The Range Rover Sport SVR Has Off-Street Cred

Land Rover is keen to show the word that its flashiest “go fast” ride is still capable of handling itself in all types of terrain. Those little pictures around the big dial in the center console? They aren’t there just to look pretty. They’re there for a reason. The Range Rover Sport SVR is bred from the same cloth as the other vehicles in the Range Rover line, and to prove it, Solihull has put out a press release and video of the 550 horsepower beast going through its paces not just on pavement, but in a variety of conditions.

Land Rover considers the SVR a testament to the capabilities of its Special Vehicle Operations group, and credits the model with attracting new buyers to the Range Rover Sport model line. Since its launch in 2014, Land Rover has sold over 285,000 of the second generation Sport to customers who may be drawn in by the appeal of the SVR’s 0-100km/h time of only 4.7 seconds.

But, says Land Rover, that figure doesn’t do justice to the Range Rover Sport’s true range of abilities. To demonstrate, they have tested the SVR’s 0-100 sprint time not only on asphalt, but also on wet grass, snow and sand. The tests were all done on standard tires, relying on the Terrain Response 2 technology to keep everything moving appropriately.

For humorous effect, they even went as far as to include the classic drag-racing “Christmas tree” in each location used in the video.

According to the official press release, “The times recorded are a testament to the Range Rover Sport’s inherent capability. On a notoriously slippery wet grass surface, the 0-100km/h time increased by only 0.8 seconds, while even on sand the benchmark sprint took only 5.5 seconds.”

After demonstrating its amazing ability to go fast in a straight line over a variety of surfaces, the SVR shows that it can also handle some more extreme off-roading, in the form of a steep, rough, rock crawl. Though, at a slightly slower pace than the other tests.

For more detail on the terrain and locations' featured in the video, and on the terrain response system itself, see the official Land Rover press release here.