It seems slightly spooky that the Range Rover is now 43-years-old. Despite it being that
old, this is only actually the fourtth generation. What do you get for your £94,000, in the
case of this car, which is a 4.4-litre V8 autobiography diesel?
They have thrown the kitchen sink at it and then some this time around. You get an aluminium
monocoque, which is basically the chassis is aluminium. You get air suspension as per
last time.
You get a much more sophisticated, powerful, and potent diesel engine. It has 334 horsepower
and 516lb ft of torque. That's up there in the AMG twin turbo league for torque. You also
get an 8-speed gearbox, which is the same ZF gearbox that you get in
X5s and Maserati Quattroportes.
It's the gearbox to have at the moment. Of course, more than anything else, you get this
beautiful, spacious, majestic, luxurious cabin from which to look out upon, and normally,
over the rest of the world.
The thing about the Range Rover and this one in particular, is just the way it wafts along
the road. You can actually feel your heart rate going down and just your mood lifting.
Not to a point where you feel arrogant, but just where you feel comfortable and relaxed,
just chilled about everything else that's going on around you. As a result, you don't
really want to pile down the road in this car fast. You just want to bumble about in it.
What's particularly impressive with the new Range Rover isn't just the effortless performance
that is available under your right foot, but just the lovely ride and the properly-connected
steering. This is an enormous vehicle, it weighs 2.6 tons, but you can thread it really
accurately down the road and that's because it steers so nicely.
There's no question that this thing feels huge on the road. You feel like you're driving
around in your own lounge. The more I drive this thing, the more I'm absolutely falling
head-over-heels for it. They've got the refinement and the body control just right, too. It feels
genuinely luxurious, this new Range Rover. That's absolutely what Land Rover was trying
to do with this car.
You mustn't really think of it as a rival for conventional SUVs or conventional 4x4s.
Really, it's the sort of thing you'd consider instead of a Bentley, a Maserati Quattroporte,
or a Mercedes S-class.
Having said that, there is one very obvious rival with which the new Range Rover absolutely
has to be compared, and that is the Porsche Cayenne. From the moment you set foot inside
the Cayenne, it feels so much smaller and a lot harder-riding than the Range Rover.
It does feel smaller on the road. It feels nimbler, the steering wheel almost feels like
a little Caterham wheel, alongside the Range Rover's tiller. Everything
going on around you just feels so much busier. The ride isn't just more firm, it's louder too.
The engine noise is more and the wind noise is more. To begin with, you do tend to think,
"What on earth have I climbed into this for when I was in the lovely, luxurious, comfortable surroundings of a Range Rover?"
A very large chunk of that changes when you put your foot
down, because what happens is nuts. What happens is that you unleash 500 horsepower, and exactly
the same amount of torque as the Range Rover has, 516lb ft, but in a vehicle that weighs
half a tonne less. The results are mind-bending.
I have to say honestly, it doesn't feel an awful lot slower than the 911 in a straight line.
The incredible thing is how fast you can drive it down the road when there are
corners. I don't know how they've done it; they've defied the laws of physics, Porsche.
They have managed to give this thing body control, handling composure, and grip that
would allow you to drop most well-driven sports cars. It just . . . it absolutely does your brain in
when you start to drive this car fast.
Despite the fact that they cost very similar amounts of money, and in theory are appealing
to the same sort of customer, I don't think these cars are rivals at all. The Range Rover
is just head, neck, haircut, and shoulders above the Porsche when it comes to refinement.
It has everyday usability, it's so much more comfortable than the Porsche on the road,
as well. I just don't think there's really any comparison. If you want to make a comparison
between these two cars, if you want to choose between one of them, it's the Range Rover,
it has to be. It is an absolutely phenomenal piece of engineering and just a lovely, lovely
car in its own right.