New 2013 Range Rover Sport

Purists probably refuse to believe it, but there is a case to be made for sports SUVs. It’s not easy to take a big, boxy SUV with a high centre of gravity and lots of drag and make it fun to drive, but that’s what the Range Rover Sport is all about, and the 2013 version claims to have taken the game leaps forward. The boffins say it’s the fastest, most agile and most responsive Land Rover ever, and I went to the UK to find out if it was all they claimed it to be.

New Range Rover review, test drive

Forget the new Range Rover’s off-road ability for a minute and concentrate on what we’re going to take it through today. We have it for an entire day in the confines of Mumbai, and let’s face facts – Mumbai’s ‘beautifully’ surfaced roads and ‘organised’ traffic are the worst the Indian Range Rover is ever going to see. It’s a good thing then that this fourth-generation Range Rover is such a capable car.

The minute you climb inside, you know it’s special. You immediately settle into the 18-way powered seat (that has a massage function), realise that everything in the cabin here reeks of quality and the dashboard has been simplified to beautifully elementary levels. Special bits in the cabin include the inside door handles that feel like they’ve been moulded from a billet of aluminium and the touchscreen responds with the accuracy and eagerness of an iPhone.

Press the button to start the engine and the fully digital dials light up and eight diesel cylinders come to life with a distant, barely perceptible shudder. You also notice how little outside noise is getting in, and the little that is, you can easily drown out with the fantastic Meridian sound system.

It’s easy to manoeuvre this Goliath through traffic because, like all range Rover’s before it, the visibility is good and the electric steering is light and fluid in the way it operates. The window line is low and the seat places you where you can see the bonnet, rather than have you guess where it is.