Should a Range Rover have a carbon bonnet?

An initial glance at the Range Rover Sport in these pictures might have you thinking it’s from one of the numerous aftermarket companies. SUVs have been all the range on the modding scene of late, and the Sport is particularly vulnerable to a hosing of white leather and a smattering of incongruous carbon.

But this is an official Range Rover product. It’s the facelifted version of the Range Rover Sport SVR, the high performance rival to the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Mercedes GLE AMG and BMW X5 M.

The car itself has always been mega – call it a guilty pleasure if you like, but it put its 542bhp down amusingly and shrugged off its bungalow-like kerb weight admirably.

A mid-life update has given it 25bhp more, slicing its 0-62mph time to 4.3 seconds. But it’s also, in the spec illustrated, endowed the Sport with a rear diffuser, some white leather and a carbon bonnet. An exposed, contrasting carbon bonnet.

Which is all well and good on a Renault Megane R26.R or a Lexus RC F. Or, if you’re so inclined, a tuned, aftermarket Rangey. But should it be coming out of Land Rover’s factory with a carbon bonnet?

Or would the company be unwise not to see Kahn, Startech, Mansory and co as direct rivals; is taking a slice of their profit by offering similar mods in-house a sound business case? We suspect it’s designed to appeal more on style grounds than the tiny dent it might have made in front/rear weight balance, after all.

Please, help us make our minds up by typing your opinions below. And if you’re looking on at these images in wide-eyed admiration, prices for the new SVR start at £99,680…