There’s no doubt that the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 is a really special creation, built for speed and precision. You don’t see every day a car maker re-engineering a series production model to such extent just to go faster and that deserves at least a standing ovation from the petrolheads among us.
To get an idea of how much work went into the SV Project 8, Jaguar’s SVO department changed everything on the XE but the body-in-white, the front doors and the roof. Everything else was made specifically for this four-door performance car.
Power comes from Jag’s supercharged 5.0-liter V8 that now makes 591hp (600PS), catapulting the XE SV Project 8 to 60mph (96km/h) in 3.3 seconds. That figure is aided of course by the permanent all-wheel drive system and the responsive eight-speed automatic transmission. Top speed is set at 200mph (321km/h).
The XE SV Project 8 managed to lap the Nurburgring 11 (!) seconds faster than the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, proving that this Jaguar is a real, world-beating super saloon as Autocar finds out in their video review.
Jaguar will make only 300 copies of the XE SV Project 8, all of them in left-hand drive, because, as they say, right-hand drive would compromise the handling of the car.