After a little teaser a month ago, Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) has finally unleashed the most hardcore XE in all its glory. Limited to 300 left-hand drive examples worldwide, the XE SV Project 8 is reengineered from the ground up to become a four-door supercar killer.
The Project 8 packs a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 generating 592 hp, which is 17 horses more than the highly acclaimed F-Type SVR! Power is applied to all four-corners via an eight-speed Quickshift transmission and Jaguar’s All-Wheel Drive system (AWD). As a result, sprinting to 96 km/h from naught takes 3.3 seconds, almost as quick as an Audi R8 V10 Plus. At full whack, the speedo will read 322 km/h or 200 mph.
To complement the mind-boggling performance from a four-door family saloon, SVO done significant revisions to the body work. Among the new components include vented carbon fibre bonnet, carbon fibre bumper with larger air inlets, adjustable front splitter, flared arches, flat underbody, rear carbon fibre bumper, rear diffuser, adjustable rear wing and 20-inch forged aluminium alloys.
Besides that, the Project 8 also features stiffer springs, manually adjustable continuously variable dampers that can further lower the car by 15 mm for track outings, carbon ceramic brakes and rear Electronic Active Differential (EAD). The Project 8 is also the first Jaguar to feature a dedicated track mode that alters powertrain, steering response and stability control for ultimate driver feedback on track.
As for the interior, SVO is offering two distinct options – the standard four-seat or the optional two-seat track pack. On the standard configuration, the front seats are of magnesium frames with extra bolster support while the track pack gets front carbon fibre racing seats with four-point harnesses and a retention hoop in place of the rear seats.
Keen customers can also personalise their Project 8 with SVO. It is of course done for a small fee on top of the £149,995 (RM834k) asking price.
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