Range Rover Sport – the best SUV out there? Discuss

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I don’t want to wax lyrical about a Land Rover but the Range Rover Sport we have on test this week is simply a cracker.

When you drive a different car very week, you might imagine there are plenty of great models to write about. There aren’t.

These days, nearly all new cars are ‘good’ but very few stand out. The Porsche 911 is one – the VW Golf R (on test later in July) is another, the Nissan GT-R is up there.

I’d love to include the Maserati GranTurismo too but although it’s beautiful, it’s also flawed.

If I had a family and wanted a car I looked forward to driving every morning, the Range Rover Sport would be near the top of my list.

Which is about the highest praise I can give any car…

The ‘full-fat’ Range Rover Sport must be one quick SUV

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Saturday in the Shires – that usually means annoying tourists clogging up Cotswold lanes and genuinely being s-l-o-w. This is where the Range Rover Sport is in its element.

You need something smartish to skip past cyclist and Nissan Micra drivers. Eek. The V6 diesel Sport we have on test has a 0-60mph time of 6.8 seconds – amazing for such a large lump of an SUV.

However, I’m now wondering what the 5.0-litre petrol must feel like off the starting line. It manages the same distance in just 5.0 seconds. That’s seriously quick.

Perhaps the best compromise is the V8 diesel, which hits 60mph in 6.5 seconds. Our V6 still has loads of torque for overtaking but why opt for semi-skimmed when you can have full fat?

The Festival of Speed car park is perfect for a Range Rover Sport (not a Lambo)

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What’s the best bit of the Goodwood Festival of Speed? I reckon it’s the supercar car park. Typical of Lord March to come up with this idea – allow people with serious machines to have their own, special field.

It creates an instant car show and costs nothing. Hundreds of petrolheads mull about the place just ogling all that hot metal. That said, I was more than happy to be in with the general public in the Range Rover Sport.

This was especially true today when it threatened serious rain of Glastonbury proportions. You don’t want a Lambo, Ferrari or Aston in a field that gently slopes away. Nope, even a rear-wheel drive BMW would be a nightmare in those conditions.

The Range, of course, was in its element. That air suspension just soaked up the bumps. No need to change the ride settings, a bumpy field is easy meat for such a capable machine.

I wonder how many owners actually change the off-road settings in this mighty Land Rover? You really need to be crossing some awful terrain to even consider it…

Canadian police blast ’50 Shades of Grey’ from helicopter

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The Range Rover Sport has a 19-speaker, 825 watt Meridian sound system. This would be more than enough to compete with the Canadian police force, who this week in error pumped out an interesting conversation about sex from their helicopter PA.

Unfortunately, the good people of Winnipeg down weren’t too impressed about this. The two male officers involved were brought back down to earth with a bump yesterday. That will be a tricky meeting with their chief super when they get back to work.

Personally, I think they shouldn’t be treated too harshly. The law in the UK concerning noise from cars is rarely implemented – ‘yoofs’ regularly ride around with their windows down, blaring out appalling tunes in the high street. Far worse, if you think about it.

I’m heading down to Goodwood today in the Rangey for the Festival of Speed. On the way, I can’t decide whether to treat the Home Counties to a blast of Kanye West, or some explicit scene from my Fifty Shades of Grey talking book.

For some people, it will have just the same effect…

Why you don’t can’t wear driving gloves in a Range Rover Sport

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Here’s an interesting fact, especially for those of us brought up in an age of leather, string-backed driving gloves. You can’t use a touchscreen wearing them. Perhaps that’s why you can opt for a heated steering wheel in a Range Rover Sport.

Not that you need it today. It’s Glastonbury/Wimbledon/London ePrix week and for once, it’s baking. I have the air con on full blast in the Rangey – mainly because I can’t be bothered closing the sunscreen on the panoramic roof.

The Sport’s cabin is a pretty cool place to sit too. Why would anybody buy a full-fat Range Rover when this model does everything perfectly well, and some?

Just 24 hours into taking delivery of the Sport and I know I’m going to miss it big time when the time comes to hand it back.

What? You want to buy a BMW X5, a Porsche Cayenne? Nuts. Try this SUV first. Nothing comes close.

A bass box in a Land Rover Defender? What will they think of next!

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The young and sharp-eyed among you might recognise the unit in the picture above. It’s something more likely to be fitted in a modified Vauxhall Corsa than a Land Rover Defender – a bass box.

The Defender is so noisy in the cabin once you reach 50mph that the hi-fi system needs all the help it can get to force music into your ears. Hence the mega-watt Alpine system – what would Maurice Wilks the original Land Rover designer think of that, I wonder?

Having discovered the manual aerial, I’m now benefitting from Radio 4 in deep bass mode. Not sure that’s what this piece of kit was created for but even The Archers theme tune is ‘kicking’ with bass.

Luxuries like this, plus electric windows and heated windscreen seem a little out of place in a Defender but it’s still way off the sophisticated interior of it’s closest rival, the Jeep Wrangler Overland…

 

Remember the days when car aerials were not electric? Land Rover still use them on the Defender…

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Know any good jokes about car aerials – the kind you have to manually extend from the bodywork? No, neither do I but I did have a funny moment with a Ferrari radio once.

Mention this because I’ve just discovered why the Defender’s radio reception is so crap. Because it has an aerial you need to extend in the old-fashioned way. Yes, it’s been so long since I’ve had to do this that I didn’t have an inkling this would be the reason.

Back to the Ferrari. I was once at a party in Ireland with a friend who had never sat in a Ferrari. There was one parked outside and I asked the owner if he would mind if I showed my pal over it. Not at all, here’s the key.

Off we went. I opened the boot to show him the engine, he sat in the driver’s seat and started the car. The electric aerial went up by the boot hinge and immediately broke against the lid. It dangled like something that has been abused and then dangles limply afterwards in a pathetic way.

The ‘cool’ owner turned out to be a less impressed and sent me a bill! He was a prat (you know who you are) and was the sort of bloke who walked around with his flied always half down.

You can’t do that sort of damage to the Defender aerial. At last I’ve found it now…

The Current Land Rover Defender Is Still As Refined As A Fart At A Dinner Party…

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Pains me to say it but I remember now why I sold my year-old Defender. It was a 110 XS with all the trimmings. Trouble was, as much as I loved to look at it, the Land Rover was an absolute dog on the road.

I think we last six months together before I gave up. It was uncomfortable, noisy and less refined than a fart at a dinner party. At least my long-serving Series III does what I expect of it – which doesn’t include long stints on the motorway.

This Black Pack version look awesome but alas, it is still a piece of farm machinery underneath. Compared to the Jeep Wrangler we test before Christmas, it’s like climbing back into a Skoda Estelle, if you ever had the misfortune of doing that.

So, if you are planning to buy a final edition Defender, don’t imagine you will enjoy driving it on Tarmac. For farm use and generally towing, it’s brilliant. Me? I’m waiting for the newt model due next year…

Jeep Wrangler Overland – More Chic Than A Land Rover In The Cotswolds…

 

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There’s some writing inscribed on the dashboard grab handle in the Wrangler. It simply states ‘since 1941’. Not even Land Rover can match that – the first Series I didn’t arrive until 1948.

And while the latest Jeep is a darn site more comfortable that that first model, it still looks very much like that 74-year-old machine that drove the Americans into the Second World War.

Oddest thing is, I am actually enjoying the Jeep so much more than expected. It’s attracting plenty of attention too. The Wrangler is almost chic, in a rough and tumble sort of way. The Cotswolds is awash with Land Rovers of every shape and size – driving the Jeep is that little bit different.

As well as that, the Wrangler is also just as capable in the rough stuff as a Defender. It also happens to be a lot more comfortable, thanks to a softer suspension set-up. Both it and the Defender crash over potholes and can be jolly bouncy but somehow the Jeep edges it.

Land Rover can’t introduce their replacement for the Defender fast enough, I’d say. It’s due in 12 months time…

Range Rover Sport – Is This The Perfect All-Rounder?

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Last day with the Range Rover – how are we going to survive without the perfect, all round car? Possibly by replacing it with the perfect, all-round saloon, the Jaguar XFR.

Remarkable to think that both these great British manufacturers were struggling 20 years ago. Now they each boast an exceptional line up of vehicles, perhaps the only serious threat to German dominance in the premium brand market.

It’s even more surprising to me because the Range Rover is currently parked next to my 40-year-old Land Rover Series III. The Landie may as well have been bolted together 100 years ago the difference is so vast.

I’m itching to see what Land Rover do with the new Freelander when it arrives. Until then, I’ll have to think up another excuse for borrowing a Range Rover for a week…