Serious Contender

The all-new Range Rover is lighter, stiffer and better than its predecessor, which makes it a definite candidate for the title of the best car in the world.

The calm luxury of the cabin

And it has to have a bunch of design cues that have been there since the start, and make driving a Range Rover such a distinctive experience: the outboard, throne-like 'command' driving position, the squared-off, 'castellated' front corners, the clamshell bonnet, the side gills and the 'flying' body-colored roof. The old car was as bluff and upright as the White Cliffs of Dover but that won't wash now for social and environmental reasons. So this car is softer, more sculpted, less arrogant, and the most aerodynamic Range Rover ever, though that's no great achievement. Same story inside. The cabin lacks the step-change quality the outgoing car's had, but its materials and construction now make the old car feel like a Tonka toy, and would grace a Bentley.

It's still not exactly light at around 2.3 tonnes, but the immediacy and near-violence of its reaction to full gas from the 510bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8 is just extraordinary, the car throwing its nose up like a speedboat coming onto the plane and exploding down the road like a sports-saloon, 100kph passed in 5.4 seconds, nearly a second faster than before. Yet gas-mileage is nine per cent better too.

Then you start to notice the other benefits of that lighter, stiffer frame. Like the quick, alert steering, or the astonishing air-sprung ride quality, now comparable to a Rolls-Royce. It's most remarkable off-road; I spent all day driving on unmade tracks in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco and stepped out feeling utterly unfatigued. Of course, the car's off-road ability is improved, with its 900mm wading depth, up 200mm, and its greater ground clearance and approach and departure angles. It will go further than your nerve will take it.

The classic Range Rover disconnect between the calm luxury of the cabin and the absurd, mountain-goat abilities of the chassis is wider than ever, and for that alone the new Range Rover is a serious contender for that endlessly-debated best-car-in-the-world title. It really is that good.

It’s really a luxury off-roader

 

 

 

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