Hot XE V8 Wings In

Skunkworks 441kW Jag SVO project targets M4 GTS.

- Andy Enright

BILLED by Jaguar as the most extreme performance car in company history, the XE SV Project 8 is a strictly limited numbers special developed by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO). Perhaps the most tantalising fact about the Project 8 is that SVO has plumbed a 441kW 5.0-litre supercharged V8 under the bonnet, which would suggest a longer production run, albeit in a less extreme guise.

Jaguar is currently playing coy about that possibility, but development XE models have been spied on test loops in northern Spain, finished with quad exhausts and bulging wheel arches, so perhaps a series production rival to the BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63 isn’t such a long shot.