We have known for a few months that Range Rover is testing its most powerful and fastest SUV yet at the Nürburgring, the new Sport SVR.
Land Rover has also decided to show this car, still with all the camouflage in place, running up the hill at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK.
Although the car will only arrive in Land Rover showrooms next year, the company has released another statement, this time about this SUV’s ‘Ring time.
Setting a time of 8 minutes and 14 seconds, the Sport SVR is now the fastest SUV around the Nordschleife. According to Land Rover a “standard production example” was used during this excursion.
Although we currently don’t have another official SUV time from another manufacturer as a reference, the most recent ‘Ring battle was between Seat and Renault. Here Renault eventually won with a time of 7 minutes 54 seconds with its Mégane RS 275 Trophy-R.
Under the bonnet of the Range Rover is the latest incarnation of the Jaguar Land Rover group’s supercharged, 5,0-litre V8 engine. This engine is basically the same unit as found in the F-Type R and the standard Range Rover Sport.
Mike Cross, chief engineer vehicle integrity of JLR said: “The Nürburgring is a benchmark for vehicle development and testing, and cars become stronger, more durable and faster over its 13 miles and 70-plus corners. We wanted to see whether an SUV could behave like a performance car in this challenging environment. The results are spectacular and the Range Rover Sport SVR has demonstrated outstanding on-road performance capabilities.”
