This is it: our ultimate test of the new Range Rover! Can it see off the ultra-luxurious Bentayga, the super-sharp Cayenne and the traditional S-Class, as well as taking on the rough stuff?
Bentayga, Cayenne and S-Class here to rough it upGenuine icons? They’re few and far between. Porsche has at least one, and so too does Land Rover. Its flagship, the luxury- meets-utility Range Rover, may be more than half a century old but it’s only now into its fifth iteration. Trends, corporate owners, rivals, Prime Ministers – they come and go yet the Range Rover remains; aloof yet desirable, aspirational yet practical, contemporary yet timeless.
To an extent this remains true of the new car, certainly in this hard-hitting company. But swift road driving is no longer beyond Land Rover’s storied flagship. The Turbo S E-Hybrid is also in possession of outlandish electro-mechanical torque, with a ferocious 664lb ft to the Bentley’s 568lb ft and the Range Rover’s 516lb ft. It’s the kind of urge that flattens hills, compresses time and scatters your shopping all over the car. Assuming you’re in either Sport or Sport+ mode the low-rpm drive is deliciously soft and generous, like a king-sized mattress of motive marshmallow. But don’t be deceived.
The mild-hybrid diesel six gives a delicious little shudder of effort, the gearbox effortlessly glides through its first couple of ratios and we biff up the first few dust-baked tracks like a Belgravia green force of nature. There’s a blanket 50mph limit which, given the myriad blind entrances and farm gates, doesn’t feel like a bad idea. And so tight and stuffed with fierce gradients is the road that actually holding 50mph is pretty good going. Correction: 50mph is pretty good going in a normal car – the Bentley isn’t even at a canter. And it’d really rather crack on.
The only thing missing is a well-calibrated rear-steer system, though it’ll be standard on the Extended Wheelbase version that arrives later this year. That said, the Bentley does change direction with a deliciously consistent, deliberate accuracy that eludes all but the best rear-steer set-ups. The Bentayga was comprehensively overhauled in 2020, with new exterior sheet metalwork, an updated cockpit and tweaks to the chassis. Snug behind the wheel it feels nothing like the clean, spacious Range Rover. This is more high-rise GT, with a small-diameter, fat-rimmed steering wheel, a broad and high centre console under your left elbow and an interior for which the word cockpit is entirely apt.
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