Range Rover unleashes Sport SVR at Goodwood

Land Rover's debut Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) tuned car made a big impression (in every sense) last weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Range Rover Sport SVR, still clad in its disguise, made several noisy, fast runs up the driveway in front of Goodwood House, continuing a tradition of Jaguar and Land Rover products getting an early public airing at the summer motorsports festival to gauge public reaction.

The SVR badge will eventually find it way onto other high-performance Land Rover products, but for now what we know of this one is that it uses the 550hp supercharged V8 petrol engine from the Jaguar XFR-S and F-Type R, and that Land Rover claims it will be the “fastest, most agile and most responsive Land Rover ever built”.

The SVR model will be aimed specifically at challenging the likes of the Mercedes ML63 AMG and the next-generation BMW X6M.

Quite what we should make of Land Rover producing such a profligate V8 off-roader in times of straitened money and environmental concern is a good question, but the crowds at Goodwood certainly seemed to appreciate the car, not least for its musical, bellowing exhaust.