Why A V8 Supercharged Range Rover Sport Is Wasted On The Rich

The first time you put your foot down, it simply doesn’t feel right. You’re high up. You’re floating along on soft, supple suspension. And you’re surrounded by leather and posh aluminium trim. And a fridge.

That’s the nature of the Range Rover Sport in supercharged V8 form: even though it’s the smaller brother of the full-sized Range Rover it’s still massive and weighs a colossal 2335kg, but it’ll do 0-62mph in five seconds dead. It’ll also top out at 143mph. And when you reach a tight corner and go around it as fast as you dare, it doesn’t immediately flop onto its door handles as you’d expect. This isn’t an SUV, it’s witchcraft on four (very large) wheels.

Yes, the Sport is supposed to be a Range Rover that’s better on the black stuff - the regular version tends to lean quite a bit - but I was genuinely taken aback by how little roll there was when taking corners at speeds you wouldn’t dream of in other SUVs. The steering is light and quick, too, making you even more likely to forget the sheer size and weight of the car.

It’s also terrifically loud. That 5.0-litre supercharged V8 produces 503bhp (the upcoming SVR version will have even more power) and it makes every single one of those ponies known to anyone within a half-mile radius with an exhaust note that rips through the air. I frequently found myself dropping the windows to let a bit of that eight-cylinder noise into the cabin, though, as the Sport has substantial sound-proofing inside.

This - along with the car’s trick air-sprung, aluminium suspension that gives a cosseting ride even in ‘dynamic’ mode - makes the Range Rover a sorted cruiser. Almost everything inside is clad in posh leather and the eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox shifts smoothly. And who can forget that fridge. It leaves you wanting for nothing on a long journey.

But, this being a Land Rover product, it can still attack any bit of terrain you stick under the tyres that clad its 22-inch wheels. When we took the Sport down a few muddy lanes, it was clear that we were just scratching the surface.

At its highest position, the suspension gives 278mm of ground clearance (200mm in the standard setting) and a wading depth of 850mm. That’s not far off the ‘proper’ Range Rover’s 300mm clearance and 900mm wading depth.

We think of hot hatchbacks as being the Swiss Army knives of cars, able to do everything, but the Range Rover Sport wholly trumps those sorts of motors in the all-rounder stakes

So, any downsides? Well, that V8 does like a drop of fuel. The official combined average MPG figure sits at 22, but with the temptation of that thundering 5.0-litre engine only a stab of the right foot away, I averaged 12 over the course of the week. Ouch.

Unless you’re happy to budget large amounts of money for regular fuel stops, or are so loaded that the shocking fuel economy doesn’t matter (although let’s face it, with an on-the-road price of £81,550 you need to be reasonably well off to buy this particular Sport in the first place), the TDV6 is a more sensible choice. At £61,250, it’s a fair bit cheaper, too, yet still has all that fantastic on and off-road ability.

Easily solved, then, but there’s another problem which I found not so easy to contend with. And this is that it makes me feel a bit sad.

Let me explain: it’s because this car can do so much. We think of hot hatchbacks being the Swiss Army knives of cars, able to do everything, but the Range Rover Sport wholly trumps those sorts of motors in the all-rounder stakes. But, as with the Porsche Cayenne we looked at recently, the vast majority of people who buy the Sport won’t explore its incredible capability, on or off road. And that’s a big shame, because when you start to push the boundaries with this Landie, you realise it’s one of the best things for sale on four wheels right now.