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"If the local Land Rover dealer is waiting to receive your six-figure wire transfer for a new full-size Range Rover, you&amp;#039;ll want to stop payment. Like, right now. Unless your crew demands the legroom of Virgin Upper Class, simply change your order to a new Range Rover Sport. The Sport is quicker, sexier, and strikes the ride/handling balance better than just about any SUV. Oh yeah, it also scrambles up a muddy two-track like a boss and costs less than its larger stablemate, too. The new Ranger Rover Sport is the business. All of its goodness is traced right to its sibling, the big dog Range Rover. The two share largely the same aluminum chassis and body structure, and the engineers are proud to say this Sport is a full 813 pounds lighter than the last. That&amp;#039;s not to say it&amp;#039;s a featherweight. A Range Rover Sport V8 is just over two and a half tons. While the Sport shares the same wheelbase as the longer Range Rover, the greasy parts beneath are not identical. To sharpen the moves of the Sport, the dampers are firmer, front suspension links are longer, and they mount with unique geometry. At the heart of this beast you&amp;#039;ll find two supercharged powertrains pulled directly from the Jaguar and Land Rover family\u2014the strong 340-hp 3.0-liter V6 or the insane 510-hp 5.0-liter V8. Both are backed by a ZF eight-speed automatic. Care to guess which one is more fun?  This is a Land Rover so there are two 4WD choices: a lighter single-speed Torsen all-wheel drive or the sophisticated Terrain Response 2 system also used in the full-size Range Rover. The latter offers a selectable mode to adjust traction and torque bias for just about any road surface, as well as an Auto mode if turning that knob is just too bothersome. Yes, it&amp;#039;s tech-laden, too. Though, the coolest feature is one we won&amp;#039;t get in the States\u2014Wade Sensing\u2014that uses sensors in the door mirrors and bumper to monitor water depth. Just drive into a river and the Rover will tell you if it&amp;#039;s getting too close to its nearly three-foot maximum fording depth. It&amp;#039;s all very 007. There&amp;#039;s an optional TFT panel with virtual gauges to replace the mechanical instrument cluster. And, of course, there&amp;#039;s a touchscreen in the center of the dash. Unfortunately, the UI is clumsy at basic stuff, like adjusting the climate-control fan speed. This is something you will immediately forget when you snuggle into the plush 14-way seats with their pillowy headrests. We&amp;#039;d order four of these thrones as living room furniture if we could.  There&amp;#039;s a staggering combination of interior materials to choose from\u2014four aluminum trim choices; three different woods; and 11 combinations of leather, including a tri-tone option that sounds like it might be a little too Kardashian for our tastes. But here in the U.S., we&amp;#039;re apparently not worthy of the glorious full faux-suede headliner. Pity. It&amp;#039;s gorgeous. Even without it, the interior is sleek and modern enough for a photo spread in Dwell magazine. Performance SUVs are usually terrible on rough roads. The sharp handling apparently results from springs and dampers made of granite. But point the nose of the Range Rover Sport toward any road from a dirt trail to downtown Detroit, and the supple air suspension glides above it all with little cabin intrusion. Bend it into a corner, though, and the hydraulic swaybars and adaptive dampers allow the Sport to roll ever so slightly and then take a predictable set. It&amp;#039;s so easy to drive quickly, weaving the Rover through a set of switchbacks. The relatively light steering becomes weightier as speed increases, but the progression is so masterful you barely notice.  Crank the rotary knob of the Terrain Response system on V8 models hard left and you&amp;#039;ll land on a squiggly road icon called &amp;quot;Dynamic Mode.&amp;quot; Here, the optional system sharpens throttle response, adds more heft to the steering, holds transmission gears longer, substantially increases the resistive force of the actuators in the hydraulic roll bars, and tells the Denso adaptive dampers to react with more frequency. Dynamic Mode also increases the torque-vectoring ability of the electronic-locking rear diff. Incredibly, even in this mode, the Sport maintains a proper Range Rover ride\u2014but it locks the SUV to the tarmac like a sport sedan. It&amp;#039;s the perfect weapon to hunt down a Cayenne Turbo. And speaking of chasing powerful German SUVs, if you only ever drive the standard supercharged V6, you&amp;#039;ll probably be completely satisfied. It&amp;#039;s quick (0-60 in 6.9 seconds). But it only takes a few minutes in the V8 to be completely ruined. The 510-hp supercharged V8 is bonkers. Land Rover engineers will tell you it&amp;#039;s good for 60 mph in less than five seconds\u2014with a smirk that says that&amp;#039;s way conservative. Forget the dog&amp;#039;s bollocks, this one&amp;#039;s got the cojones of a woolly mammoth. And the exhaust sound is epic. The Sport&amp;#039;s talented chassis and big-hearted V8 have us panting. But there&amp;#039;s a practical side to this Rover that makes it an easy sell for a family\u2014the optional third row of seats. Check that option and, in place of the spare tire beneath the cargo hold, the Sport will provide a power-folding seat, which Land Rover says is just for occasional use and not really suitable for anyone much taller than your typical 14-year-old kid. Still, for most families, that&amp;#039;s plenty.  Back in the good old days (like five years ago), automatic transmissions used exactly zero percent of your brainpower. To drive one, you just need to grab the lever and pull it down into the gear you want. Parking? Push the lever north until it stops. The Sport&amp;#039;s shifter, like some other luxury automakers\u2014cough, BMW, cough, cough\u2014is deliberately cumbersome, requiring multiple moves to change gears. Want &amp;quot;Neutral&amp;quot;? Slide the lever down to &amp;quot;N.&amp;quot; But &amp;quot;Drive&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Reverse&amp;quot; require pushing a button on the backside of the lever. And &amp;quot;Park&amp;quot; is another separate button on the top of the shifter. It&amp;#039;s all a little frustrating. Judged from any angle\u2014visually, mechanically, or dynamically\u2014the new Range Rover Sport is a lustworthy machine. So good is the Sport that it makes the more expensive Range Rover seem superfluous. There&amp;#039;s a Ford Fiesta worth of price difference between the $63,495 V6 and the $79,995 V8 Range Rover Sport. And that&amp;#039;s without adding any options. But even with that giant price gap, we simply must have that glorious V8 in our garage. 2014 Land Rover Range Rover Sport  Powertrains: Supercharged 3.0-liter V6, 340 hp @ 6500 rpm, 332 lb-ft @ 3500-5000 rpm, 8-Speed Auto; Supercharged 5.0-liter V8, 510 hp @ 6000-6500, 461 lb-ft @ 2500-5500 rpm, 8-speed Auto Fuel Economy (City/Hwy): 17/23 (V6), 14/19 (V8) (mpg)  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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