Jag saloon triples in price, buying you a 600bhp V8, intense track focus and supercar speed

Behold the barmiest, least rational car you’ll see today. It’s Jaguar’s latest Special Vehicle Operations project. In the baldest terms it’s an XE saloon that costs a fiver short of Ł150,000.

Naturally, Project 8 is rather more than that. Following on from Project 7 – a roofless Jaguar F-Type with a shedload more power – it’s even more bespoke and specialised. Jag’s SVO boss goes as far as describing it as the company’s “most track-focused and powerful road car ever”. Yep, even the XJ220 is outshone.

Out goes a rep-friendly diesel engine, in comes a 5-litre supercharged V8. It’s familiar from a whole suite of Jaguar performance cars, but none has yet offered the 592bhp – or nice round 600PS – of Project 8. Despite copious carbonfibre components, this is a 1,745kg car, making it several passengers heavier than a regular XE. Doesn’t stop it hitting 60mph in 3.3secs on its way to a 200mph top speed, mind.

Lap times and top speed were top of the to-do list for Project 8, in fact, despite the aerodynamic needs of those goals often conflicting. So while it looks wild, “form follows function without compromise”. Project 8’s design boss says he was bred on Lancia Delta Integrales, which helps explain the stunningly swelled wheel arches. But with a 110mm wider rear axle to accommodate, they’re sort of necessary, too.

Look closely and you’ll see the arches are cut away, exposing the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber. Performance car geeks will immediately know what a serious tyre this is, and while Project 8 is sold as a wildly customisable car, you can’t change the wheels or tyres. Jag’s bloody-mindedness probably comes from the fact the front headlights have been moved forward by 14mm to accommodate the 20in alloys and trackday rubber. That’s no small feat and not something that would ever happen in mass production. In fact, just the roof and front doors are exchangeable with a regular, Ł30k XE.

Beneath the skin there’s all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Despite the car’s hardcore nature, rear-drive and a manual were never, ever on the table; they conflict too much with the ruthless focus on speed. The AWD is a tuned version of the Jaguar F-Type SVR’s, while the paddleshift transmission is described as Jag’s quickest ever. There’s an electronic differential on the rear axle (so yes, it’ll do skids) which gets its own cooling system. The suspension and aerodynamics are manually adjustable.

Mark Stanton, SVO’s director, says the whole thing will be “notably more hardcore” than an F-Type SVR, Jag’s current performance car halo. “My SVR is a useable, everyday car. If this ends up being an everyday car, we’ve missed the point.” Despite that, there’s plenty of equipment inside. Complementing all the carbon and Alcantara are the nicer bits of the XE’s options list. Project 8 even operates as a wifi hotspot for up to eight devices. If the eight people clutching those devices can keep up with it, of course.

Worried that’s all a bit too sane? While Project 8 comes with a full set of seats as standard, the (as yet unpriced) Track Pack option ditches the rear seats, morphs the front two into proper Sabelt racing buckets and drops the car 15mm. It also cuts 12.2kg from it, despite the addition of a roll cage and fire extinguisher.

Other highlights? Standard carbon ceramic brakes possess ginormous 400mm front discs and we’re promised it will “sounds like no other Jaguar”. Given Jag V8 sports cars are riotously, hilariously loud, we had to ask if that means this one suddenly falls silent. Nah. Expect even more volume, particularly when it comes to supercharger whine. For all its trackday focus, you might want to check the noise limits before you book it onto one.

Jaguar will produce a maximum of 300, but interestingly, it’s conducted no market research whatsoever before producing the car. It didnt even warm up Project 7 buyers before announcing it. All will be hand-built, and all will be left-hand drive, apparently for optimising the driving position as well as the car’s weight distribution.

Rivals? The BMW M4 GTS and whatever Mercedes AMG Black Series we see next are the only plausible comparisons at Ł150k. But Project 8 is specialist enough to transcend the obvious Top Trumps battle; Jag expects no two will be specced alike, and those who take the plunge will end up with an appreciating asset. Let’s hope, after its meticulous mechanical makeover, that doesn’t temper their commitment on circuit…

Video: world's fastest production saloon is Jag's madcap new XE SV Project 8

Nürburgring cynics, look away now. Today’s news concerns a new lap record, and one with an especially complex caveat. Ladies and gents, the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 has lapped the Nordschleife in 7min 21.23sec, “the fastest ever time by a four-door sedan in production-intent specification.”

The reason for the complexity is the startling 6m 57.5s set earlier in the year by an extremely modified Subaru WRX STI. Cast that aside and Jag’s Project 8 is essentially the quickest saloon car ever around the ‘Ring, taking 11 seconds out of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio (and matching the pace of an independently lapped Ferrari 488 GTB) in the process. Not bad for a 1.7-ton car.

If you want a recap, Project 8 is a deeply sensible XE saloon after it’s had the full Special Ops treatment at Jaguar. It powers all four wheels with a 592bhp supercharged V8, is swathed in carbon and can be ordered with just two seats and a roll cage. It’s by some margin the maddest Jaguar road car yet, and perhaps should be for Ł149,995, a Ł102k mark-up on the next most powerful XE. It does 200mph and hits 60mph in 3.3secs.

Its all-wheel drive ensures the lap itself is tidier than you might expect for a mightily powered Jag. There are occasional bursts of ‘busy’ steering from Belgian driver Vincent Radermecker, but he’s not exhibiting armfuls of corrective lock on the exit of every corner. We’ve no doubt the Project 8 will do that on demand, but clearly it’ll also hunker down, grip and focus if you ask it to.

Astounded? Amazed? Ambivalent? Watch the video above, and share your feelings below…

Jag’s bonkers, 592bhp, Ł150k, bewinged XE is here. Here's why it's exciting

1. It’s the most extreme SVO product so far

   There’s been fast road-going Jaguars before, but none where the explicit mission was to extract the fastest possible lap time. Mark Stanton, Director of JLR’s SVO department calls it a “no constraints vehicle.” In fact, 80 per cent of the parts are new or upgraded over the standard XE.
   
   We know the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 well from other Jag (and Land Rover) products, but here it’s been cranked up to 592bhp, and by using an adapted version of the F-Type SVR’s four-wheel drive system, it can charge from 0-60mph in 3.3 seconds, and kiss 200mph flat out.
   
   There’s height-adjustable suspension, adjustable aero, carbon-ceramic brakes, the option of two- or four-seat configurations, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and 122kg of downforce at 186mph, while 75 per cent of the exterior has changed.
   

2. It looks… muscular

   Study the new M5 and you’ll notice BMW decided against flaring the wheel arches, largely down to cost. Given the Project 8 is priced from Ł149,995 and will be hand-assembled at SVO’s new technical centre in Coventry, that’s not an issue here and why, up close, the Project 8 looks so damn good.
   
   To accommodate wider tyres and a wider track, the rear arches are flared by 55mm per side, which in turn required reshaped rear doors. The front arches are also pumped by 19mm and the headlights moved 14mm forward to make space for the forged 20-inch wheels. Both arches feature race-car style cutaways to release pressure and turn up the aggression.
   
   The front bumper, with its distinctive lozenge mesh, is now made from carbon-fibre. So too the rear bumper, vented bonnet and front splitter. Overall, only the roof and front door panels are carried over from an XE.
   

3. Its Cup 2 tyres don’t like the rain

   Minutes before we were due to go out for a series of fast passenger laps around the Goodwood circuit, the heavens opened, coating the track and leaving puddles scattered everywhere.
   
   Fortunately, David Pook was driving, the man responsible for the vehicle dynamics of all SVO cars. If anyone knows how to extract the most in tricky conditions, without ending up in the barrier, it’s him.
   
   Even so, it’s clear that while not as hairy as they once were, Cup 2s aren’t altogether happy in the wet – sliding under braking on the way in to corners, and trying to oversteer heroically in Dynamic and Track mode on the way out. What we did learn was that anyone who worried that four-wheel drive might dull the Project 8’s attitude, needn’t have. The rear tyres are very much steering the situation, while the overall balance of the car feels fantastic.
   
   It corners flat, of course, but there remains an underlying suppleness which suggest this isn’t just a race car with number plates… it’s more versatile than that.
   

4. It sounds epic

   As the track dried in patches, and Pook felt confident enough to deploy the entire throttle travel, we were treated to the full hit of the switchable quad titanium exhausts.
   
   To be honest, it’s a noise we’re becoming accustomed to having heard its gargly goodness in any number of JLR products over the last few years. In the Project 8 it’s in fine voice – rasping, booming, warbling on the way up the rev range, with aural cluster bombs when you lift off the accelerator.
   

5. We’d go for the four-seat version

   Jaguar is giving all 300 buyers of the Project 8 the option of a two- or four-seat configuration. The former gets bespoke, buttock-clamping Sabelt carbon-fibre seats with four-point safety harnesses and a harness retention hoop that boosts torsional rigidity by 27 per cent over the four-seat version. It also cuts 12.2kg from the kerb weight.
   
   However, there’s something deliciously perverse about the four-seater version. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be able to take the kids shopping in the morning, then pop off to break a lap record in the afternoon? Speaking of which…
   

6. Its 7min 21.23sec Nurburgring lap time is conservative

   You may remember at the end of last year Jaguar posting the fastest ever Nürburgring lap time for a four-door saloon, beating the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio by a full 11 seconds.
   
   Well, it hasn’t been resting on its laurels since. In fact, Jaguar is convinced that the detailed fettling it’s been doing to the chassis and software before the final spec is locked down means it could go even faster.
   
   Pook explained: “The good thing about building only 300 cars, all hand-made, is that you can keep developing the car right up to the start of production. And we’ve done just that.
   
   “The springs have got stiffer and so have the engine mounts. The suspension arm bushes have changed. The brakes have been refined for the exact pedal feel and performance we want. This has all been done to make the car even more responsive and to handle even better.”
   

7. It was benchmarked against the Porsche 911 GT3

   On looks, spec and mission statement, the BMW M4 GTS would appear to be the Project 8’s closest rival. And yes, David Pook says he began by benchmarking against that car, but “quickly moved on” when he realised the Jag was a fair bit faster.
   
   The car he moved on to was the Porsche 911 GT3. Yep, Jaguar is chasing GT3 levels of speed and driver engagement in a car that starts life as a small executive saloon. Pook freely admits that the Project 8’s four-door body shell means the 911 has an inherent dynamic edge, but you can’t knock the scale of his ambition.
   

8. You’d better be handy with the spanners

   A new Track mode, that sharpens up the throttle and gearbox, adds more meat to the steering, loosens the ABS and turns the volume up to 11, is available via a button on the centre console. However, putting the car into full track spec means manually adjusting the suspension, lowering it by 15mm, manually adjusting the wing for a more aggressive angle of attack, and extending the front chin spoiler by 60mm.
   
   If you’re not handy with the spanner, then this may be a job for a mechanic. But don’t worry, you probably won’t be swapping back and forth on a regular basis. The Jag engineers we spoke to reckon most customers will simply set their cars to the most aggressive configuration… and leave it there.
   

9. It’s selling out fast

   Despite a Ł149,995 asking price, and even though no customers or media have actually driven the car yet, Jaguar already has 200 letters of intent of which 100 are firm orders. With a production run strictly limited to 300 cars, that leaves 200 still up for grabs.
   
   John Edwards, boss of JLR’s SVO department, says from the very outset he wanted to make the Project 8 a future classic, something that future generations will look back on as one of the all-time greats. If that happens, Ł150k could be the bargain of the year…
   

10. A Jaguar Project 9 is coming

    Jaguar has confirmed that it is already considering a ‘Project 9’ to follow up the lightly feral Project 7 and Project 8 nutjobs. “There will be a Project 9,” Edwards told us.
    
    “But there’s no decision what it will be yet. It doesn’t necessarily have to be high performance, we’re making up the rules as we go along.”
    
    Given that SVO will develop and build the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy race car – destined for a one-make race series to support Formula E from later this year – our money’s on some sort of fettled I-Pace with less weight and more downforce. It might sound crazy, but crazy is what SVO specialises in.