Jaguar XJR 575 turns up at Goodwood - a more powerful XJR, or an SVO Special?

Jaguar XJR 575 turns up at Goodwood

A camouflaged Jaguar XJ with ‘575’ emblazoned on it has made a run at Goodwood in the ‘First Glance’ category. Is this a more powerful XJR?

The current Jaguar XJ, in many ways still as divisive as it was when it arrived in 2009, is almost the forgotten child at Jaguar, now eight years old and with little sign of a replacement.

In fact, unless you look quite hard, it’s difficult to see much in the way of changes between the first models and the latest, although there have been many improvements to Jaguar’s range-topper in its life.

Perhaps the biggest change came with the arrival of the Jaguar XJR in 2013, reclaiming a badge beloved in a previous life and delivering a big, wieldy saloon with 542bhp and enjoyable dynamics for such a big lump.

But now, at a time when the XJ should be going off to Jaguar’s museum, it looks like Jaguar are about to inject a bit of extra life and power in to the XJR.

Making an appearance at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed – and with no fanfare from Jaguar – we’ve seen an XJR with blue and white camouflage incorporating big ‘575’ logos strutting its stuff on the hillclimb.

From what we can see it is an XJR, and we must assume, judging from the ‘575’, that it’s sporting a boost in power to 575 PS (567bhp), an increase of 25bhp over the current XJR.

Which is all very appealing, especially as the XJ – despite its advancing age – is still as good a drive as anything you’d consider competition (even if it’s fallen behind in other areas), and looks like it could be a swansong for the current XJ.

Whether that’s as an XJR 575 or as a limited run XJR from Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations, we have no idea.

No doubt more will be revealed in the coming months.