2016 Land Rover Range Rover SVAutobiography
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2016 Land Rover Range Rover SVAutobiography
Range Rover

2016 Land Rover Range Rover SVAutobiography

Trending News: Introducing The Most Expensive Range Rover Ever

Why Is This Important?

Range Rover unveils the SVAutobiography, its most high-priced, over-the-top Chariot of the Luxury Gods ever.

Long Story Short

Jaguar Land Rover’s new Special Vehicle Operations unit creates the first $200,000 SUV. Expect copious luxury amenities.

Long Story

Long considered the SUV ne plus ultra for the distinguished class, Range Rover has been besieged recently on all fronts by aggressive competition. Nevermind already confirmed smash hits like the Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and BMW X5 eating up market share, Range Rover will soon be contending against an entire third wave of ambitious luxury marques. Bentley, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Maserati are all arming the pipeline, with Range Rover sister brand Jaguar even mounting an SUV offensive. Hell, Ferrari is rumored to be working on a ute. Ferrari!




But don’t feel bad for Land Rover just yet — they’re sold out on both Range Rover and Range Rover Sports, with a six-month wait list for the former and a four-month wait for the latter. So it’s fair to say they have the entry- and mid-level of the luxury SUV market on lockdown. But with platinum brands like Bentley about to enter the fray, RR needs to do something to fight off potent attack from the top-end of the playing field.

Enter the SVAutobiography.

Designed and built by Jaguar Land Rover’s new Special Vehicle Operations division, the SVAutobiography gets SVO’s retuned 5.0-liter supercharged V8. It’s the same engine found in SVO’s Range Rover Sport SVR, as well as hyper-Jags like the F-Type Project 7 concept. Originally thought of as a high-performance tuner like AMG is for Benz, the fact that the SVAutobiography falls under SVO’s tent-pole obviously shows the tuner division will have bespoke responsibilities as well.  

Replacing the Autobiography Black at the top of the Range Rover line-up, the SVAutobiography gets a significant jump in price from about $185,000 to a hair under $200K. That’s a lot to pay for a vehicle whose base model starts at less than $85K. But RR is making sure you get your money’s worth.

First off, its supercharged 5.0-liter V8 gets performance increases of 40-hp and 41-lb. ft. of torque, up to a total of 550-hp and 502-lb. ft. This arrives without any impact on fuel efficiency, which is good thing as the V8’s 13/19/15 mpg (city/highway/combined) output is already considerably thirsty. ZF’s excellent eight-speed automatic transmission moves the gears.

The exterior gets RR’s first Dual-tone livery, which combines a glossy Santorini Black upper with nine different color options to select from for the lower half. This paint scheme is applied to RR’s extended body (204.7 inches), which is almost 8 inches longer than the base Range Rover, with a 7.8-inch longer wheelbase. The SVAutobiography also gets a new Graphite Atlas- and polished chrome-finished grille, unique hood lettering and badging on the tailgate, just to make sure all your fellow country club members know you’ve paid more for your Range.

Additional exterior flourishes include gloss black Brembo front calipers and quad polished chrome tailpipes — retuned to sing an enriched engine note.

The interior is where SVO really makes waves, however, using solid aluminum as its signature flourish. Applying a handsome knurled machining to the metal, the SVAutobiography gets hits of aluminum on the start-stop surround, rotary gear selector, cup holder, socket covers, armrest adjuster knobs and coat hooks. Even the pedals get knurled aluminum. The rear passengers receive ample chauffeured treatment, with champagne chiller, powered table trays and deep twist pile mohair carpets.

In addition to its headline-making $200,000 SVAutobiography SUV, Range Rover will also be unveiling in New York a litany of revisions for its 2016 line-up — including, for the first time ever, a much requested turbo-diesel option for the HSE model.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: With a sticker price almost one-and-a-half times that of the base HSE Range Rover, can the luxury appointments of the SVAutobiography really justify the cost?

Disrupt Your Feed: Jaguar Land Rover’s new Special Vehicle Operations unit was originally thought of as a high-performance tuner like Merc’s AMG or Audi’s Rennsport. But the fact that the SVAutobiography falls under SVO’s tent-pole shows JLR also has significant luxury bespoke expectations of its new division.

Drop This Fact: With 550-horsepower, the SVAutobiography is the most powerful Range Rover in the model’s prosperous 45-year history.