MOTORING Top of the wish list


Fast, agile, luxurious and utterly accomplished, the Range Rover Sport might just be the Car of the Year


WORDS NEIL LYNDON H


ow many British cars have fully deserved to be called Car of the Year? Can you name even fi ve from the last


50 years? An even trickier question: how often in living


memory have two British cars simultaneously had legitimate claims to be considered Car of the Year? Readers with long memories might recall an earth-shaking twelve months when Aston Martin’s DB4 and Alec Issigonis’s original Mini fi rst appeared; but those two epoch-making cars would, in fact, have been contenders for Car of the Year separately, in 1958 and 1959. In 2013, however, two British cars appeared


– completely different from each other in character and purpose – that put the rest of the world’s automotive production fi rmly in the shade. And they both, quite incredibly, come from the same company. Of the countless new cars that have passed


through my hands, Jaguar’s ravishing F-Type two-seater is one of the few that I still remember with real pleasure more than six months after I fi rst drove it (many, many cars are forgotten the next day). The Range Rover Sport, meanwhile, is equally astonishing and equally memorable. Jaguar and Land-Rover use separate design


and development teams and produce their cars at separate factories; but the fact is that both of these superlative creations were brought into being by the same board of direc tors of Tata, the Indian owners, and the same top management in Britain. They deserve medals. The Range Rover Sport is so preposterously


accomplished in so many ways that it makes you laugh out loud. Not only is it the fastest, the


most agile and the most responsive Land-Rover ever made when it is driven on the road, it can also come close to matching a Defender off- road; and, at the same time, it is as wonderfully luxurious and indulgent as a Bentley. If the voice in your head is whispering, ‘This is just silly, it cannot be true,’ ignore it. One such laugh-out-loud moment occurred


‘At that speed, on such a dicey surface, any other car might have come to rest on its roof. The Range Rover Sport didn’t even feel uneasy’


on the recent launch of the Range Rover Sport when the test route took us through a usually sealed-off area of the Brecon Beacons where the SAS get up to their secret shenanigans. At certain points, the Range Rover Sport was hurtling at more than 50mph along forest tracks that were lightly dusted with gravel. At that speed, on such a dicey surface, any other car might have come to rest within seconds on its roof among the pines. The Range Rover Sport didn’t even feel uneasy. The fi ve-litre V8 petrol version will propel


this two-ton lump from 0-60mph in fi ve seconds – which, presumably, must be fast enough even for Gulf-state princelings who can afford to cock a snook at green sensitivities. Less favoured customers – such as the footballers’ wives who also famously fancy the Range Rover Sport – might opt for the V6 diesel version which allegedly will average over 37mpg. It will certainly also touch 60mph from rest in under seven seconds . For the fi rst time, this Range Rover Sport


Below: The fi ve-litre V8 petrol version of the Range Rover Sport will take you from 0 to 60mph in fi ve seconds.


can be fi tted with seven seats but its all-new aluminium body structure makes it lighter than its predecessor by more than the combined weight of fi ve people in the other seats. That weight loss is the reason this car feels


so nimble and supple on the road, not just com pared with the outgoing model but also with other cars from the same company. Designed to sit between the Evoque and the lordly Range Rover, the Sport is, however, far from a cut-price option. The cheapest version costs £51,550. The one I drove at the launch would cost £74,995. But Car of the Year? Argu-


ably. Wouldn’t it be perfect to own both the Range Rover Sport and the Jaguar F-Type and take your time deciding


between them? WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 175


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