WITH a 550bhp V8 engine under the bonnet the high performance Range Rover Sport SVR is already known for packing a punch.

The £95,900 model is the fastest Land Rover in production and despite weighing some 2.3 tonnes can accelerate 0 to 62mph (0 to 100km/h) in a Porsche-like 4.5 seconds.

But to prove a point, Land Rover has just put the SVR to the sprint test off road.

Sitting on standard Michelin 275/45 R21 All Season tyres and with Darren Jones, an expert Jaguar Land Rover test driver at the wheel, the car was tasked with performing on a variety of treacherous surfaces ranging from grass and gravel to sand and snow.

The astonishing results showed the SVR was capable of 0 to 62 on gravel in 5.3 seconds, 5.5 seconds over grass and sand, 6.5 seconds on rocks, and even on a snow and ice field in Sweden it managed to complete the run in just 11.3 seconds.

The exercise was designed to show the capabilities of Land Rover's latest computerised Terrain Response 2 system - a multi-mode drive control designed to give optimum traction in varying conditions.

The Range Rover Sport SVR's first challenge was the start-finish straight at Europe's fastest racing circuit, Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, Northamptonshire, where in dynamic mode it achieved the target speed in 4.7 seconds.

After that the vehicle completed the other test runs at a number of locations including the Land Rover East of England Experience, the company's winter test facility in Arjeplog, northern Sweden and at Pendine Sands in south Wales - scene of world land speed record runs since 1924.

The SVR is the flagship of the Range Rover Sport line up and was developed by Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations team based in Coventry.

Since being released in 2015 almost 1,000 SVR models have been sold in the UK.