Top gear range rover sport autobiography

The Range Rover Sport has come an awful long way since it was introduced as a fresh model to the line-up back in 2005. I remember being at the dealership I was working at, walking around one of the first cars off the transporter, gawping at the pumped-out wheelarches, aggressive perforated grille, cool multi-spoke 20-inch alloys and black badges of the supercharged model.

The first-generation L320 was Land Rover’s first foray into a high-performance SUV – a tighter, tauter, more compact version of its full-size Range Rover stablemate that put pure luxury aside for a more involved drive and youthful image.

Sport’s ride is firm, despite relatively generous sidewalls on its 22in alloy rims

That memory is fresh in my mind as I walk up to the Firenze Red Sport you see here.

First introduced in 2022, this third-generation car has really grown up – it’s a far cry from the squarer, more brutish debut model and is even sleeker than the second