Range Rover Sport TDV8 | Barn of the week

Fortunately, forgetting important dates is not the problem this week. Instead, it’s the debut of a Range Rover Sport in SOTW. Shed can’t believe he didn’t come up with something like this sooner, but unless he’s done something terribly wrong with the filing system on his Amstrad, that seems to be the case. Shed ignores the reputation of older cars with the Range Rover badge and the ominous fact that this is the 666th shed of the week he has recorded. Shed will boldly venture forward and let the devil take the back, whatever that means.

What Shed certainly remembers is the huge buzz that greeted the unveiling of the striking Range Stormer concept at the 2004 Detroit show. The production L320 Range Rover Sport that came out a year later looked less Evoquey than the Stormer and more Discovery-y, which wasn’t too surprising considering how it was built on a modified, shortened version of the monocoque/separate chassis platform from the Disco 3. For PR purposes, the combination of two chassis designs meant that ruggedness and refinement were combined in one vehicle, with the bonus (but less discussed) benefit of the cost-saving common parts. The Sport didn’t have a third row of seats, but the excuse for that was that you couldn’t be Sporty with seven people, something the postman might argue about.

Shed expects a few comments about the car not sitting right, the drivetrain being a bag of something your dog could do, the privacy glass looking rubbish and the screens looking worryingly blank, all of which would normally fall under the heading of honest commentary. But for the life of him, he doesn’t see much clearly wrong with this 3.6 TD V8 HSE, an exciting collection of letters and numbers suggesting power, hopefully some economy and luxury.

We’ll get into the first two in a moment, but first let’s get to the luxury part. The brown leather that compliments the blue paint appears to have held up well over the car’s 18-year/120,000-mile lifespan. The sellers have not included a photo of the driver’s seat from the entry side, an omission that usually means the cushions have been ruthlessly collapsed by a large and possibly smelly burp. We also don’t have a photo of the trunk which usually means indescribable stains, although the interior that we can see, while not mint, is certainly not mint.

Right, it’s time to raise the hood. Underneath lies the Ford-developed, Dagenham-built ‘Lion’ 3.6-litre twin-turbo 90-degree V8 diesel producing 272bhp and a very nifty-sounding 472Nm, figures that give this almost 2.7 tonne beast a 0-62mph time of 8.6 seconds and a top speed of 130mph. Sadly it wasn’t a super-efficient unit, choking you with 294g/km of CO2 in 2005 and choking your wallet in 2025 with an annual tax bill of £760.

The 3.6’s block and crankcase were CGI, which doesn’t mean they weren’t real, just that they were made of relatively lightweight Compacted Graphite Iron. To Shed, compressed graphite iron sounds better than compressed powder iron, but not by much. Actually it was a pretty reliable chunk and with proper maintenance could run 300k or more, the key phrase there being ‘with proper maintenance’. Even if you’re rigorous in this regard, you can still end up with split intercooler hoses, EGR problems, or faulty turbochargers. The latter could happen because owners didn’t realize there were two oil drain plugs, the second being the turbo return line drain. Leaving it untouched will eventually lead to a build-up of sludge and premature turbo failure.

You certainly hope nothing much goes wrong, as there isn’t much room under the hood to work with. The location of the turbochargers on either side of the engine meant you had to remove the subframe to get them out, hardly a job of moments. Looking for an easier life, RR techs would often just take the engine out and charge you accordingly.

Valve covers were also tricky to deal with, not only because they were made of tear- and leak-prone plastic, but also because they were integrated into parts of the intake manifold, making them difficult to access and remove if they started to crack and leak. And before trying that, you had to remove the injectors, another fraught experience that could easily go horribly wrong. It also took a long time to get to the gaskets for the oil cooler/oil filter mounting brackets due to their location under a load of other gubbins between the heads.

The six-speed automatic transmission bolted to this engine has quite a reputation, but in a car that hasn’t had regular fluid changes or been tossed around horse trailers, it can start to have problems after 120,000 miles. D’oh. There is no information in the ad about the maintenance history, which is a shame. There’s also no visible tow bar, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t had one in the past. These Sports are good for pulling thoughts, with a braked weight of 3,500 kg.

Also on the plus side, an MOT has just been done, which yielded only a few advisories for slight play in an excessive front wheel bearing and non-excessive wear on a nearby front suspension bushing. Previous MOT certificates indicate that problems have been resolved quickly, indicating (if not guaranteeing) a decent maintenance regime. Corrosion on the side rear suspension was resolved in 2024, while the off-clearance had been carried out the year before. Non-excessive rust to the sills and rear chassis legs was reported in 2023 and has not occurred since, so the assumption is that this has also been addressed. The suspension was air. Shed thinks adaptive dampers were available, but he doesn’t know if this car has them. Do you see any suspension sag? Shed can’t do that, but he can’t see much these days either.

It can be yours for €1,999. What are you waiting for? Don’t answer that, we don’t have time.