[Jaguar XE News]

Taking place annually on Lord March’s estate, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is where racing vehicle gather and some may even take on the Goodwood Hillclimb. There, guests will have a chance to see new and heritage cars take on a tricky 1.16-mile course. Among this year’s Hillclimb contenders is Jaguar’s new XE SV Project 8.

Already tested on the Nurburgring, what’s one more notch under the £149,995 Project 8’s belt? JLR’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division started developing Jaguar’s track-biased sedan last August and only recently was this Collector’s Edition model unveiled. It may have taken more than half a year, but it was time well spent.

Powering the Project 8 is a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine tuned to crank out 592bhp. Mated to a four-wheel drive system and a uniquely tuned eight-speed Quickshift gearbox, the performance sedan can sprint from 0-60mph in just 3.3seconds and hit a top speed of 200mph.

What may give the Project 8 an edge in the Goodwood Hillclimb corners is a double-wishbone front suspension, with an integral-link and modified axles for more lateral stiffness. Then there’s an electronic active differential, which AutoCar says will work with Intelligent Drive Dynamics to manage rear axle torque delivery.

Only 300 of these left-hand drive cars will be produced and no matter how the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 at Goodwood, every single one of them will probably be spoken for by the time deliveries are expected to start around May 2018.

 

[Kingpin]

I find it funny that they came out with this super high performing XE meanwhile the F-Type hasn't seen anything like it, which makes you wonder why this? F-Type is currently their halo car, would have been amazing to see something that eats the AMG GT R without even trying.