Range Rover Sport SVR is Built for Speed on Any Surface
550-Horsepower Range Rover Sport SVR Sprints Over Sand, Mud, Snow, and Other Types of Terrain
When it comes to most high-performance vehicles, the amount of time it takes them to go from 0-60 mph is a key part of their identity. It’s one metric that separates the fast machines from the slow ones. The Range Rover Sport SVR is not like most high-performance vehicles, though.
It’s not a sports car. It’s not even a sedan lowered on sticky, expensive rubber and hopped up on boost. The Range Rover Sport SVR is an SUV. An SUV that just happens to have a 550-horsepower, supercharged 5.0-liter V8 under its hood. You’d expect it to be able to blast to near-highway speeds quickly. Land Rover took the SVR to the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, UK to find out just how long it takes the ‘roided-up Range Rover to get to 100 kph (62 mph). It put the Terrain Response 2 system into its Dynamic setting, which improves throttle response and makes the eight-speed automatic change gears at higher RPMs, and mashed the right pedal. The SVR tripped the lights in 4.7 seconds.
Given that the SVR is a Range Rover, going fast on a track is not enough. It has to move quickly across the other kinds of surfaces (that at least some) Range Rovers are taken over.
So Land Rover timed the SVR’s 0-62 mph run across wet grass. Thanks to Terrain Response 2’s Grass/Gravel/Snow mode and its softer, traction-preserving throttle response, the SVR was able to hit the mark in 5.5 seconds.
To discover how fast the SVR is on gravel, Land Rover took one out to a quarry. It accelerated to the target speed in just 5.3 seconds.
Jaguar Land Rover’s winter test facility in Arjeplog, Northern Sweden was where engineer’s tested the SVR’s get-up-and-go in snow. The speedo displayed 62 mph after 11.3 seconds.
The Mud and Ruts setting on the Terrain Response 2 dial came in handy for testing on the mud at one of Land Rover’s testing facilities. So did the air suspension’s ability to increase the SVR’s ground clearance. The controlled tire slip from the Traction Control system enabled a 0-62 mph time of 6.5 seconds.
According to Land Rover, “Selecting Sand mode sharpens the vehicle’s accelerator responses to allow a quick build-up of engine torque. The vehicle also holds onto gears for longer and locks the central differential to help maintain momentum. The result of this technological wizardry was a 0-100km/h time of 5.5 seconds.”
SVR or not, every Range Rover has to be able to amble over rocks and reach the top of steep inclines. Low Range and Rock Crawl allowed the SVR to do both – at a 32-degree angle. Land Rover didn’t time that, but we can’t blame them. When you’re in that kind of situation, slower is better.
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