Jaguar XE SV Project 8 REVEALED – 0-60mph in 3.3 seconds and £150,000

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The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 has been revealed, and it’s a 592bhp, £150,000 Jaguar which can hit 60mph in 3.3 seconds. Just 300 being produced.

Just last month we had a bit of a tease for the Jaguar XE SV Project 8, a 592bhp XE being built by Jaguar’s Special Operations, and now it’s been revealed ahead of a debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend.

As bonkers a Jaguar as you’ll find, the Project 8 XE is as hardcore as you’d like – particularly if you stump up for a Track Pack on top of the £150k asking price – and is so far removed from being an XE it’s almost surprising Jaguar tagged it with the XE badge.

Out go the underpinnings of a regular diesel XE, and in comes what sits beneath the F-Type SVR, but with power upped to 592 bhp, enough to get to 60mph in just 3.3 seconds and on to 200mph.

Extensive body modifications mean very few bits of the regular XE remain, and all the Project 8 cars will be LHD only, with carbon fibre bumper with bigger cooling ducts, carbon fibre bonnet complete with vents, big flared wheel arches housing 20″ alloys, adjustable front splitter, a flat underbody, carbon fibre back bumper with diffuser and big adjustable back wing.

The XE’s suspension comes in for some work, with stiffer springs and manually adjustable continuously variable dampers – with a 15mm drop for track – a new Carbon Ceramic braking system, nitride ceramic wheel bearings, an electronic active diff with oil cooler and a dedicated Track Mode

Inside there’s gloss carbon fibre trim and Alcantara with Performance seats, and a Track Pack option with just two carbon fibre racing seats with four-point harness fixed to a harness retention loop where the back seats were.

The XE SV Project 8 comes with an eight colour palette, but if you’re happy to spend there’s another 19 choices from the SVO Premium Palette range.

John Edwards, JLR’s SVO MD, said:

SVO’s raison d’être is to produce halo vehicles that push the boundaries in terms of luxury, performance and all-terrain capability. Project 8 is a great example of what happens when enthusiastic designers, engineers and manufacturing specialists are given the opportunity to create an extreme performance sports car without compromise.

With just 300 XE SV Project 8 cars on offer, it’s hard to see Jaguar struggling to flog them, and at £149,995 the price is ‘only’ £25k more than BMW’s M4 GTS.