Thursday, 29 March 2018

M3-Fighting Jaguar XE SVR off the Table; Project 8 Will Be the Only V-8 XE

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Color us disappointed. Jaguar isn’t planning a BMW M3–fighting XE SVR supersedan after all. There were hints that such a thing might follow on the heels of the limited-run XE SV Project 8, revealed last year as an extreme and exclusive high-performance creation from the company’s Special Vehicle Operations division. Despite our past speculations (and hopes) about the XE SVR, a spokesperson for SVO confirmed that the ultra-exclusive Project 8—of which only 300 copies will be sold worldwide—will be the only V-8–powered edition of the compact sports sedan.

Senior programs manager for SVO Duncan Smith emphasized that the division wants to differentiate itself from the likes of BMW M and Mercedes-AMG, meaning that it tailors projects to fit each individual car it works on. “The Project 8 was the extreme embodiment of what the XE could do,” he explained. And by our reckoning it had better be, considering its $188,495 base price and ultra-exclusive status (it’s nearly sold out at this point). The absence of a more widely available SVR version leaves the XE S, propelled by a 380-hp supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 and starting at $53,270, as the hottest version of the sedan.

This decision to skip an XE SVR also seems to have something to do with the arrival of the new V-8–powered F-Pace SVR, which we suspect received priority because of the recent explosion of the super-SUV market with entries such as the Mercedes-AMG GLC63 and the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio. Smith said that the Range Rover Sport SVR has been a sales success for the company, and we can only imagine that the F-Pace SVR, which starts at $80,985, will be, too.

Now that we know a V-8 XE is off the table (except for those 300 buyers lucky enough to get their hands on a Project 8), we’ll have to redirect our hopes toward SVO massaging the mid-size XF, which in our dreams results in a hotted-up version of the XF Sportbrake wagon that would finally be available in the United States.