These two guys walk into the village pub one night, all dark suits and smart haircuts, and settle in the corner of the bar. As they sit there stiffly, looking around and supping their Guinness (won't notice if its spills on the suit). I nudge my wife and suggest to her that they are plain clothes police. Sure enough,when we step outside a little later there's the black Range Rover, regsistered in Wales and a dead giveaway to any potential terrorist or assasin. The next morning we pass them heading out of the village trailing a car with a cherished number that belongs to a local who is a friend of a visiting VIP. It couldn't be more discreet if the cars were covered in lights and stripes. But those two were unlucky because they only had an ordinary Range Rover. Far more impressive are the black Range Rover Sport supercharged models that some of the protection boys drive. These are bristling in blue lights carefully hidden around the bodywork but they shine like a Christmas tree when everything's going off. It must be great fun, dangers of the job aside, to carve your way through the traffic in one of these, as I saw in a major south coast city. Not long after I saw another one being trailed by a BMW X5 done out in the same way and they were really motoring. But you can forget your X5. It's the Range Rover Sport that's the king of the castle. Have one of these with the supercharged 4.2 litre V8 engine and you have arrived. Those people who term themselves celebrities were queueing up to get into the Sport when it was launched two years ago and there were instant premium prices. These still exist, especially for late registered diesel models although the twin turbo V6 model will be falling out of favour now there's a brand new V8 diesel. I've previously driven the diesel for several hundred miles and found its 27 mpg not only impressive but truly amazing. I bet the new V8 diesel is just about as good. The supercharged V8 petrol (you can also get a normally aspirated 4.4 litre V8 petrol too) manages around 16 mpg mpg, which is bearable (my old Range Rover did 11 mpg). It has helped the Sport become the best-selling petrol-engined SUV in Britain, which only proves just how much money there is around. Under the skin of the Sport is the Discovery 3 platform which brings with it some excellent features. Not least among these is a control for selecting the programme you need for the 4x4 system, starting with on-road and ending in rocky terrain. In between you get snow and ice, mud and ruts, and desert and it's all done with nothing more difficult than twisting a knob on the console. Off-road, the Sport is superb, as you might expect. This knowledge will be enough for most owners, who will never show their car anything more severe than a grass verge. It's just nice to know what it could do if it had to and those diplomatic protection boys could use any route they fancy to make a fast getaway. Maurice Hardy