It's big, it's orange and I wouldn't have it in any other colour. I think our supercharged Range Rover Sport looks fantastic in 'Vesuvius' and it also differentiates it from its look-a-like bigger brother. It's a limited 'first-run' colour to link it with the concept car and the shade has now been discontinued. I asked a Land Rover salesman why that was and he said, 'Who'd have it in that colour?' Well, actually matey, I wanted to say, I know someone who would. In fact you're standing next to him and his orange car in a Land Rover dealership.

'My' well run-in Range Rover Sport Supercharged arrived less than a month ago and it's already been christened 'The Spaceship' for the way it swallows people, luggage, camera gear, petrol and vast distances when you're in a hurry. Particularly petrol. We've already spent a whopping ΂£722.06 on fuel alone, yumping across fields at the Aston Court Festival, Bristol; getting stuck in the narrow lanes around the Camden area of Bath; effortlessly towing Barker's Capri, Bovingdon's M3 and Meaden's 'Drift Bitch' to different corners of the UK; dodging the congestion charge in London; charging through the Chilterns; chasing the Aston Martin Vantage to Tremadog Bay, then North Yorkshire; and, most recently, spending a relaxing weekend in the Cotswolds. Phew. We're certainly getting our ΂£57,500 worth (excluding privacy glass, ΂£350, and detachable towbar, ΂£400), that's for sure.

On the first drive home across some bumpy B-roads I was impressed at how solid and planted the car felt, and by how it kept me informed about the road surface without any harshness. I was a bit shocked to find that I'd been travelling at 90mph, a speed that would have had me thinking of lifting off in an M3!

The steering wheel doesn't feel quite right for a 'sports car'. There's too much spoke and not enough rim, which makes you feel clumsy when you need to twirl the wheel, and the headrests are set too far forward, making you look as though you've got The Bangles' Walking Like An Egyptian on the Harman/Kardon stereo.

But the RRSS isn't just impressive in a straight line. As long as you read a corner well, it tucks into the turns pretty bloody impressively for such a large barge, while at night swift progress is aided by the steering headlights. It's not all hunky dory though. If you're too sharp with your inputs, the intervention of DSC can make for jerky progress, so best wear your Jim Clark driving shoes and be silky smooth. And there's no disguising the 2.5-ton kerb weight under braking.

But the RRSS has no problem urging that great mass forwards. With 384bhp and 410lb ft, overtaking is a cinch. Add a smooth autobox with a sport setting and manual override (it even blips the throttle on downchanges) and the ability to see over things and you have a formidable overtaking tool. On a recent run to our repro house, I managed to safely rumble past six tightly bunched cars and an 18-wheeler in one hit, while associate ed Tomalin was stuck behind in his low-slung, lightweight Jag. Ha!

But is it evo? Well, put it this way. There aren't many cars that can tow a track car to race meets without breaking sweat and fewer that can carry four people, their luggage and a set of 17in tyres in perfect comfort. And how many could harass a hot hatch on any but the tightest of roads? Exactly.