While Land Rover’s front-of-house staff are getting ready to deliver the static presentation for the new high-performance version of the Range Rover Sport later this month, the backroom engineering team is putting the SUV through its final dynamic paces at the Nurburgring.
Land Rover has already confirmed that it will unveil the new model on May 31 and that this flagship will be badged SV, rather than SVR, which everyone was expecting. The company could simply be changing up its naming policy, but a more likely explanation is that it’s switching to a two-tier format. Porsche has its Turbo and Turbo S brands, so it seems reasonable that we might get the Range Rover Sport SV now, and a more extreme SVR some months down the road, though that’s just our take.
The most powerful model in the current Sport lineup, the P530, develops 523 hp (530 PS) from its 4.4-liter BMW-derived, twin-turbo V8, but the SV will blitz that number and is also likely to come in even more stacked than the old SVR. That generated 576 hp (585 PS) using a supercharged 5.0-liter V8 that has now been retired.
Related: 2024 Range Rover Sport SV Teased As Land Rover’s Most Advanced SUV Yet
A 617 hp (625 PS) output from a BMW X5 M-spec 4.4 V8 seems likely, and judging from how adeptly the SV prototype handles the Nurburgring in these pictures, Land Rover will ensure it gets plenty of brake and suspension upgrades to harness that additional muscle. Every Sport already comes with air suspension and one of the innovations introduced for the third-generation SUV last year was switchable volume air springs that together with twin-valve adaptive dampers promise faster reactions than the old SVR’s chassis could deliver.
Visually, the 2024 SV will stand out from lesser Sports with a new upper grille, and honeycomb mesh on the two lower grilles plus two bigger intakes in the bumper corners. There’ll also be SV badges and a set of four round tailpipes at the back that you won’t find on any other model. As for prices, we can only speculate for now but don’t expect much change from $150,000 (£130,000).