Jaguar’s upcoming XE performance offering has claimed a new production sedan record around Germany’s Nurburgring – before it even reaches production.
Using a slight loophole, the Leaping Cat claimed to have pounced into the record books today, claiming blistering 7:21.23 time around the Nordschleife in its XE SV Project 8. The catch is that Jaguar engineers used a prototype they claim will be identical to the production car.
Jaguar is calling it “the fastest ever time by a four-door sedan in production-intent specification”. So they should have no problem backing up the feat in the real deal, right?
Regardless, the feat puts the much-vaunted Project 8 almost 11 seconds ahead of the current record holder, Alfa Romeo’s Giulia QV, which claimed a 7:32 post.
Only 300 Project 8s will be produced, and
.The special edition car employs a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 making 441kW, endowing the British sledgehammer with a 3.7 second 0-100km/h time and 322km/h speed ceiling.
“The SVO design and engineering team’s mission was to create the most track-focused road-legal Jaguar in history – not only the fastest, but also the most agile,” said Jaguar SVO director Mark Stanton.
“As a result, only the roof and front door skins of Project 8’s body are carried-over unaltered from XE and 75 per cent of its mechanical hardware is new.
“This astonishing Nürburgring Nordschleife record validates the success of such extensive changes.”
Yeah, yeah; emulate the feat in the production car and we’ll re-assess.