New Range Rover Sport
The third-generation Range Rover Sport takes tech to a heavenly level but it’s still devilishly old-school at heart
Gerry McGovern’s right: the new Range Rover Sport is a ‘vehicle of breathtaking desirability’. So says the voice in my right ear agreeing with the creative director.
But Jiminy Cricket on my left shoulder is telling me that the third-generation Sport is the wrong vehicle for these times: slightly heavier than the outgoing car, with combustion engines posting high fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. It’s graced with vast engineering prowess claimed to make it drive on-road like never before while fulfilling all Land Rover’s capabilities off-road – but isn’t that over-engineering for a typical buyer?
Welcome, dear readers, to my inner monologue. By the end of this feature I hope to have it resolved. In the meantime, join me for the ride – into an SUV packed with chassis technology promising a mouth-watering driver proposition.
‘The dynamic capability of this car is far beyond its predecessor’s,’ boasts executive director Nick Collins with parental pride. It stems from solid foundations: the aluminium-intensive MLA Flex architecture, shared with the new Range Rover. The Sport’s body architecture is 35 per cent stiffer than before. ‘It literally has sports-car levels of stiffness,’ claims Collins.
And that provides a robust base for mounting the suspension – double wishbones up front, a five-link rear axle – equipped as standard with twinvalve monotube dampers and Land Rover’s first dual-chamber air springs.
The system can switch to max pressure in milliseconds, tying down the body for corners or eliminating pitch under hard acceleration or braking.
‘It brings a real edge and attitude to its handling,’ grins Collins.
The Range Rover Sport naturally has all-wheel drive, intelligently varying torque flow between the axles (and decoupling the front axle on a steady cruise). ‘Our intelligent all-wheel drive is able to deliver precisely the right amount of torque to each wheel to maximise traction, whatever the weather you’re in. It’s more sporty, it’s more connected, and it’s a more efficient and advanced driveline than traditional systems,’ asserts the engineer. ‘I want to drive one’ pinballs around my grey matter.
Land Rover’s renowned Terrain Response system – the Swiss army knife of chassis modification, serving up six recipes of air suspension, transmission, throttle and steering for surfaces ranging from snow to rocky off-road to the B660 – is standard and now includes an enhanced Dynamic mode. It’s governed by Integrated Chassis Control, which assesses sensor inputs up to 500 times a second, so I’m imagining transmission responses as quick as an Olympic sprinter hearing the gun, meatier but fluid steering
