Since its debut in 2005, Land Rover’s most performance-oriented vehicle yet – dubbed a ‘sports tourer’ by the company – had been in consistently high demand, at least until the global recession. With a new Range Rover Sport due in late ’09, we thought we’d try out the last of the original models.
Land Rover Range Rover Sport lease prices
Land Rover Range Rover Sport new and nearly new car prices
If you need 140mph performance and can stomach sub 20mpg fuel consumption then you’ll want a beefy, supercharged, petrol V8 version. But if 130mph seems like enough, with 0-60mph in 8.6secs, then this 3.6-litre turbodiesel V8 should suffice. (There’s also a 2.7 V6 TDI for penny pinchers.) With 268bhp and 472lb/ft you might expect the diesel V8 to be a tad quicker than that, and on-the-road it does need a fair bit of right foot persuasion to get the most out of it, but weighing well over 2.5 tonnes, and with a substantial frontal area to push through the air, that’s not altogether surprising. Thankfully, it’s big Brembo brakes are well up to the task.
Read the full Land Rover Range Rover Sport TDV8 HSE road test
RoadTestReports.co.uk provides road tests reports written by members of the Guild of Motoring Writers. These reports are complemented by car reviews submitted by the members of the public who drive the vehicles day in day out.
