Brian Joss – The Jaguar Special Vehicle Operations-developed XE SV Project 8 has demonstrated its breadth of performance capability by setting the fastest Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time for a four-door production car again: 7min 18.361sec.
This new officially-verified time on the 20.6km lap is 2.9 seconds faster than Project 8’s previous benchmark set in November 2017 and 7 seconds faster than any other four-door production car has achieved.
Project 8 is also the first vehicle to set an official whole lap record in the Nürburgring’s mid-range production car class, lapping the full 20.8km circuit length in 7min 23.164sec.
Returning to the legendary German circuit in a production-specification two-seat Track Pack version of Project 8 was development driver Vincent Radermecker. The car’s height-adjustable twin-spring coil-over suspension was set in ‘track’ ride height, with adjustable front splitter and carbonfibre rear aerodynamic wing positioned for maximum downforce and stability.
To maximise performance and steering precision, for the final record runs Project 8 was fitted with new off-the-shelf ultra-high-performance Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres. Tested and chosen by SV engineers for their capability on the track, the road-legal tyres use rubber compounds directly transferred from Michelin’s competition tyres.
Jamal Hameedi, Engineering Director, Jaguar Special Vehicle Operations, said: “The original Nürburgring time set by Jaguar XE SV Project 8 demonstrated the extreme performance envelope of the world’s fastest production sedan, but the SV team is driven by a motorsport mentality and we knew Project 8 could go even faster. This new official record time is a fitting reward for everyone who has played a part in pushing the boundaries for our customers with Project 8.”
Powered by the most highly tuned 441kW version of Jaguar’s 5.0-litre Supercharged V8, the all-wheel-drive Project 8 is capable of 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 320km/h. Project 8 also features a fully-enclosed flat underbody for enhanced aerodynamics, which is key to its performance.
Production of the limited-edition Project 8 will finish this year. All Project 8s are built in left-hand drive configuration only.
CAPTION; Setting new records: the Jaguar XE SV project 8. Picture: Motorpress
