Jaguar XE SV Project 8 2018 UK first drive

A question mark has hung over the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 ever since we drove it for the first time in Portugal in May.

Here was a four-door saloon car with more mechanical grip and more on-track handling ability than any other saloon before it; that much was clear. But by being so uncompromising in its quest for agility and dynamic response, would it simply be too stiff to work on a typically bumpy British B-road?

It was on the invitingly twisty and undulating roads of North Wales that we got our answer.

The Project 8 is a super-saloon like no other. Available in left-hand drive only, it’ll be limited to 300 units worldwide. Whereas most super-saloons are everyday cars that happen to be capable of supercar-baiting straight-line performance, the Project 8 is more likely to be tucked up during the week and rolled out for sunny weekends. At £149,995, it is also much more expensive than any conventional super-saloon.

Developed and built by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations, the Project 8 shares its basic body-in-white with the regular Jaguar XE, but just about everything else has been modified or uprated. The familiar 5.0-litre supercharged V8 that serves across the JLR group has been shoehorned in. With outputs of 592bhp and 516lb ft, it is the most powerful engine ever fitted to a Jaguar road car.

Ticking a box on the options list marked Track Pack will add £10,000 to the invoice and see the rear seats replaced with a half roll cage and the front chairs junked in favour of carbonfibre-backed bucket seats with four-point harnesses. This particular car was not so equipped.

On Snowdonia’s bumpiest and most uneven roads, the Project 8 does feel over-sprung, to the point where you simply back off and wait for the asphalt to improve. There aren’t very many modern performance cars that don't feel over-sprung on those roads, however.

On the smoothest stretches that you’ll find in North Wales, meanwhile, the car’s chassis works very well indeed, lending the Project 8 the sort of body control and agility that you’d expect of a purpose-built sports car.

But what of those in-between roads, the sort that makes up the majority of our network? Crucially, there is just enough pliancy and composure to make the car not only bearable but also enjoyable. The Project 8’s is a busier and more connected sort of ride quality than that of any other super-saloon, the pay-off being an altogether more thrilling driving experience.