Land Rover releases special high-performance Range Rover SUV

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- As a brand, Range Rover has the luxury thing down, and it's had it down for many years. Now, it's getting a big performance edge with a special SVR model.

The British SUV brand has gotten into the go-fast game with the special SVR model. The SV comes from the special vehicle team that does in-house tuning work for both the Jaguar side and the Land Rover side of the company.

For this kickoff vehicle, a Range Rover sport gets the horsepower of a supercharged V-8 engine, pumped up to 550 with a sharpened exhaust note.

Visual distinction outside of the car is in the form of a more aggressive nose and blacked-out badges. Inside the car are sport bucket seats in the front and even matching seats in the rear.

Range Rover decided to make the SVR because of AMG, which is Mercedes-Benz's in-house performance tuning arm. It has AMG models across their SUV line and charge a pretty penny for them.

With that in mind, it would stand to reason that some Range Rover customers would cough up a minimum of $110,000 for the privilege of driving the ultimate high-performance variation of a Rangie.

The company's own track testing has produced some impressive numbers. The car goes zero to 60 in 4.5 seconds and it did a lap around the famed Nurburgring in Germany in 08:14. Drivers should keep in mind that those are performance car numbers in a large SUV.

The car will soon be offered with a diesel engine option in the U.S., which is something buyers in Europe had had for years. This will be the mileage champ, at 22 mpg city and 29 mpg highway.

The performance numbers are what count with the SVR, and this is just the beginning. There will likely be other Range Rover models in the near future that will have the new, high-powered persona.