At home in the Range

IT is big and tall with a cushy air suspension, so the last thing anyone would expect the Range Rover Sport to be is fun to drive. But it is. Some facts are stranger than fiction and it would seem that this is one of them. The Range Rover Sport SDV6 is a large sport-utility vehicle with a lightweight aluminium body and permanent four-wheel-drive riding on the carmaker's latest generation of air suspension.

It may not have a low-range gearbox but this turbodiesel Range Rover is still able to bash through mud and ruts or wade into 850 mm of water - if you can bear to dirty the shiny 20-inch wheels.

But the beauty of this tough offroader is that it is more often used as an alternative to a full-sized luxury saloon.