SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


Jaguar-Land Rover SA released its facelifted 2012 Range Rover Sport and an Autobiography option recently. We toured some Stellenbosch wine estates to find out more.

This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.


Pics supplied

Sexy, but still a mud rat at heart

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday Febraury 8, 2012

Range Rovers, even Sport versions, are sometimes dismissed as mummy busses for suburban school runs or shopping carts for the horsey set. Kevin Flynn, MD of Jaguar-Land Rover SA, speaking at the recent media launch of the Autobiography series, put them back into perspective: “Before it can be a Range Rover, it must first be a Land Rover,” he said. In other words, they must be extremely competent off-road before donning tuxedos for the opera.

To remind those who might have forgotten, journalists were shown into freshly washed, street-spec’ Range Rover Sport Autobiographies to amble through a 4x4 trail across the Morgenster boutique wine and olive estate near Stellenbosch.  This was followed by a selection of highways and country roads, then a series of teeth-gritting obstacles on the Land Rover Experience training course at Simonsig. Just to silence those who were getting too cocky, you understand. Everyone survived and everyone recalled Flynn’s words: ‘It’s a Land Rover first.’

The Range Rover Sport has been treated to enhancements for the 2012 model year, while Autobiography versions take trims and options one notch higher. Regular Sport models were given new colour treatments inside and out, a powered tailgate that can be trained to fit under your garage door, and improvements to the sound and entertainment systems.

Supercharged 5.0-litre V8s gain a new grille surround called ‘Atlas,’ glossy black headlamp inner panels, Noble plated fender vent fingers, body coloured door handles and body kits, big squared chromed tail pipes and five-spoke, 20” alloy wheels with ‘Range Rover’ centre caps. Those whose carports or garage doorways are too low for comfort will be pleased to know that the maximum opening height of the powered tailgate can now be restricted. Simply hold the door at the height you want, while pressing the button for ten seconds. It also works a treat if you stand only five-foot-three in your tallest heels and can’t usually reach the button that powers the door down again.

Entertainment system upgrades include MOST, or Media Oriented Systems Transport, an optical fibre architecture that improves connectivity for DVD audio in the Hi ICE and Premium audio and infotainment systems. There is also a HDD music server, a dual tuner for seamless reception, iPod and video streaming by USB, audio streaming via Bluetooth and a pair of USB ports in the lid of the console.

Cordless headphone connectivity for those in the back seat uses WhiteFire wireless technology that permits simultaneous streaming of up to four stereo channels. Simply choose between DVD movies, CD players, video games, Internet devices, radio or whatever you have installed, at the touch of a button. For my next life, I plan on coming back as a kid whose parents run one of these babies.

The standard Hi ICE Harman Kardon entertainment system has been upgraded from nine speakers to 11, with power boosted from 240 Watts to 380. The premium LOGIC 7 system gets an even bigger boost; 14 speakers to 17, and 480W to 825W.  Another new toy for Sport owners is the Dual View touch screen borrowed from Jaguars and big-body Rangies. It allows the co-pilot to watch a movie on the left while the driver deals with satnav on the right. Just to make life easier, the system can even train him or her to select destinations by using voice commands.

Autobiography specification, available only with the V8 supercharged petrol engine on Sport models, offers a range of luxurious and sporty interior themes. Think duo-tone perforated semi-aniline leather upholstery in five different colours, full leather facings on door panels, 14-piece real-wood veneers with a choice of three decorative woods and premium carpeting with leather edging. Further, the Terrain Response system now has Hill Start Assist and Gradient Acceleration Control.

Standard on all Autobiographies is a ‘Titan’ front grille and side vents, dedicated 20”, nine-spoke wheels, special stainless steel door tread plates, body-coloured door handles and Autobiography badging.

Buyers of big-body Range Rovers can specify the Autobiography option too - with either V8 engine; petrol or diesel.

The numbers

Prices range from R905 500 (V6 diesel HSE Sport) to
R1 159 300 (V8 Autobiography LE Sport)
Engines:
V6 Diesel:
2993 cc V6 – 180 kW  at 4000 rpm and 600 Nm at 2000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,2 seconds
Maximum speed: 209 km/h
Car fuel consumption index: 13,3 l/100 km
V8 Petrol:
4999 cc, quad cam V8 - 375 kW at 6000 rpm and 625 Nm  at 2500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 5,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 225 km/h
Car fuel consumption index: 17,9 l/100 km
Maximum towing mass (braked): 3500 kg
Ground clearance: 232 mm (std), 283 mm (off road)
Approach/Departure/Ramp over angles (std height, to spoiler or bumper): 22,9/20,2/22,6 degrees
Off-road height (to spoiler or bumper): 25,4/22,4/27,9 degrees
Maximum wading depth: 700 mm
Land Rover Care plan: 5 years/100 000 km



What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously. Email me from here