Jaguar XE SV Project 8
Why 6.5: SVO’s maximum-attack XE: carbon body panels, exposed roll cage option, 592 hp V8 and a Nürburgring lap record for four-door saloons. Built to go sideways, not to blend in. The 300-unit run means the used market is thin and buyers tend to be serious.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
A 5.0-litre supercharged V8 through a titanium quad exhaust, blower whine over hard V8 crackle, loud enough to be a licensing risk. But it is the same theatre-by-valve trick as the F-Type and 6,500 rpm limits it, so it leads the saloons without troubling the exotics.
8-cylinder · supercharged · 6,500 rpm redline · rated 7.6 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €138k (2018) → €109k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Two ISOFIX positions on the outer rear seats, the outer pair being the ones the standard covers.
The rear anchors are the supported route — the manual points child seats there, and front-passenger ISOFIX is the exception rather than the rule. A belt-mounted seat up front needs the airbag off, and cars with a rear row don't always fit a deactivation switch, precisely because the rear seats exist.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
Jaguar SVO built the Project 8 in genuine anger: this is not a mild M3 competitor with some body kits, it is a homologation car that doesn’t need homologation, a 600-hp saloon with an exposed roll cage option, carbon wings that generate actual downforce and a Nürburgring time that embarrassed the BMW M3 of its era. Three hundred examples at £149,995 meant the buyer pool was self-selecting — people who knew the model existed were already the right audience. Used values have held remarkably well for a Jaguar product because the driving credentials are undeniable and the supply is structurally constrained. Track days are where these get properly used.