Friday, September 20, 2013
New Range Rover Sport leaked
New car will be 300kg lighter than its predecessor and will be revealed on March 26.
Pictures of the new Range Rover Sport have surfaced online ahead of its reveal at the New York motor show. The car will be officially unveiled on 26 March when it is driven through Manhattan the day before the show opens.
The company had previously released a official teaser shot of the new car and says that the location of the Sport’s debut is entirely appropriate, because New York city is the model’s single biggest metropolitan market and the Sport is also currently Land Rover’s best-selling model in North America.
The unofficial images appear to show the Sport will share its basic design DNA with the Range Rover, but evolves the wing-mounted vents seen on the current car. The car also borrows heavily from the Range Rover Evoque.
John Edwards, who is Land Rover’s global brand director, said: “The all-new Range Rover Sport takes the model to another level. It is Land Rover’s most dynamic vehicle yet and showcases the best of British design, engineering and technological innovation.”
The new Sport is based on the same all-aluminium, bonded and riveted PLA (Premium Lightweight Architecture) platform as the Mk4 Range Rover. It will be built alongside the flagship model at the company’s new PLA production line in Solihull, West Midlands.
It is expected to be a good 300kg lighter than the outgoing Sport, which is based on the same heavy-duty T5 platform as the Land Rover Discovery 4. This should mean that the base V6 diesel Sport will weigh in at about 2160kg.
Those who have seen the finished product say that the new car is “more obviously sporting” than the current Sport. It will be visually differentiated from the Range Rover by a more sharply raked roofline, shorter rear overhang, deeper body sides and more aggressive treatment for the nose and tail.
The Sport will also come with the option of seven seats, to help it compete more directly with the Mercedes-Benz M-class and the upcoming, all-new BMW X5. To add to its competitiveness in this segment, sources say that the Sport will get the option of a new 2.0-litre diesel engine.
Land Rovers new Sport will also be offered with a hybrid drivetrain.
