New Twenty Edition salutes Range Rover Sport

They say better late than not at all. So here, 21 years after the first Range Rover Sports hit the road, is the Range Rover Sport Twenty Edition, designed to celebrate ‘two decades of sporting luxury with attitude’. In much the same way that it was hard to imagine much remotely sporty in the Land Rover lineup prior to 2005, these days it’s impossible to think of the company without a Sport. Aside from Defender, it’s arguably the core product, and obviously crucial to the ‘Range Rover’ bit of JLR’s ‘House of Brands’ strategy. Moreover, in SV form, it’s pretty extraordinary to drive, too. 

Land Rover may have come to the idea a bit later than BMW and Porsche – it even concedes that the car was ‘born from the realisation that the market was ready for more dynamic, performance orientated SUV’ (aka boatloads of X5s and Cayennes had been sold), but it’s more than made up for lost time in the 21 years since. Indeed, the Sport is credited with marking a ‘defining shift’ for Range Rover; surely the Evoque and Velar wouldn’t have happened if the Sport hadn’t been such a runaway success. 

The Twenty Edition fully leans into Sport heritage with its cost-option Sanguinello Orange paint; the original, incredible Range Stormer concept was of course orange – named ‘Oh!Range’ if the internet is to be believed – and the first Launch Edition was offered in Vesuvius Orange. The Twenty couldn’t be anything but orange, really, though white and black are offered if you really have to. Those that do go for the wrong colours will have ‘TWENTY’ on the centre console, treadplates, and etched into the front wing vents as identifiers of the special status. The interior features seats just like those in the SV, with forged carbon veneers as well. A black pack and a set of 23s are also standard fit, because no Range Rover Sport would be complete without them. (Remember how mad the wheels looked on that Stormer concept? They were 22-inch diameter…)

All Twenty Editions are P550e spec, meaning a double act of the 3.0-litre straight-six with a 142hp electric motor, the latter supplied by a 38.2kWh battery. So while you can’t expect 550hp, 18g/km and 71 miles of EV range all at the same time, they are the theoretical (quite impressive) maximums. Or, if you really want to mark 20-odd years of very orange Range Rover Sports with a supercharged V8 (as tradition must surely dictate), do the classifieds have the SVR for you…   

Range Rover’s Global MD Martin Limpert said of the Twenty: “Range Rover Sport has continually pushed the boundaries since the Stormer concept was first revealed. Over two decades it has proven itself as a highly capable luxury SUV with sports-car DNA and the Twenty Edition is the perfect celebration of its enduring legacy. This limited edition adds to that momentum, capturing an exciting moment in a journey that’s far from finished for Range Rover Sport.”

Your guess is as good as ours as to where that journey goes next, given delays to the Range Rover Electric and the ongoing, unstoppable popularity of the Defender. The Range Rover Sport Twenty Edition goes on sale in August, priced from £115,790.