I turn on to the freeway and head east. There's a soft glow in the sky ahead, just enough to silhouette the mountains in the distance, the jagged shoreline of L.A. 's surging suburban sprawl. I've got two days and a Chevron gas card. Time to put some miles on the 2015 Range Rover Sport Supercharged.
This country was made for road trips. The traffic light in Fernley, Nevada, would be the first I'd see in almost 650 miles. By the time I had returned to L.A. the next evening I'd covered 1,258 miles on everything from smooth interstates and sweeping two lanes, to washboard freeways and winding mountain roads, the Range Rover's 5.0-liter V-8 feasting on oxygen-rich air at more than 200 feet below sea level in Death Valley and its supercharger shrugging off climbs to more than 7,000 feet near Lake Tahoe. And I'd learned this about the Range Rover Sport: It was made for road trips, too.
It's comfortable. The front seats offer good lumbar support, and are heated and cooled, though having to use a dash-mounted button to activate the temperature controls and then the touchscreen to adjust the temperature settings seems an unnecessarily complex procedure. The Sport's trademark sloping roof — and the rear seat headrests — compromise the view out the rear window somewhat, but I quickly learned to trust the excellent blind-spot warning system.
Relaxed on the highway? You bet. At 83 mph in eighth gear, the Range Rover Sport's 5.0-liter V-8 is turning just 2,000 rpm.
It's composed. Dubs and low-profile tires are not usually a happy combination on SUVs. On coarse surfaces the broad, low-profile 275/40 R22 Continental Cross Contact LX Sport tires are noisier than the 19-inch Pirellis fitted to my last Range Rover, and the low-speed ride is not as plush, as the thinner, stiffer sidewalls transmit more impact harshness. But the basic goodness of the Range Rover suspension is still there; superb body control means minimal roll through corners, and it soaks up heaves and hollows with aplomb at cruising speeds.
And it's effortless. The rolling acceleration at 60-70 mph is impressive: Even with light throttle applications the Sport surges past slower traffic. A 510-hp V-8 powering a 5,430-pound SUV with the frontal area of a small house is never going to be a gas-miser, but the eight-speed transmission helps ease the thirst. I saw a worst of 15.1 mpg for the climb out of the L.A. basin and a best of 20.7 mpg on the easy downhill run from Lake Tahoe to Atwater, California, which compares favorably with the 14 mpg or so the Sport returns mooching around L.A..
More on our long-term 2015 Range Rover Sport V8 Supercharged:
- Arrival
- Update 1: From Supercar to SUV
- Update 3: Style Counsel
- Update 4: Real-World Cold-Weather Testing
- Verdict
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More
