2006 Range Rover Sport

If the pecking order of Land Rover's latest products seems confusing, then let's clear things up a bit: The new Range Rover Sport slots above last year's of-the-year winner, the LR3, but below the flagship Range Rover. It's Land Rover's entry into the performance SUV market that's already occupied by Porsche's Cayenne, BMW's X5, Infiniti's FX, and Mercedes-Benz's soon-to-come ML63 AMG. Although the Sport borrows a lot of its dashing style from the upscale Range Rover, it's actually built using the LR3 platform.

What this means is that, for about $20 grand less, you can have a Range Rover that'll run a photo-finish race with its big brother (choose between two V-8s: a 300-horse, 4.4-liter or a 390-horse, supercharged 4.2-liter) and turn just as many heads on Sunset Boulevard--especially in the Vesuvius Orange sprayed on our test car. The Sport is 2.4 inches shorter than an LR3 and 7.2 inches shorter than a Range Rover, but weighs a hefty 5859 pounds. So the impressive on-road dynamics--acceleration, braking, and grip--are beyond anything you've experienced from Land Rover; they're like watching a 225-pound running back make a 90-yard touchdown sprint. There's a certain majesty to it all, rather than the sparkle you get from a light-footed receiver over the same distance.

Because off-road ability is as central to the Land Rover brand as a rear-mounted flat-six is to a 911, the Range Rover Sport uses the LR3's terrain-response system, allowing it to go places that would test a trail-rated Jeep--even on the low-profile 20-inch sport tires fitted to our Supercharged tester (though in reality how long would they last before the sidewalls get fatally pinched between rim and rock). The Range Rover Sport is a unique compromise: a performance SUV you can take into the rough stuff without having to order a special off-road kit from the manufacturer.