Yahoo Autos Jaguar XE SV Project 8: First Drive
Jaguar describes the XE SV Project 8 as the "most powerful, agile and extreme" road-going Jaguar ever. Built by Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicles, the four-door sedan is the first Jaguar to prioritize lap times over road manners, and follows the 2014 F-Type Project 7 that celebrated Jaguar’s seven Le Mans wins. Just 300 examples will be hand-assembled at a substantial $187,500.
For that, you get the all-wheel drive, supercharged V8 powertrain from the F-Type SVR, here eased up from 567hp to 592. Frankenstein bodywork stretches over widened tracks front and rear, with the hood, fenders and bumpers in carbon fiber, and only the front doors and roof said to carryover unchanged (US models come with the panoramic roof). The chassis also gets a thorough reworking, including a ride height that’s adjustable by 0.6-in on stiffer springs and threaded dampers, new front uprights, custom camber settings, a solidly mounted rear subframe and bespoke carbon-ceramic brakes with 400mm front discs.
Jaguar claims 3.3 seconds from zero to 60mph, a 200mph top end, and a 7:21 lap of the Nürburgring–seven seconds ahead of the BMW M4 GTS, Project 8’s closest rival. A 3847lb curb weight–comparable to a regular XE with a much smaller engine–is less impressive for the mostly-aluminum, stripped-out special.
Climb in and the basics feel right, from the low-set seat to the easily adjusted driving position and the tactile Alcantara steering wheel and aluminum shift paddles. Our car’s Track Pack adds more spice–shame that the half-cage that replaces the rear seats and manual front buckets that drop 27 lbs aren’t offered in the US–but this lightly tickled interior most clearly betrays the XE’s blue-collar origins. Nonetheless, it’s well appointed for a track car, with navigation, Meridian audio and climate control.
Early laps play out on a very damp Portimao race circuit in Portugal, a mouth-drying sequence of blind crests and fast curves that ride like the nearby swells of the Atlantic. Even in these conditions, a sense of tightness and responsiveness defines Project 8: The body feels rigid and flex-free, the suspension is tautly controlled as it compresses and rebounds, and the steering snaps immediately to attention with a weighting that’s meaty enough to feed back substance, if light enough to dance off the excess pounds.
The powertrain gels perfectly with this character, courtesy of crisp though never edgy throttle response and punchy upshifts from the recalibrated eight-speed auto. Performance is on speed-dial throughout the rev range, complemented by a rude V8 soundtrack ripping through quad titanium exhaust tips and-unusual in modern Jags-squalls of supercharger menace to give full throttle some edge.
But these are a fractious few laps, with the 20-inch Michelin Cup 2s struggling to key into the surface, resulting in understeer followed by oversteer, and some quite marked ABS and stability control intervention. The XE’s communication skills mean you can anticipate much of this via small tremors feeding through the steering wheel, but the tires certainly compromise Project 8 in the wet, more so on turn-in than corner-exit, no matter the all-wheel-drive hardware. Track mode also feels too stiff, particularly on faster corners; thankfully Dynamic mode introduces the necessary compliance via adaptive dampers.
When I pit, rivulets of grimy water are streaked over Project 8’s engorged bodywork like hot wax dripping down a candle. Better weather’s coming, so I take a second car out on the road while morning sun bakes the track dry. This example’s ride height has been increased for the road-though not difficult, this won’t be the work of a minute. The bucket seats are swapped for the electric sport seats that are standard stateside, which offer a good blend of comfort and support, but the revelation is how pliantly a car designed to demolish lap times deals with some incredibly rough surfaces. It feels like it’d do the 9-5 without breaking a sweat, and there’s perverse appeal in that; even if we had the choice, the five-seater just seems like the right spec here.
The track’s dry when I return to Portimao, and suddenly the tires come alive and the firmer Track mode makes perfect sense, locking Project 8 into a virtuous circle of decreasing lap times. Because the tires grip so resolutely, you gain confidence to brake far later as Portimao’s start-finish straight tumbles downhill. The slightly vague initial pedal bite quickly cedes to firm feedback, easy modulation and pretty colossal stopping power, and Project 8 squirms down from 160mph as you tease the steering left and right to keep things under control. There’s more fuzz to downshifts than upshifts, but tip into the fast right-hand turn one and the suspension compresses steadily and reassuringly, and where once a grainy sensation through the steering warned of tire slip in the wet, now that rim firms up under the load and the tires bite keenly, letting you work the power and the suspension harder. In fact, for a 3847-lb sedan with a V8 over the front wheels, Project 8’s reluctance to understeer is pretty astonishing. When the front does push, the limits are so high and the slip so gummy and controllable that you can just keep a balanced throttle and drive through it.
Traction out of slower corners is similarly sticky. Project 8 is set up to be 100-percent rear-drive in steady-state driving, but can divert a maximum of 20 percent of torque to the front end when necessary (15 percent in Track mode), making it fractionally more rear-biased than the F-Type SVR. It is possible to induce a small amount of oversteer on power or with an off-throttle flick into a fast sweeper, but really Project 8 wants to dig its claws into the surface, and even a very heavy right foot adds only a fraction of attitude.
The competence of the chassis and the curb weight does, however, make a near-600hp supercharged V8 feel merely very fast rather than explosively powerful-there’s no doubt this chassis could handle a large helping of extra power, and a higher redline wouldn’t hurt either.
It’s all a long way from the tire-shredding hooliganism of the rear-drive F-Type R-a car I loved for that very reason-and yet Project 8 does not deliver its composure humorlessly. Ultimately it’s in combining such grown-up composure with a decidedly adolescent streak of mischief that it manages to be such a charismatic, drivable and above all exciting machine. Supercar drivers should dismiss Project 8 at their peril come the next track day.
Jaguar XE SV Project 8
Price: $187,500
Powertrain: 5.0-liter V8 supercharged, 592 hp, 516 lb-ft; RWD, 8-speed auto
Weight: 3847 lb
0–60 mph: 3.3 sec (Jaguar est.)
Top speed: 200mph (Jaguar est.)
On sale: Now (first deliveries summer)
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