[Used2HaveAJeep]

I’m starting a build thread to document my progress with the RRS. This should help me organize my thoughts and I’m bringing you all on the adventure.

I live in Metro-Detroit and work in the auto industry. I’m a life long car guy and can’t seem to keep anything stock for long.

<Background>
I bought this Range Rover Sport in Dec 2021 from Texas. It’s been a Texas car all of its life (no rust). I’m using this as a winter DD and general family hauler. I needed something that was good for snow and bad weather.

I was on a mission (obsessed really) with finding the cleanest Range Rover Sport I could find. I cross-shopped with similar model year X5 M-Sports and Cayennes. I found a couple of solid contenders, but settled on this one.

<My Purchase>
09 Range Rover Sport
Bourneville Metallic (blackish/brownish/purple-ish)
Cream Interior
4.4 V8 - 58K miles

<Initial Thoughts>
The RRS L320 is caught between being sporty and being an off roader. It seems to do well with bad weather and deep snow, but it's limited on the sporty side. It has adequate power, but in the way your basic commuter car has adequate power. Yes, it's a heavy SUV, and in a lot of ways it feels like the Wrangler I used to have, but it needs more punch. I'm hoping to address that over the next several months.

<Next Steps>
Cosmetic – Exterior

• Blackout grill & side vents
  • Autobiography style from ebay or paint stock
• Complete: Blackout door handles
  • Buy new door handle covers in gloss black
  • Or wrap door handles in gloss black
• Tint front windows
  • Light tint on front windows
• Blackout badging
  • Replace current badging with blackout badging
• LED lights
  • Headlights, taillights, blinkers, etc

Wheels/Tires

• Poweder coat/Paint stock 19’s gloss black
• Complete: AT tires on stock wheels
• Wheel spacers front
• Complete: Wheel spacers rear
• Potentially add 21s or 22s
  • OEM style wheels with AT tires

Connectivity

• Add 9-10 inch Andriod head unit
  • Retain factory navigation and 4x4 info page

Power/Drivability

• ECU tune
  • Eurocharged flash tune
• Shorty headers
  • Lincoln LS, S-type, etc OEM exhaust manifold
• Intake
  • Modified Lincoln LS or RRS Supercharged CAI

Suspension

• Shocks, Sway bar links and bushings
  • Suspension refresh while retaining EAS
• Complete: Rhino Rods 2.5inch Lift
  • Going to remove these. Don't like the ride quality with them installed.
    
    
    Pictures to follow - Landy has a 25mm spacer on the rear wheels
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Normal Height
    
    
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Access Height
    
    
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Off Road Height
    
    
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Normal Height
    
    
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Normal Height
    
    
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Access Height
    
    
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Off Road Height
    
    
    
    2.5 inch lift - Rhino Rods - Normal Height
    
    
    
    Current Set Up - Stock - No lift - Normal Height
    

 

[NoExpert]

Does yours have Dynamic Response sway bars?

 

[Used2HaveAJeep]

Does yours have Dynamic Response sway bars?

No, just the standard sway bars. FYI pictures posted

 

[NoExpert]

Looks pretty good. If you’re open to suggestions, when you do the black grill/side vents, take apart the headlights and spray the internal grey trim black as well. Looks 100x cleaner on the front.

I will also suggest passing on the CAI. These cars already have better systems. The right side fender vent is the intake going into a large airbox that feeds direct into the engine. Put a good Mahle air filter in it and enjoy. Any oil type air filter will just wreak havoc on the MAF sensor and end up costing you more money in the end. Getting it tuned is smart since it’ll smooth it out and give it a little more power, but it’s still NA, not turbo or SC. Maybe put the CAI money into removing the two rear resonators in the exhaust system instead.

You can see what I mean about the headlights, it’s a 2010 Bournville with gloss black grill/vents/handles and badges, but the grey headlights just look out of place. I almost bought this one, but passed for a few reasons.

 

[Used2HaveAJeep]

Yeah I’ve been thinking about the headlights. If I open them up, I’d want to add like a 9 inch halo around the main headlight. I think it would give it more of a G wagon or Wrangler look.

I like the idea of removing the resonator and adding an X pipe. It’ll sound a bit more aggressive. I don’t need it to sound crazy loud. This is supposed to be my sensible car haha.

Bourneville is kind of an odd duck. Once I get it blacked out, I’ll see what I want to do. I might hate it, then it’ll be back to the drawing board.

What’d you end up getting instead? Tuned diesel in the EU?

 

[NoExpert]

Bourneville is an interesting color. During the day it has a dark chocolate brown appearance and at night it’s nearly black. I think they look okay blacked out, but it’s kind of an all or nothing deal.

I’m not sure I’d go after the primary silencer, it’ll definitely be louder and likely drone inside the vehicle. Removing the rear resonators will give a little more growl without turning too obnoxious.

I bought a stock 2011 RRS 3.0 TDV6 Dynamic HSE Luxury in Fuji White with ebony leather and ivory contrast stitching. Only thing done to it was somebody painted the stock calipers red, installed larger 275/45R20 tires and added the trailer hitch and electrical for it. It doesn’t have your 4.4’s horsepower, but it makes up for it with lots of torque and 25mpg average fuel mileage. So far all I have done is wire up the rear “load space” lights to work with the doors and front center light button, installed a cooler box in place of the cubby box, replaced the front cigar lighter with a dual port USB-A/USB-C charger/volt meter and made the front power outlet always on. Oh, I put in some crappy LED interior bulbs which are dying one by one already, but they were free and I wanted to see how I liked LED lights. I have some four pot Brembo calipers I’m currently refurbing and will paint red which I’ll get installed in the near future. Funnily enough they’re off a 2007 US RRS 4.4 somebody imported to Europe and ended up getting abandoned at our shop since the owner didn’t want to pay to fix it. Got my cooler box out of it, too. I like the red calipers, adds a small splash of color to an otherwise monochromatic vehicle.

 

[Used2HaveAJeep]

Nice Range! Always liked the white and black stormtrooper look.

Man, I cannot tell you how jealous I am of 25mpg. I would much rather have loads of torque and good mpg than horsepower up in the rev range where I'm rarely going to use it.

At one point I had an F250 with the 7.3L Powerstroke diesel. It had a piggy back tuner on it and it was a blast to drive. It was all rusted out and a couple different colors, but it moved.

====> General Update

Should get the grill, side vents, door cover handles, and tint done this weekend

 

[NoExpert]

Thanks, I’m definitely enjoying it.

The torque of the 3.0 TDV6 isn’t too far off from the 5.0SC, I think it’s like 30 ft-lbs less at 442 ft-lbs of torque. Horsepower isn’t bad at 241, more than my 2000 P38 Range Rover 4.0 V8 had. The variable vane primary turbo has virtually no lag and the sequential secondary turbo kicks in around 2700RPM to help send it down the road. Can’t complain about the mileage either.

Sounds like you’ll have a productive weekend. If you haven’t, I definitely recommend wiring the rear interior lights. It’s a night and day difference and not too hard to do. It’s one of those things where you get done and you’re like, “Why wasn’t it like that from the factory?” I think I spent a few hours doing it, but I wasn’t rushing.

Finished

Testing after wiring, before putting it back together

 

[Used2HaveAJeep]

Well I got my windows tinted this morning. It’s slowly coming together.

The grille and side vents came in this afternoon too.

Here’s a couple of pictures. All my cars are dirty right now

 

[NoExpert]

Nice Maserati, I spotted it in your previous pics.

The tint goes well. One piece at a time, I think it’s going to look good when you get it where you want it.

I gave mine a little wash yesterday, it was getting bad. Too cold and windy to really scrub it, so it was a coin wash pressure wash only job. Still got a good 85%+ of the dirt off it. Made sure to put it in off road height to hit the fender wells and suspension good to get the road grime off.

 

[Used2HaveAJeep]

Thank you, that’s the fun car. Waiting for a nice day to take it out.

Washed the Range yesterday, didn’t do much good. It’s dirty again after the drive to work but I took a few pictures of the grille and side vents

 

[NoExpert]

The grills are definitely an improvement.

One thing that kind of bugs me on mine is the plastic skirting all around and grey door handles. I’m on the fence with getting the body skirts and door handles color matched to the body and getting the pillars wrapped in gloss black. I just feel like it kind of cheapens it with the bare black/grey plastic. Just not sure if color matched is the way to go or if they should be gloss black.

 

[pashad13]

I just posted a thread similar to this. I have the same exact mod list as you except a little more overland-oriented. Excited to see how your range comes along over time. So far my only complain on my 07 RRSS is I get just under 12mpg after I put on the big fat tires. 12mpg hurts a lot when you're in CA and gas is well over $5/gallon....

 

[Used2HaveAJeep]

The grills are definitely an improvement.

One thing that kind of bugs me on mine is the plastic skirting all around and grey door handles. I’m on the fence with getting the body skirts and door handles color matched to the body and getting the pillars wrapped in gloss black. I just feel like it kind of cheapens it with the bare black/grey plastic. Just not sure if color matched is the way to go or if they should be gloss black.

Thanks! I don't know if I'm sold on the front grill yet tho. It vaguely reminds me of a 2005 Ford Explorer. Nothing wrong with the Explorer, it's just not what I want to be reminded of when I look at the Range. I've been thinking about taking the stock grill and painting it gloss black.

I think color matching the door handles would look great. I'm on the fence about the plastic skirts too. I kind of like the ruggedness of skirts.

 

[NoExpert]

Man, you have no idea at my level of pissitity right now. I got hit by a **** tram. Ran across the front of the car, damaged the bumper, hood, grille and left headlight. Hoping insurance covers it, need to see what they say. Trams always have right of way, period. I was just over the line and rather than stop the tram just hit my car. On top of the Putin invaded Ukraine which is right next door. Not the time to have my vehicle down. If insurance covers everything, I’ll probably have the body shop spray the handles on mine.

I thought that there was a 2010-2013 style grill for the 2005-2009. Could be wrong.

 

[pashad13]

Thanks, I’m definitely enjoying it.

The torque of the 3.0 TDV6 isn’t too far off from the 5.0SC, I think it’s like 30 ft-lbs less at 442 ft-lbs of torque. Horsepower isn’t bad at 241, more than my 2000 P38 Range Rover 4.0 V8 had. The variable vane primary turbo has virtually no lag and the sequential secondary turbo kicks in around 2700RPM to help send it down the road. Can’t complain about the mileage either.

Sounds like you’ll have a productive weekend. If you haven’t, I definitely recommend wiring the rear interior lights. It’s a night and day difference and not too hard to do. It’s one of those things where you get done and you’re like, “Why wasn’t it like that from the factory?” I think I spent a few hours doing it, but I wasn’t rushing.

Finished
View attachment 299222

Testing after wiring, before putting it back together
View attachment 299221

@NoExpert is there a thread with instructions on how to do this?

 

[NoExpert]

@NoExpert is there a thread with instructions on how to do this?

Here you go:

RRSPORT.CO.UK • View topic - Mod to make rear map / reading lights come on?

www.rrsport.co.uk

There’s a few ways to do it, just go with one that suits your skill/comfort level.

 

[Used2HaveAJeep]

No way! Hopefully insurance will cover it man. I would be furious. I had some idiot fail to brake and rear end me. I was in my parent's car which made it even worse. It's always a nightmare situation.

We don't have many trams here in Detroit. The auto industry bought them and shut them down.

Stay safe man. Hopefully insurance covers it and Russia doesn't move west. I shouldn't complain, but gas prices are already rising here. 15% increase overnight. Why did I buy the V8....

 

[mascudkoray9]

I like the idea of removing the resonator and adding an X pipe. It’ll sound a bit more aggressive. I don’t need it to sound crazy loud. This is supposed to be my sensible car haha.
Nox Vidmate VLC

 

[NoExpert]

Insurance is a no go. Bright side, I work at an independent Land Rover shop and we have connections all over.

How goes things with your RRS?