IN THIS FEATURE Off-road novice I thought it was an on-road SUV? Atlas shrugs Alien planet landscape Sand dune doldrums

Some of you will now think I have lost touch with reality. No one who actually shells out £59,995 for this 385bhp ultra-SUV will ever tackle anything more serious than a muddy car park in one. What possible advantage is it to them to know that the car can take on the Sahara desert and win?

In fact, it's everything. Very few people who buy a new Ferrari F430 will ever do more than, say, 150mph in it, but how many do you think Ferrari would sell if 150mph was its actual top speed? It's the same with any Land Rover. People don't need it for serious off-roading, but nonetheless, they do need to know it can do it. It casts a rugged image on them, giving them an intrepid air without requiring them to do anything in the least bit adventurous. In short, it does it so they don't have to.

Seat detail reveals that Land Rover isn't skimping on quality

And just because this is the most sporting Land Rover ever, do not think for a minute it's not as qualified as any other to wear the badge. It did things in that desert that any off-roader would have been proud to achieve, let alone one whose top speed is electronically restricted to 140mph.

You may know by now that the Range Rover Sport is related to the actual Range Rover by styling alone. Dig beneath the surface and, engines aside, it has nothing in common at all with the BMW-engineered Range Rover and almost everything to do with the more modern and Land Rover-developed Discovery 3. It's shorter, so it'll only seat five, and lower, giving it a road-hugging appearance that no sporting SUV can survive without. Inside, however, you still sit high up but because the control surfaces have been drawn close to the driver - its feel is entirely different to any other Land Rover. Where a Discovery3 feels pleasantly airy and a Range Rover extravagantly luxurious, the Range Rover Sport's driving environment is snug and cosy. Like you'd find in a small roadster, all the switches and buttons you'll routinely need are grouped around you, rarely much beyond your fingertips. It makes the cockpit seem sporty and even intimate, something I never thought I'd say about any SUV.