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Jaguar's 600-hp XE SV Project 8 is the fastest Jaguar sedan ever

Jaguar is honing its XE SV Project 8 performance version, the car it calls its fastest four-door ever built. The manufacturer says the limited edition, 200mph sedan is almost production-ready, after countless small adjustments. The XE SV Project 8 will hit production in June. Only 300 of these 600-horsepower super sedans will be built, and they will all be handmade at Coventry's Special Vehicle Operations. Jaguar has also released this short documentary video clip about the project. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Project 8 Vehicle Dynamics Manager David Pook is enthusiastic about fettling with the car as long as it's possible. "The good thing about building only 300 cars, all handmade, is that you can keep developing the car right up to the start of production. And we've done just that." The recorded 0-60 mph time for the Project 8 is just 3.3 seconds, and it will go all the way to 200 mph. At the Nurburgring Nordschleife last year, it was able to set a four-door production car record time of 7 minutes and 21.23 seconds. There have been last-minute handling changes to make sure the car is just right, Pook says: "The springs have got stiffer and so have the engine mounts. The suspension arm bushes have changed. The brakes have been refined for the exact pedal feel and performance we want." Constant software modifications have also been made to alter the XE SV Project 8's responses. "It's certainly even faster, better handling and more responsive than it was six months ago. All that effort has been worth it." The car comes highly adjustable, as the ride height, camber, front splitter and rear wing setups can be altered. The stock tires are Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s on forged 20-inch wheels, and even the wheel bearings are ceramic! Front uprights, two-part upper wishbones, balljoints in place of rubber bushes, twin coil springs, dampers, lower suspension bushes, anti-roll bars and latest specification carbon ceramic brakes are all Project 8 specific, and the only bits lifted from the standard XE are the aluminum roof and front door skins. The vented bonnet and flared front wings and bumpers are carbon. One can also order the Project 8 with or without a rear seat, to save weight. Jaguar prices the Project 8 from GBP149,995 in the UK, or $210,000. Related Video: Featured Gallery Jaguar XE SV Project 8 Jaguar Special and Limited Editions Videos jaguar xe

Jaguar Land Rover reportedly developing Road Rover car

Reports are circulating in the automotive media that Jaguar Land Rover is developing a vehicle that's not an SUV. Called the Road Rover, it would be an all-electric luxury car with "some" all-terrain capability, hinting at all wheel drive. Initially, the EV would launch in late 2019, then spawn more models to complete the lineup. There is also talk about JLR's interest in an outright purchase of an existing luxury car brand to join its portfolio, and that parent company Tata has already given this strategic move the green light. Tata has also reportedly made moves to protect its JLR ownership via acquiring more of its own stock. All this excitement brings to mind the fact that there once existed an actual Road Rover — the Rover brand. Having evolved into MG Rover before going into administration in 2005 and subsequently reborn in China under SAIC Motor ownership, Rover was a moderately posh British carmaker just beneath the level of prestige that Jaguar offered. For some years, both were part of the same corporation. The last Rover saloons were designed and built with BMW input, and at that point Land Rover had already become part of Ford, almost a decade after Jaguar did. Ford's tenure with Land Rover lasted from 2000 to 2008, when Tata bought the British brand — along with the Rover name. Would it just make sense to badge the road car Rover, with no Road or Land affixed to it? Rover's slovenly demise is more than a decade old now, but there's plenty of valuable history still embedded in the long-shelved Viking ship logo. Cast aside memories of Sterling-badged Honda Legend platform siblings and unattractively Federalized SD1 series cars, and take whatever good the 1999-2005 Rover 75 brought to the table — maybe it's time for Rover to be reborn in the current Jaguar Land Rover family. According to Autocar, the first Road Rover would be developed in tandem with the next-generation Jaguar XJ, so they would share an aluminum architecture suitable for both internal combustion engines and battery electric technology, depending of the model. If anything, there is delicious irony to this: The 1980s XJ generation that Jaguar spent decades developing was claimed to be engineered in such a way that the occasional stablemate Rover's Buick-derived 3,5-liter V8 wouldn't have fit in its engine bay — to preserve the Jaguar bloodline. To have the new XJ and a Rover cross paths again would only be fitting. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party.

Top torque-to-weight ratios under $100k, $50k and $25k

Horsepower may steal a lot of headlines, but the always-more-complex torque figure is often a critical one for both the workingman and the motoring playboy. The measure of rotational force represents the twist that can liquefy one's tires or haul one's horse trailer. Good stuff.
It follows then, that as with the horsepower-to-weight list that we assembled for you a few months ago, a list of cars that offer the most pound-feet with the fewest pounds to carry, is an interesting one to break down. Sure, there's a big difference in how the torque is applied from a turbocharged six-cylinder in a Swedish luxury sedan and a massive heavy-duty truck's turbo-diesel. But being the car/stat geeks that we are, we think it's kinda neat that those two vehicles rank near each other where torque and weight intersect.
As with the horsepower list, we've given you figures as pounds per every one pound-foot. Again broken down into broad price categories, we've got a mixed bag of 2014 and 2015 models here, too. Every effort has been made to select the most up-to-date prices and specs, and we've also to omitted some '14 cars that won't be re-upped after the ongoing yearly changeover.