![]() Like most high end modern cars – and many modern cars period – the Range Rover Sport HST comes with all kinds of driver assist technology. Even with the slight elevation of half of the cargo space there was still ample room to move all kinds of items in one trip. There’s a chance I was doing it wrong – but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t operator error. ![]() But for some reason the rear seats don’t fold all the way flat. The back lift door opens high, and the opening is wide, which is great. I was helping someone move some things, which provided a perfect real-world test of the Utility of the sport utility vehicle. And it made the wheels look small – which is funny, because they’re 21 inches and not small at all. It’s funny for me, as a person on the taller side, to have to step down from a vehicle. I did play with the height adjustment to see what it looked like raised all the way up. My move is to leave it all in auto, and not worry about it. The Millennium Falcon is easier to fly than figuring out all the buttons and knobs and modes on most modern cars. ![]() Up and down, wet roads, snowy roads, hills. There are the anticipated multiplicity of settings on the Rover. Drums do work to slow vehicles – it’s just that discs do work better. It’s also why on older cars that are updated it’s not necessary to replace drum brakes with discs all around, if you’re being judicious with the dollars spent, and the front brakes are enough. But we’ll leave that to Tom Cruise and stunt drivers in the Fast and the Always Furious. Which if you think about it makes sense – the car is moving forward, so the energy is in the front, which always gets there first, except when driving in reverse of course. (Red is part of the HST package – which isn’t an acronym for anything, just the name of the trim package.) An interesting result of physics – the front brakes do more of the stopping than the rear. Safety is helped by the large, red brake calipers, which are larger in the front than the rear. Which can be a dangerous feeling if not tempered by good sense and an awareness of the necessity to be safe, first and foremost. And when all of that weight gets up and going, the feeling of the speed combined with the heft of the vehicle gives one a sense of serious security, and the allure of being able to impose one’s automotive will on the other lesser vehicles on the road. With a curb weight of 5,130 pounds the zero to 60 isn’t bad – 5.9 seconds – but the 40 to 60, given the twin turbos, is a bit of a blast. Beautiful silver paint, black roof and wheels – the sizable car has that slightly menacing, definitely imperious, potentially fast appearance. Carbon fiber dash and other interior and exterior appointments, smooth leather, not just any leather, but Windsor leather with suede cloth bolsters. ![]() ![]() Four doors, the normal hatch rear opening, and all the trimmings the six cylinder twin turbo with electric supercharger all-wheel drive panoramic moon roof British luxuriousness on full display. The Land Rover company traces its roots back to 1948’s introduction of the second four wheel drive vehicle following closely behind the Jeep. And with the changing automotive landscape, as the realities of climate change begin to penetrate the obfuscation thrown up by short sighted financial interests of oil companies, and major manufacturers plan for a greener, more electric-focused power source for future offerings, the impediments to purchasing a large, heavy, SUV from a legendary manufacturer are not insignificant.Īnd yet, there is no denying the pleasure of driving a new 2020 Land Rover Range Rover Sport HST. Does it get harder to live up to the past with each successive model? Perhaps. Iconic vehicles carry both a benefit and a burden with each new iteration. ![]()
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