Forget the Costa del Crime. British villains are increasingly choosing to relocate to the Algarve, according to a popular British tabloid. And if that’s true then there must be more than a few examples of the old Range Rover Sport SVR floating around Portugal ’s southern coast. The SVR was a proper thug’s car. Great to drive, it was chintzier than a footba ller’s wedding on the inside and boasted a supercharged V8 soundtrack on the outside – a nightmare when you were trying to fly under the radar on plod ’s dartboard, it did at least do a nice line in menacing.
While Portugal might have become more popular with criminals, it’s also become more popular with legit millionaires thanks to its Golden Residence Permit Program that lets rich foreig ners buy EU citizenship via investment. It’s these people – the kind who work for banks, or own them, rather than rob them – that Land Rover is aiming for with the SVR’s replacement, the new Range Rover Sport SV.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that in dropping the ‘R’ from the SV badge the new Sport is any less expensive or capable. You’d be w rong on both counts. The old car cost £93, 450 when I w rote the first drive in 2015 , and though the price had swollen to £99,675 when it was pensioned off in 2022, that seems almost like Evoque money compa red with the £171, 460 being asked for the new SV First Edition. For a bit of context, a Bentley Bentayga V8 costs £172k, although it’s hardly a performance SUV, but Lamborghini ’s £185k Urus is, and so is the £179k Aston Martin DBX. Can a Range Rover Sport, an SUV traditionally v iewed as an BMW X5 rival, really cut it with the big boys?
That’s what we’ve come to Portugal to find out. What we haven’t come for is a suntan. It’s pouring with rain as we load our cases into the boot at Faro airport, but even in the murky conditions and painted in a muted Flux Silver, the SV stands out among the humdrum mass-market hatches and crossovers and budget-spec Audis that are ever y where in a countr y whose car tax structure and income levels mean tasty rides are a relatively rare spot.
Eight years ago I moaned that the SVR looked too much like an ordinary Sport. This time, the team has tried harder, giving the SV a deeper, squarer f ront bumper than a regular Sport, new side vents on the f ront wings, four round tailpipes and subtle rear arch extensions to legalise the pronounced negative camber of the 23-inch rear wheels, which are w ider than the fronts for the first time on a Range Rover.
First Edition cars – the only SV available for the 2024 model year, and limited to 550 UK cars that are all spoken for – also get numerous carbon touches including a
