This tells us a lot about the car’s positioning which I’ll now attempt to unpack in Land Rover’s increasingly fragmented vernacular. At its core, this flagship Velar emerges from the Special Vehicle Operations skunkworks but drops the ‘Racing’ to strike a level balance with luxury. In other words, to enhance the Velar’s current characteristics.
Mostly, it must be said, by inheriting the five-liter supercharged V8 which is a doyen of the JLR family with the same 405kW and 680Nm as in the recently launched F-Pace SVR. I won’t pretend that this doesn’t have the single biggest effect on the Velar’s personality - grabbing the aggression, noise, and carbon emission knobs and giving them a full clockwise turn.
For a brand that walks the tightrope of luxury and off-road, Velar SVAD’s claimed performance of 100kph in 4.3 seconds and a top speed of 275kph shape up well but are by no means benchmarks against peers who have a narrower (read sportier) focus. The hairy-chested supercharged V8 provides all its violent thwack below 4,000rpm even though the needle will continue to climb to 6,900rpm. You end up reveling in the noise or enjoying how the suspension compresses under acceleration but it doesn’t dry the eyeballs in the way a Porsche Macan Turbo does. And I keep thinking that the V8 isn’t as limber as some of the competition’s straight sixes.
Weight is a factor – 300 kilos heavier than the Macan - which is slightly disappointing given the company’s song and dance about aluminum construction. But then again this and the smaller capacity GLC 63 AMG are among the few remaining V8s in the segment, the blunt appeal of which should not be underestimated.
Denne historien er fra November 2019-utgaven av Top Gear South Africa.
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Denne historien er fra November 2019-utgaven av Top Gear South Africa.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Variety Show
We’re in a golden age of fast cars. This is going to be blast, unless, of course, there’s a slight medical emergency...
Heat Seekers
Welcome to the world of wind-in-your-hair motoring... presuming you have hair, that is...
Stage Craft
A GP circuit, all to ourselves... so what do we do? Head off and find some dirt roads. Because rally
Hot Wings
Move over, road-legal minnows, it’s time for the serious machinery to pound the circuit...
Drives - S'Charged Thunder
Let’s start with the name: Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic, or SVAD for short.
Circuit Breaker
Petrol A45 AMG takes on electric Model 3. Now, who turned out the lights?
The Need For Speed
Breaking the 480kph barrier has become an obsession for the hypercar manufacturers. Here’s the story of how Bugatti got there first
Man On The Moon
How TG faked our Moon landing – not with Stanley Kubrick, but with a trip to Cancún.
Voltswagen The People's EV?
Ten years down the line, will the answer to every car-buying question be “Just get an ID.3”?
Rover's Return
Carrying the Defender into the modern century is intimidating but those put off by Discovery’s looks can now stay within the brand.