If you're in the market for a large and luxurious utility vehicle, you have plenty to choose from nowadays. The Land Rover Range Rover is up there with the best of them, and truck-based SUVs like the Escalade and LX also come to mind. Be that as it may, straight-line performance favors the Brit.
Over the course of two standing quarter-mile races and one drag race from a rolling start, the Range Rover proves that its BMW-sourced V8 and ZF-developed transmission are superior. Both the Escalade and LX seem to be standing still by comparison, but on the other hand, bear in mind that both rivals are heavier and less powerful than the Range Rover.
The heaviest of the bunch is the LX 600 at 5,901 pounds (2,677 kilograms) in this particular configuration. As for the suck-squeeze-bang-blow department, the Japanese SUV also happens to feature the smallest and least powerful engine of the bunch. It's a 3.4-liter V6 advertised as a 3.5, with Lexus quoting 409 horsepower and 479 pound-feet (650 Nm) of torque. If those numbers seem familiar to you, that's because Toyota uses the same tune for the Land Cruiser 300 series.
Twinned with the Tundra pickup truck on the Toyota New Global Architecture – Frame, the LX competes directly with the Chevrolet Silverado 1500-based Escalade. This particular example is the long-wheelbase ESV. The peeps at Cadillac refer to the small block V8-engined Escalade as the 600, which is an approximation peak torque in the metric system. More specifically, the 6.2-liter L87 engine produces 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet (that's 624 Nm in the metric system).
Tipping the scales at 5,827 pounds (2,643 kilograms), the Escalade rocks the simplest engine design of the three. Simple doesn't necessarily mean bad; quite the contrary! The small block packs a serious punch, and it's fairly easy to fix if something goes bad thanks to its cam-in-block architecture.
As for the N63 engine of that Range Rover SV, the BMW-developed lump is notorious for many small and more serious problems. In this configuration, the 4.4-liter V8 belts out 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet (750 Nm) on full song. For the 2024 model year, the Range Rover SV packs 606 ponies.
Weighing in at 5,789 pounds (2,626 kilograms), the 2023 model year Range Rover SV beats the Cadillac and Lexus in a straight line without breaking a sweat. It also does it with two passengers in the rear. On the other hand, there is a tremendous difference in pricing between the RR SV and its rivals.
Over in Canada, where Sam CarLegion is based, the SV costs in the ballpark of 256,000 maple dollars. The LX 600 starts at 116,000 CDN and the Escalade 600 at 105,000 CDN. Across the border, the prices are $234,000 for the SV, $92,160 for the base LX 600, and $80,795 for the base Escalade 600.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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