What's the news?

Wow. That is, no arguments here, a beast. With inspiration seemingly taken from Death Race and The Terminator, the monster you see before you is what happens when you take a mad German car tuner - Hamann, say - and let it loose on the new Range Rover Sport. What you get is something called the Mystère; a matte-grey leviathan with a body kit so aggressive it's likely to make the standard Sport run away into a corner weeping every time it catches glimpse of it.

Exterior

Well, try to name one body part that isn't changed. Nope, didn't think you could. Up front, the heavily sculpted bumper includes the car's LED daytime running lights and the original bonnet has been thrown away to make way for a carbon fibre item. The additional bulk added to the wings, doors, skirts and rear quarter panels increases the width of the already sizeable Sport by 80mm, but the stonking 23-inch alloys and 40mm drop in ride height sets the wide body kit off perfectly. In stark contrast to the rest of the Mystère, the back is plain. Simple. Just a blank canvas of grey, four exhaust outlets and some lights. Not even a badge gets a place back here.

Interior

If Hamann was to continue the Mystère's outside theme, inside, then we'd probably find some guns, a giant head-up display masquerading as a windscreen and lots of steel, aluminium and carbon fibre. In fact, no. What Hamann has done instead is embroider its logo into the floor mats and stamped it onto the kick plates. It's then left up to customers to decide what they want in terms of material. Yes, you can have stainless steel, aluminium and carbon if you wish, but there's also leather, Alcantara and double-clear-coat finishes among others on offer as well.

Mechanicals

As environmentally conscious as it would be to stick Land Rover's 3.0-litre SDV6 diesel engine under the bonnet of the Mystère, it just wouldn't suit the car somehow; so instead Hamann has gone for a tuned version of the company's 5.0-litre, supercharged V8 petrol engine. In standard guise, this lump produces 510hp and gets the Sport from 0-62mph in just five seconds, but the undisclosed power of the modified unit is sure to get even better figures than these. And presumably, more noise as well.

Anything else?

Well, is there anything else left to say? In true Hamann style we haven't been given a price for the Mystère, but we'd most certainly expect it to be over the £100,000 mark. And worth every penny.

James Giddings - 29 Nov 2013