600hp Jaguar XE SV Project 8 revealed

Jaguar has revealed its more powerful road-going car yet – the XE SV Project 8. Developed by the company’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division, it is Jaguar’s second collectors’ edition model following the 2014 F-Type Project 7.

Like the Project 7, the XE SV will be hand-built at SVO’s technical centre in Coventry and it makes use of the same supercharged 5.0-litre V8 engine. But in the XE SV, power has been ramped up to unprecedented levels, peaking at 600hp – around 24hp more than the aforementioned F-Type.
The XE SV is all-wheel drive, rather than being rear-driven like the Project 7, and uses a specially tuned version of its eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox.

Jaguar is yet to release official figures but it claims that the Project 8 is its most extreme model and will offer supercar-like performance. This suggests, it will beat the 3.5sec, 0-100kph time of Jaguar’s current, most accelerative road car, the all-wheel-drive F-Type SVR. This will edge the XE SV into the realms of hardcore machinery like the Porsche 911 GT3 and ahead of fellow limited-run track special, the BMW M4 GTS.

The Project 8, pictured wearing light camouflaging, has been developed at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Jaguar is yet to confirm the specifications of the car’s chassis setup, but the modifications applied to the Project 7 XE suggest SVO’s engineers will have almost certainly fitted firmer suspension and a faster steering rack to their new machine, lowering the car to improve high-speed composure and giving the quicker responses. It sits on lightweight wheels set at a wider track, illustrated by its bulging arches.

Matching its beefed-up underpinnings is a more aggressive exterior, with the XE SV gaining bespoke bodywork dominated up front by larger intakes and a spoiler on the bumper. At the back, it sports two pairs of exhaust tailpipes and the boot lid is adorned with a fixed rear wing, which generates genuine downforce.

The images do little to reveal what modifications have been made to the cabin, but significant weight-saving measures can be expected to help keep the SV’s mass down.

Jaguar has remained tight-lipped on when the car will arrive, but it’s expected to make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June where it’ll likely also be driven up the hill. When the Project 8 eventually makes production, it’ll do so as a limited-run model, with just 300 units planned globally – 50 more than the Project 7 – in left-hand drive only.