Words by Shubham Choukse
Jaguar XE SV Project 8 has managed to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife in just 7 minutes and 21.23 seconds, making it the fastest four-door saloon in the world. The previous record was held by the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, having clocked it in 7 minutes and 32 seconds. The XE Project 8 is faster by a respectable margin of around 11 seconds.
Designed and developed by Jaguar’s in-house performance division – Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) situated in Coventry, UK, the Project 8 is based on the XE saloon but gets a heavily reworked chassis and a completely different powertrain. Under the hood is a 5-litre supercharged V8 motor that pumps out 592bhp of power and 700Nm of torque. 0-100kmph sprint takes just 3.3 seconds and the top speed is a mind-blowing 322kmph.
“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. 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 Nurburgring Nordschleife record validates the success of such extensive changes,” said Mark Stanton, Director, SVO.
The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 will be limited to 300 units only and the prices start at Rs 1.29 crore (Prices in the UK, exclusive of Indian taxes and duties).