Tooling around Aspen, the HSE, with its naturally aspirated V8, felt more comfortable, more at home, than the Supercharged. Throttle response in the HSE seems more linear, shifts more subtle, the ride more compliant. The Supercharged seems occasionally to catch the transmission off guard, as if the transmission isn't quite sure what the engine wants by way of managing the gear shift. Throttle tip in, too, was sometimes a bit more aggressive than we wanted, making difficult a calm acceleration from a stop. The lower profile tires' ride is a bit harsher over rough and broken pavement.
Both the HSE and the S/C account well for themselves on the interstates, even when pushing the posted limits more than just a little; at highway speeds, the air suspension automatically lowers the Sport one inch, lessening drag and stabilizing the ride. At legal speeds, the road speed-sensitive assisted steering feels a tad light, with not as much on-center feel as we like. Cranked up to seriously extra-legal rates of travel, though, directional stability improves markedly. The high seating position makes for good visibility over other vehicles and down the highway; on the run from Aspen over toward Utah, and although our radar detector had already warned us, we saw the trooper several seconds before brake lights lit up around us. The adaptive cruise control works as promised; the Sport maintains your choice of one of four programmed following ranges, which are based on time, not distance, slowing perceptively but not obtrusively as the gap to followed vehicles closes, then gently building speed when the road is clear. No, the system won't slam on the brakes if it senses impending doom and you're too busy chatting on the cell to notice, but it will sound an alarm to get your attention. Stopping power is more than adequate, for which a couple of marmots scurrying across the road on a pass above Aspen are eternally grateful. There is, however, more dive under braking, and squat under acceleration, for that matter, than we expected with a suspension as sophisticated as this one.
Range Rovers have never been known for their prowess on winding, two-lane back roads. No longer, at least in the Sport. And this holds for both the HSE and the S/C, although the latter is the preferred choice when the interstate ends. The engine, the air suspension and the tires play their part, but sharing top billing are the transmission and the aforementioned new Dynamic Response System. As do many of today's higher tech automatics, the transmission adapts to a wide variety of driving styles, from the sporty to the laid back. When it senses a heavier foot on the gas and high cornering loads, it heads toward the sporty end of the spectrum, downshifting more readily and, perhaps equally reassuring to the driver, avoiding upshifts mid-corner. And in CommandShift mode, it matches engine and gear speeds during shifts. But its unique attribute is the ability do the same thing when it's downshifting in automatic Sport or under heavy braking, to effect a virtual double-clutch, electronically syncing engine and gear speeds to smooth the change. We experienced something similar in the full-size Range Rover Supercharged, but the Sport's system responds more readily, quicker and more crisply. Then there's the DRS. Similar in design to a system first introduced on the current BMW 7 Series, this monitors steering angle and horizontal acceleration to anticipate when the Sport will lean in a corner. Using hydraulic motors powered by an engine-driven pump, it then stiffens the stabilizer bar at each wheel at the precise moment the Sport starts to lean. It works, as we proved to ourselves on quick runs down winding, two-lane roads outside Moab in the HSE and the S/C, on which the DRS is standard; Land Rover officials say it may be offered as an option on the HSE later in the model year. To the seat of our pants, it felt kind of like the Sport were lifting the inside, or unloaded, wheels just enough to keep everything on an even keel. Not to worry, though, the Sport doesn't remain perfectly flat to the limit of adhesion through corners. The engineers realized this could get inattentive, or over-confident, drivers into trouble. Once the lateral force reaches about 0.4g, the system allows a bit of body roll. Also, the system decouples offroad so as not to restrict suspension articulation.
As we settled back along the bank of the Colorado River after the day's drive to watch the sunset, we realized we hadn't had as much fun in a Range Rover since we drove the BMW X5. This pleased the Sport's designers, seeing as how the X5 was their handling benchmark. Next Page