
It was late September in Spain. The grape harvest was upon us, people were out collecting mushrooms in the morning and olives in the evening.
Lemon and orange groves were heavy with fruit, fields being put to the plough. Birds of prey, silhouetted as they circled by a blood-red sun sinking slowly westward behind a vast range of mountains, called an end to the working day. You don’t see that from an aeroplane.
When I visited Spain in a Range Rover the previous year, it deployed the top 4.4 litre SDV8 diesel and 339ps.This time the Range Rover Sport’s unit (diesel again) was the six-cylinder 3.0 litre SDV6 producing 292ps. Slightly shorter and lower than the Range Rover, RRS nonetheless has a similarly high driving position – now too a ‘5+2’ with seats for 7 thanks to a longer wheelbase (but the back “+2s” best regarded as ‘occasional’).
Lemon and orange groves were heavy with fruit, fields being put to the plough. Birds of prey, silhouetted as they circled by a blood-red sun sinking slowly westward behind a vast range of mountains, called an end to the working day. You don’t see that from an aeroplane.
When I visited Spain in a Range Rover the previous year, it deployed the top 4.4 litre SDV8 diesel and 339ps.This time the Range Rover Sport’s unit (diesel again) was the six-cylinder 3.0 litre SDV6 producing 292ps. Slightly shorter and lower than the Range Rover, RRS nonetheless has a similarly high driving position – now too a ‘5+2’ with seats for 7 thanks to a longer wheelbase (but the back “+2s” best regarded as ‘occasional’).