Remember the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 which debuted at Goodwood last year? We reckoned it was the best car at Goodwood in terms of looks and sound. The good news is Jaguar is making a road version.
Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Operations is an in-house unit which builds special and bespoke editions of Jaguars and Land Rovers, and is where Harry Metcalfe went when he left Evo.
The JLR Special Ops team's first road going project is a run of 250 Project 7s and it's the fastest and most powerful production Jaguar ever.
Visually the car looks almost identical to the concept. It's a 2-seater and, despite the hump, has a roof, although it has to be clipped in place. The upside of this is more boot space than on a standard F-Type convertible.
The Project 7 gets a ton of upgrades over the F-Type including a front splitter, skirts, diffuser, unique spoiler, a more steeply raked windscreen and corresponding side windows and race-inspired bucket seats.
The engine is the JLR supercharged 5-litre V8 but with 567bhp and 502lb ft/680Nm of torque. This gets it from 0-60mph in 3.8 seconds and on to a limited top speed of 186mph.
Surprisingly the F-Type Project 7 will be offered in five colours - Ultra Blue, Italian Racing Red, British Racing Green (all with white decal options), Ultimate Black and a new colour, Glacier White (both with grey decal options).
The one major difference between the concept and the road car is that the concept's Growler emblem wears sunglasses whilst the road car's doesn't. I asked Harry Metcalfe about this:
“@speedmonkeycouk: @harrym_evo @Jalopnik @tokulski Sunglasses on the growler?” No. But SVO also has a bespoke department..
— Harry Metcalfe (@harrym_evo) June 24, 2014
In other words Special Operations can paint you a tiny pair of sunglasses if you wish. Phew!
By Matt Hubbard