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The most satisfying thing about driving the supercharged Range Rover Sport isn't the halo effect from its status as choice transport for rap stars, and it isn't the engine's performance either. Rather, it's the way that the Sport makes the most stubborn of taxi drivers unglue themselves from the rightmost lane. Even the worst of the geriatric-spec cabbies smartly give way when you loom menacingly behind them.
The reason is size, as in it really does matter. The Sport is derived from the Land Rover Discovery 3's basic mechanicals. While it's slightly smaller than the monstrous Disco, the Sport is still more than enormous enough to completely fill a taxi driver's rear view mirror from five car lengths' away.
This giant SUV really does possess a frightening amount of presence, and in bright, burnt orange, in particular, it turns practically everything else on the road into a wallflower. The overall design is a fairly happy combination of pure ostentation and trendy chic, and that translates into the interior as well.
The basic cabin architecture is as per the Discovery, but features like the dashboard have been given a more raked look to complement the car's sporty character. There's also plenty of space front and rear, and the interior's packed with all sorts of kit, including a Logic 7 stereo setup and a clever electronic off-road visual aid.
Mechanicals aside, the main differences that distinguish the supercharged version of the Sport from the normally-aspirated one are an aluminium-effect grille and giant alloys. Both versions also feature the Terrain Response system that first debuted on the Disco 3, this neat system allows even novice off-road drivers to tailor the Sport's various suspension and gearbox settings to suit a variety of terrain.
The 4.2-litre V8 powering the Sport is Jaguar-derived, and develops 390bhp with the help of the hefty abovementioned supercharger. More important is the engine's planet-stopping 550Nm of torque. All that grunt is mated to a slick-shifting six-speed automatic gearbox, with a manual override facility.
However, despite the nearly 400bhp output, the Sport's 0-100km/h time is a rather unexciting 7.6 seconds. You can blame the car's enormous weight for the tardy performance. That said, once you overcome inertia, flooring the throttle elicits a fairly violent rush towards the horizon.
Stopping isn't a problem, thankfully, as the Sport is equipped with giant discs and callipers, courtesy of brake specialists, Brembo. And thanks to the efforts of the chassis engineers, the Sport actually handles.
It's still a massive, heavy thing, though, and while you'd never call it fleet-footed, it does come off as actually quite nimble. Land Rover has equipped the Sport with what it calls 'Dynamic Response'. This feature uses hydraulically actuated active anti-roll bars to keep things straight and level during the sort of hard cornering that might see a hot hatch up on only three wheels.
Thanks to the performance-oriented four-by-four rubber, there's a surprising amount of grip in the corners, too. The steering doesn't really telegraph any information about the road surface, but it's impressively quick and accurate.
If you keep the sheer weight of the thing very much in mind, and drive within the dynamic envelope so proscribed, you find that the Sport does shrink around you, and that darting in and out of traffic becomes quite a natural thing to do.
The ride is also pretty good, considering that the Sport sits on vast 20-inch alloys. Refinement is decent, but a pronounced resonance from the exhaust at just above idle spoils things a little bit.
The supercharged Range Rover Sport lists for $380,000 with COE, which is a fair hunk of change in absolute terms. That said, its effect on taxi drivers is priceless.
The reason is size, as in it really does matter. The Sport is derived from the Land Rover Discovery 3's basic mechanicals. While it's slightly smaller than the monstrous Disco, the Sport is still more than enormous enough to completely fill a taxi driver's rear view mirror from five car lengths' away.
This giant SUV really does possess a frightening amount of presence, and in bright, burnt orange, in particular, it turns practically everything else on the road into a wallflower. The overall design is a fairly happy combination of pure ostentation and trendy chic, and that translates into the interior as well.
The basic cabin architecture is as per the Discovery, but features like the dashboard have been given a more raked look to complement the car's sporty character. There's also plenty of space front and rear, and the interior's packed with all sorts of kit, including a Logic 7 stereo setup and a clever electronic off-road visual aid.
Mechanicals aside, the main differences that distinguish the supercharged version of the Sport from the normally-aspirated one are an aluminium-effect grille and giant alloys. Both versions also feature the Terrain Response system that first debuted on the Disco 3, this neat system allows even novice off-road drivers to tailor the Sport's various suspension and gearbox settings to suit a variety of terrain.
The 4.2-litre V8 powering the Sport is Jaguar-derived, and develops 390bhp with the help of the hefty abovementioned supercharger. More important is the engine's planet-stopping 550Nm of torque. All that grunt is mated to a slick-shifting six-speed automatic gearbox, with a manual override facility.
However, despite the nearly 400bhp output, the Sport's 0-100km/h time is a rather unexciting 7.6 seconds. You can blame the car's enormous weight for the tardy performance. That said, once you overcome inertia, flooring the throttle elicits a fairly violent rush towards the horizon.
Stopping isn't a problem, thankfully, as the Sport is equipped with giant discs and callipers, courtesy of brake specialists, Brembo. And thanks to the efforts of the chassis engineers, the Sport actually handles.
It's still a massive, heavy thing, though, and while you'd never call it fleet-footed, it does come off as actually quite nimble. Land Rover has equipped the Sport with what it calls 'Dynamic Response'. This feature uses hydraulically actuated active anti-roll bars to keep things straight and level during the sort of hard cornering that might see a hot hatch up on only three wheels.
Thanks to the performance-oriented four-by-four rubber, there's a surprising amount of grip in the corners, too. The steering doesn't really telegraph any information about the road surface, but it's impressively quick and accurate.
If you keep the sheer weight of the thing very much in mind, and drive within the dynamic envelope so proscribed, you find that the Sport does shrink around you, and that darting in and out of traffic becomes quite a natural thing to do.
The ride is also pretty good, considering that the Sport sits on vast 20-inch alloys. Refinement is decent, but a pronounced resonance from the exhaust at just above idle spoils things a little bit.
The supercharged Range Rover Sport lists for $380,000 with COE, which is a fair hunk of change in absolute terms. That said, its effect on taxi drivers is priceless.
NEED TO KNOW
Model : Range Rover Sport Supercharged
Engine Type : 4,197cc 32v V8
Maximum power : 390bhp @ 5,750rpm
Maximum torque : 550Nm @ 3,000rpm
Gearbox : 6-speed automatic
Top speed : 225km/h
0-100km/h : 7.6 seconds
Price : $380,000 with COE
Warranty : 3 years / 60,000km
Contact : Regent Motors at 6376-0077
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Model : Range Rover Sport Supercharged
Engine Type : 4,197cc 32v V8
Maximum power : 390bhp @ 5,750rpm
Maximum torque : 550Nm @ 3,000rpm
Gearbox : 6-speed automatic
Top speed : 225km/h
0-100km/h : 7.6 seconds
Price : $380,000 with COE
Warranty : 3 years / 60,000km
Contact : Regent Motors at 6376-0077
SIMILAR CARS WE HAVE DRIVEN
Porsche Cayenne Turbo (A) $448,888 with COE
Massive turbocharged punch and impressive handling characteristics mark out the Cayenne Turbo from its rivals.
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