New Touring version of Jaguar Project 8 ditches the big wing in search of a more subtle, road-biased approach
Sales of the track-hardened, Nürburgring lap time-beating Jaguar XE SV Project 8 have been slow, despite there being a limited production run of just 300 examples. In an effort to shift the remaining examples, Jaguar identified the desire among potential punters for a less extreme, road-biased version, so now we have this new Touring model.What’s new? Not a lot, really. The big change is to the aerodynamics, with the deletion of the huge, downforce-generating spoiler at the rear, which is replaced by a far more subtle lip on the trailing edge of the tailgate. To rebalance the forces, there’s also a new splitter at the front. Oh, and the top speed has been pegged back from 200mph to 186mph in deference to the resulting reduction in very high-speed stability. Anything else? Well, you can only have the car in this configuration with the back seats in place, so no two-seat, roll cage-equipped Track Pack option here.The rest of the car is unchanged, which means it’s the same bespoke-built machine as before. There’s less aero, but the wide-arched body is still bristling with intent and still only features the roof and door skins from the standard XE.Power comes from the familiar 592bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8 that drives all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. The front and rear tracks have been widened by 24mm and 73mm respectively, while the double-wishbone suspension gets niceties such as recalibrated adaptive dampers and anti-roll bars, billet suspension knuckles and squidge-free ball joints. Finally, the 20in wheels are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tyres and fit over vast carbon-ceramic disc brakes.
Source: Autocar
