional overseas on the V6, has a low range and locking differentials, with a torque split of 50:50 that can switch to 100 percent, front or rear wheels, as traction suffers.We spent the better part of two days in Welsh hills and English river beds, letting Terrain Response's Auto mode do all of the work some of the time, and opting for its individual modes (Grass/Gravel/Snow, Mud/Ruts, Sand, and Rock Crawl) as we trudged through the countryside without the benefit of pavement.The Sport's slight size benefit versus the Range Rover isn't so noticeable, but the increased ground clearance over its last-generation edition is. It's up to 28 cm, and the air suspension can extend itself another inch and some change when it needs to extract itself from especially difficult off-road scenarios.With nearly 55 cm of cross-wheel articulation, that doesn't happen too often--but when it does, the Sport can isolate its roll bars, and make the most of its wheel travel. It can even deploy that additional reserve of ground clearance when it's wading close to its 85 cm maximum, and seconds later, lower itself almost silently down a steep grade thanks to a much quieter hill-descent control system.We think the Sport's tugged and stretched its performance wrapper in the right directions.