With prices starting at £50,000, it's cheaper than a proper Range Rover
and because it's available with seven seats, it's more practical as well.
But like I said, at the beginning,
the old Range Rover Sport was a bit of a fraud.
The question must be, is this one really a Range Rover and is it a Sport?
Let's start with that first bit.
No matter how much wood and leather it's fitted with,
the mark of a real Range Rover is being able to tackle this sort of stuff.
Important work being done, coming through.
Well, the first thing you need to know
is that this is not a Discovery in a Range Rover frock.
It has the proper Range Rover chassis
and the same terrain response system as well.
This analyses the ground you're driving over
and automatically adjusts the suspension, gearbox,
brakes and engine output to suit.
Big, big, almost vertical hill now!
Very steep, very steep, very muddy.
That is... that is a climb.
Well done, you.
Besides the terrain response, there's also a computer
that disconnects the anti-roll bars to increase wheel articulation.
We're over.
I mean, that was a big old cross-axling hump to get over.
It didn't even notice!
And there's more.
Ah! Water.
Good. Gives me a chance to play with something else I have on board
and that is...
sonar. Kid you not!
Sonar transmitters and receivers in the door mirrors
measure the depth of the water.
It'll make a big noise if it's getting too deep.
It's not worried, not worried.
I feel like I'm driving a luxury hotel room through a swamp.
Cool.
Oh-ho! That's steep!
Just pretty much like it never...
There, I think I've repaired that.
More or less. That's how it was.
Good.
So, there we are.
This car, in the right hands, is very good off-road.
And now we must move on, to this bit of the badge.
Welcome to Donington Park racetrack.
And if the Sport is as sporty as Land Rover claims,
it should put on a good show here.
Now, you can get these with a V6 or a V8 diesel.
The one I'm in is the supercharged petrol V8 with 503-brake horsepower,
so, that is the power taken care of.
And because it's built on the brand-new all-aluminium chassis
of the proper Range Rover,
it's getting on for half a ton lighter than the old Sport.
That turn, lift and then it comes around and then bang!
503-braked all four wheels and off you go!
And as well as the weight loss,
the computer-controlled suspension fights body roll,
and there's an active rear diff, like you'd get on a BMW M5.
It also has something called torque vectoring,
which dictates how much power is sent to each of the wheels and when.
I mean, that is supercar stuff.
That's what you get on the McLaren 12C road car.
What's staggering me right now is that hurling this car around this racetrack,
it doesn't feel like I'm asking it to do anything it doesn't want to do.
It feels at home.
All in all, on a track, it's good. But how good?
Well, to find out,
we must, as ever, call on the help of the world's chattiest racing driver.
Today, The Stig is in a Mini John Cooper Works GP,
one of the most hardcore hot-hatches you can buy.
And now, he's going to use it to set a lap time.
When you're ready... go!
Now, let's find out if that can be beaten by the big, bulky four by four.
And to oversee proceedings, I shall ride shotgun.
The beauty of this is,
he has no idea what that last car was called, no idea what he's in now.
Doesn't care. No bias, you see.
All he can do is try and go as fast as he can.
And we're off!
Head towards the first corner, not braking at all for the first corner.
Oh, that's very, very quick down there!
Some wee might have come out there.
Whoa! Brakes work. That's good.
I'm not worried about putting him off
because this is just like a quacking noise for him. It's irrelevant.
It's worth remembering about now that this is still a very big, heavy car.
It weighs more than the heaviest Mercedes S-class.
But even at Stig speed, the Sport seemed to have everything in order.
We should be The Leaning Tower of Range Rover Sport right now,
but somehow we're not. It's fantastic!
We just crossed over a minute.
That's the longest protracted tyre squeal in the history of tyres and squealing.
Oh, that is... My, that was flying.
Chicane! That is fast.
And on to the final straight.
129.8 to beat.
129.5. There it is.
So, after years of writing cheques it can't cash,
this car has finally earned the right to be called the Range Rover Sport.