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Caraganza Review 2025 Range Rover Sport SV2: Luxury First, Lunacy on Demand

Recently I was given the chance to climb into a NASCAR-style stock car and circulate the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. The problem wasn’t fear. It was geometry. To get into one of those things you have to fold yourself through a window opening roughly the size of a microwave door. At this stage of life, that maneuver would require butter, a shoehorn, and a rescue crew from the local fire department.

I’ve always loved speed. Big, thunderous V8 speed. In my youth, there was little between me and combustion besides a sheet of metal and questionable judgment. Sports sedans evolved, adding computers and airbags and modes with names like “Sport Plus Ultra Nürburgring Something.” They got safer. They got faster. I, meanwhile, got… less foldable.

Which is why the 2025 Range Rover Sport SV2 feels like a gift from the motoring gods. This, thankfully, is how a grown adult with a fondness for horsepower does performance in 2025.

Because here is a vehicle with a proper, chest-thumping V8 up front—635 horsepower of it—and yet you enter it like a civilized human being. No yoga certification required. No crawling. No emergency extraction team on standby. You simply open a large, reassuringly expensive door and step into one of the nicest cabins this side of a private jet.

Let’s address the elephant in the showroom: this is the only way to get a V8 in a Range Rover Sport for 2025. If you want eight cylinders and the sort of power figure normally reserved for track-day heroes and mildly unhinged Germans, you’re signing on the dotted line for the SV2. And that dotted line reads $204,875.

Yes. Two hundred and four thousand, eight hundred and seventy-five dollars. That’s nearly three times the cost of a standard Range Rover Sport. High-performance V8s in 2025 don’t just drink premium fuel—they bathe in your retirement fund and quietly send your financial advisor to the bar.

But oh, what you get.

Outside, it looks like a standard Range Rover Sport that’s been to finishing school and then quietly joined a fight club. It’s fashionable, muscular without being cartoonish, and sitting on available carbon fiber wheels that scream, “I have both taste and questionable financial priorities.” It cuts a slightly smaller, more athletic silhouette than the big Rover, but retains all the brand’s visual gravitas.

Inside, it’s classic Range Rover indulgence. Rich materials. Immaculate finishes. The sort of seats that make you consider canceling dinner plans just to sit in them longer. The infotainment system can be a bit of a riddle wrapped in a touchscreen, but once you learn its logic, it mostly behaves.

Now, about that 635 horsepower.

Here’s the curious bit. In Normal mode—and even in Dynamic—the SV2 can feel almost too civilized. The shifts from the eight-speed automatic are smoothed to the point of being slightly sleepy. The throttle pedal has a long travel, so you really have to lean into it before the fireworks begin. For a machine with this much claimed grunt, it can initially feel like it’s holding something back.

But change the mode. Wake it up properly. And suddenly the big Rover remembers it’s packing more punch than many sports cars. The acceleration builds with serious authority, and the chassis—remarkably—knows how to dance. For something this tall and this plush, it corners with composure that borders on defiant. It’s not a track weapon, but it’s far more athletic than any two-and-a-half-ton luxury SUV has a right to be.

Some will call that a flaw. I call it dual personality.

Because most of the time, this isn’t a Nürburgring refugee. It’s a Range Rover. It glides. It isolates. It makes traffic feel like a minor inconvenience rather than a personal attack. The ride is remarkably smooth, even on enormous wheels, and the cabin remains a sanctuary from the chaos outside.

The infotainment system can still require a PhD in Menu Navigation, and yes, the starting price is higher than many mid-size luxury SUVs. And yes, if you want the full volcanic eruption of performance, you have to pony up for the SV badge.

But that’s the point.

The 2025 Range Rover Sport SV2 is for those of us who still want the V8 thunder, who still want to feel that old spark of speed and power, but who also enjoy being able to exit the vehicle without a crane.

It’s smaller and more athletic than the full-size Range Rover, but it carries the same upscale silhouette and brand prestige. It’s a smooth-riding cruiser that, when properly provoked, knows exactly how to misbehave.

In other words, it’s what happens when you grow up… but refuse to grow boring.

The 2025 Range Rover Sport SV2
MSRP: $169,500
MSRP (as tested): $204,550
Engine: 4.4-liter Twin Turbo Gas/Electric V-8 626 hp @ 5,000 rpm, 553 lb-ft torque @ 1,800 rpm
Transmission: 8-speed shiftable automatic
Fuel Mileage (EPA): 16 city, 22 highway, 18 combined
Fuel Mileage (as tested, mixed conditions): 19 mpg
Base curb weight: 5,475 lbs.

Exterior Dimensions
Length: 196 in.
Overall width without mirrors: 80.6 in.
Height: 71.7 in.
Wheelbase: 118 in.
Ground clearance: 8.3-9.8 in.
Max Towing Capacity: 7,716 lbs.

Interior Dimensions
Front Seat Dimensions
Front headroom: 39.3 in.
Front leg room: 40.3 in.
Rear headroom: 38.7 in.
Rear leg room: 37.8 in.
Cargo capacity, all seats in place: 31.9 cu.ft.

Warranty
Basic: 4 yr./ 50,000 mi.
Hybrid/Electric Components Years / 100,000 Hybrid/Electric Components Miles
Rust: 6 yr./ unlimited mi.
Roadside assistance: 4 yr./ 50,000 mi.

Greg Engle
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