Posted on: Nov 15, 2012 | 12,686 reads

JLR Developing Range Rover Sport RS?

Could Jaguar Land Rover slot the 550-horsepower supercharged V8 from the XKR-S and upcoming XFR-S into the new Range Rover Sport to give AMG and BMW M a run for their money?

Jaguar and Land Rover have shared the same umbrella since Ford bought the later in 2000, but under Tata ownership the Jaguar Land Rover group has been cooperating even more closely. That's extending to the use of shared chassis and powertrains, but the good news for enthusiasts is that Land Rover could share an extension of Jaguar's R-S performance flagship model line. The moniker is currently applied to the Jaguar XKR-S coupe and cabrio, but is about to jump to the XFR-S sedan as well.

more at CarBuzz:
One-Off Super Snake Sells for $1.3M Mercedes ML by SR Auto Group Audi A8 Facelift Spied in the Alps

The super-sedan is expected to debut later this month at the LA Auto Show, but Land Rover isn't about to let its sister-company have all the fun. While launching the new Range Rover in Morocco this week, Land Rover's chief chassis engineer David Waide reportedly admitted that an R-S version of the upcoming new Range Rover Sport is being considered by JLR brass. The Range Rover Sport, we ought to remind you, isn't so much a sportier version of the flagship Range Rover, but a different model entirely. In fact the outgoing model is based on its kid brother, the Land Rover Discovery, not on its bigger sibling.

The new RR Sport, however, will ditch the old steel chassis for the new Range Rover's aluminum construction, helping it shed precious pounds in improving its driving dynamics. That could make the new Range Rover Sport a perfect starting point for a more performance-focused model that would likely target the Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, BMW X5 M and Porsche Cayenne GTS, albeit in a less aggressive form that would seek to blend performance and comfort. Given that the supercharged version of the new Range Rover accelerates from 0-62 in 5.4 seconds, a lighter, more powerful Sport R-S model could be looking at a sprint time in the fours.