Range Rover LWB first drive review

Before we play chauffeur, it’s only right to be chauffeured first, given that’s where most of the long-wheelbase Range Rovers owners will be spending their journeys. They won’t be disappointed. 

A standard bench or optional individual chairs feature, either of which can be reclined up to 17 degrees, up from the eight degrees of the standard wheelbase model. There’s all sorts of toys and tricks that can be specced, to, from large TV screens to a front passenger seat that slides all the way forward into the footwell to create a long space you could host an Ashes test match on. 

On the move, the ride quality is fantastic, isolating you from broken and rutted town surfaces, and remaining composed and stable on high-speed roads. It’s smooth and comfortable enough in the back to do work, have a snooze, make some important decisions, or whatever folk who like to be driven around do.

Should the owner want to give their chauffeur the night off and drive to, erm, Waitrose, Carluccio’s or the BAFTAs themselves, they’ll enjoy life from the driver’s seat just as much.

The biggest compliment to pay to the car in the way it drives is to say it feels like a Range Rover Supercharged with a standard wheelbase, despite its extra size and weight over an already big, heavy car. The straight-line performance is prodigious, visibility is of course excellent, the handling sure-footed and confidence-inspiring, the car being easily placed in a corner.

This is a car that pushes Range Rover fully into Bentley levels of opulence, and a worthy rival to a Mercedes S-class in terms of a car you’d like to be driven in as well as drive.

Range Rover Long Wheelbase 5.0 V8 Supercharged 

Price £105,840; 0-60mph 5.5sec; Top speed 140mph; Economy 20.5mpg; Co2 322g/km; Kerbweight 2413kg; Engine 5000cc, V8, petrol, supercharged; Power 503bhp at 6000-6500rpm; Torque 460lb ft at 2500-5500rpm; Gearbox 8-speed automatic