Thanks Dave, I think I'll be more than happy, especially with the roof to lighten things up. Pleased my spec is now finalised, aside from the HUD possibly becoming available to order.

All we need now is for LR to open the order book and give priority to the (I think) three of us on here with one on order... Mark

SVR in Estoril Blue

Is there no possibility to have the front fog lights? Apart from practical purposes, aesthetically the front air intakes look imo better with the lights installed which break up the Cayennish grills which are a bit 'in yer face'!

My guess - and it is no more than that - is that the engine is on a thermal knife-edge in some environments the car will operate in but that in the UK and Europe it will hardly be a problem.

It's the same over at Porsche who frown on you installing grilles to protect the exposed radiators from flying stones, citing compromised cooling where in reality there is no problem. I can imagine in the furnace that is the Middle East, it might be, but in a baking hot Italy this summer, the water temperature in my 911 turbo didn't budge. At most, the thermostat may be in a slightly different position to compensate but there's lots of cooling capacity in reserve. I feel sure the SVR would be exactly the same.

The reason to remove them of course is to maximise the airflow through the radiators. I would certainly like to see front fogs on it and I wonder if they've gone to the lengths of modifying the column stalk to remove the switch action, removed the wiring from the loom and the legend from that stalk. If all that is still there, that might mean some retrofit is possible. Mark

SVR in Estoril Blue

I think you are not too wide off the mark ref the above, and I would imagine the wiring will be in place, but a different stalk. Finding an aftermarket fix might be an issue though! Maybe JLR could offer a European version with the front fogs installed...it's the only thing delaying my deposit for now, apart from hoping that I could get a swift test drive in one in the north west mainly to check how compliant the suspension set up is viz a vis my AB with 22" wheels. I have some bad memories of a year in a an Audi A6 Le Mans Estate which was pretty hard work on UK roads.

We removed the foglights to maximise cooling and also to remove a bit more weight.
To answer your question, the lower grilles aren't designed to support fog lights and if you did go as far as to fit them, you would be reducing airflow across the coolers by 25-30% (take a look at a standard lower grille and see how big the housings are) and noting we've increased power (and therefore heat rejection) by 10%, you'd be compromising performance if we had another summer like this one past.
Also the grilles are a different shape so they might look a bit odd and you'd also degrade the frontal aspect visual of SVR by making it look like a V8SC.
X5M doesn't have front fogs either....

Its your choice to retrofit them (as it is for people to bolt all manner of things to cars) but I wouldn't advise it

And Bob, please rest assured; an Audi ride quality this most definitely isn't.

As regards test drives, the order book isn't open yet and we have no idea what the lead times are going to be but my hope is there will be some opportunity to test drive the car once a demonstrator is available. Call me naive, but it would be good to think there will be some sort of launch event. Mark

SVR in Estoril Blue

Yes...just looked at the LR config site and now I see the grills on the SVR are somewhat larger! Thanks for the reply.

I've just had an email from my dealer who has my deposit:

"The factory have requested that we supply the contact details and SVR specifications of all the prospective sold orders.

I assume from this they will be ordering them on our behalf. There are scheduled for build Q1-2015."



I've just got to finalise spec now - not sure whether I'm going to be brave enough to go for the Estoril or not. SOLD - 15 plate Estoril SVR

SOLD - 64 plate Aleutian Silver Supercharged

SOLD - 63 plate Corris SDV6 Autobiography

Well, that's good news. I shall give my dealer's cage a good rattle. Decided my Evoque is too slow and too roly-poly, so time to move it on.

As for Estoril Blue, worth going and seeing the sample colour. I was rooted to the spot when I saw a similar blue (Bali?) previous gen Sport or FFRR in London. Looked great, but then I like blue cars. Mark

SVR in Estoril Blue

So what would be your next choice of colour Dickie? To be honest, we can paint it pretty much how you want but obviously that service comes at a price....pm me if you want to know more

Mark_N wrote:

Well, that's good news. I shall give my dealer's cage a good rattle. Decided my Evoque is too slow and too roly-poly, so time to move it on.

As for Estoril Blue, worth going and seeing the sample colour. I was rooted to the spot when I saw a similar blue (Bali?) previous gen Sport or FFRR in London. Looked great, but then I like blue cars.

Mark, You must have considered the Porsche Macan turbo as the Evoque replacement as well.
What do you think about it as opposed to the RRS SVR?

I am kind of flip-flopping between those

I did indeed consider the Macan turbo. I've driven a Macan S (3 litre V6 petrol) on Porsche's test track in Leipzig where the Macan is made and it runs rings around the Evoque in terms of performance and roadholding though the Macan build quality was not so far ahread of the Evoque as I expected. Porsche (or more specifically, Recarro) do their seats better than Johnson Controls, IMHO. There's not such a difference in price providing you go easy on Porsche's very long options list.

In particular, the V6 mated with their PDK is far superior to the gasping 2 litre Ford effort and I simply do not believe a car needs 9 gears unless it is very clear about which gear it wants to be in and doesn't keep changing its mind.

I have not driven a Macan turbo (though of course the 3 Macan variants all use turbo-charging) and I expect there will be a turbo S version at some point. I expect it would make a good car better still.

In the end though, it is just a sorted out next generation Q5 and like Evoques, they will be everywhere. I wanted a car which has more rarity value, more esoteric appeal, the big supercharged V8 as well as a look all its own. Make no mistake though, the SVR is coming out fully £35k more than the Porsche (£105k vs £70k), optioned up, so it needs to be good.

It will be very interesting to see the inevitable comparative reviews between the SVR and the Cayenne turbo which is its more natural competitor. As an early adopter, I have not driven an SVR so am taking it on trust it's going to be great. Mark

SVR in Estoril Blue

Yes, eagerly waiting for the SVR reviews since we it will be some time when we can test drive them ourselves.

Yes, it's a gamble. We have no idea how many have been ordered and what the effect on lead times will be but here in the UK, there's a track record of starving the UK market of 5 litre SC cars because of the need to supply markets where diesels are not acceptable, most notably the U.S., and also in an effort to provide halo cars for Jaguar.

I would be surprised if there was more than one SVR a day destined for the UK market. The danger of waiting for reviews or test cars to drive is that the lead time has ballooned in the meantime. Mark

SVR in Estoril Blue

Not sure how many SVRs will be built, but interestly it is not currently listed for the US.