Range Rovers fit into two normal groups for us: the ones that are the take-no-prisoners British off-roaders we know and love from Camel Trophy and other such events, and the sport-utility of choice for the well-heeled that we just shake our heads at. This Range Rover is neither. This is the new SVR model…effectively, it’s Jaguar-Land Rover’s code for Special Vehicle Racing. Yes, racing…this Range Rover is looking squarely at Porsche Cayenne Turbos with a look that says there’s gonna be a fight. The engine is the 5.0L V8 also found in the Jaguar F-Type and sounds snottier than all hell at wide-open, an eight-speed automatic with calibrated shifting handles the heavy work, and those special magnetorheological shocks that we’ve come to know and love from Corvette have found an application here as well. It lapped the ‘Ring in 8:14, and Land Rover still push the SVR’s off roading abilities. Jaguar recently ran an advertisement that portrayed their cars as the choice of evil British masterminds…well, here’s their SUV.

But numbers, while nice, don’t really mean jack to us. We actually want to see what this thing will do, and that’s where /drive’s Steve Sutcliffe comes in. When Brits aren’t busy planning world domination or destruction, they do excellent car reviews, and this guy is our kind of reviewer: we get the rundown on the vehicle while he’s hauling copious amounts of ass around some of the open roads of England. He gets airborne. He gets sideways. He romps this Range Rover as if he had been told that it was being crushed after his drive, so “have at it, lad.” The only break between the soundtrack of the V8 blatting away is the Land Rover PR guy explaining their side of the story…and he looks like a proper evil Brit if there ever was one.