New £170k Range Rover Sport SV can crack 180mph but can it beat Aston’s DBX 707 or Cayenne turbo GT?

Welcome to a new Harry's Garage video and today's car is the Range Rover Sport SV Edition 1. So this is the car that replaces the infamous Range Rover Sport SVR and Edition 1 is what they're doing in the first year of production. It's not a regular production car, there aren't going to be many of these, they're all to order and it's a very special car and they've done a huge number of changes on it. It's also much more expensive than you might imagine. So the list of this one is £168,800, it's got most extras on it. This one here is £173,000 on the road and you can option carbon brakes and carbon wheels which add another £15,000. So you're right up in the £185,000, £186,000 for the Range Rover Sport. But also on this review I'm going to include reference to the Aston Martin DBX 707 and the new Cayenne Turbo with GT package because I had both of those cars in while this one's been around and it's been very useful to compare all three models. First though let's have a closer look at this Range Rover Sport SV. Now from the front how do you recognise the SV version? Well obviously it has this much deeper air dam which I'm surprised at. When I looked at the other cars they weren't nearly as aggressive at the front end as this and Range Rover have always prided themselves with their off-road ability. I would have thought that would disappear in an instant if you went near a field but there you go it's got a deep air dam and here I've got edition one very subtly put on the bottom splitter and it's carbon everywhere. Even the Range Rover is in carbon. Carbon around here, little bits of trim and carbon bonnet as well and I have to say it is beautifully painted so you can't tell where the lacquer starts and the paint. Very nicely done. Also bonnet vents from there and then well 23 inch wheels on this car and enormous brakes hiding behind there. If this car had been fitted with the carbon ceramic brakes they're 440 mm, they are the biggest carbon brakes in production. Mighty eight pot calipers as well and also on all-season tyres. There is a summer tyre option but almost all of them apparently are coming out on this Michelin very dedicated tyre for this car. Pilot Sport all-season. What else can we see? Well it's big isn't it? It has volume. This new Range Rover Sport compared to the previous model has added much more usability and comfort inside. I, as you probably know if you're a regular on the channel, I've been running one of these for about six months now. I've done 10,000 miles in it and it's the big thing I've noticed. I came from Range Rover to Range Rover Sport and it was, I always thought they were a bit pinched inside. Not so with this model and if I open up, well it gets dedicated seats in this car for the SV version. There's not much other change recognisable for inside. When we get to drive it I'll take you through the controls, that SV button on the steering wheel but I do like the seats in it. Very comfortable and the big change over the other models, I mentioned the Aston DBX and the Cayenne Turbo, was just the comfort and just sort of luxuriousness inside and the fact that the rear seats you've got backrests just on here. It's a much nicer place to sit than in the back of this than perhaps the Cayenne Turbo. Another thing to note is actually the tyre sizes are different front to rear which is not what Range Rover normally do but they're 285 at the front and 305 at the rear, the biggest tyres ever fitted to a Range Rover, 305, 35, 23. Round the back, well obviously the giveaways are the quad exhausts, unmissable and the SV badge, this white badge that is, I'm confused by this because it also goes on the most luxurious Range Rover or the most sporting Range Rover Sport. What happened to R? SVR seemed they had all those years, we all knew what a Range Rover Sport SVR was and now we have to call it SV. Again in the back, loads of space, again much bigger, much more upright than with the Cayenne so this boot you can hardly see is much more usable. I don't think you get a spare wheel, no you don't get a spare wheel, just a bit of goo and things like that. All very practical though. I ought to just mention suspension on this as well because it's very trick, completely different setup to a regular Range Rover Sport. It's got this hydraulically linked suspension on it, the shock is always a link, it's how McLaren do it on their Super Series and SVO have adopted it for this car because it gives them much better control of roll and pitch which we'll see when we get on the road but generally like this it rides 10mm lower than a regular Range Rover Sport and if you press the SV button well you're 25mm lower than a regular Range Rover Sport. You can tell also from the rear, if you look behind the Range Rover, when you're following this car you think that looks odd, I'm sure I don't normally see that. You can see all the rear suspension because it has a completely different rear subframe on it, huge amount of engineering to do it but he just gives it more flexibility, more travel at the rear, more control, it's just a stiffer setup. They are very obviously carbon bonnet, very nicely made, feels like that it was on my Project 8 was also carbon bonnet and you get a sort of engine cover SV. Hiding under there is the BMW's 4.4 litre petrol engine from the M5 CS, in exactly the same tube so 635 horsepower, 750 newton meters of torque. Apparently you get a 800 newton meters of torque if you press launch control so a pretty trick engine, first time they've been over 600 horsepower in a Range Rover Sport. So let's take it outside, take it for a drive. Well, how do I know I'm in an SV Range Rover Sport? Not massive clues really, obviously the seats are different in here and I have an SV button on the steering wheel which we'll get to in a moment and then I've got Edition 1, SV Edition 1 on here. Is there any other changes? Yeah, a bit of carbon fibre here as well. I mean it's all very plush, that's what Range Rover Sport is, where it has to be at that sort of price they're now charging for this car but let's just start it up and yeah I can hear there's definitely a V8 rumble. This one has the optional panoramic roof in it, you know in the back, does it say SV anywhere? Do you know, I don't think it does actually. Wireless charging down there, big glove box, huge glove box, this one always gets people, there's cup holders there and if you move that back there's a huge great bin for sort of valuables or something, I don't know why they do it but it's a massive great hole and there's also a little shelf underneath the centre console that you forget is even there. Now obviously being a 24 car how do I turn all this nannying off that you insist on? Well I press and hold this button on the steering wheel, it comes up there and I go to low and that's job done which is great, it turns off sound for speed limit, what's it do? Speed limit warning is off, forward collision warning goes back to normal and lane assist is off as well so I quite like that, it's that easy. Electric controls for the seats obviously in the door, all very familiar really, yeah electric power steering which you're very noticeable as soon as you know get there and with the latest Land Rover products they've done away with the heater knobs and things and they're on here so if I want to adjust the heat I have to press that and go up and down and we grumble about it but I have to say it's pretty easy to do it's just the fact you're actually taking your eyes off it's with a heater control button you can a knob you can sort of do it like that while you're driving here I have to look at it briefly and then do it again my eyes have gone off the road I think that's why we don't really like it so let's get going I'm just in normal mode at the moment and we'll go out and go see how it behaves on some better roads quite like on here you've got this dynamic you've got a shortcut you don't obviously have any buttons but I have buttons I'll put the exhaust on and I'll put the stop start off so it doesn't do that and you'll just get a sense what this car's like here we go yeah hopefully that's coming across there is a V8 waffle as soon as you move off it's not quite as pronounced as it was in the supercharged SVR previous generations but yeah there's all sorts of noise restrictions these days so it's harder for engineers to have that sort of sound that raucous sound of the previous one but very refined I do like it if I do the modes this is what it starts off it it's comfort mode I've got dynamic and I've got SV mode which we'll try out further down in the review but comfort really does mean what it says I've got some terrible roads around us I can't notice the difference between my regular D300 Range Rover Sport and this if anything I think this actually rides better than my regular Range Rover Sport which is quite something on the you know aggressive 23-inch wheel and tyre combination but it's all down to that 6D trick suspension interlinked and the fact it doesn't have anti-roll bars I also tested it on my noisy bit of road and I think it was around the 67 decibel mark so really quiet really hushed and that is your immediate feeling as soon as you drive off in this car I think for the squirt up the hill I think I ought to press the SV button I mean it all changes car lowers down I love how the paddles on the steering wheel they glow red I've got a different dash layout it's warning me I hope I haven't got anything in the boot or anything on the roof now I'm in SV mode so it gets very serious in SV mode and if I actually went in there I can actually put it into a different traction control system so here we are 30 miles an hour delimit sign here we go and off it goes to very high speeds very quickly they quote I think it's 3.7 seconds to 60 which for a big car like this is mighty impressive and when we had the three cars out we actually had a couple friends with me and we took all three cars out it was it was remarkable how this although it has a deficit on the dbx of that 707 horsepower this is 635 it wasn't as noticeable on road as yeah you would imagine and they were pretty closely matched all three cars and that's surprising especially so when you know the weights of the cars because I managed to weigh all three cars and you won't be surprised to hear that this Range Rover Sport SV was the heaviest 2,580 kilos but then it hasn't got the lightweight options of the carbon wheels and the carbon brakes and it has a panoramic roof so this is about as heavy SV as you could probably get the KN even though it was it's hybrid and it's got a 29 kilowatt hour gross capacity battery that was actually lighter than this it went 3,560 kilos and lightest by far no surprise there the Aston dbx 707 which was 260 kilos lighter than this at 2,320 kilos so not only does the Aston dbx have the most power it is the lightest by a fair margin SVR have actually lowered the diff ratio so the in second gear it gets to 52 miles an hour so it's really quite low geared and that gives it the punch and acceleration that defies its weight and why it was keeping up with the dbx I'm going to go back to SV and I'm going to take it down here I'm going to just actually change gear manually does those quicker changes here we're in second pop it around there rolls beautifully controlled I love the change I just saw it flash yellow then as I changed up and for such an extreme suspension setting at the moment I am quite impressed of how it's tackling the bumps it's a little fidgety if I go you know I go dynamic it calms the ride quality right down very different in dynamic if I go to comfort then it's plush and it's exceptional so there are marked differences between the modes to do there but I think the most impressive thing was when I turned off and shot down here I was pretty aggressive on turning didn't roll squatted went and I find it's well worth if you are in SV mode just to put it into track because yeah it's busy the dynamic stability control controlling this mass and that just means it doesn't intervene when it shouldn't it has no real need to intervene but again yes I can feel it just fighting the bumps now I'm in SV mode right I've got it in dynamic now I think that's a very good setting for daily use if you are on a bit of road like this here's that bump yeah it did move there I mean I suppose it's that mass it's controlling again I'm back in auto mode around here very good control the mass there yeah yeah it's clever this suspension it's got a lot of work to do but there is a reason they've gone for it and it's how it can control the mass and also how it can absorb bumps when it's in the comfort mode so it has double advantage to it yeah time for some likes and dislikes then well starting with the dislikes I've got to mention the name I don't understand why Land Rovers decided that SV just covers all bases it's confusing though I liked SVR Range Rover Sport SVR had an R on the badge I'm a simple creature R means it's quick to me SV is just odd and I don't understand why that we've got this new trick Defender coming Opta and that goes off on a tangent so when we had SVX we thought before so name two there's no escape in the mass of this car and you're sort of fighting the mass all everything they've done with it is to control that mass the Porsche Cayenne the mass because it was battery and they can place it didn't affect its dynamics nearly as much because it was much lower down and it gave it a 50 50 weight distribution with this it's mass everywhere it's huge it's got pano roof so it's harder for them to do and then three just step in from car to car I did notice that this was the steering rack that felt the most electric assist is slightly alien if you're in isolation it's really good steering it turns in it's quicker rack they put on it's huge hardware changes it's quick I think 13 point something ratio instead of 17 points something normal but there is a feeling that it's slightly slower the steering right I am now on a great bit of road and come into my favorite bed so I'm going to change down go to manual let's chuck it around here and I'm in SV mode and this is where it just comes alive and it does stuff wow and that's serious and the brakes get a special mention I notice they do need a bit of heat in them but once they've got some heat in them yeah it's good and there I was aggressive on the throttle I felt it squat and I can feel it charge out it controls understeer very well indeed it's not like that if you get in the Aston DBX by comparison that almost oversteers it's it's got more rear bias on how it deploys its power but with this there is just a sense that it's it's driven from the rear but not as aggressively so as the DBX yeah I've sort of moved on to the lights haven't I not alike with it just it's easy going nature of the three it has a almost a luxury feel if I put it back into comfort it's just a mile muncher even though it's got that mad mode that's a really good quality to have I also like how adjustable it is that I you can do the modes you want I think I'm in comfort at the moment but that's very good and it's also got of course always off-road ability and wading and all those qualities that we get from Range Rover so in conclusion what do I think towards this car I think where it stars is its all-round ability how amazingly comfortable it is and easygoing nature as well as having the wild side it feels like it's a it's a SVR version of the full-size Range Rover that is the capacity of this car and that's what I noticed against the two other rivals I had in the KN was more sports car like shrunken DBX had a even higher quality a luxurious feel to it and a more dynamic edge it had obviously because it was lighter but it it you could tell it didn't have the refinement the suspension you could hear sort of working when this doesn't have any of that which one would I choose I think the benchmark still for dynamics out of the three is the DBX surprisingly the KN e-hybrid was better on that front but it's a smaller car this this is does amazing things for what it's trying to control but it's not as clear through the steering and the feel through a bend that the DBX is that just is there's a better starting point shall we say but if you've got like one parking space why do you buy a car like this and you've got one park space you live in London and you want an exciting car that does absolutely everything then I think this is where this one scores because it's the only one I would like to ride in the back it's not actually that bad in the back of the DBX but it it's that practicality and how you use it it's got a huge boot it's just easy there's dealers everywhere servicing won't be as expensive so it's all those sort of qualities that I like about this car and it's also barking mad it when it's all lit up and I've got SV pressed well it really does an amazing job I've seen videos of it on track it does stuff on track it should not do and I think it's outstanding that it's got the braking when you know now know the mass and you see how this goes and that it's as sharp as anything on the brakes extraordinary braking power so there you go I've enjoyed my time with this car it's a different sort of experience than I was expecting from it it's not nearly as crazy on the sounds and that aggressiveness it's got a laid-back character that's hugely appealing on a day-to-day basis so I hope you enjoyed this video if you did well keep watching keep subscribing more videos coming on very soon