The tailored tearaway | Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two
A 635bhp twin-turbo V8, no hybrid safety net and a chassis that defies its own mass. The Sport SV is the rare super-SUV that earns every decibel.
At first glance, the Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two does not swagger so much as smirk. That is precisely its charm. Where most super-SUVs arrive dressed like nightclub bouncers, this one turns up in a beautifully cut dinner jacket with a knuckle-duster in the pocket. The basic Range Rover Sport silhouette remains gloriously clean, but the SV’s forged carbon detailing, deeper intakes, white badging and quad exhausts give it a harder edge, while colours such as Sunrise Copper make it look expensive in the right way: confident, not desperate. On the road, it has that rare, imperious presence only a Range Rover really manages. Traffic parts, not because it is shouting, but because it looks as though it owns the lane. Then you start it, and tasteful restraint is blown out through four pipes. The V8 announces itself with an old-school roar that feels wonderfully excessive in our sanitised times.
At first glance, the Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two does not swagger so much as smirk. That is precisely its charm. Where most super-SUVs arrive dressed like nightclub bouncers, this one turns up in a beautifully cut dinner jacket with a knuckle-duster in the pocket. The basic Range Rover Sport silhouette remains gloriously clean, but the SV’s forged carbon detailing, deeper intakes, white badging and quad exhausts give it a harder edge, while colours such as Sunrise Copper make it look expensive in the right way: confident, not desperate. On the road, it has that rare, imperious presence only a Range Rover really manages. Traffic parts, not because it is shouting, but because it looks as though it owns the lane. Then you start it, and tasteful restraint is blown out through four pipes. The V8 announces itself with an old-school roar that feels wonderfully excessive in our sanitised times.
And that engine is the main event. The SV Edition Two’s 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 serves up 635bhp and 850Nm, enough to hurl this two-and-a-half-tonne SUV from 0-100kmph in 3.8 seconds. More impressive than the number, though, is the theatre of it. The thing lunges, squats and tears at the horizon with startling aggression, yet never feels clumsy. There is real engineering brilliance at work here: the 6D suspension keeps body movements uncannily tidy, rear-wheel steering disguises the bulk, and the whole car shrinks around you the harder you press on. On a good road it feels improbably keen, even playful, like a very large animal that has suddenly remembered it is built for sport. In full SV mode it can be a touch too intense for our broken roads, but that is hardly a scandal; the cleverer move is to tailor the settings and keep the engine and exhaust at full mischief while relaxing the rest.
Inside, the SV strikes an equally appealing balance between nightclub and private members’ lounge. The cabin is beautifully made, rich with dark trim, carbon fibre and just enough drama, while the front sport seats manage the neat trick of feeling both tightly tailored and deeply indulgent. They heat, cool and massage; the Meridian Signature audio is splendid; and the 13.1-inch Pivi Pro screen keeps the dashboard clean, modern and mostly free of clutter. Rear space is generous enough for actual adults, which means this really is, in the briefest and most enjoyable sense, a sports car for a family. Not a sensible family, obviously. But one with taste, a sense of humour and a healthy appetite for V8 thunder.
