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Hands up all those who fancy a compact Jaguar XE sports saloon with the same power as a Ferrari V12? All of you? Thought so... This is the Jaguar XE SV Project 8, the latest effort from Jag's Special Vehicle Operations skunk works, and just 300 hand-built examples will be made, priced from £149,995 in the UK (so probably at least €300,000 if you want to import one here).
Exterior
The standard Jaguar XE is a pretty handsome looking thing and somewhat surprisingly, SVO's meddling here hasn't swollen it out of all proportion. The Project 8 does get a new carbon fibre front bumper and cooling ducts, a carbon bonnet, flared wheelarches to cover the 20-inch forged alloy wheels, a front splitter (which you can adjust), flat-bottom underbody aero and a carbon bumper and diffuser at the back. Plus the fully adjustable rear wing. But while there's a hint of Thundersaloon about it, this is a hi-po XE that still looks recognisable next to its humbler brothers and is more subtle than you'd think.
Interior
Inside, it's pretty much stock Jaguar XE with sporty add-ons, as you'd expect. There's glossy carbon fibre trim, lots of Alcantara suede, especially prominent on the steering wheel, and a big 'pistolshift' lever for the eight-speed automatic gearbox (which also has paddle shifters behind the wheel). That should make you feel like John Cleland on the way to the shops...
The front seats are new (Jaguar's new Performance seats with lightweight magnesium frames) and the rear seats get more bolstering to help keep your poor, sainted rear passengers upright. You can optionally ditch the rear seats altogether with the Track Pack, which also gains a set of carbon-backed racing seats for the front and four-point harnesses. Oh, and all Project 8s will be built in left-hand drive only.
Mechanicals
Here comes the good stuff. This is surely the ultimate iteration of Jag's long-serving supercharged V8 engine before the company's new inline six-cylinder units start to come online. There are no major physical changes to the engine, just good old fashioned tuning and a titanium sports exhaust to liberate a whopping 600hp and a 0-60mph time of just 3.3 seconds (Jag isn't quoting a 0-100km/h time just yet, but it will be well under four seconds).
The top speed? North of 320km/h, or 200mph if you're still thinking in imperial. Yup - a compact four-door Jaguar that can genuinely dice with a Ferrari F40. That mighty engine drives all four wheels through a modified and strengthened version of Jag's all-wheel-drive system, and that acceleration figure means that it's the fastest Jag ever off the line.
Keeping all that grunt on the black stuff is tuned suspension that is 15mm lower than standard and uses continuously variable dampers. There are also massive carbon-ceramic brakes, and to ensure that you don't wear out the wheel bearings, there's an industry-first use of Formula 1-style silicon nitride ceramic wheel bearings on a road car.
There's also an active electronically controlled rear differential, which gets its own oil cooler to ensure that the 600hp engine doesn't melt it down at the first sign of a corner. Project 8 is also the first Jaguar to feature a dedicated Track Mode, which tailors driveline and stability control systems for circuit use, and sharpens both throttle and steering responses.
Anything else?
Those lucky 300 customers will be able to choose from a standard paint line-up of Fuji White, Narvik Black and Caldera Red, plus five enhanced SVO Design options incorporating colours and finishes from the SVO Premium Palette: Valencia Orange, Velocity Blue, Meribel White, Verbier Silver and Corris Grey (which is finished in satin matte). Mind you, this being an SVO car, you can essentially pick any colour you like if you're willing to write a cheque big enough.
The XE SV Project 8 will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England this weekend.