Range Rover Sport SV Ultimate is a throwback to the old supercharged SVR
The Range Rover Sport SV was intended to be more grown-up and capable than the brash old SVR it replaced. This new edition gives the bygone blunderbus a nod
Another week, another special edition Range Rover Sport SV, though it has to be said, this Ultimate Edition did prick our ears a little bit. Why? Because there’s a whiff of a U-turn about it. See, when the Sport SV launched, there was a suggestion that Range Rover was trying to distance itself from the aggressive and overt image the previous SVR had cultivated. That was a car that went big on noise and visual attitude, if not so much on being a true razor-sharp Porsche Cayenne Turbo rival. The ratio of bluster to substance leant a bit heavier toward the former.
The Sport SV on the other hand, went the other way. It was still a sharp-suited thing but had less of an aftermarket-made-stock feel to it. Compared to an Urus, it was almost a Q car. Yet underneath the skin, it had the bespoke McLaren-style 6D interconnected hydraulic suspension system, able to mitigate pitch and roll. Replacing the gargling (and potent it must be said) supercharged V8, a more muted 626bhp twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 from BMW.
These among other detail changes resulted in a genuinely excellent performance SUV, of a type that had us questioning our convictions, that could stand firm in comparison to Aston Martin’s DBX707 and put Bentley’s Bentayga slightly in the shade. More trousers, less mouth and a deliberate change of character and image from the car it replaced.
Now, two years on, the Range Rover Sport SV Ultimate Edition is here and of all things, it’s bringing back one of the loutish SVR’s calling cards: its Velocity Blue paint. It’s almost as if dulling that lovable/hateable character that made the Range Rover Sport SVR so successful and so many resonate with it, might not have been the best idea and that calling back to it might win back customers…
Velocity Blue is among what Range Rover calls a ‘tightly-defined palette of SV Ultra Metallic finishes,’ which also includes Obsidian Black Satin and Ethereal Frost Satin. Though not from the old SVR catalogue like Velocity, they do still lean more on the side of brash. Inside, Light Cloud/Ebony Windsor leather.
If past uses of the ‘Ultimate Edition’ nomenclature are to be used as an indication, like for instance with the SVR Ultimate Edition of 2022, the end could be nigh for the Range Rover Sport SV in its current form. So bringing things back around full circle with a nod to the popping, crackling, bygone supercharged blunderbus would feel appropriate.
The Range Rover Sport SV Ultimate Edition is a UK-only prospect, of which just 500 are set to be offered. Each will be priced from £145,995.
