The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 Is Now Laguna Seca's Fastest Saloon

Jaguar's limited-run track toy can now claim to be the fastest production saloon car to lap the famous Californian track
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It seems manufacturers are wanting to branch out when it comes to lap records. Once upon a time, an impressive Nurburgring time was sufficient, but recently we had Honda touring Europe’s most famous circuits to set front-wheel drive lap records, and Porsche’s 919 Evo snatching the outright record

Now, Jaguar has thrown its hat into the ‘lap record that’s not at the ‘Ring’ erm…ring. Having already nabbed the EV record at Laguna Seca with the I-Pace (since beaten by the yet-to-be-released ‘Lucid Air’), Jaguar came back to the Californian circuit with the shouty XE SV Project 8 all-wheel drive track weapon. The magic time was a 1:37.54, almost a second quicker than the previous fastest four-door, the Cadillac CTS-V. Alfa Romeo’s Giulia Quadrifoglio is now in second place with its 1:39.65, while the BMW M5 - which is also all-wheel drive and has exactly the same power output as the Jag - is a tenth and a half of a second further back.

The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 Is Now Laguna Seca's Fastest Saloon

Despite being limited to 300 units Project 8 hasn’t sold out just yet, so perhaps the Seca lap is a gentle reminder to lovers of exclusive and fast things that the £149,995 weapon is still very much available.

It shares precious little with the standard XE - to give you an idea of just how bespoke the vehicle is, it’s worth pointing out that JLR’s Special Vehicle Operations bods even had to move the headlights to accommodate the fat 265-section front tyres. It’s likely to be the last production Jaguar saloon to feature the company’s tried and tested 5.0-litre supercharged V8.

As for the lap itself, it’s the work of Randy Pobst, and is - as you’d expect - very committed. It’s definitely a video you want to turn the volume up for, too…

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Comments

EpiCon

Jaaaaaaag

09/13/2018 - 16:25 |
6 | 0
Valanti Demetriades

Im gonna lap my Fiat 124 Spider around my block a couple times so it can have a lap record too

09/13/2018 - 16:29 |
53 | 0

ha,

ive been doing that since i was 3

09/13/2018 - 17:18 |
42 | 2
Olivier (CT's grammar commie)

Is it me or Randy Pobst has probably set all the lap records of the last 5 years on Laguna Seca?

09/13/2018 - 17:02 |
12 | 0

Half?

3/4 atleast

09/13/2018 - 18:14 |
2 | 0

He’s a pretty underrated driver honestly. He sets most benchmark times that you see online. He drove some of the Viper ACRs record laps too

09/14/2018 - 21:29 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

No it’s not

09/13/2018 - 17:50 |
1 | 0
AAA Insurance

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

username checks out

09/13/2018 - 19:46 |
5 | 0
Anonymous

all that power, aero, big tires, stiff suspension for 1 second :/ ….i think car manufacturers have reach there limit

09/13/2018 - 18:38 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The limit is still much higher, but it won’t be reached with anything that looks like a normal car

09/13/2018 - 20:47 |
0 | 0
675LT_ftw

I feel an Assetto Corsa mod coming on…

09/13/2018 - 20:32 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

Cars nowadays are getting faster and faster. But I think that we’re starting to see signs of what the limmits of the laws of physics are. If 10, 20 years ago, cars were still very much capable sports road cars, lately we can see them morph more and more into track cars since the speeds involved are higher and higher, the power and torque outputs get higher and higher, the forces involved are increasing exponentially and lap times are getting shorter and shorter; cars can’t keep up the increasing pace without lots of help from track cars solutions and technologies such as increasing focus on aerodynamics, track tires etc

09/13/2018 - 20:32 |
1 | 0
Noah Hammerstad

Production Car my ass. They built this shit for the track not everyday use.

09/13/2018 - 22:00 |
0 | 3

The numbers say it’s a production car, regardless of actual drivability

09/14/2018 - 08:45 |
2 | 0

Production car is any car that has more than 25 examples.

09/16/2018 - 11:08 |
1 | 0
TheStigsAmerican Cousin

[DELETED]

09/13/2018 - 22:16 |
0 | 5

No thanks.

09/14/2018 - 07:40 |
0 | 0

And for the people who haven’t already realised, don’t take anything he says seriously

09/14/2018 - 08:47 |
1 | 0

Qian Li How much could you do about this guy?

09/14/2018 - 14:54 |
0 | 0

Let’s keep this stuff off CT please, thanks.

09/14/2018 - 16:21 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

All those (ugly) aero parts and it is barely faster than the beautiful and much cheaper Alfa Romeo. No wonder they don’t sell good.

09/14/2018 - 09:45 |
0 | 0