Обзор range rover sport 3 (2023-2024)

Range Rover Classic – 1970-1996

After a couple of years of extensive testing around Europe and North Africa, the ‘Range Rover’ –coined by stylist Tony Poole – was revealed to the press on 17th June 1970 in Cornwall, allowing them to be tested off-road in nearby tin mines at St. Austell. In its first review, The Autocar noted: “Eagerly awaited, the new Range Rover has fulfilled and even surpassed the high hopes held for it.”

The car’s off-road credentials were soon put to the ultimate test in the Range Rover British Trans-Americas Expedition. Between December 1971 and August 1972 a team of soldiers from the 17th/21st Lancers, led by explorer John Blashford Snell, campaigned two left-hand drive Ranger Rovers from Anchorage, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Modified with winches, protection, roof racks and larger tyres, the cars were otherwise stock and crossed the infamous Darien Gap, 250 miles of what was reckoned to be impassable rain forest and swamp situated between Colombia and Panama. A Range Rover also won the inaugural Dakar Rally in 1979 and again in 1981.

The car was an instant success, even being sold on by their first owners for a quick profit such was the demand. It was no leather-lined luxury cocoon, however. The floors were level with the sills to allow sand and dirt to be brushed out, and covered in rubber mats that could be hosed. The dash was plastic, the seats velour and the rear number plate was hinged to remain visible even if the tailgate was open, too.

Range Rover L322 – 2001-2012

A new Range Rover for a new millennium; the team working on it – helmed by director of design Geoff Upex and lead designer Don Wyatt – was told to work from a clean sheet rather than base the car on the P38A’s by then superannuated underpinnings.

As well as the in-house team, BMW and Design Research Associates (the company started by Roy Axe who had succeeded David Bache at Rover) also submitted concepts for the BMW and Rover boards to assess. An initial 12 sketches for project L30 – named using Rover Group conventions – were whittled down to just four models presented as full-sized clay models in 1997, two from Land Rover and two from BMW.

It would be the concept created by designer Phil Simmons – which he said was inspired by the first generation car and the Riva speedboat – that got the nod for production. Featuring again classic cues from the first generation, the result was an acknowledged design success, recreating the simplicity of the original while moving it decidedly upmarket. Simmons would later become chief designer for Ford of Europe.

Range Rover concept and development

The Range Rover had its genesis in the early 1950s when Rover, fearing that the popularity of the rough and ready Series Land Rover, introduced in 1948 (the company was founded that year by brothers Maurice and Spencer Wilks), was likely to be short-lived, sought to broaden its appeal. The company’s first attempt, the 80-inch Station Wagon of 1949, was coachbuilt by Tickford and proved too expensive, with only a few hundred sold.

So in 1951 Rover decided to try and capture the rugged nature of the Series cars while basing it on the two-wheel-drive P4 chassis. A high-riding estate car with long travel suspension and some limited off-road ability (but not as much as its looks suggested), you may recognise this as the formula for every single crossover ever. The car was in continuous development for so long it was actually replaced with a second series prototype and was scheduled to go on sale in 1960. Alas in those less status-obsessed times the Road Rover failed to persuade Rover’s management and was eventually shelved in 1958.

Fast forward just under a decade and Rover, mindful of the success of cars such as the Ford Bronco, International Harvester Scout and Jeep Wagoneer in the US, decided that the time was now right to resurrect the idea of a less tractor-like Land Rover model. So in 1966 Rover engineers Charles Spencer King and Gordon Bashford began developing the Range Rover formula. Despite being Rover’s new vehicle engineering head, King was Land Rover through and through.

Snoozing Levels Of Comfort

This Rangie’s front seats are like large armchairs — extremely comfy and accommodating, even for those with plus-sized bodies.
There’s a good range of travel for both the seats and tilt and telescopic steering. Finding your driving position is a cakewalk, especially with powered adjustments for both.

Both front and rear seats get both heating and ventilation and four zones of climate control, but still the seats took some time to cool down, especially in Pune’s blazing summers.
But the icing on the cake is the massaging function, which is super relaxing and gets multiple types of massages with different intensity options.
Overall, the service the front seats offer can be compared to a luxury spa.

Unfortunately, and potentially a big miss for chauffeur-driven owners, the massage function isn’t available in the rear seats.
Also, while you get sunshades, we wish they were motorised, considering cars that cost half as much, like the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, get it.

In terms of seat comfort, once again, there are no complaints here.
Good underthigh and back support, enough head room for someone over six feet and wide enough to accommodate three medium-sized adults.

Wafty, Wafty Ride!

The new Range Rover Sport has a good balance between ride and handling.
Basics first, the steering wheel is a bit heavy at slower speeds but weighs up progressively as you go faster with good feel and feedback.
The brakes are easy to modulate and offer good bite.

The new Range Rover Sport’s air suspension is wafty with a nice and flat ride.
Expansion joints, minor speed breakers and potholes are dispatched with no drama and barely unsettle the cabin.
It’s only when driving over really bad roads that the Sport has some side-to-side body movement.
But even that is very cushy and we won’t describe it as uncomfortable. Overall, the ride quality is excellent.
Tip — Be careful while driving over bad roads as the low profile tyres could damage the deliciously crafted rims.

The cushy ride doesn’t come at the expense of highway driving and handling.
The soft suspension means it does roll around corners; and handling isn’t what you would call razor sharp, like a BMW X5, but it’s not over the top, either.
Straight line stability is excellent and highway speeds are nicely masked.
The cushy seats, thick insulation, combined with an effortless engine and cushy ride, make this Rangie the perfect long distance companion.

Range Rover L405

If the Classic was a tough act to follow, replacing the L322 would be equally challenging, that car being held in almost as high regard as the original whilst having substantially moved the game on in terms of luxury and performance. Other marques were also well-established in the luxury SUV sector by now with offerings from BMW, Audi and even Porsche rivalling the L322 on the road even if none could approach it in the rough stuff.

Land Rover and its sister company Jaguar, combined as the JLR Group, were sold by Ford to Tata Motors in 2008 and with the backing of one of the world’s largest conglomerates the resources were available to push the Range Rover even further upmarket. Larger in every dimension the new car nevertheless shaved over 400kg from the weight of the L322 by adopting all-aluminium construction, a hallmark of the latest Jaguar saloons and sports cars.

Moving upmarket

It became such a hit with the well-heeled however that its utilitarian trimmings soon began to be replaced with slightly more luxurious touches such as a carpeted interior. Early feedback came right from the top, leading to the boot space being trimmed and the tools covered after there was concern from the palace that the latter might injure a corgi…

The Range Rover’s status as a staple of the establishment was summed up as early as 1974 by What Car which stated: “One feels that it has almost come to the stage now where no country house worth its salt is without one.” The following year Motor added: “It is the only vehicle that is equally at home in Park Lane, the Sahara, the Darien Gap, a cart track or a ploughed field.”

Clearly the choice of upmarket families rather than farmers, the Range Rover surprisingly didn’t gain the added practicality of a second set of doors until 1981, the same year an ‘In Vogue’ limited edition was launched, in collaboration with the famous fashion magazine. An automatic transmission broadened the car’s appeal still further the following year and in the middle of the decade a diesel engine was offered for the first time. In order to counter criticisms of its performance and refinement the DERV-powered ‘Bullet’ Range Rover was used to set 27 diesel speed records, including one where it averaged more than 100mph for 24-hours.

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Pizza And The Amount Of Extra Toppings

As a standard car, the Range Rover Sport comes well loaded with features. Highlights include:

13.1-inch Pivi Pro infotainment system	Multi-colour ambient lighting
Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay	Electronic folding rear seats
19-speaker Meridian sound system (not as impressive as Mercedes’ Burmester)	Powered tailgate
Head-up display	Wireless phone charger
22-way power front seats with heating and ventilation	Four-zone climate control
Massaging front seats	360-degree camera (Crystal clear quality)

Our test car being the mid-spec Sport, it also comes with a handful of customisation options, including:

Front centre console refrigerator under the driver/passenger armrest
Black exterior pack for a sportier look that blacks out the shiny accents on the bumpers and the alloys
Dual 11.4-inch rear entertainment screens
Multiple rim designs ranging from 20 to 23-inches
Different interior and exterior colour and trim options.

Range Rover P38A – 1994-2001

Elegant, classy and increasingly luxurious, after nearly a quarter of a century on sale and having effectively created a new category of car, the replacement for the first generation Range Rover was always going to be a hard act to follow. With the Land Rover Discovery in the works, the new Range Rover, codenamed ‘38A’ after the building the development team worked in, needed to move upmarket and become a true luxury vehicle while still retaining the ruggedness which was vital to its success.

The original was immediately hailed as a masterpiece – it was displayed in the Louvre in 1970 as a leading example of industrial design – and Land Rover’s styling director George Thomson was aware that its replacement would be a difficult second album problem: “Recreating a classic like the Range Rover is a great challenge – but not an easy one… We had to produce a familiar, yet contemporary design that would delight existing customers and attract new luxury car lovers.”

Back to the future

Unveiled at the 2012 Paris Motor Show its imposing design was the work of an in-house team and continues over the clamshell bonnets with its mini ‘turrets’ on the leading edges, horizontal side body lines and floating roof. Launched with two petrol (including the 5.0-litre supercharged V8) and two diesel engines the weight loss programme allowed the L405 to be positively sprightly in comparison to the L322 and, helped by better aerodynamics, substantially improve on its sometimes startling fuel consumption.

Clearly a luxury limousine first and foremost the lower weight helped improve the Range Rover’s on-road manners, with the electronic air suspension programmed to reduce bodyroll during cornering and enhance high speed stability during continent-crossing journeys. A long wheelbase model – nearly two and a half feet longer than the Classic – can be had equipped with business class style airline rear seats with tables, a champagne chiller and touchscreen tablets.

Modern manners

The L30 was envisaged as a luxury car from the outset and as such was designed and engineered to share components with BMW’s flagship 7 Series range. It also became the first Land Rover product to be designed as a monocoque, greatly improving refinement and on-road manners. Air suspension provided not only a comfortable ride but also allowed the sort of axle articulation required for the Range Rover to remain king of the hill among luxury SUVs, which were by then beginning to proliferate.

There was no V12 but the car was designed around the BMW engine range with a 4.4-litre petrol V8 and 2.9-litre turbodiesel straight-six under the crenelated clamshell bonnet and putting power to all four wheels via an automatic-only gearbox. Electronics, an Achilles heel of the P38A, were taken from the BMW 5 Series and the interior, described by famed Ford design boss J Mays as ‘the best I have ever seen’, was based on designs for the Discovery replacement that Reitzle had postponed. Fully laden with wood, leather and aluminium, all the controls were designed to be operated by gloved hands to accommodate the extreme conditions Range Rover owners were capable of finding themselves driving in, even if they rarely did.

Has The Sense Of Occasion?

Inside, you’re welcomed by a minimalist styled dashboard with a rather straightforward design and layout.
Black and maroon dashboard looks plush and has a nice sense of occasion.
Thumbs up Land Rover for retaining physical knobs to activate the climate control.
That said, juggling through the multiple functions in the climate control knob might need some getting used to.

Another thing that needs a bit of getting used to is the 13.1-inch Pivi Pro touchscreen infotainment system, where almost all functions are bundled in.
Positives are its crisp graphics and large icons, making it easy to access important features.
On the flip side, it’s a bit laggy and there’s a minor delay after a particular function has been clicked.
Also, we would have liked physical knobs for features like deactivating auto start stop as you need to hunt to switch it off in the infotainment system menus.

Moving on to the digital driver’s display, it’s bright, crisp and easy to read even under harsh sunlight.
However, it has limited customization options and using the onboard trip computer also ain’t as intuitive. Audi and Mercedes do a better job in this regard.

Overall quality of materials used across the cabin is very good with plenty of soft touch plastics found in the lower half of the dashboard.
We love attention to detail for certain bits such as the metal paddle shifters and the roof-mounted, leather-wrapped grab handles that feel like they’re lifted straight off an expensive set of designer luggage.
However, some plastic bits like the tweeter cover and indicator stalks could’ve been better and don’t feel like they belong to a Rs 2-crore car.

Locomotive-like In Nature

Our test car came with a 3-litre diesel engine putting out 350PS and a whopping 700Nm. It drives all four-wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission.
Thumb the starter button and the Sport settles down to a smooth and refined idle.
That said, as you start driving it and engine revs increase, its engine note becomes apparent and you do know there’s a diesel underneath the hood.
Its engine note is also played through the cabin speakers and the note is a bit sporty.

Coming to driving manners, most of the action happens lower down the rev range.
Power builds in a linear and responsive nature, making it all the easier to drive, especially in city conditions.
Complementing the creamy nature of the engine is the slick 8-speed automatic transmission with smooth shifts.
It keeps you in the right gear most of the time with power ready to be dialled up when you need it.

Out on the open road, it won’t complain when you put your foot down.
It can do three-digit speeds all day long without any complaints.
And if you want to drive it in a hard and aggressive way, the gearbox won’t complain, dropping down a couple of gears to get you going.
The engine is rather lazy though and redlines at a conservative 4000rpm; BMW’s and Mercedes’ 3-litre diesels feel more free revving in nature.

Ultra-luxury

The P38A was the model which introduced the Autobiography service to Range Rover buyers, offering them bespoke, hand-finished interior colours and trims and exterior paint choices. In 1998 the Vogue SE trim was launched, pushing a production Range Rover above the £50,000 price point for the first time, and its popularity sealed the future of the car as a luxury, go-anywhere icon.

Under the stewardship of Wolfgang Reitzle, there were plans to move the Range Rover still further up the luxury ladder to double the price of the Vogue SE. To do this, the 5.4-litre V12 from the BMW 7 Series would be shoehorned under the bonnet, creating a £100,000 Ranger Rover and the first V12 powered off-roader since the Lamborghini LM002 ‘Rambo Lambo’. The extra cylinder count necessitated an extra six inches added to the nose of the model and although two running prototypes were built, with fresh styling, it was thought it would compromise the car’s off-road prowess too much.

A unique combination of comfort, style and ability

According to King, “The idea was to combine the comfort and on-road ability of a Rover saloon with the off-road ability of a Land Rover. Nobody was doing it.”

It was to be coil sprung all-round with long travel to ensure both comfort on-road and wheel articulation off it, and would be the first car to offer permanent four-wheel-drive as it needed to better the by now almost 20-year-old Series Land Rover. The necessary power would be provided by a lightweight, all-alloy 3.5-litre V8 licensed from General Motors which, as an aside, was the first ever production engine to be turbocharged in the 1962 Oldsmobile Turbo Jetfire. Construction was modelled on the Series Land Rover with a steel box frame hung with aluminium panels.

David Bache, designer of the sleek Rover P6 saloon, was appointed with the task of designing the new car. His initial drawings and models show something unfortunately akin to a Marina but, fortunately, a happy accident occurred. Bashford and King had developed some simple, straight-edged panels to clothe the mechanicals for testing and upon sighting these Rover management insisted that Bache merely refine the two engineers’ efforts.

#ZigSays

Now coming to the head vs heart matter. At around Rs 2 crore (on-road) for the Range Rover Sport HSE we had on test, its value proposition is poor. Models such as the BMW X5, Audi Q7 or Mercedes-Benz GLE offer a very similar package for a much lower price point and practically equal brand value. And this is where the new Range Rover Sport struggles to make sense in financial terms. So maybe sense would suggest you settle for one of these and use the balance cash to invest on another complementary ride or a cool condo or even a farmhouse plot.

But that’s not why you buy some cars, right? You spend freely, because the car gives you goosebumps, you love the way it looks and makes you feel, or maybe the interiors offer you a certain sense of occasion. Mainly, you feel special when you’re behind the wheel or while pulling up to a special event. You don’t buy this car with your head, but rather your heart. And, the Range Rover Sport does manage to pull just enough at those heart strings and that’s what could make it so special to you.

Sinister Looks!

Sleek LED headlights, flanking the grille and the bold ‘RANGE ROVER’ badging, give the front-end an aggressive look.
Further sweetening the deal is the minimalist bumper design with copper design elements.
If you want your Range Rover Sport to look sporty, pick a hue like red. For a badass and sinister look, choose darker colours such as this test car’s dark grey.

Our favourite angle has to be the side profile where the flush door handles and the subtle lines and creases look minimalistic.
Lack of window sills and the way the body meets the windowline in a flush line is an absolutely cool design touch. And if you slam the suspension to access mode (lowest height setting for the air shocks) and pair it with these large 22-inch alloy wheels, it looks even better.

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The rear-end is where Land Rover has gone back to the design board with a brand new design and it’s now more rounded and curvier when compared to the outgoing car, which is more boxier and has sharper lines.
Connected tail lamps look kickass, but a treatment like the Range Rover, which has its tail lamps hidden, would have given it a bit more drama.

Pegasus takes flight

Thomson’s design, codenamed ‘Pegasus’, was lightly reworked with what were determined to be essential Range Rover styling cues taken from the original – clamshell bonnet with front corner castellations, horizontal feature lines along the flanks and a floating roof above black pillars – was chosen and the resulting ‘P38A’ greenlit for production.

Stiffer and stronger than before for greater safety and refinement, the second generation Range Rover was bigger and heavier – although also more aerodynamic – car than its predecessor. While the V8 petrol engines, now in reworked 4.0-litre and 4.6-litre capacities, were still up to the task, a sturdier and more refined diesel powerplant was needed, eventually taking programme director John Hall to BMW to broker an agreement to use their turbodiesel straight-six.

Having sold Land Rover the rights to use its engine, BMW promptly turned round and bought the Rover Group, of which Land Rover was then a part, making the 1994 P38A the first car to be launched under the new ownership. As well as riding on air suspension, the new Range Rover also included a number of new technologies – it was the first Land Rover product to be offered with built-in satellite navigation or a TV system for instance – and the company tried hard to raise the bar on luxury and quality.