More than 50 Australians have laid down deposits for the first Range Rover-based model from Jaguar Land Rover's new Special Operations division. And its price has not even been announced yet...
The model causing the stir — and a rush of orders — is the new Range Rover Sport SVR. Powered by the same 404kW/680Nm supercharged 5.0-litre V8 as Jaguar's raucous F-TYPE R Coupe, the go-fast sports SUV grabbed the limelight last year for its 8m14sec lap of the Nordschleife. Now it looks set to storm out of Aussie Land Rover dealers just as rapidly.
Jaguar Land Rover Australia (JLRA) is yet to confirm the on-sale date for the SVR or its RRP, but operations boss Matthew Wiesner has told motoring.com.au buyers have snapped up "more than the first six months [Australian market] allocation".
"We are sold out and the price is not even confirmed yet," Wiesner told motoring.com.au.
"The interest is quite unprecedented. The Australian market is traditionally performance focussed but even we're surprised at the response," he stated.
Aussie buyers have also been keen to place deposits for Special Operations' first Jaguar model, the Project 7. motoring.com.au understands the open-top two-seater will be over 50 per cent more than the $200K-plus F-TYPE upon which it is based.
The premium for the SVR Rangie Sport is not expected to be quite as steep. Retaining the full all-terrain abilities of the donor Sport but capable of accelerating 0-100km/h in around 4.5sec, the new SVR should arrive Down Under within cooee of a 25 per cent premium on top of the $182K price tag of the supercharged Autobiography model.
The Range Rover Sport SVR made its international debut at last August's Pebble Beach Concours.
But it's not just rocketships in demand. This year is shaping up as a year in which a number of Land Rover models could be in short supply. The company recently announced it would say farewell to the icon Defender series with a number of limited edition models but already JLRA insiders say they are having to "manage dealer and customer expectations" in terms of volumes available.
"A north Queensland dealer requested an order of 80 [limited edition Defenders] as soon as the model was announced. We've had to say no and there's other smaller dealers asking for big numbers too," JLRA's James Scrimshaw told motoring.com.au.
Defender's 60-year production run will draw to a close in 2015. As yet no replacement for the iconic Land Rover model has been unveiled although significant speculation exists that an all-new Land Rover workhorse range could be released as early as 2017.