Jaguar hints at F-TYPE SVR

There’s nothing like a major international sporting event to capture global attention and Jaguar is right in the middle of the action with a special version of its F-TYPE coupe that has been developed by its new Special Vehicle Operations to act as a support vehicle during the 2014 Tour de France.

The coupe is the second vehicle to be developed by SVO, and uses the same 404kW 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine as the regular F-TYPE R Coupe – which should be more than enough to allow it to keep pace with the peleton – rather than the 423kW version used in the spectacular Project 7 F-TYPE that is widely rumoured to underpin an upcoming super-performance F-TYPE SVR.

The three-week long Tour de France is recognised in motoring circles as a way of gaining media recognition through daily televised coverage. Although Volkswagen group car-maker Skoda has a stranglehold on press exposure as an official sponsor of the tour, there are opportunities for others to share a bit of glory.

Appropriately, Jaguar has been in the mix recently with its supplying of support vehicles for the British Sky team that has scored outright victory in the last two years with riders Sir Bradley Wiggins (2012) and Chris Froome (2013).

With Wiggins not a part of the team in the last two years, and Froome’s retiring early this year after a couple of crashes, attention switched to Austrian rider Richie Porte as a legitimate hope for at least a podium position when the event winds up in Paris this weekend, but illness has put paid to that.

However, the familiar black Jaguar Sportbrake wagons remain as part of the pack supporting the Sky team, and will this year be supported themselves, by a bespoke F-TYPE coupe that will appear on the stage 20 time trial between Bergerac and Périgueux.

The Jag coupe was developed as a showcase for SVO’s abilities and brings an unexpected touch of glam to an event where more pragmatic solutions are the normal choice of competing Tour de France teams.

The special F-TYPE may not have the bike-carrying ability of the team’s regular Jaguar wagons, but the SVO operation has cobbled up a special rack that will allow it to at least tote two of Sky’s hi-tech Pinarello Bolide TT bikes.

Other special features include not just the Sky team’s black/blue colour scheme on the outside, but also on the inside, while the electronics have been expanded to include a separate electric supply in the boot to power the radios, amplifiers, microphones, horns and televisions that support communications between the team managers and the riders. A digital rear-view camera enables a rear view unrestricted by the presence of the two bikes on the rear rack.

Jaguar isn’t planning on making the Tour de France special a regular item in the F-TYPE model range, although it says elements “can be commissioned for private projects.”

Jaguar Land Rover's third SVO project will be the upcoming Range Rover Sport SVR expected to appear in mid-2015.