Looking every inch a company car of choice, the new Range Rover Sport is being advertised as flying up Pikes Peek in record time, then carrying on and driving down the mountain off-road.
But, trying not to ruin a brand new Sport, Car magazine tested it head to head with its sibling 110 Defender.
Based on a whole new chassis, designed for the new generation of models, the Sport is lugging a whole lot less weight round than it used to, but now it relies on electronics to apportion drive and braking instead of good old-fashioned diff-locks.
The Terrain Response series 2 uses sensors on and under the car to work out the surface below and constantly adjusts diffs and braking systems to optimise drive. Drive traction, ride height and throttle control are also taken over by the system. In the test, climbing a muddy hill which is topped with sand appeared to challenge the system but without any delay it switched over beautifully impressing all who drove it. The downhill following was controlled by the hill descent system, the feet off the peddles being a weird for everybody that tried it.
Swapping to the 110, its obvious that whilst it is unbelievably capable, the new Sport waded through all the water, climber all the hills and traversed all the same suspension sapping dips that the 110 Land Rover did. Two things came out as obvious in the test. One, how fantastic the new Sport is and two, wait till the new 110 is launched with the same Terrain Response 2.