What's all this about?

Range Rover has whipped the covers off the Special Vehicles Operations (SVO) creation that is the SV Coupe at the Geneva Motor Show. The first two-door Rangie since the original of the 1970s, the SV Coupe will be limited to just 999 units, all hand-built at SVO's HQ in Warwickshire.

Come on then, how much will it cost?

Ah-ah, hold your horses. Let's talk about the full package first. While it might look like an L405 fourth-gen Range Rover with the back doors missing, actually the SV Coupe only shares the bonnet and lower tailgate with its five-door relative. Every other aluminium exterior panel is new, including the bumpers. The SV Coupe also has its own grille design, with a two-layer mesh and a silver metal surround, plus pixel-laser headlights with 144 LEDs and four laser diodes - these provide five times the luminescence of regular LEDs apparently and when the Laser Supplementary High Beam is operating at speeds above 50mph, the Rangie's headlights are shining more than 500 metres down the road ahead.

Come on then, how much will it cost?

Bear with us, we haven't finished on the exterior. Eight body colours are offered in gloss or satin effects, four of them new and one of those paints being Liquesence - a liquid-metal finish that's a first for a Range Rover. There are also four duo-tone gloss 'Contour Graphic' options, another 16 optional SV Premium Palette colours offered, and the possibility of sending the SV Coupe off to SVO's bespoke personalisation service, whereupon any paint finish you can imagine is theoretically possible. And don't forget the wheels, which comprise four different designs of alloy starting at 21 inches, up to and including a forged rim of 23 inches in diameter, on 275/40 R23 all-terrain tyres.

All very interesting, but what will the SV Coupe cost me?

We've not even covered the interior and engine. On the first score, the SV Coupe has four seats in semi-aniline, quilted leather which are heated and cooled, and they feature 20-way electrical adjustment in the front and 10-way in the rear. Nautica veneer fuses walnut and sycamore woods together, a first for any Range Rover, and this can clothe the steering wheel's rim, door cards, centre console, instrument panel and boot floor (select Natural Black Ash or Santo Palisander instead, if you don't like hybrid wood), while the twin-screen InControl Touch Pro Duo infotainment, a 12-inch digital instrument cluster, a head-up display and a 1,700-watt, 23-speaker Meridian Signature Sound System with a dual-channel subwoofer featuring Trifield 3D audio technology are all part of the Coupe's kit list. As are four optional two-tone interior finishes, which - unusually - see the front seats and surroundings in one colour, and the rear passengers' environment in another. Choose from Orchid/Eclipse, Orchid/Vintage Tan, Brogue/Ebony or Cirrus/Lunar here if you like this bipolar treatment of your passengers; if you just want one colour for the SV Coupe's cabin, though, that can also be arranged.

How. Much. Is. It?

Right, bear with us for just a few more minutes. The Range Rover SV Coupe uses the most powerful iteration of the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine seen in any Land Rover product yet, bar the same motor in the SVAutobiography. So, with 565hp and 700Nm driving all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic, the SV Coupe will hit 62mph from rest in 5.3 seconds and go on to 165mph flat out - yup, it's the fastest full-sized Range Rover so far. The air suspension is 8mm lower than a regular Rangie's, while it drops another 15mm at speeds of more than 65mph to increase stability and reduce fuel consumption. But while it promises to be supreme on the roads, it needs to be good off them - as it is a Range Rover, when all's said and done. Luckily, its permanent four-wheel drive, two-speed transfer box, Active Locking Rear Differential and Terrain Response 2 software (with seven driving mode programmes) should ensure that's the case. SVO says it has the same 900mm wading depth and 3.5-tonne towing capacity as a regular Range Rover, while the approach, breakover and departure angles are (respectively) 31, 26.5 and 25 degrees, with 263mm of ground clearance to boot.

Are you going to tell me how much it costs, finally?

Yes. Yes, we are. Hand-built, limited to 999 units, powered by a thunderous 565hp V8 and looking swish inside and out, you wouldn't expect the Range Rover SV Coupe to be cheap. A Range Rover SVAutobiography with the same engine starts from £177,000. The SV Coupe, however... is £240,000. And that's a starting price. Wowsers. So, if you're feeling flush and you fancy this rare beast, then expressions of interest can be made right now at www.landrover.com. Should you plonk down the quarter-of-a-million-quid needed for an SV Coupe, sales start in the final quarter of this year.

Matt Robinson - 6 Mar 2018