The thrill of driving an off-road capable car that can also handle spirited road driving is exhilarating. I recently had the opportunity to test drive two vehicles that embody this concept: the Land Rover Defender II and the Range Rover Sport SVR. Both cars are designed to tackle demanding terrain, but they cater to different types of drivers.

The Defender II, with its rugged exterior and carbon fiber panels, may look intimidating, but it's actually a rally car at heart. Its 220-liter fuel tank is impressive, allowing for long stages and cross-country rallies. The engine, however, is the real star of the show - a supercharged V8 from the Range Rover Sport SVR, producing 567 horsepower. This beast of an engine gives the Defender II incredible acceleration and power, making it capable of devouring challenging terrain with ease.

However, don't be fooled by its impressive specs. The Defender II is designed for speed and agility, not low-speed maneuverability. It's not the best choice for navigating tight lanes or dealing with boulders on the road. Its suspension is firm, but only until you hit a certain speed, at which point it becomes relatively smooth. The steering is light, making it easy to handle, but this can also make it less responsive in certain situations.

One of the standout features of the Defender II is its body control. It's incredibly tight and responsive, allowing the driver to push it to the limit on a track or stage. But be warned - when you're driving at high speeds, the car's noise level becomes almost deafening. The exhaust note is particularly loud, exiting just below my left thigh.

The Range Rover Sport SVR, on the other hand, is more of a traditional rally car. It's designed for speed and agility, with a focus on handling rather than off-road capability. While it's still an impressive vehicle, it doesn't quite match the Defender II's overall package. The diesel engine is a more practical choice for long-stage rallying, but if you want to experience the thrill of driving a V8, the SVR is the way to go.

In terms of on-road performance, both cars are excellent. They're both fun to drive and offer a high level of engagement from behind the wheel. The Defender II's V8 engine is particularly thrilling, making it feel like a proper rally car on the road. But be prepared for some noise - the exhaust note is incredibly loud, even when cruising at moderate speeds.

One thing that sets the Defender II apart from other cars in its class is its ability to handle itself on challenging terrain. Its low center of gravity and wide track make it surprisingly agile and capable off-road. However, it's not as well-suited for navigating tight, technical stages like a flat rally stage.

Overall, both the Land Rover Defender II and the Range Rover Sport SVR are excellent choices for those who want to experience the thrill of driving an off-road capable car that can also handle spirited road driving. Just be sure to manage your expectations - the Defender II is more geared towards long-stage rallying, while the SVR is better suited for shorter, more technical stages.

In conclusion, these two cars offer a unique blend of on-road and off-road capability that's hard to find elsewhere. Whether you're a seasoned rally driver or just looking for a fun and capable car for weekend adventures, one or both of these vehicles are definitely worth considering. So if you've enjoyed this twin test, be sure to join us every week for more news, reviews, motor shows, drag races, and everything in between - only on Autocar dokgo UK.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensports cars and off-roaders used to be very different things but then they said well you can have them both together and introduce something like I don't know the Volkswagen T Rock R or the Cupra attacker but who cares you could have one of those or you could have a Ford Ranger Raptor or a bollock bulldog so this is the Ranger Raptor the Ranger danger as my friends danger Ranger as my friends of goon squad food court this is a modified heavily modified Ranger which is not that much like other Rangers you buy in the UK they are commercial vehicles now the differences to the Raptor which was developed in Australia with scant regard for the UK's v8 e in commercial vehicle regulations is the entirety of the back end of the chassis and this car has been redesigned so no longer connect oh three and half tonnes and no longer does it take a thousand kilos but what it can do thanks to coil springs Fox motorsport dampers a completely reinforced back end a completely reinforced front end on the chassis is go over off-road like you wouldn't imagine and in a sense not like you find very often in the UK we're in Wales its sunnier than you would expect for Wales in late October and this is a Green Lane / byway slash unclassified Road and it's really narrow it's really tight there are rocks either side and getting these I will polish it out I promise you I'm getting some scrapes from like the heather and the Bracken down the side but this car has terrific articulation it's got too high which you're staying on the road and which you'll get by 24 a gallon it's got four-wheel drive hind is what full drive low which I slipped it into now you can also lock the rear differential to give extra traction and for a car with a long wheelbase and a lot of width that much width appropriately it does do exceptional things offroad it is climbed up some really slippery rocky tight terrain to get up to this slightly flatter plateau that I'm driving over remarkably slowly now but so this is the right car and it is really impressive but when I went on the launch of this car the engineers said look you know off-road it gets better the faster you go really so it's the right car in the wrong country however don't let that detract from how impressive it is and actually how much fun it is I've been running this car for a few weeks and I'm really really enjoying it problems it's got 2 litre diesel engine rather than something appropriately f-150 Raptor ish people saying well maybe it should have the v6 ecoboost turned up to 11 team and I can see the argument behind that but this is already an expensive car it's 50 grand you no longer getting the VAT back on it to fit an expensive engine rather than a 2 liter turbo diesel twin-turbo it sort of talks about I mean it's it's fast enough on the road but I'll grant you you can hear the noises that are not the bodywork which will need polishing later that noise is a diesel engine but I can forgive this car for that because of how much fun it is when you do find a bit of off-road that you can use it on it is really impressively capable it has a terrific terrific chassis so this is a bit more like it this is where the Raptor Unleashed as they like to say makes more sense it does get better as you go faster those Fox dampers those pots of motorsport dampers are designed to pummel rough terrain into submission so this is a bit rough under under tire I'm feeling very little on the inside the steering is sort of lightish bet a bit better than vague it's it's it's good it's engaging it's sort of you can tell what's going on under the wheels where the slip starts and stops and you know for a big tall vehicle Edie's good fun on the loose it just is you can sort of feel things moving around a little all it's sensible speeds so it's cool and you can find places you can do quarry days and offroad days you know relatively cheaply I think for like twenty thirty quid and then you would have a really nice time driving a car quickly annoying mobile and no huge risk it's rapidly cool it's really cool now this and the bowler do slightly different things the bowler is not a cart lined up to do the real low-speed knobbly stuff that's kind of not what it's about you know it's not about huge amounts of low speed axle articulation it's it's a rally car it's a race car it's also over 150 grand on somebody else's so I don't think swinging it down a really tight lane where we could damage the bottom of it with a boulder isn't necessarily the greatest on it but on roads like this well I suspect it will be superb which as you may hear has a v8 engine it's a v8 from the Range Rover Sport SVR and there are Land Rover beeps to this car although don't be fooled by the defender exterior this is a defender II door I'm pretty sure it's original door but everything else all of the other panels at carbon fiber fakes and they sit over bowlers own aluminium chassis that Michael Bolton Range Rover Sport front and rear subframes and it runs the drive trade from a Range Rover Sport so we've got the supercharged v8 making 567 horsepower but it's over zone coil sprung suspension with terrific bills died dampers and not much else inside because don't forget this is a rally race off-road rally car cross-country rally car so with the diesel engine that most competitors but in it and a 220 on piece of fuel tank behind me which is ridiculously big this car has got a range of something like a thousand miles on cross-country rallies what it doesn't necessarily have is the full gamut of ground clearance and axle articulation for you know massive rock crawling that the Ranger has this car is designed to puddle that's me fastest piece then I would be able to get to or the one we're all like well it's now I mean even on the road these windows rattle at 60 miles an hour so you can imagine what they're doing of road there's no trim or soundproofing in it big the exhaust exits right below my left thigh so that's really loud it doesn't make a fabulous noise the suspensions pretty firm but the faster you go fermenter it gets and the steering's light because the Jaromir is you don't want anything too heavy if you're sitting at a car but now loads after hour after hour driving as fast as you can so it's not always easy to gauge how much grip there is front or rear but there is plenty body control is amazingly tight for this big tall high guard and it just feels like it would demolish the stages like this time after time now you can pick the v8 I think just because bowlers customers says wouldn't it be cool I think the real competitors probably go with the diesel which gives it the massive range I can't imagine even with a 220 litre tank for that with this v8 on full song it's got that bigger range but it is so much fun what I'd really be interested to do is try on something like a flat rally stage where there aren't quite so many trees up at the side and we're come across some itinerant wildlife primate unfortunately Tom in North Wales and such a place exists now this is not Ranger Raptor territory but what happens should you find yourself in the vicinity of say a quasi racetrack right so there's quite a little body movement if you push it in the dry Tommy I'm sorry that just makes a ridiculous amount of noise but oh so I wanna suck it you start to realize I mean this would be something like a rally I don't suppose you do 100 miles now very often but if you do yeah this toilet is literally from the back you can tighten through a number of stages you would suspect what a noise just come off the drag strip somewhere water noise the cacophony is only is only broken by the round it's not a natural track car let's let's put it that way but no ABS it's it's brilliant so in summary the off-roader that can also be a sportscar to an extent yes just manage your expectations I think that's through in a compact SUV is it awkward so if you've enjoyed this twin test don't forget we are here every single week with news reviews motor shows drag races and more so join us here or at Autocar dokgo UKsports cars and off-roaders used to be very different things but then they said well you can have them both together and introduce something like I don't know the Volkswagen T Rock R or the Cupra attacker but who cares you could have one of those or you could have a Ford Ranger Raptor or a bollock bulldog so this is the Ranger Raptor the Ranger danger as my friends danger Ranger as my friends of goon squad food court this is a modified heavily modified Ranger which is not that much like other Rangers you buy in the UK they are commercial vehicles now the differences to the Raptor which was developed in Australia with scant regard for the UK's v8 e in commercial vehicle regulations is the entirety of the back end of the chassis and this car has been redesigned so no longer connect oh three and half tonnes and no longer does it take a thousand kilos but what it can do thanks to coil springs Fox motorsport dampers a completely reinforced back end a completely reinforced front end on the chassis is go over off-road like you wouldn't imagine and in a sense not like you find very often in the UK we're in Wales its sunnier than you would expect for Wales in late October and this is a Green Lane / byway slash unclassified Road and it's really narrow it's really tight there are rocks either side and getting these I will polish it out I promise you I'm getting some scrapes from like the heather and the Bracken down the side but this car has terrific articulation it's got too high which you're staying on the road and which you'll get by 24 a gallon it's got four-wheel drive hind is what full drive low which I slipped it into now you can also lock the rear differential to give extra traction and for a car with a long wheelbase and a lot of width that much width appropriately it does do exceptional things offroad it is climbed up some really slippery rocky tight terrain to get up to this slightly flatter plateau that I'm driving over remarkably slowly now but so this is the right car and it is really impressive but when I went on the launch of this car the engineers said look you know off-road it gets better the faster you go really so it's the right car in the wrong country however don't let that detract from how impressive it is and actually how much fun it is I've been running this car for a few weeks and I'm really really enjoying it problems it's got 2 litre diesel engine rather than something appropriately f-150 Raptor ish people saying well maybe it should have the v6 ecoboost turned up to 11 team and I can see the argument behind that but this is already an expensive car it's 50 grand you no longer getting the VAT back on it to fit an expensive engine rather than a 2 liter turbo diesel twin-turbo it sort of talks about I mean it's it's fast enough on the road but I'll grant you you can hear the noises that are not the bodywork which will need polishing later that noise is a diesel engine but I can forgive this car for that because of how much fun it is when you do find a bit of off-road that you can use it on it is really impressively capable it has a terrific terrific chassis so this is a bit more like it this is where the Raptor Unleashed as they like to say makes more sense it does get better as you go faster those Fox dampers those pots of motorsport dampers are designed to pummel rough terrain into submission so this is a bit rough under under tire I'm feeling very little on the inside the steering is sort of lightish bet a bit better than vague it's it's it's good it's engaging it's sort of you can tell what's going on under the wheels where the slip starts and stops and you know for a big tall vehicle Edie's good fun on the loose it just is you can sort of feel things moving around a little all it's sensible speeds so it's cool and you can find places you can do quarry days and offroad days you know relatively cheaply I think for like twenty thirty quid and then you would have a really nice time driving a car quickly annoying mobile and no huge risk it's rapidly cool it's really cool now this and the bowler do slightly different things the bowler is not a cart lined up to do the real low-speed knobbly stuff that's kind of not what it's about you know it's not about huge amounts of low speed axle articulation it's it's a rally car it's a race car it's also over 150 grand on somebody else's so I don't think swinging it down a really tight lane where we could damage the bottom of it with a boulder isn't necessarily the greatest on it but on roads like this well I suspect it will be superb which as you may hear has a v8 engine it's a v8 from the Range Rover Sport SVR and there are Land Rover beeps to this car although don't be fooled by the defender exterior this is a defender II door I'm pretty sure it's original door but everything else all of the other panels at carbon fiber fakes and they sit over bowlers own aluminium chassis that Michael Bolton Range Rover Sport front and rear subframes and it runs the drive trade from a Range Rover Sport so we've got the supercharged v8 making 567 horsepower but it's over zone coil sprung suspension with terrific bills died dampers and not much else inside because don't forget this is a rally race off-road rally car cross-country rally car so with the diesel engine that most competitors but in it and a 220 on piece of fuel tank behind me which is ridiculously big this car has got a range of something like a thousand miles on cross-country rallies what it doesn't necessarily have is the full gamut of ground clearance and axle articulation for you know massive rock crawling that the Ranger has this car is designed to puddle that's me fastest piece then I would be able to get to or the one we're all like well it's now I mean even on the road these windows rattle at 60 miles an hour so you can imagine what they're doing of road there's no trim or soundproofing in it big the exhaust exits right below my left thigh so that's really loud it doesn't make a fabulous noise the suspensions pretty firm but the faster you go fermenter it gets and the steering's light because the Jaromir is you don't want anything too heavy if you're sitting at a car but now loads after hour after hour driving as fast as you can so it's not always easy to gauge how much grip there is front or rear but there is plenty body control is amazingly tight for this big tall high guard and it just feels like it would demolish the stages like this time after time now you can pick the v8 I think just because bowlers customers says wouldn't it be cool I think the real competitors probably go with the diesel which gives it the massive range I can't imagine even with a 220 litre tank for that with this v8 on full song it's got that bigger range but it is so much fun what I'd really be interested to do is try on something like a flat rally stage where there aren't quite so many trees up at the side and we're come across some itinerant wildlife primate unfortunately Tom in North Wales and such a place exists now this is not Ranger Raptor territory but what happens should you find yourself in the vicinity of say a quasi racetrack right so there's quite a little body movement if you push it in the dry Tommy I'm sorry that just makes a ridiculous amount of noise but oh so I wanna suck it you start to realize I mean this would be something like a rally I don't suppose you do 100 miles now very often but if you do yeah this toilet is literally from the back you can tighten through a number of stages you would suspect what a noise just come off the drag strip somewhere water noise the cacophony is only is only broken by the round it's not a natural track car let's let's put it that way but no ABS it's it's brilliant so in summary the off-roader that can also be a sportscar to an extent yes just manage your expectations I think that's through in a compact SUV is it awkward so if you've enjoyed this twin test don't forget we are here every single week with news reviews motor shows drag races and more so join us here or at Autocar dokgo UK\n"