| First Drive | Roxburghshire, Scotland | 2010 Range Rover Sport |

The Range Rover Sport instantly became the poster boy for evil SUV profligacy when it was unveiled as the production version of 2004's Range Stormer concept in 2005. Even Greenpeace had a proper pop at it when a factory protest delayed production.

Since then the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 and BMW X6 have come along to deflect attention away from Land Rover's bad boy, so, as though upset that it's been usurped, Land Rover has endowed the Sport with the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 from the Jaguar XFR, good for 503bhp. Put that in your bean broth.

(By the way, it's better on fuel and has lower emissions that the old petrol model, but that detracts from the point, so let's leave that for now and move on...)

In the Metal

Alongside the Range Rover and the new Discovery, the Sport is one of a trio of Land Rovers to get a proper update for the 2010 model year, bringing the three luxury cars in the maker's five-model line-up together with a more coherent look. The Range Rover Sport probably gets the subtlest exterior revisions of the three, but as with the Disco put this new one alongside the old and you'll see that the changes are effective in making the car look altogether neater. The headlamps are narrower and the light clusters redesigned, and much of the pre-facelift car's front detailing is removed in favour of clearer surfaces.

Inside, however, the transformation is as stark as that of the new Discovery. According to Land Rover, the most common criticism among current Sport owners is that much of the interior feels cheap compared to the Range Rover. Well, that problem is eradicated now, because the Sport has adopted a cabin almost identical to the new Discovery's, and thus two leagues ahead of the outgoing car's. The plastics are soft and well glued together, the leather dash top looks great and the ambience is of uncluttered luxury. Facelifts that drag a car this far above the original are rare. That said, the dash fascia of one of the cars we drove occasionally creaked like an old French car. Odd.

What you get for your Money

The Sport has been moved upmarket, so it gets leather for the seats and dash as standard, a six-speed ZF auto 'box, dual-zone climate control and technology including the new Jaguar touch screen infotainment interface, an LCD information display between the tacho and speedo, and, of course, the new iteration of Land Rover's Terrain Response system - with a new 'dynamic' setting for the supercharged version.

Which brings us to the engines. We drove the 5.0-litre supercharged model and the 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel, both from the Jaguar stable, and both offering improved performance, emissions and consumption over their outgoing equivalents. The TDV8 diesel remains, but seems superfluous next to the new V6 diesel.

Driving it

Is like being transported into a world where the nuisance of monthly cash flow is inconsequential. But don't be fooled - the Range Rover Sport is a hugely capable machine, with a breadth of abilities far, far greater than it will ever be called to use by 99 percent of owners.

First the supercharged version, whose stats give it a genuine claim as a proper performance car: it's 1.2-seconds quicker to 60mph than the 4.2-litre model of old, and about five percent more efficient. The Sport weighs 2.5 tonnes, but the 5.0-litre makes light work of propelling it along with calm brutality. It's quick, but its speed comes with effortless tranquillity.

The diesel TDV6 is the same as it only loses 18lb.ft of torque to the 5.0-litre petrol engine, so it's only marginally less capable of pushing the Sport's brick-like body along with vigour. It's quiet too, and although it suffers the same delayed throttle response as the Discovery, it has all the torque you'll need - which is just as well, because, of course, it will account for the vast majority of cars sold.

Not that it matters too much, but the Sport is a surprisingly composed and agile block of steel to throw around corners. The suspension and chassis have been given an overhaul to improve on-road manners, and the car deals with that old ride/handling balance with far greater prowess than a big SUV should. It's firmer than the Discovery, bringing road lumps to your attention with more clarity, but it's never crashy and resists body roll very well indeed; it tackles high-speed corners with plenty more stability than you might expect.

Selecting the 'dynamic' programme on the Terrain Response dial tightens up the damping even further and re-maps the software for the active anti-roll bars, giving the car even tighter body control from turn to turn. The variable steering rack is a little light for our tastes and lacks feel, obviously, but it's direct enough, and the brakes, thankfully, grind all 2.5 tonnes of SUV to a halt quickly and without any fuss. None of this comes at the expense of off-road ability, which is exemplary.

Worth Noting

Land Rover design boss Gerry McGovern (who, despite his name, doesn't wear cowboy boots and a massive hat) mentioned how keen the company is to get the LRX coupé-crossover to market, saying he hoped to have something concrete"by next year". A later chat with an insider at Land Rover revealed that the company is in the final stages of getting the sleek three-door concept to production, and that the priority is making the showroom version as close as possible to the concept. It looks like it will be pitched close to the BMW X1 in terms of price and performance, but Land Rover will aim to make the LRX far more stylish than the Beemer, using it to drag customers "away from 3 Series Coupés" and the like. Rumour has it the 'baby Rangie' will be built in Halewood in Liverpool, too. Watch this space.

Summary

Whatever the engine, the Range Rover Sport is quick, refined, quiet, comfortable, spacious, well-equipped and pretty handy across fields and things. In short, it isn't cheap, but it's all the hatchback you'll ever want or need - in Supercharged and V6 turbodiesel guises respectively.