What we see here is, by Jaguar's own admission, “the most powerful, agile, and extreme” car they have ever produced. It’s a little curious, then, that the British marque chose to base it off of their XE compact executive saloon and not the F-Type Coupe, a dedicated sports car.
Called the SV Project 8, and seen here in prototype form with all-round camouflage, it’s the next in their Collector’s Edition performance models following the F-Type Project 7 back in 2014. Just 300 examples are planned, all of them to be hand-assembled at the SVO Technical Centre in Coventry.
As is clearly visible, the SV Project 8 wears a much more aggressive aerodynamic package, with a widened rear track, big fixed rear wing, and lightweight alloy wheels. The centrepiece, though, is the engine, which delivers 441kW to the rear wheels.
It seems that Jaguar are rather proud of this motor, though it should be familiar to nearly everyone who has had an eye on carmaker’s faster models over the past decade. It’s the same 5.0-litre supercharged V8 that has seen wide use in Jaguars and Land Rovers of recent memory.
When fitted to this special XE, though, Jaguar claims it endows it with supercar levels of performance, which should make it worthy of its schedule full debut at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed at the end of June.
“Our clients worldwide were thrilled by the F-TYPE Project 7. The new XE SV Project 8 takes aerodynamics and performance engineering to another level – it is conceived for enthusiasts and the most discerning collectors. The price for such an extreme performance sports car available in strictly limited numbers will reflect that,” said Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations Managing Director John Edwards.
For more on Jaguar vehicles, including pricing and specifications, check out our Showroom.
