Don’t be deceived by the name, beyond its looks the Sport has little to do with the Range Rover. Its true sibling is the somewhat cheaper Discovery 3, whose chassis it uses, albeit abbreviated by 14cm in the wheelbase. So don’t be surprised that it’s heavy: the integrated body frame construction means it flattens the scales at 2572kg, more even than the Range Rover.
The structure is designed to offer the strength of a ladder chassis with the rigidity of a monocoque and, as we shall see, it achieves both aims admirably. But it’s also a significant part of the reason why the Sport weighs twice as much as a family hatch.
Ensuring all this bulk is bowled along the road with the conviction you’d expect is Jaguar’s 4.2-litre supercharged V8 engine. Though its 390bhp at 5750rpm and 405lb ft at 3500rpm are near identical outputs to those realised in cars with cats on their bonnets, it has been reworked to suit a Land Rover. The sump has been redesigned to make sure oil continues to circulate even at the Sport’s 34 deg approach angle. Ancillaries have been placed high up while the oil pump has been redesigned to allow harm-free wading.
Like the Discovery, the Sport is suspended by a wishbone at each corner. But anyone thinking Land Rover would take the opportunity presented by its most sporting model yet to throttle back on its commitment to off-road ability needs to think again. The Sport has inherited the Disco’s capability, with air springs capable of raising or lowering the car by over 10cm, a low-ratio transfer case, hill descent control and Land Rover’s marvellous Terrain Response system. Turn a knob to whichever one of five settings best describes the environment and computers alter the ride height, electronic diff settings and even the engine’s throttle map to suit.
A car of this weight and power generates massive momentum, so equally vast ventilated discs are used at each corner with four-piston Brembo calipers.