The Range Rover Sport’s performance flagship has arrived, offering supercar performance at 2560kg owing to a 626bhp 4.4-litre V8. It is the latest project from JLR’s Special Vehicles team and is “the most dynamic and technologically advanced” version of the sports SUV ever. It is called the Range Rover Sport SV – eliminating the ‘R’ suffix of the previous model. The new Halo SV is Land Rover’s final new combustion car, based on the latest-generation Range Rover Sport. JLR will release a Range Rover EV next year as part of its Reimagine transformation plan, before the Land Rover Discovery Sport, Range Rover Sport, Evoque, and Velar go electric in 2025.
Exterior
On the exterior, you get Wider front and rear tracks, higher camber, a revised front bumper and grille treatment, side skirts, and a rear bumper with four round exhausts are among the slight visual improvements over the P530 model that are believed to be more “honest” than the previous SVR’s square tailpipes.
The higher cooling needs of the V8 engine and the brakes have led to the need for a new front treatment. Special Vehicles is the first OEM to offer 23-inch carbon fibre wheels and the first to offer carbon-ceramic brakes with eight-piston callipers on a Land or Range Rover. These features are standard on the limited-run launch-edition model.
The car’s unsprung mass is lowered by 70kg over the standard Sport when equipped with the optional carbon fibre wheels (saving 36kg) and carbon-ceramic brakes (34kg lighter), according to Special Vehicles. The automobile weighs 2560kg when empty and has 23-inch forged alloy wheels and standard cast-iron brakes. Additionally optional are carbon fibre or carbon-look inside and exterior details, as well as a carbon fibre bonnet. Customers can remove the front splitter to increase the vehicle’s approach angle, and the off-road-focused Terrain Response system from Land Rover is still present.
Interior
Stepping inside, The Range Rover Sport SV has a redesigned steering wheel design that is narrower and thicker in the rim, with clearly sculpted hand locations. It also has an SV button for activating the SV or a customized drive mode. The integrated head restraints make it onto two rear seats as well, although the interior architecture remains substantially intact.
The backs of the front seats can optionally be fitted with transducers, which are speakers that also emit vibrations. The technology was created in collaboration with a business named SubPack and resulted in a wearable device that vibrates to deliver music to the body. This gives people the chance to hear what music sounds like when it’s loud, but without damaging their hearing, and it also makes music accessible to those who are hard of hearing. Because vibration is undesirable, JLR engineers prefer to refer to the transducers as “emitting energy” rather than “vibrating.”
Transducers, however, emit more clearly defined vibrations toward a passenger’s spine or kidneys than a subwoofer would because it comes in accompaniment with low frequencies in very high fidelity. Its amplitude can be changed, or it can be turned off if optioned.
Engine, power, transmission
The Range Rover Sport SV produces 626bhp from a 4.4-litre BMW-sourced engine that is twin-turbocharged and moderately hybridized, outperforming the previous SVR’s 542bhp from a supercharged 5.0-litre V8. With a peak torque of 590 lb-ft (briefly available under launch control conditions), the SV can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 3.6 seconds and reach 180 mph. It has an eight-speed automatic transmission that drives all four wheels.
Price
According to Jaguar Land Rover, the first year of production, which included only Edition 1 cars, has already been sold. Although Special Vehicles declines to estimate how many will be sold worldwide, this equates to 550 cars in the UK. The price of Edition 1 cars will start at roughly £169,000, or £190,000 with the specified carbon fibre upgrades, in keeping with the company’s push into the luxury market. Before the year is over, the first client deliveries will be made.
