Goodwood Motor Circuit is steaming, but the Revival is still a fair few months out so this has nothing to do with the general atmosphere.
Rather, the problem with which David Pook is deftly contending concerns the haze of evaporating rainwater partially cloaking a patchwork of standing water, bone-dry islets and every shade of unpredictability in between. He’s making corrections little and large, and he’s making them in areas of this frighteningly quick circuit not only where you might expect the need to arise but also where you absolutely would not.
The time for discourse about the car’s limited suitability for daily driving, its frankly outrageous exhaust blare – which met homologation requirements with 1dB to spare – and his desire to capture, at least in part, some of what made the E46-generation BMW M3 CSL so utterly compelling as a road-racing crossbreed has well and truly passed.
Pook is at the wheel of a prototype Jaguar XE SV Project 8, a car for which he has led the dynamic development during its fleeting 18-month gestation. Only 300 will ever exist, despite the attempts of company coin-counters to squeeze a few more examples out of Special Vehicle Engineering.
It’s a significantly more ambitious endeavour than Project 7, the extroverted speedster based on an Jaguar F-Type, although both cars fall under the ‘crazy ideas with commercial opportunities’ mantra championed by SVO managing director John Edwards. Today, it has been described variously as a statement car, the ultimate expression of what performance means to the marque, and a nailed-on future classic. It is also the fastest road-legal four-door saloon around the Nürburgring.
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For me the Ring record ,
For me the Ring record , though impressive, is irrelevant.The relevant numbers are 3,7,11
0-60 3sec[or less] 0-100 7sec[or less] and 1/4 mile in 11sec[or less]. Until I see these I reserve judgement. FYI new M5 2.8/6.6/10.9. E63S 2.9/6.7/11.0. From C&D test April 2018.Though still in development,a Litchfield or APR RS3 promises to run similar figures, for much less cost.BTW I love this Jag and if I had the readies would buy it , in Scottish blue!
It should be going down the regular production line
Without the spoiler and with a price that would make it reachable to put it in the hands of people that could become Jaguar advocates not just 300!
As quick as it is, it doesnt
As quick as it is, it doesnt go around the ring as quickly as a Camaro ZL1 1LE, which costs about a third of the price, and can be bought in unlimited numbers. I feel at this price, and with the specialist brief the engineers had it should be rather quicker that it is.