Land Rover unshackles its fastest Range Rover yet

Range Rover Sport SVR boasts 550hp supercharged V8 engine. Plus: New Koreans on the block and the oddest BMW yet

Land Rover has revealed the styling and technical details of its much-hyped fastest car ever, the Range Rover Sport SVR. Shown off under camouflage at this year's Goodwood Festival Of Speed (where its rumbling V8 engine caused as much ground-shaking as some of the racing cars on display) the SVR will demolish the 0-100km/h run in 4.8 secs thanks to its 550hp supercharged V8 engine, which also develops a not-inconsiderable 680Nm of torque.

It has all the usual Range Rover features but this one can lap the Nurburgring race track in a sports-car-like 8 mins 14 secs. Ridiculous?

Of course. Do you want one? Naturally . . .

New Hyundai i20 and Kia Sorento go on show

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Hyundai and Kia, those twinned overlords of Korean motoring, are showing off a new car each this week ahead of full public debuts at the upcoming Paris Motor Show. The Hyundai i20, which will take on the likes of the Ford Fiesta and Opel Corsa, was shown last week in sketch form but this week we get to see the car itself, which certainly looks sleeker and more premium-ish than before. Engines will be largely carried over from the outgoing model.

The new Kia Sorento is rather larger, and is the car Kia hopes will allow it to compete better with Hyundai's own Santa Fe. Longer, lower and wider than the current car, it uses a modified version of the 2.2-litre diesel engine.

Pimp my BMW X3 , students told

Thought the BMW X4 couldn’t get any more pointless? Well, good news; this isn’t a BMW X4. In fact, its a mechanically identical BMW X3 which was given to students at the Clemson’s International Center for Automotive Research in South Carolina to make it both more practical and dramatic. The resulting Deep Orange 4, uses a plunging X4-like roofline combined with a pickup-style load bed fitted with a sliding glass cover and split cargo doors. Production prospects are presumably nil.

Neil Briscoe

Neil Briscoe

Neil Briscoe, a contributor to The Irish Times, specialises in motoring