Good morning, long time lurker and L320 owner but first time poster.

We’ve owned Range Rovers for a while now - and there is something about the pre-facelift L320 Supercharged that we keep coming back to. We’ve owned newer and ostensibly “better” RRS and RR models but there is some kind of charm with the first gen sports. I’m aware of all the reasons that what I am about to write isn’t remotely a sensible financial decision or even slightly based in reality - but we want to do it anyway.

We are looking at doing a full nut and bolt restoration on a sport (not ourselves) to restore one back to factory state.

There are two key questions I’d like to get peoples thoughts on. Firstly - does anyone have any recommendations of somewhere that could do all this work? Our local independent certainly isn’t up to the job and I’d rather somewhere that would themselves be at least somewhat into the idea of this project. I’m fed up of being told to scrap and buy a better one.

The second question is should we rebuild or current RRS or buy a low mileage alternative. There are a couple of Supercharged HSTs for sale at the moment with <55k miles for around 13–15k (as recent as 2009). One option is to use one of these as a base and our current ad a donor. The other is to fully restore ours. Ideally the name of the game is spending as little money as possible so would 13k up front and a second car of spares work out better than just restoring ours.

Ours is just shy of 200k miles on the chassis and about 40k on the engine. She’s a 2006 SC and a little sorry for herself. She’s had an oil leak for at least four years that nobody can find that has covered the entire chassis (rust protection, right?). Independents have given in on finding it and dealer quotes 5k just to investigate.

Other than that she has vibrations through steering wheel above 70. The brakes are just not responsive despite fact I’ve been told by our independent that everything looks fine and I’m not even sure what’s happening with acceleration at the moment but it’s just not right.

There’s been an engine management light on for at least two years that nobody can fix which causes adhoc reduced performance mode going up hills on hot days

Fridge doesn’t work

Someone has stolen the ‘G’ from Range Rover

Bodywork and interior is in immaculate condition for mileage and on a park with anything of 80k miles. She’s also fully original and since we bought her in 2019 we removed all non-original trims and replaced.

My gut is the engine rebuild was done shoddily and oil has leaked since and gradually seeped into every bit of rubber and seal and hose and destroyed them and this is contributing to the issues we see. I’m not a mechanic though but none of them seem much help. I can’t help but fee she’s got a good base for her age but it’s still a 200k mile chassis.

I’m oscillating between just garaging this one and buying a 50k mile 2009 and refurbing in a few years or going fully in now and nuts and bolts rebuilt insanity project this year on our existing.

Would love anybody’s thoughts as I think my wife just wants it sorted now and for me to stop talking about it.

Disco Mikey on here would be excellent for the build I reckon.

If you're going for a rebuild, galvanise the chassis as that is where I think my RRS will ultimately die.

https://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/topic169498-90.html

Here's my thread from my rebuild. First 6 pages are trial fitting in a donor car, and a little irrelevant to a restoration

Be warned though, its not cheap

Thanks for that Disco Mikey. I haven’t reached 3 posts yet to drop you a PM but would be interested in having a chat. Can you PM me an email address so I can drop you a message?

www.facebook.com/mmp4x4

Mike@mmplandrover.co.uk

I’ve pinged you an email, let me know if you’re interested

Apologies. Did see the email, meant to reply, work + life getting in the way at the mo

I recently discovered these guys in Battersea London. 020 7720 2502. You can find them at
315 Queenstown Road, Battersea,SW8 4LN.


All the guys there are experts in Range rovers but there is one guy there ,Konrad, who is fanatical about the Range Rover Sport Supercharged. They are the best independent Range Rover specialists out there. I would definitely consider them for your restoration/rebuild.

RRS 4.2 SC is the one I went for, 10 years after selling our last one. I really do think it’s a candidate for being a future classic.

I’d go for a low mileage early car. There’s so much info around and they’re pretty simple to maintain, given the wealth of remanufactured parts and simple fixes (valve blocks, compressors etc) that weren’t around when they were newish.