FROM: ROBB REPORT THE GLOBAL LUXURY SOURCE
Click
image to enlarge.
When Land Rover’s handsome Range
Rover Sport bowed for the 2006 model year, it raised eyebrows among
aficionados of the venerable British marque. This new model certainly
looked a lot like its celebrated big brother, the Range Rover, but cut a
decidedly trimmer figure, and although it was mechanically derived from
the square-jawed LR3, it rolled onto Land Rover showrooms with an
almost scandalously dashing mien. As the faithful quickly discovered,
this seemingly enigmatic addition to the Land Rover family was, in fact,
a triple threat par excellence: as sumptuous as a luxury sedan, as
swift and agile as a sports car, and as talented off the pavement as,
well, a Land Rover.
Monday, 29 March 2010 13:29
-ROBB REPORT THE GLOBAL LUXURY SOURCE
Car of the Year 2010: No. 6 Land Rover
Range Rover Autobiography
Good SportRange Rovers have always been square
with sharp corners; and though they are great when sloughing off road,
they are inclined to laziness and lurching when hauling horse trailers
on dry land. So forgive our judges for prejudging the Autobiography as
just another contrived special edition intended to conceal the same old
four-wheeler. For once they saw it and drove it, prejudice became
praise. Drivers admired the technologies aimed at keeping the vehicle
upright, straight, level, and on an undulating keel despite unnerving,
uneven conditions. Highest marks went to the new 5-liter, 510 hp
supercharged engine that transforms this SUV into a sports car. —Paul
Dean