Jaguar XE SV Project 8 2019 Review

That’s essentially what the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 is. Take the medium-sized and relatively humble XE four-door sedan and strip it… Then pour in every go-fast bit you can think of, test it and send it out to do battle.

The result is the most powerful production road car Jaguar has ever built -- courtesy of a 441kW/700Nm 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine -- and a 7:21.23 lap of the Nurburgring, which Jag is claiming as a world record.

So here’s the problem, as we reported here; only 300 are being built by SVO -- Jaguar’s equivalent of AMG -- and they are all left-hand drive, so the Project 8’s not road-registerable in Australia.

But you can still buy one here, for a mere $325,000. Jeez, I’ll have two. Better yet, add $24,000 and SVO will pull out the rear seats and install a rollcage, data-logger and racing front seats with four-point harnesses.

It was that version carsales.com.au got to have a five-lap blast in at Sandown racetrack recently, with touring car ace Tony D’Alberto sitting in the passenger seat and offering advice. Literally car number one hand-built by SVO in the UK, it was sent to Australia for local display and drives.

“Everyone’s freaking out,” smiled D’Alberto about number one being let loose in the hands of a journo.

But it wasn’t all bad news.

“This car built my confidence in its limits quite quickly,” D’Alberto told me as we strapped ourselves in.

“The amount of confidence and feel the car gives me even when I haven’t done many laps in it is really impressive.”

A few laps of my own and I was more than happy to agree with him. The Project 8 is on another level compared to high-performance stuff like the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S and even the BMW M3 CS. I’d love to see the time Luke Youlden could do in this thing around Winton!

The difference between the Jag and the Germans is pretty simple. It’s much more race than road car. And you can clearly see that even as it just sits there in the pits.

The body is 75 per cent new and drips in carbon-fibre and aluminium panels. There are aerodynamic aids everywhere you look – and in the case of the flat underbody, places you can’t without a hoist.

The rear wheel-arches are flared 55mm, the fronts 19mm, cold air gushes into the engine via an opening in the new carbon-fibre bumper, then hot air is sucked out of the engine bay via vents on the bonnet. There’s an adjustable front splitter and single-element rear wing.

Under the skin the V8’s been tuned up to a higher pitch than any other SV model. It mates to a recalibrated eight-speed auto and all-wheel drive (gee, rear-wheel drive would be interesting!), driver-adjustable suspension, multi-mode traction and stability control, two-piece carbon-ceramic front brake rotors with six-piston callipers, staggered 10-inch wheels and wonderfully sticky Michelin Plot Sport Cup 2 rubber.

Phew.

Yet, there’s even more. A titanium variable active quad exhaust, an oil-cooled electric active rear differential and even industry-first use of Formula 1-style silicon nitride ceramic wheel bearings on a road car in machined-from-billet steering knuckles.

It’s a real showcase of what SVO can do and all up this thing weighs in at 1745kg, making it the lightest V8 sedan in the Jaguar line-up. You’d hope so!

Jag claims the Project 8 can accelerate to 100km/h in 3.7 seconds and that feels believable. Traction is superb, and the Project 8 rapidly builds past 220km/h indicated (about 100km/h shy of Vmax) heading up Sandown’s back straight, snapping through the gears rapidly via flappy paddles.

From pitlane it sounds fantastically loud and brutal. Inside the cabin it’s just as good. This is one Jaguar that has eschewed refined elegance.

The brakes and tyres do a magnificent job of pulling the car up from high speeds. At the end of the front and back straights I consistently braked too early, partly because I simply under-estimated their eye-bulging power.

But what really stood out was the steering. It’s so positive and direct on turn-in. A recalibrated electric-assist rack-and-pinon system, it responds to input ultra-quickly. I nearly drove off the inside of the road a couple of times at corner entries adjusting to it.

Get on the gas too soon and the Project 8 will push the front. But it’s an understandable mistake to make considering how eagerly it turns and how well it grips.

One area where the Project 8 still does feel somewhat road-oriented is the ride. Sandown is pretty rough, but the car seemed to cope with it well, settling well off the bumps and the kerbs even in its stiffest, lowest setting.

Intriguingly though, D’Alberto rated the Jag as stiffer than the DJR Team Penske Supercar he races in the Sandown 500.

“This car runs pretty stiff springs compared to the road car and the Supercar is definitely a little more compliant off the kerbs,” he revealed.

But the only really uncomfortable moment for me was wandering perilously close to the right-hand edge of the back straight because I was sitting on the left-side of the car. D’Alberto’s gentle push of my right arm made sure there weren’t any excursions.

That was the only moment. In fact, throughout the drive the car simply gave the feedback and reassurance necessary to go faster and faster. Sensing my comfort level, D’Alberto was happy enough to dial up from Dynamic to Track mode and dial down the electronic nannies as we lapped.

“In just a few laps you can get to that limit quite quickly,” he said. “In other cars that don’t talk to you as much you don’t have that confidence.”

Go the roader!

He’s so right. The Project 8 impressed deeply with its performance potential and its cohesiveness. It’s one thing to throw a bunch of parts at a car, it’s another step again to make them all work so well and make the car so accessible and so easy to drive fast.

The experience simply reconfirmed what a great experience racetrack driving can be. And how much better it is in a racer … or at least a roader.

How much does the 2019 Jaguar XE SV Project 8 cost?
Price: $349,000 (as tested)
Engine: 5.0-litre V8 supercharged petrol
Output: 441kW/700Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 11.0L/100km (EU combined)
CO2: 254g/km (EU Combined)
Safety rating: N/A