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NEWS
No SVR Disco Sport
...But Land Rover program boss says faster ‘home brand’ variants still possibleJaguar Land Rover’s new Special Operations division may not be planning a SVR version of the new Discovery Sport, but that doesn’t mean high performance variants are totally off the table.
Speaking at last week’s Iceland launch of the new midsize Land Rover program chief Murray Dietsch told motoring.com.au that the maker could still build higher-performance versions of the Discovery Sport to take on vehicles like Audi’s SQ5 and BMW’s upcoming X3/X4 M.
Dietsch is responsible for the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque and any future vehicles Land Rover builds on the brand’s transverse engine D8 ‘small’ vehicle platform.
The ex-Ford Australia engineer told motoring.com.au that Special Operations had ruled out a full SVR version of D8 derived models but suggested that higher performance ‘home-brand’ versions of both Evoque and Discovery Sport are on the way.
“Special Operations tends to have its eyes on certain segments and certain price points,” Dietsch told motoring.com.au — suggesting that any SVR badged D8 products would be prohibitively priced.
The current performance ceiling for the Evoque and Disco Sport ranges is the 177kW Si4 turbo-petrol engine, although a 210kW Dynamic variant of the Evoque was debuted at last year’s Geneva show.
Now, the Ford based four-cylinder is set to be replaced by a clean-sheet Jaguar Land Rover design in both vehicles. As such there are already rumours of 220kW-plus versions of the so-called Ingenium turbo petrol 2.0-litre. Such an engine would slot nicely into a warmed over Disco Sport.
The other option is a higher performance diesel powertrain.
Although 132kW is the top power output of the 2.0-litre Ingenium turbo-diesel engines to debut in the new Jaguar XE (and slated for transplant into the D8 later in 2015 and into 2016), the new-generation engine family has the potential to significantly eclipse the 140kW/420Nm PSA-sourced turbo-diesel which has debuted in the SD4 variants of the Sport.
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Written byMike Sinclair
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