Well, not any more. Land Rover had a rude wake-up call when the BMW X5 arrived and soon became an enormous hit, despite its pretty limited off-road ability; the performance SUV had arrived. BMW was quickly followed by others, including Porsche, and Land Rover desperately needed something new to compete in this expanding arena.

The permanent four-wheel-drive Range Rover Sport is Land Rover's response. Based on the new Discovery chassis but with 140mm chopped out of the middle, the first thing to get your head around is that, despite the Range Rover badge, the Sport has almost nothing to do with its big brother; it may look similar but it's an all-new machine that will sit between Discovery and Range Rover in the Land Rover line-up.

If you've lived with a current Rangey it will come as a bit of a shock when you first step inside a Sport. For a start it's much more enclosed, with nothing like the glass area to peer out of; the top of the facia is a lot higher, too, while the roof dips lower where it meets the windscreen. From the driver's seat the immediate impression is of a much sportier vehicle. Then you'll notice the higher centre console that flows towards the rear at a gentle gradient, placing the gear selector within easy reach of the steering wheel and encouraging you to use the manual override it offers more often. The seats grip you harder, too, with much more side bolstering than the regular Range Rover offers.

But there are disappointments as well. There's an underlying feeling that quality is several notches down from the Range Rover; the plastic used on the door bins is pretty horrid, for example, as is the hard plastic used on various areas of the facia. It hasn't got the sense of class that comes as standard in the Range Rover, even taking into account the fact that it's cheaper.

The good news is that the driving experience has moved to a level beyond impressive and bordering on astonishing. We've driven the ΂£57,495 range-topping Supercharged model, and it impresses from the moment you turn the key and its Jaguar-derived, 4.2-litre, 384bhp V8 erupts into a rich rumble; the soundtrack remains V8-delicious all the way through the rev range. The speed of steering response is unlike any Land Rover you've ever driven - shockingly sharp if you'd just jumped from a regular Range Rover.

Then there's the way the Sport can string together a typical British B-road once its sophisticated active anti-roll technology starts working through the corners. Called 'Dynamic Response', it's standard on the top model (optional on all others) and works by adding hydraulic pressure to the ends of the special anti-roll bars, making them more effective when needed but also decoupling them when they're not. It means a better ride on the straights, although there's always some 'chatter' coming through the steering due to the weighty wheel/tyre combination beating the dampers on broken tarmac.

Overall, though, the Sport moves the performance SUV game on several notches. And while its claimed 7.2sec 0-60mph time appears unremarkable on the face of it, this supercharged Sport has to be a contender for world's fastest SUV on real roads (rather than on track, where I'm sure the Cayenne will still rule supreme) where those active anti-roll bars work in marvellous union with the air-sprung suspension derived from the Discovery system.

The Range Rover Sport has another ace up its sleeve; its new six-speed ZF autobox has the most impressive 'Sport' mode I've ever driven. There's no hiding the bulk of the 2570kg Sport, especially under braking, but this ultra-clever six-speeder helps mask this with superbly judged downchanges, complete with an electronic 'heel and toe' engine blip along the way, giving you genuine engine braking into corners.

We had no chance to venture into the boonies, but Land Rover insists that the Sport remains a credit to the marque's 4x4 heritage and will be best in class in the rough; when you think about it, it's not something Land Rover is likely to get wrong.

Land Rover's first attempt at a sporty SUV seems like a winner. My only reservation is the name; calling it Range Rover is confusing whereas the originally mooted 'Range Sport' tag would have been far more appropriate - this new car is more than capable enough to stand on its own four wheels without any help from its big brother.