Who does this new Range Rover Sport P400 target with its RM1.7M price tag?
While JLR struggles to find firm footing for the ‘Jaguar’ half of the brand, it’s clear that there’s a part of their business that works really well – the Range Rover sub-brand. Range Rover represents the cream of the crop from the UK-based luxury car manufacturer. It was spawned in the 1970s and now spans 4 distinct models, each targeting the highest-spending tier of each size of SUV. The Evoque tackles compact crossover buyers. The Velar handles the mid-sized SUV crowd. The Sport takes on large SUV segment. The vehicle known simple as ‘Range Rover’ tackles the full-sized slice of the market.
Besides just the size and price ladder, another way to understand the Range Rover Sport is by framing it in the kind of buyer it targets. The flagship Range Rover is aimed at the most luxurious experience possible and is suited to those who are often chauffeur driven, like members of royalty, celebrities, politicians and business tycoons. The Range Rover Sport is aimed at a similar strata of society, but who often find themselves behind the wheel. It’s pretty close to the crème de la crème, but there’s an emphasis on sportiness.
About the Latest Range Rover Sport
This is the third generation Range Rover Sport and it represents quite a number of changes for the nameplate. First of all, there’s the new design language and pricing strategy. In 2024, the Range Rover brand has fully aligned itself with other luxury brands like Bentley and Rolls-Royce – filling the gap that lies between the ethereal top-tier and what more “mass-market” premium brands like Mercedes-Benz and Volvo can offer. It’s a comfortable place to be in as product cycles tend to be longer but it also forced JLR to give customers more attention to detail and tech than ever before.
What this means is the latest Range Rover Sport looks and feels more expensive than ever before and in fact is more expensive than ever before. With all taxes and duties paid, the single variant offered by Jaguar Land Rover Malaysia costs an eye-watering RM1,698,000. Further personalization is welcome and might make sense as there’s plenty of room to play in the RM800,000 gap between the Range Rover Sport and the flagship Range Rover. In fact, one such customization that can be readily added is the deployable side steps for RM35,000. Nothing quite says “rich” like spending an Axia’s worth on an accessory you use to get into your car.
That being said, the whole point of this class of vehicle is to create experiences that are impossible on regular cars and extremely rare in premium cars. With that objective in mind, let’s see what JLR managed with this L461 Range Rover Sport.
Only one powertrain option is available in Malaysia – the P400 which features an Ingenium 3.0L straight six turbocharged petrol engine. This gives you 400PS and 550Nm of torque, which is sent to all four wheels via an 8-speed ZF-sourced automatic gearbox
The Range Rover Sport is understandably heavy and in this generation the MLA-Flex architecture that underpins the car loses some aluminium for mixed metals. The trade-off is more weight for more torsional rigidity. Thanks to dynamic air suspension, Bilstein dampers, torque vectoring differentials and the Adaptive Dynamics programme, the Range Rover Sport ends up shrugging off its weight. Going from 0-100km/h in this behemoth takes just 5.7 seconds and it’ll keep going to 242km/h. Numbers aside, the car just feels so unnaturally planted at any speed. Very few cars can be this tall and this heavy while still feeling utterly reassuring to push hard around corners. Roll is incredibly well-managed and there seems to be no compromise to the ride comfort despite the impressive dynamics.
A big part of the appeal behind the Range Rover Sport is the vehicle’s sheer girth. It may be lost of many of us but big cars just don’t feel as big as they used to, especially for passengers at the rear. Even the latest Lexus RX feels just about large enough for 2 adults to sit in. The Range Rover Sport has yards of space in comparison. These are the rear seats you remember from your childhood – where a living room’s worth of space can be afforded to a section of a the vehicle often left unoccupied.
It’s utterly uncompromising in terms of sheer space. You also get same impression with regards to material quality and attention to detail. The leather upholstery feels just as sublime back here and hidden storage is lined rather than left bare. The seat belt buckles are illuminated to make them easier to find at night. Door cards come covered in multiple beautifully textured inlays. You even get ceiling-mounted air vents and soft-touch grab handles. It’s a nice place to be in, without a doubt.
However, as we alluded to earlier, the Range Rover Sport was designed with the driver in mind. Up front you get a convex curved 13.1″ Pivo Pro infotainment unit which displays Apple CarPlay and Android Auto wirelessly. Behind the substantial steering wheel (even the horn pad is leather wrapped and stitched) you’ll find another digital display, this time measuring 13.7″ and for driver instrumentation. Above that you’ll find a full-colour heads-up display. Climate controls and Terrain Response still featured dials on our test unit but it’s possible that newer models will be purely digital.
It’s all about the little details on a car as expensive as this. With the Range Rover Sport, the little details are everywhere but sometimes hidden. The dual electronically latched gloveboxes and hidden cupholders are a good example, but you’ll also find nice-to-haves in the digital experience. Reverse too closely to an obstacle, for instance, and you’ll eventually get a little icon warning you that the powered tailgate won’t be able open. The rear-view mirror also features ClearSight technology, enabling it to be fully digital, should your view out back be obstructed. The Pivi Pro system also has a lot of information ready to be shared including the air quality and the dimensions of the vehicle should you need to enter a short tunnel.
There’s a healthy number of USB-C ports scattered throughout the cabin plus a single USB-A port for legacy connections. Also worth taking note of – the seat controls are mounted on the door card and the memory function buttons are neatly integrated in a unique space-efficient layout. To us, the highlight of the Range Rover Sport cabin experience wasn’t the panoramic sunroof (those are about a dime-a-dozen at this point), but the 19-speaker 800W Meridian 3D surround system. Utterly sublime in terms of sound stage and easy to dial in to any genre of music you throw at it.
Overall, the Range Rover Sport cabin is designed from to pamper and impress beyond all expectations. Soft close doors, genuine leather throughout, and tonnes of space make this the kind of car you just want to spend you whole day in.
The Range Rover line-up has always had iconic, timeless design as part of the brief and we have to appreciate just how difficult that is to iterate upon. This 3rd generation Range Rover Sport was shown after the flagship Range Rover and brings much of that car’s futuristic, minimalist styling cues but throws in its own identifiers to help it stand out. Just like the full-sized Range Rover, this generation has pop-out door handles and flush window lines that lead to a look that is utterly clean from afar. Tight gaps between panels and a general flat look in spite of all the subtle curves in the bodywork make for a purposeful and unworldly look. In some lights, the Range Rover Sport almost looks like a rendered digital object brought into the real world – it’s a technically difficult look to pull off and it really captures the essence of Range Rover DNA.
Setting the Range Rover Sport apart from the Range Rover is its more agile look with steeper rakes to the pillars and a less upright silhouette overall. The headlights (digital LEDs) and grille are both slimmer here and around back the taillights are horizontally aligned with the gloss black plastic panel rather than vertically aligned as seen on the flagship. The tailpipe finishers are more prominent on the Sport as well. Both SUVs feature the double shark fin antennas with a ClearSight camera integrated. The look of the vehicle screams pure authoritative luxury and the slightly dynamic flavour perfectly complements the vehicle’s driving character.
It’s obviously not going to be anyone’s idea of value for money, but this class of car transcends that sort of discussion. Rather what’s important to consider is who would buy such a vehicle? I think the niche is there but it’s rather slim. Ultimately it almost feels as if an SVR variant might find more buyers with its V8 engine, but if you just want a version of the Range Rover that skews more towards the driver, the Range Rover Sport is at the top of its game. It’s the ultimate representation of capability wrapped in ultra luxury and perhaps the last area where the Brits still have the last say in the motoring world.
2023 Range Rover Sport L461 Specifications
Engine: Inline-6, 24-Valve, DOHC, twin-turbocharged petrol, mild hybrid
Capacity: 2997 cc
Gearbox: 8-speed Automatic + AWD with Terrain Response 2
Max power: 396 hp @ 5500 rpm
Max torque: 550 Nm @ 2000 rpm
Top Speed: 242 km/h
0-100 km/h: 5.7 seconds
Price: RM1,698,000 duties paid
