The Range Rover Sport passes the 'flying' test

Mumbai: “It takes 35 minutes by road to the landing site. By glider, it’s 20 minutes.” said Paragliding National Champion Arvind Paul as he pointed to the downhill semi-road of twenty murderous kms. Bugger. The deal was that he would jump off a cliff and I race him along the road in a Range Rover Sport to the same finish line  — his landing site. Last one down, buys lunch.

This was adrenalin like I’d never felt before. Partly because I wanted to win, but mostly if we fell off, we’d die of old age before we hit bottom. The job was simple — go like hell, and try to bring the car back in one piece. The road from Billing to Bid (Himachal Pradesh), broken as it is, has no straights. It has millions of blind bends. I had to average 60 kph just to stand a chance. “I think we should go now,” said Sonu Kumar, himself a veteran paraglider pilot.

Gearbox in manual, full throttle — remember to stay alive. The brilliant four-wheel-drive system hurled the 2.1 tonne monster towards with all four wheels spinning into the first corner. They came up at the rate of one every second or two. It was immediately apparent that 5 out of 8 gears in this auto box were redundant. And then it hit me. While this was hard work, the Range Rover Sport felt like a hot hatch.

The point-and-squirtability of this huge luxury off-roader is nothing short of breathtaking. You fling it hard into corners even on gravel and provided you’re on either the throttle or the brakes, the electronics will keep you in check. They feel like they’re there to make you faster, not slow you down. But more than the computers, it’s the chassis and suspension that impress.

You see, the old Range Rover Sport wasn’t a Range Rover at all. It was an LR Discovery in a Range Rover dress. This new one shares its chassis and running gear with the new Range Rover. And like its big brother, it’s half-a-tonne lighter than its predecessor. To put that into perspective, imagine taking four Honda Activas out of the boot. The outcome is as dramatic as the love child of Stephen Fry and Usain Bolt — fierce competence, intellect and composure meeting genuine athletic ability.

Also, being sporty isn’t just the ability to go quickly around corners. Real sportiness is the sensation of speed, excitement and control. This elephant has every other SUV in the world licked on that count.

“Take right! Take Right!.” Thank you, Sonu, for interrupting my monologue. We’d done seventeen kms. The hard work was done. The remaining three kms past a monastery and through the Bid village tested my patience. Not running the locals down had to take precedence over the final push to the finish.

We were in the valley now, and for the first time since the flag dropped, we had clear skies. “There he is,” screamed Sonu as he pointed to Arvind’s glider. He was descending fast. “Landing site on your left... Go go go.” I jumped the Sport over the two feet drop to the landing site because I’d lost sight of the glider. Where the hell was he?

As I stopped and jumped out, I could see Sonu hooting and hollering at a glider. Arvind landed a few seconds later. The car had won. But only just. “How did you come down so fast?” asked an exhausted Arvind. “It was the car. I couldn’t have done 20 km in 20 minutes on a road like that in anything else,” I said, trying to dissipate the adrenaline. Any other car would have killed us on that run. The Elephant had brought us down in one piece.

On the drive back to Delhi I had time to reflect on the RRS as it transformed completely into a super-cruiser. It’s other-worldly, simply as a piece of engineering and design, it’s fabulous to drive, it’s beautiful to behold, it’s supremely comfortable and best of all, prices start at just over a crore (Ex-Maharashtra).

If you still choose to buy another premium SUV, despite this spread, I never want you round my house for dinner.