2012 Range Rover Sport tweaks. But where’s the quicker TDV6?

2012 Range Rover Sport - tweaked and titivated

Yesterday we has raft of itsy-bitsy little changes to the 2012 Disco to make it just that little bit better than it already is. And make you question the sanity of forking out for a Range Rover. Now it’s the turn of the 2012 Range Rover Sport.

The press release from Land Rover on the 2012 changes for the Range Rover Sport only runs to half that of the Disco, so small though the changes to the Disco were, the RRS gets fewer – but still worth having – changes.

On the oily front the RRS sees the same small jump in power – up from 245bhp to 256bhp – and reduction in emissions – now down to 230g/km from 243g/km.

Those engines tweaks are complimented by the new 8-speed ‘box (so you get a rotary gear knob and flappy paddles too) which means a slightly livelier performance and better economy – improved from 30.7mpg to 32.1mpg.

Despite the tweaks to the TDV6 there is nothing new on the V8 front; not that we expected there to be. Its 503bhp and 461lbs/ft of torque do a commendable job – the RRS can move a mountain.

But we do expect LR to give the next generation RRS – due in a year or three – the more powerful version of the V8 which is starting to appear in the Jaguar range ( the Jaguar XKR-S), all the better to show the Cayenne how to do on and off road and wipe the floor with the competition.

The 2012 Sport gets similar updates to a wide range of bits and pieces as the Disco. From improved wireless for the rear entertainment to split screen in the front, and from DPF to improved Voice Commands, the RRS is tweaked and fettled to be a better vehicle. Just as you’d expect.

Titivations to the specs and trim levels are implemented all round, and there’s the addition of an HSE luxury pack for the 3.0 SDV6, which makes the equipment levels almost on a par with the Supercharged models. All very good.

But what we want to know is, what’s happened to a meatier version of the TDV6?

Last year when Land Rover quietly dropped the 3.6 litre TDV8, they did so because the new 3.0 litre TDV6 was offering almost as much at a much lower price. Sensibly they decided to drop the TDV8 from the RRS before it withered on the vine.

At the time we had a few conversation with LR who then had in the planning an ‘S’ version of the TDV6 for the RRS; the same sort of boost Jaguar gave the TDV6 lump for the XJ and the XF Diesel S.

That jump in power – which would now probably mean somewhere around 290bhp after the tweaks to the standard version of the TDV6 – would create a vehicle that would bridge the – quite large – gap between the TDV6 and the V8 Supercharged, in price and performance.

The plan seemed to be to give the more powerful TDV6 all the toys – much as the new HSE Luxury Pack – and a decent jump in performance - probably managing 0-60mph in around 7.7 seconds.

Which all sounded like a plan. It obviously got binned.

(3 photos – click any thumbnail for full size)

*manufacturer’s estimate

By Cars UK