One of Jaguar’s unsung accomplishments is how easily it stuffs a large V-8 into any car it makes. Without reshuffling the engine bay or drawing excessive hood bulges, Jaguar can swap a 3.0-liter V-6 for a 5.0-liter V-8—they share the same block—and presto, instant muscle car. Soon, though, the most powerful production Jag will no longer be the F-type SVR but this, the XE SV Project 8.
While the compact XE sedan has been a candidate for V-8 duty since day one, Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division tweaked the supercharged eight-pot to 592 horsepower, a healthy 17 more than the F-type SVR and last year’s F-type Project 7 (and a nice hop from this engine’s 550-hp and 510-hp tunes in lesser Jaguar/Land Rover uses). Jaguar will stand silent on details until late June, when an unmasked Project 8 will attempt to ignite hay bales during the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill-climb. SVO says it plans to hand-build 300 cars at an unspecified price, ensuring the Project 8 is a hair more common than the Project 7’s 250-car run. With DTM-style body flares and that picnic bench of a rear wing, the Project 8 is like the four-door Mercedes-AMG Black Series that never was.
Genetically, the Project 8 can claim a British bloodline. In 2002, the X-type Racing Concept demonstrated the potential that Jaguar never quite realized with its first compact sedan. During this time, there were also real S-type race cars that ran in the German V-8 Stars and British V-8 Supercar series, podium finishes and all. Most recently, the last-gen XF ran in the British Touring Car Series and International Superstars Series. But if the Project 8 seems out of reach, a friendlier, detuned XE SVR built on the regular assembly line is still on its way. And for growing families, V-8 versions of the XF, XF Sportbrake, and F-Pace are also in the offing.
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