Jaguar has revealed its forthcoming 2017 F-Type SVR model, an incredible high-performance version of its flagship sports car, at the New York auto show.
“SVR” stands for “Special Vehicles Racing” and any Jaguar or Land Rover vehicle that wears that badge will have been given a comprehensive once-over by the folks at the brand’s recently-opened Special Vehicle Operations wing, or SVO. The F-Type SVR variant is the second production vehicle to wear the badge, after last year’s Range Rover Sport SVR.
The V8 engine from the current F-Type R remains, but a newly developed exhaust and new engine calibration borrowed from the F-Type Project 7 mean horsepower is now up to a supercar-baiting 575-hp, and torque up to 516 lb-ft. That’s enough to propel the F-Type SVR to 100 km/h in 3.5 seconds, on to a 320-km/h-plus top speed. More than supercar-baiting, those kind of figures are supercar-beating.
The exhaust is especially of note because of, well, its note. While the manufacturer is reluctant to talk decibels, just know that you will be hard-pressed to find another exhaust note like this, anywhere. It’s all about the material, really; the SVR’s Inconel system is crafted from titanium, meaning it’s lighter, stronger and makes for reduced back pressure, so the V8 is allowed to breath in much more uninhibited fashion. The new exhaust not is not just some selling feature, either; Jaguar maintains that it adds visceral appeal that, more than just tickling the buying bone, knocks any other sports or supercar clean out of the consciousness of prospective buyers. True? Maybe, but just to prove the point, Jaguar went to New York City – Manhattan, to be precise – and managed to convince the city to shut down the Park Avenue tunnel and let us journalists loose in it, just to see how loud it really was.
The term “tunnel vision” is bandied about pretty regularly, but until you’ve actually experienced this particular brand of it, you probably don’t have any idea what it really means. The best way to describe it is to try and remember that feeling you get when you take that first drop down a roller coaster. Only in the SVR, it’s your job to keep things on the straight and narrow, while your stomach hops up about two feet and firmly plants itself into your throat. Oh, and it’s all done with that titanium exhaust shrieking, popping and cracking behind you.
So, the SVR has the power and it makes the noise, but there’s more. In addition to AWD, the camber stiffness gets increased by 37 percent and toe-in by 41 percent. Special forged wheels and tires increase performance, and contribute to an overall weight reduction of 50 kilograms. A new spoiler, front splitter, hood vents (finished in carbon) and underbody diffuser, meanwhile, help reduce drag by 75 percent, and lift by 45 percent. This is a serious car, but it’s not the end of the Jaguar story at this year’s show.
The SVO branch’s first car was actually not anything outwardly modern; it all started with the completion of several ‘60s-era E-Type Lightweight specials, whose VINs existed, but were never attached to completed cars. That was in 2015; fast-forward to today, and Jaguar is about to embark on its next journey, and that’s a re-build of several XKSS models that were almost destroyed in a fire at Brown’s Lane in the 1960s. Nine are going to be built, five of which have already been spoken for. At US $1.5 million apiece.
