SV Rover unveiled as a 1,100-hp 'street-legal hypertruck' (2024)

It looks like a classic Land Rover Defender 90, but it's all hand-built and can also be ordered as an EV

Author of the article:

Jil McIntosh

Published Feb 13, 20242 minute read

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SV Rover unveiled as a 1,100-hp 'street-legal hypertruck' (1)

Want a Land Rover, but the stock stuff that company sells isn’t cutting it for you? If you have a bank account with somewhere around $1-million-plus in U.S. greenbacks in it, you could opt for an SV Rover from Scarbo Vintage. The California-based custom-vehicle company is calling it the “world’s first street-legal hypertruck,” and with a choice of 1,100-horsepower from a supercharged V8, or a 750-kW (1,005-hp) electric powertrain.

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It’s the company’s third model, following its SV F1 and SV RSR race cars. The SV Rover may look like it’s built off a classic Land Rover Defender 90, but it’s a handmade vehicle, including its chassis and body. As company chief Joe Scarbo put it, the truck “combines the nostalgia of classic British design with modern American muscle and technology to deliver a driving experience beyond anything this side of a trophy truck.”

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  1. SV Rover unveiled as a 1,100-hp 'street-legal hypertruck' (2)
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The rear-mid-engine truck holds two people. The gas engine — its original manufacturer undisclosed — sends out its power through an eight-speed automatic transmission, while the available electric version uses a 75-kWh lithium-ion battery (with that manufacturer also still unknown). The selectable 4WD system includes a high- and low-range transfer case and locking front and rear differentials.

You also get four-wheel steering, height- and valving-adjustable air suspension, 20-inch forged wheels with 40-inch tires, six-piston Brembo brakes with carbon ceramic rotors, and up to 762 mm (30 inches) of total wheel travel. The body is handmade from aluminum and carbon fibre.

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The interior is a mixed bag of tough-and-tender. The dash design and centre console look pretty basic, as does that obviously-still-a-prototype steering wheel in the photos; but it also includes bucket sport seats, Alcantara upholstery, billet aluminum trim, 12.8-inch infotainment screen, 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, climate control, and power locks and windows.

So far, this is about all we’ve seen and there isn’t a lot of information out there. The vehicle was unveiled to the public in Aspen, Colorado in early February at the F.A.T. International Ice Race. That US$1-million-plus is just a guesstimate, especially since each one will be built to the customer’s order with the resulting rise in costs, and Scarbo hasn’t said how many are planned to roll out the door or if any buyers are lined up yet. We’re also waiting on such stuff as its top speed and, for the EV, its range – and, of course, any possible chance to drive one.

SV Rover unveiled as a 1,100-hp 'street-legal hypertruck' (21)

Jil McIntosh

Jil McIntosh specializes in new-car reviews, auto technology and antique cars, including the two 1940s vehicles in her garage. She is currently a freelance Writer at Driving.ca since 2016

Summary

· Professional writer for more than 35 years, appearing in some of the top publications in Canada and the U.S.

· Specialties include new-vehicle reviews, old cars and automotive history, automotive news, and “How It Works” columns that explain vehicle features and technology

· Member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) since 2003; voting member for AJAC Canadian Car of the Year Awards; juror on the Women’s World Car of the Year Awards

Education

Jil McIntosh graduated from East York Collegiate in Toronto, and then continued her education at the School of Hard Knocks. Her early jobs including driving a taxi in Toronto; and warranty administration in a new-vehicle dealership, where she also held information classes for customers, explaining the inner mechanical workings of vehicles and their features.

Experience

Jil McIntosh is a freelance writer who has been writing for Driving.ca since 2016, but she’s been a professional writer starting when most cars still had carburetors. At the age of eleven, she had a story published in the defunct Toronto Telegram newspaper, for which she was paid $25; given the short length of the story and the dollar’s buying power at the time, that might have been the relatively best-paid piece she’s ever written.

An old-car enthusiast who owns a 1947 Cadillac and 1949 Studebaker truck, she began her writing career crafting stories for antique-car and hot-rod car club magazines. When the Ontario-based newspaper Old Autos started up in 1987, dedicated to the antique-car hobby, she became a columnist starting with its second issue; the newspaper is still around and she still writes for it. Not long after the Toronto Star launched its Wheels section in 1986 – the first Canadian newspaper to include an auto section – she became one of its regular writers. She started out writing feature stories, and then added “new-vehicle reviewer” to her resume in 1999. She stayed with Wheels, in print and later digital as well, until the publication made a cost-cutting decision to shed its freelance writers. She joined Driving.ca the very next day.

In addition to Driving.ca, she writes for industry-focused publications, including Automotive News Canada and Autosphere. Over the years, her automotive work also appeared in such publications as Cars & Parts, Street Rodder, Canadian Hot Rods, AutoTrader, Sharp, Taxi News, Maclean’s, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes Wheels, Canadian Driver, Sympatico Autos, and Reader’s Digest. Her non-automotive work, covering such topics as travel, food and drink, rural living, fountain pen collecting, and celebrity interviews, has appeared in publications including Harrowsmith, Where New Orleans, Pen World, The Book for Men, Rural Delivery, and Gambit.

Major awards won by the author

2016 AJAC Journalist of the Year; Car Care Canada / CAA Safety Journalism award winner in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013, runner-up in 2021; Pirelli Photography Award 2015; Environmental Journalism Award 2019; Technical Writing Award 2020; Vehicle Testing Review award 2020, runner-up in 2022; Feature Story award winner 2020; inducted into the Street Rodding Hall of Fame in 1994.

Contact info

Email: jil@ca.inter.net

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jilmcintosh/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JilMcIntosh

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SV Rover unveiled as a 1,100-hp 'street-legal hypertruck' (2024)

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