Range Rover Sport P530 Fast Fleet test – living with the 523bhp V8 SUV

Too heavy, certainly on the wrong side of right-sized and more powerful than it ever needs to be, the Range Rover Sport is a car we love to hate but is secretly one that many would like to have parked within their household fleet – or already do. Despite their on-paper performance credentials they are not performance cars to replace the established norm, they are not cars we rise early for when we have a free morning to drive for the sake of it. Their track action goes no further than towing something light and suitable to a trackday or race meeting. Thrilling, engaging and sporting they are not. Useful? Yes they are. Then again, so is an RS6.

Why then? Why add a car to the evo fleet that goes against all we preach about? Because people buy them in their thousands, including a number of evo readers, and in a world where their existence is under scrutiny more than ever (Paris has recently introduced a weight surcharge to its parking tariffs) they need to work harder than ever to justify their place on our roads. Our plan is to find out if the Sport still can.

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‘Our’ P530 has plenty in its armoury to take on the challenge. Its softer look is to lessen its on-road presence, although it still towers over most things this side of Ford’s Ranger Raptor and requires the air suspension be set to its loading level for those short in the leg if they want to avoid having to clamber into or fall out of it.

The RR Sport range offers a plethora of diesel and petrol engines, some with mild-hybrid tech, others with a plug, and in KN72 NNO’s case nothing but eight cylinders, two turbochargers and 523bhp courtesy of BMW’s engine division. JLR has, nearly, found a home for all its old AJP supercharged V8s and turned to Munich for its replacement. The new 4.4-litre unit is more refined, quieter, more responsive and better suited to the Sport’s more luxurious remit than the outgoing motor. Although it likes a drink: our average so far is a little worse than the AMG-powered DBX707, coming in at around 22mpg.

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Of course, there’s plenty of weight to haul: 2300kg+ according to Range Rover (we’ll put it on our scales to get a true figure), which accounts for its unleaded habit. Yet despite this heft so much has been done in terms of chassis development and systems engineering that its weight only becomes noticeable and a bit of a challenge when you get carried away and start to go that little harder. A frequent succession of big stops can lengthen the brake pedal and there is only so much steering angle you can apply before you reach the limitations of the standard all-season Pirelli tyres.

Since its arrival, NNO hasn’t had a moment to rest or be stolen (I write confidently from a plane with the car left at an airport car park). Since the key to our Sport landed on my desk its V8 has barely had time to cool down (like all BMW hot-vee eight-cylinder engines the cooling fans are never far from activation), enduring endless days on motorways, negotiating floods and testing JLR’s kerb-strike capabilities to the limit thanks to the pothole pandemic that has broken out across the UK. It’s also moved a family member overseas and carried every grain of sand back from the beach at New Year courtesy of the dog. As my inner evo heart says I shouldn’t admire the Sport as much as I do, my sensible dad head tells me few others from a sector below would have coped with the winter with such a high blend of luxury and durability.

Now the weather is turning, the Sport faces an altogether different task, one that perhaps makes many of its core USPs potentially redundant. The floods are receding, so too the wintry mornings and filthy nights, replaced with dry, inviting roads, longer days to enjoy them and the temptation to take a car that invites you to do more of the driving.

This story was first featured in evo issue 320.