2025 Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two special feature: SV Track Attack Part 4

We’re done with the little leagues. It’s time to go big or go home. The Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two has already stomped its authority on three of the four racetracks in the country in Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the SV Track Attack series, follow the series from the starting line if you haven’t already. And now it’s time for the fastest, longest, most demanding of them all. The Buddh International Circuit. It might not be as historic as some of the tracks in South India, but it has been cemented into Indian motorsport history, having hosted both F1 and MotoGP races over the last decade and a half. This is where it all comes together. The engine, the suspension, the brakes, the tyres – everything we’ve explored about the SV’s performance is about to be tested. To the very limit.

The track is intense. 5.125km long. Over one kilometre of flat-out straight – used to be one of the fastest on the F1 calendar. Blind crests. Big braking zones. Fast corners that put fighter jet-level G forces through the car. Everything there is dialled to the max. The Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two has proved to be handy around a racetrack already. But can it graduate to the big leagues?

Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two arrives at BIC: The only F1 track India's ever had — Shot by Rohit G Mane for evo India

There’s plenty of heat under the hood for that to be a possibility. The 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 is a weapons-grade piece of machinery. With 626bhp and up to 800Nm of torque in Dynamic Launch, it regularly rearranges your innards. It’s brutal. The drive out of corners makes you forget you’re hauling a full-size SUV.

The numbers on the speedo don’t lie. All they do is scare you. Then there’s the chassis. The 6D Dynamics is like magic – it does things that shouldn’t be possible. Impeccable body control, very little roll and it just keeps the body flat through the mind-bending forces of cornering an SUV at (and sometimes over) the limit. Stringing it all together is the one button to rule them all – the SV mode button. Front and centre on the steering wheel, hitting it sends the engine into max attack, tightens up suspension, drops ride height by 15mm and the exhaust note gets meaner. SV mode doesn’t just change the car – it changes the way you drive it.

The SV mode makes the cluster glow red and more focussed with a big tacho in the centre — Shot by Rohit G Mane for evo India

Of course, we are here to set a fast lap. Siddharth Desai – SUV lap record holder at this very track, and someone who knows every bump, kerb and braking marker like the back of his hand is getting strapped in. He’s pushing from the get go. Flying past us on the main straight, he slams the anchors into C1. The Rangie shows its composure in the first few corners, before firing itself onto the main straight. Here, the mighty V8 pulls like a freight train taking the Range Rover well over 200kmph.

The Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two corners flat, by the magic from its 6D Dynamics suspension and a wide track — Shot by Rohit G Mane for evo India

Not quite top speed, but then he’s got to mash the brakes again – this is the biggest braking zone on track. The latter half of the track demands agility and would usually trip up an SUV. Not the SV though. The combination of the suspension, big tyres and deft inputs allow the SUV to thread its way through the track and cross the finish line. The time? 2:26.233.

Raj Kapoor, adjudicator, FMSCI in attendance to validate the lap time and marvel at the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 — Shot by Rohit G Mane for evo India

All that performance. All that tech. And the result – an SUV that feels at home on an F1 circuit and a lap time that has sports cars looking for excuses. And the best part? You can head back to your hotel in absolute comfort, after setting the racetrack on fire. Acres of room in the backseat, Body and Soul seats with heating, cooling and a massage function, Meridian 3D sound, a giant sunroof, top notch materials. You could be demolishing lap times one moment, and soaking in a spa the next.

Therein lies the appeal of the Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two. It can’t be put in a box. It can’t be limited to one purpose. It does everything you would expect a car with the SV badge to do – speed, performance, handling, delivering the Thrill of Driving. But, and this is critical – it hasn’t forgotten how to be a Range Rover. It hasn’t forgotten how to be comfortable in the quest for sportiness. It still does luxury like no other SUV out there.

Siddharth Desai and Ed, Sirish Chandran reflect upon the lap time at BIC — Shot by Rohit G Mane for evo India

The four racetracks in the country? Check. But we’re not done just yet. We’ve got one more test left for the Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two. A proper VMAX test. And there’s only one place in the country that would allow that. Stay tuned!