Range Rover Sport SV: The Ultimate Road Rover (2024)

Never bet against irony. When the original Porsche Cayenne was introduced back in 2002 one disbelieving critic said the idea of an SUV from Germany’s most famous sports car maker made as little sense as Land Rover creating a track car. Slightly more than two decades later reality has escalated to the point where R&T has been invited to the Portimao circuit in Portugal to drive the new Range Rover Sport SV.

Not only there, of course – I also got to experience the SV on road and off it. But the very fact Range Rover reckons the demanding 2.9-mile circuit is an appropriate venue for its 5770lb SUV is a clear indication of the changing priorities of the performance car world. Spoiler alert: The SV coped with the unlikely challenge better than anything its shape and size has any right to.

The previous Range Rover Sport SVR was a big hit for Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division. Comfortably the biggest – no fewer than 26,000 were sold globally. The SVR was no slouch on track. It was denied the honor of being the fastest SUV around the Nurburgring Nordschleife by the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, but still posted a time of 8 minutes and 14 seconds. That would have been considered respectable for any sportscar a decade earlier. But the SVR was always a rowdy companion, even when you didn’t want it to be. Its 5-liter supercharged V-8 popped and banged whenever the throttle was lifted and its suspension lacked the suppleness Range Rovers normally do so well. There was plenty of iron fist, not much velvet glove.

Which is why one of the core requirements for the new SV was to combine gentler everyday manners with the continued ability to deliver a fully turned-up driving experience through switchable dynamic modes. As with the lesser Range Rover Sport P530, which it effectively replaces for 2025, the SV uses a 4.4-liter twin-turbo BMW V-8, but with this now making peaks of 626hp and 590lb-ft. These are increases of 103hp and 37lb-ft respectively. As such, it is the most powerful and fastest factory Range Rover yet, with a claimed 3.6-sec 0-60mph time and a 180mph top speed.

It also gets substantial chassis changes over the regular Range Rover Sport. The SV has a new electro-hydraulic anti-roll system which can counter pitch and dive as well as lean (this despite the fact a 48 Volt anti-roll system is already offered on the standard Sport.) The SV has also been given an all-new rear subframe to allow for grippier suspension geometry, a key part of delivering on the remarkable claim it can generate up to 1.1G of lateral acceleration while riding on the standard all-season Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires. Summer spec Pilot Sport S5 rubber will also be an option.

Only the fully loaded SV Edition One will be sold for the 2025 model year, with the total U.S. allocation being just 600 cars - all of which have already been spoken for, according to Range Rover execs. The Edition One will cost a very sizable $181,775 including delivery, but won’t come fully loaded. The two most expensive options will be 23-inch carbon fiber wheels, these apparently the largest ever fitted to a production car, and adding $10,150. Beyond that buyers can also specify carbon-ceramic brakes for an additional $9000. Apparently half the buyers of the Edition One cars coming to the ‘States have opted for both, and doing that removes a total of 64 lbs of mostly unsprung weight. That's a useful saving, but given what is left sitting on the sale we should probably still be thinking in terms of weight-to-power rather than power-to-weight.

Styling changes are subtle. The SV gets deeper bumpers, chunkier sill covers and small plastic spats integrated into its rear wheel arches to cover its widened track. The Edition 1’s hood is also made from carbon fiber. There are bigger quad exhaust tailpipes at the back, plus that telling SV badge. The interior is similarly little changed from the regular Sport, with a new steering wheel incorporating an ‘SV’ button, some subtle branding, and new seats – which I’ll return to later. Sadly the SV has also received Range Rover’s redesigned UI system which swaps the previous heating and ventilation controls for an extra large phone charging holster, a poor trade in terms of usability. Pretty much everything now needs to be done through the 13.1-inch screen, taking eyes off the road. Even the console volume dial has been culled and replaced by an awkward Volkswagen-style touch interface.

On road it is immediately obvious that the SV is a much gentler beast than the SVR ever was. The default Comfort mode gives smooth responses and an appropriately luxurious ride; there is enough base firmness to indicate dynamic purpose, but the damping coped almost flawlessly with rough Portuguese asphalt. The adaptive suspension’s ability to compensate for longitudinal as well as linear forces by increasing pressure to the front and rear struts dramatically reduces lift under acceleration and dive under braking. The system can even soften itself quickly enough to also absorb bumps encountered under hard retardation; it is close to magical. Switching to the Dynamic mode adds a little more edge to the damping and a lot to the SV’s throttle and gearbox mapping, but even the most aggressive SV mode doesn’t turn it harsh on road.

The SV’s steering has been quickened over the regular Range Rover Sport, the rack going from 17.5:1 to 13.6:1. Rear steer is also standard. Reactions are correspondingly sharpened, and although there is little organic feel to be found behind the steering’s weighty assistance the SV is easily led to and held on a line. It stays stable at speed, too – and cruising refinement seems barely less good than that of the full-sized Range Rover. Grip is huge, even on the seasons and in wet conditions. The limits are so high that, despite JLR’s claim the SV’s all-wheel-drive system now has a rear-biased torque split most of the time, this can rarely be felt at road speeds.

The turned-up BMW V-8 has huge power but has lost the visceral fury of the old SVR. The new motor is more powerful, economical, and powerful than the SVR’s venerable supercharged V-8, it never gets as loud or lairy, even with the switchable exhaust silencer in its party mode. The SV does sound much better than the muted P530 Sport, though – and the initial throttle response has also been improved, losing the lesser V-8’s tendency to lunge at low speeds. The quick reactions of the eight-speed auto box means that was never more than minimal delay between requesting acceleration and feeling it delivered.

The SV’s deliberate performance bias has resulted in off-road compromises. The original Sport SVR still had a two-speed transfer case, but the SV does not. Angles of approach, departure, and ramp-over have suffered compared to those of the regular Range Rover Sport. These are now 28.8 degrees, 25.3 degrees, and 27.3 degrees respectively, reductions of 4.2 degrees, 2.5 degrees and 1.6 degrees. To achieve the headline approach angle it is also necessary to first remove the SV’s carbon fiber front splitter. Keep that in place and it can only manage 22 degrees before the risk of expensive splintering noises. On the plus side, the SV keeps the height-varying air suspension of the regular car, allowing it to add up to 2.3 inches of clearance for crawling. Also, the lack of any physical say bars, no longer required thanks to the hydraulic anti-roll system, means axle articulation remains excellent. The SV also comes with locking center and rear differentials as standard, plus an array of driver-selectable modes for different types of terrain.

Beyond the engine, the SV has another new source for audio entertainment. This is – and you might want to pre-cringe here – the Body And Soul Seat, or BASS for short. JLR has fine form when it comes to terrible alliterative acronyms, Jaguar having given us the groan-inducing Computer Active Technology Suspension in the Nineties. The BASS front seats incorporate speakers and transducers which create sound waves intended to augment the experience of listening to music, or to accompany one of the selectable ‘wellness tracks’ the car’s audio system has been loaded with. The experience was a little like a very mild version of a massage seat, or like feeling the vibration of a band rehearsing in a neighbor’s garage. I didn’t hate it, but nor did I fall in love.

All of which brings us back to the moment the streams crossed - the unlikely experience of tracking a Land Rover that weighs more than two Miatas on one of Europe’s most demanding circuits. Portimao became internationally famous when it hosted two Formula 1 Grands Prix during the COVID era – both won by Lewis Hamilton – but it has been used for manufacturer launch programs for years. My last visit was to drive a Radical SR10.

This experience was very different, although not much less exciting. The Range Rover SV is not a natural track star. Its mass and tall center of gravity mean it needs to be persuaded to turn, and although the tires can generate huge adhesion the scale of the forces involved means the contest feels more like wrestling than dancing. Understeer was easily engendered with optimistic entry speeds or early throttle application. It took a little while to learn the SV responds best to the sort of slow-in, fast-out technique favored by earlier generations of racing drivers; staying off the throttle until the apex is past and the exit sighted before unleashing hell. The auto box is too leisurely when given orders through the steering wheel paddles, but the engine’s mid-range muscle meant there was no problem in shorting well before the 6750rpm rev limiter.

The circuit also gave the SV the chance to demonstrate the effect of its rear-biased power delivery, a two-stage traction control allowing small amounts of oversteer in its half-off mode, and tire-smoking drifts with it fully disengaged, these ably demonstrated by JLR’s vehicle engineering director, Matt Becker.

Two systems really stood out. Firstly, the optional carbon fiber brakes, which must have been taking some astonishing thermal loads slowing the SV repeatedly from big speeds, these including an indicated 140mph at the end of Portimao’s 1000-yard main straight. There was no fade and no sign of distress, the pedal staying unchangingly firm across a multi-lap stint. The other highlight was the anti-roll system, which continued to keep the SV steady as speed and G-forces increased. There is a small amount of lean discernible under big cornering forces, this reckoned necessary to help a driver orientate to the loadings, but nothing like the angles as SUV would normally generate. I’d be very surprised if JLR doesn’t rapidly roll the new system out on its other higher-end products.

The chances of any SV owners regularly taking their car to a circuit are probably as slight as somebody flinging one up the Hell’s Revenge Trail in Moab on those gorgeous carbon fiber wheels. But knowing that it could is the key - the same utility-for-show of the person wearing the 1000-meter-rated dive watch in a hotel swimming pool. The Range Rover Sport SV is a ludicrous vehicle, but no more so than a Lamborghini Urus or an Aston Martin DBX or even a Ferrari Purosangue. More company that Land Rover would not have expected to find itself in 20 years ago.