Jamie Cureton scored a brilliant hat-trick to give QPR their fifth consecutive Championship victory.
Cureton has spent much of his R's career on the bench, but justified boss Ian Holloway's decision to hand him a starting place by producing three fine finishes.
The first came when Holloway's side deservedly went ahead on 32 minutes.
Marc Bircham threaded the ball through to Cureton and the striker squirmed away from Mathew Mills to fire past keeper Luke Steele.
The goal, Cureton's first of the season, came just after the former Reading man missed a golden chance to score by heading Marcus Bignot's right-wing cross wide from six yards.
Cureton earlier shot straight at Steele following Richard Edghill's cross and his strike partner Paul Furlong's follow-up was also blocked.
Apart from Andy Morrell's shot wide and Stern John's sliced effort that drifted over, Coventry failed to trouble Rangers in the opening period and Cureton's opener came as no surprise.
Worse followed for the Sky Blues four minutes before the break. Cureton pounced after an error by Steve Staunton and superbly volleyed into the corner of the net from the edge of the area.
But the visitors hit back three minutes into the second half. Graham Barrett scored with a left-footed effort from outside the box that keeper Chris Day looked to have covered but was unable to keep out.
Furlong should have restored his team's two-goal lead three minutes later following an incisive counter-attack.
He controlled the ball on the halfway line and sped away from Richard Shaw to leave himself one-on-one with Steele, who blocked his shot.
The home side were almost punished when Michael Doyle's free-kick flew just wide, before a mistake by Louis Carey presented a chance to QPR captain Kevin Gallen, whose drive was pushed out by Steele.
But Steele was unable to stop Cureton completing his hat-trick with 16 minutes remaining, when he tucked the ball away after being picked out by Furlong.
And former Coventry man Furlong rubbed salt into his old club's wounds by heading home substitute Kevin McLeod's left-wing cross in injury time.