At the end of July, Land Rover's luxury division put the Range Rover Sport SVR to the test on a circuit referred to as the Green Hell. After numerous hot laps on the Nurburgring in Germany, the British sport utility vehicle was awarded with the fastest SUV title.
The 8-minute 14-second lap round the Ring is on par with the Volkswagen Golf R Mk7 and the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG from 2004. All in all, it’s an outstanding result for such a heavy, boxy and tall production vehicle. If you wonder if this bad boy can drift all its wheels, the answer is hell yes!
Filmed on a closed course with a professional driver at the wheel, the 2015 Range Rover Sport SVR in the videoclip attached below shows off the model’s dynamic capabilities without the aid of any advanced electronic driving aids. In basic English, the traction control and stability control were turned off.
Range Rover is adamant that the electronic nannies were deactivated during development for one simple reason: to ensure the fundamentals of the chassis are tuned just so. Wonder what’s under the bonnet of this Chelsea tractor? You’ve guessed it - a 5-liter V8 supercharged to produce lots of ponies.
With 550 PS and 680 Nm (501 lb-ft) of torque on tap, the Range Rover Sport SVR is able to sprint to 60 mph (96 km/h) in a mind-boggling 4.5 seconds. But going straight isn’t as exciting as giving it the Scandinavian flick, which is why you should press play and watch the videoclip below.
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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