First time we heard the all-new Discovery would be offered with extreme off-road capability, it was March 2016. A confirmation came a year later, and now, the 2018 Land Rover Discovery SVX shows us that it can walk the walk.
The SVX is the creation of Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division, and it’s as serious as unibody SUVs get. Before anything, let’s talk about the monster lurking in the belly of the beast. The hood hides a familiar 5.0-liter V8 of the supercharged variety, which develops 525 PS and 625 Nm. That’s 518 horsepower and 461 pound-feet of torque, and as you may have figured out by now, it’s exclusive to the range-topping Discovery SVX model.
Scheduled to go into production in 2018 at the SVO Technical Center instead of the Solihull plant, the Discovery SVX is touted as “the first Land Rover assembled by hand.” Pricing hasn’t been made public for the time being, but bearing in mind what goes into making this bad boy, it surely won’t be cheap.
Sitting alongside the likes of the Range Rover Sport SVR and Range Rover SVAutobiography, the Discovery SVX sports suspension modifications designed to tackle the toughest terrain imaginable. In addition to its prowess off the beaten path, the luxo-SUV is surefooted on the road thanks to Hydraulic Active Roll Control. Shortened to H-ARC, the system consists of different knuckles and long-travel dampers for the 4-corner air suspension.
The standard choice of tires also means business, with 815-mm diameter 275/55 20-inch Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain rubber wrapping forged aluminum-alloy wheels. The off-road tread pattern works together with a revised Terrain Response 2 system, active center differential, and electronic rear locking diff. Upgrades were performed on the eight-speed automatic transmission too, which boasts a pistol shifter instead of a rotary shifter.
Even the color and more aggressive bumpers make sure nobody confuses the SVX with any other Discovery. The interior is also special in its own right, standing out through the SVX-branded seats with X-shaped perforations.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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