CLUBHOUSE | DRIVING RANGE
Serious Contender The all-new Range Rover is lighter, stiffer and better than its predecessor, which makes it a definite candidate for the title of the best car in the world, writes Ben Oliver.
SCORECARD
F
ew cars demonstrate the myriad benefits of making an automobile lighter and stiffer as dramatically as this new Range Rover. By building the world’s first all-aluminum sports-utility vehicle, Land Rover has cut an astonishing 350kgs from its flagship: almost exactly the mass of all five average-sized European occupants. But although the very stuff from which it’s made has changed so fundamentally, this remains a true Range Rover. In its last full year of production the 10-year-old outgoing model posted an astonishing 20 per cent sales increase when sales ought to have been withering, led largely by Land Rover’s booming popularity in China. So Land Rover wasn’t going to mess with the formula, and it hasn’t. It’s surprising to hear the firm describe the Range Rover as a sports-utility vehicle when it really isn’t. There’s nothing sporting about it, unless you mean ‘sporting’ in the British hunting, shooting and fishing sense. Nor is it utilitarian, other than the practicality that comes with its big, boxy profile. It’s really a luxury off-roader, and those two aims fit together far better than sportiness and utility. It ought to impress you with the span of its ability, able to tackle rocks that might defeat a Jeep by day, and rock up at the opera by night. And it has to have a bunch of design cues that have been there since the start, and make driving a Range Rover such a distinctive experience: the outboard, thronelike ‘command’ driving position, the squared-off, ‘castellated’ front corners, the clamshell bonnet, the side gills and the ‘flying’ body-colored roof. The old car was as
26
HK Golfer・NOV 2012
bluff and upright as the White Cliffs of Dover but that won’t wash now for social and environmental reasons. So this car is softer, more sculpted, less arrogant, and the most aerodynamic Range Rover ever, though that’s no great achievement. Same story inside. The cabin lacks the step-change quality the outgoing car’s had, but its materials and construction now make the old car feel like a Tonka toy, and would grace a Bentley. It’s still not exactly light at around 2.3 tonnes, but the immediacy and near-violence of its reaction to full gas from the 510bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8 is just extraordinary, the car throwing its nose up like a speedboat coming onto the plane and exploding down the road like a sportssaloon, 100kph passed in 5.4 seconds, nearly a second faster than before. Yet gas-mileage is nine per cent better too. Then you start to notice the other benefits of that lighter, stiffer frame. Like the quick, alert steering, or the astonishing air-sprung ride quality, now comparable to a Rolls-Royce. It’s HKGOLFER.COM
How much? TBA Engine: Supercharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve 5.0-litre V-8 Transmission:
8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode
Performance:
5.4sec 0-100kph, 250kph, 510bhp
Clockwise from top: It’s surprising to hear the firm describe the Range Rover as a sports-utility vehicle; it’s really a luxury off-roader
How heavy? 2,330kg
most remarkable off-road; I spent all day driving on unmade tracks in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco and stepped out feeling utterly unfatigued. Of course, the car’s off-road ability is improved, with its 900mm wading depth, up 200mm, and its greater ground clearance and approach and departure angles. It will go further than your nerve will take it. The classic Range Rover disconnect between the calm luxury of the cabin and the absurd, mountain-goat abilities of the chassis is wider than ever, and for that alone the new Range Rover is a serious contender for that endlessly-debated best-car-in-the-world title. It really is that good. HKGOLFER.COM
HK Golfer・NOV 2012
27