Range Rover Sport P530 First Edition

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Range Rover Sport P530 First Edition, the third-generation (L461) Range Rover Sport with the 4.4L Twin-turbo V8 petrol engine, 523 bhp, all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox, in the First Edition specification that Land Rover used to launch the V8. It is not a guide to the diesel and six-cylinder petrol Sport models, to the P510e plug-in hybrid, to the Range Rover Sport SV, to the full-size Range Rover (L460) that shares the same V8, or to the later P530 trims such as Autobiography, Dynamic and the Vermillion Edition. Where those differ we say so below, because an advert that says only "Range Rover Sport V8" can describe several quite different cars.

We have not driven this model for this article. Everything here comes from three cited sources: Auto Express's launch review of the P530 (6 September 2022), PistonHeads' review of the new Range Rover Sport by John Howell (7 September 2022), and the government recall checker. We also read a dealer listing on PistonHeads for a used First Edition and a MotorWeek report on the reveal, and we saw several specification sites and other reviews only as search snippets, which we flag where we use them. We could not reach Land Rover's own press pages, so no figure below comes directly from the manufacturer. Prices are left out on purpose, because they move quickly and differ by market.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 4.4L Twin-turbo V8, a petrol engine of 4395 cc according to a specification site we saw only as a snippet. Auto Express says it is a BMW-sourced unit supplied under a powertrain deal, replacing the old supercharged 5.0 litre V8.
• Power: 523 bhp. Most European sources quote 530 PS, and PistonHeads prints it as 530hp, which is the metric figure. We converted it ourselves: 530 divided by 1.01387 is about 522.8, so 523 bhp. Auto Express prints 527bhp and a US report prints 523 hp, so the published figures do not agree exactly. We use 523 bhp as the conversion of the 530 PS rating.
• Torque: 750 Nm, which is Auto Express's figure and also the figure on the specification sites we saw. That is about 553 lb ft by our conversion, and one site printed 553 lb ft directly. An Australian-market listing we saw as a snippet gave 700 Nm with 390 kW, so check the market of the car you are looking at.
• 0-100 km/h: 4.5 seconds. PistonHeads says the car reaches 62 mph in 4.5 seconds, so this is a 0-62 mph time, which is almost exactly 0-100 km/h. Auto Express and a PistonHeads dealer listing give 4.3 seconds, but that is a 0-60 mph time, so it is not the same test. Our catalogue used to hold 4.3, and we have changed it to 4.5.
• Top speed: 250 km/h. Auto Express prints 155 mph, which is about 249 km/h, and the specification sites we saw round it to 250 km/h. We could not confirm whether it is an electronic limit.
• Drive: all-wheel drive with an eight-speed automatic, according to Auto Express and MotorWeek.
• Economy: Auto Express quotes 24.5mpg and 261g/km of CO2, and says fuel economy is not great and the car will not be cheap to run. PistonHeads says you will struggle to hit 20mpg in real use.
• Weight: sources disagree. Two specification pages we saw as snippets gave about 2,430 kg for a First Edition and about 2,510 kg for the P530 generally, and we do not state a single figure.

Which year this car belongs to

Land Rover revealed the third-generation Range Rover Sport on 12 May 2022, according to MotorWeek. First-drive reviews appeared in early September 2022, and the P530 was sold at launch only in First Edition form, as a search snippet of evo's launch review put it. The dealer listings we found describe the cars as 2023, and our catalogue keeps 2023 as the start year. A start year of 1970 would be wrong, because that date belongs to the original Range Rover, not to this model. We could not establish an end year for the First Edition, so the catalogue shows none. The P530 itself continued in other trims, and one PistonHeads listing we saw describes a 2024 Vermillion Edition with the same 523 bhp.

What the First Edition adds

Auto Express's test car was a First Edition and the review lists what it had: 23 inch wheels, the Stormer Handling Pack with 48-volt active anti-roll control, all-wheel steering and an active differential with torque vectoring, a 13.7 inch digital driver display, a 13.1 inch Pivi Pro touchscreen, a head-up display, wireless charging, and heated, ventilated massage seats in leather. A used First Edition on PistonHeads shows the cosmetic side of the specification: illuminated tread plates with First Edition script, Satin Forged Carbon finishers, a black contrast roof, black brake calipers and a Moonlight steering wheel bezel. That listing also shows a Meridian sound system and Dynamic Air Suspension. We treat these as the features of those two cars, not as a definitive build list, because options and market packs vary.

Chassis, air suspension and steering

PistonHeads says the Sport shares pretty much everything with the latest Range Rover, including the MLA-Flex architecture, and that the body is 35 per cent torsionally stiffer than before. The Sport uses switchable-volume air springs in place of the single-chamber springs of the larger car, with Bilstein twin-valve dampers, and the rear-axle steering can turn the rear wheels by up to 7.3 degrees. PistonHeads adds that rear steering and the 48-volt active anti-roll system are only available on the P530 V8, the P510e or with the Stormer Handling Pack. In ownership terms that means the First Edition carries more electronics and more air-suspension hardware than a basic Sport, so a fault report on air suspension, rear steering or the 48-volt system should be taken seriously and traced to its cause.

Some listings describe the V8 as a mild hybrid, and What Car's version name for the P530 included MHEV in a search result we saw. Auto Express describes the 48-volt system only in connection with anti-roll control. We have not confirmed whether the engine also uses a mild-hybrid electric motor-generator, and we do not state it as fact.

How it drives, according to the reviews

Auto Express calls the V8 as fast as the old SVR, and 17 per cent more efficient than the supercharged engine it replaced. PistonHeads is more reserved: it likes the refined, off-beat V8 sound but calls the car a little light on pull-away torque, says it can lurch at very low speeds, and concludes that the V8 is nice but not really necessary. Auto Express criticises some of the plastic around the door speaker pods. Neither review is a long-term test, and we have not driven it.

Reliability and what we do not know

PistonHeads says the car is very well put together, but on reliability it says only that we will have to see, while noting that nothing dropped off during its test miles. That is the honest state of the evidence. We found no authoritative reliability survey for the P530, and the owner-forum and blog posts that came up in our search did not cite sources, so we do not repeat their claims. A third-party recall list that we saw only as a search snippet mentions oil-leak related items on some early L461 cars. We did not verify it, and we do not know which engines it covers, so it is a reason to run the recall check, not a finding. We found no servicing schedule or parts price list we could cite, and anyone who gives you a running-cost figure for this engine is estimating.

What to check before buying

• Confirm the car really is a First Edition and a P530: ask for the build sheet or the original specification, and check the badges and the 23 inch wheels against it.
• Confirm the market. A US car is rated at 523 hp and an Australian listing quoted 700 Nm, so the power and torque figures in an advert may belong to a different specification.
• Test the air suspension through its full height range, the rear-axle steering at low speed and the active anti-roll system, and ask for the fault history of any of them.
• Read the full service history. One used listing we saw showed 24,000 miles, two previous owners, no service history details and a note that the MOT had expired, which is the sort of gap you should not accept.
• Check what the listing says about towing. The same listing described a 3,500 kg tow rating in the text and No Towing in the features list, so verify the towing equipment and rating on the actual car.
• Check the digital features: Pivi Pro, the head-up display, the cameras and the online services, and whether any subscription is still active.
• Get an independent specialist inspection, including a scan for stored faults.
• Run the registration through the recall check described below.

Recalls and the DVSA check

We did not run the government checker, because we are not looking at a specific car. The page says that for a car you use the registration number to check whether it has been recalled. A car without a registration number needs the manufacturer, model and year of manufacture. It covers safety recalls that have not been checked or fixed, plus the car's MOT history, and it says registered faults can be checked with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. It also says that you will be told by the manufacturer if a car has been recalled for any reason other than safety, so a clean result does not cover non-safety campaigns. Ask a Land Rover retailer to run the chassis number against open campaigns as well.

About the photograph

The picture at the top of this page shows a Range Rover Sport L461 in Varesine Blue photographed in October 2022 in a car park. Its Commons description does not say which engine or trim it has, so we use it only to show the shape of the car, not as a First Edition. It has been cropped and resized, and the front number plate bracket is empty.

Verdict

The P530 First Edition is the V8 launch specification of the third-generation Range Rover Sport: 523 bhp, 750 Nm, a quoted 4.5 seconds to 100 km/h, 250 km/h and all-wheel drive, with the air suspension, rear steering and active anti-roll hardware that make it more complicated than a basic Sport. The reviews say it is quick, refined and thirsty. The honest unknowns are reliability, the true weight and running costs. If you are shopping for one, confirm the exact specification and market, insist on a full history, run the recall check, and treat every published figure as a claim until the car's own paperwork backs it up. We have not driven it, so use the sources and a proper inspection to decide.