Range Rover's SV department is cranking up in 2023, with a new Bespoke Services department delivering totally-custom vehicles to extremely discerning customers, and a new Range Rover Sport SV bringing the next generation of top-performance V8 power.
Range Rover's SV department is cranking up in 2023, with a new Bespoke Services department delivering totally-custom vehicles to extremely discerning customers, and a new Range Rover Sport SV bringing the next generation of top-performance V8 power.
The Range Rover Sport SV seems like the successor to the second-generation Range Rover Sport SVR, as JLR (no longer Jaguar Land Rover) tweaks their brand nomenclature. The R letter descended from another era of Jaguar products, and the focus is now on the SV tuning division as a whole. Like the second-generation SVR, it brings the largest iteration of the V8 motor -- here, the 626-horsepower mild hybrid version of BMW's N63 V8 -- and a sporty tuning package with Brembo brakes and super-supportive racing seats.
Sport SV launches with the "Edition One" special treatment, similar to the First Edition treatments that launched Defender and Range Rover models recently. While the quick 3.6-second 0-60 powertrain has always been is the core of the SV model, and the braking package has always been rather important for the opposite application of speed, Range Rover Sport SV also brings some new suspension dynamics to the package. While it is built around the core of Land Rover's iconic air suspension, a standard of the Range Rover line for thirty years, the SV has the "6D Dynamics" suspension, which adds extra factors and tweaks. Hydraulically-linked shocks and pitch control work in concert with the air suspension to remove the need for sway bars, so even when you throw the vehicle into the corners, it remains almost totally level. Land Rover has always excelled at stability engineering, from early applications of sway bars for off-road use in the Range Rover to Discovery Series II's Active Cornering Enhancement, and here the latest technology and computerization ties things together even more.
The vehicle retains the typical Terrain Response system, though you probably won't be conquering any major off-road trails in this one, especially with the low-profile Z-rated tires and lowered ride heights in all suspension modes. There's also a new mode that other Land Rover vehicles won't have -- SV Mode, which is activated by pressing a red button on the steering wheel. This optimizes all the settings and activates a track-ready dynamic program, in case you can find a high-performance driving program that will let you race a Range Rover Sport.
The vehicle now includes even more carbon fiber for weight savings -- the SV is 167 pounds lighter than the other Range Rover Sports. It also includes the first-ever 23-inch carbon fiber wheels offered on a production vehicle, a carbon fiber bonnet, and carbon ceramic brakes. The vehicle was tested in the usual cross-section of terrains, from the desert to the Arctic, to make sure that the entire package could handle proper Land Rover-esque conditions.
The SV program also grows with the opening of the Bespoke Service center, based at SV's headquarters in Coventry, England. SV Bespoke Service is the ultimate application of customization for the Range Rover vehicle, and allows an extended choice of color and finish for all elements of the vehicle. Bespoke customers are given an option of 391 interior materials and colorways, and 230 exterior paint colors. If that's enough, they can paint your vehicle any color you want if you provide them with a paint sample. That puts Land Rover in the line of Porsche's Paint to Sample program, BMW's Individual program, or indeed it brings things back to the original intent of Range Rover's Autobiography package from the 1990s, where there was a greater degree of choice than the more recent "mainstream" Autobiography nameplate. You can even get special precious metals to make up the "RANGE ROVER" script on the bonnet and tailgate, if you so desire.
As Land Rover transitions to a "House of Brands," the enhancements in the SV program push Range Rover further up into the echelons of luxury, and while most of us will not be speccing a Range Rover to color match a favorite Italian scarf any time soon, it expands their market even further into the lucrative upper echelons.
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