BMW has its M Division, Mercedes-Benz has AMG and Audi has the now-dubbed Audi Sport. All are performance subdivisions that develop high-performance variants of each brand’s standard cars. For Jaguar Land Rover, that subdivision is called SVO (Special Vehicle Operations). So far, there have been a couple of SVO products, such as the Range Rover SVR and Jaguar F-Type SVR. They’re immensely powerful and incredibly violent. Now, Jaguar is giving its new XE sport sedan the SVO treatment to take on the BMW M3.
This will be the British brand’s first attempt at taking on the M3, even though it’s attempted taking on the standard BMW 3 Series a couple of times now. To do so, Jaguar will likely employ the brand’s 5.0 liter supercharged V8 and eight-speed ZF-sourced automatic. If that’s the case, it will probably make around 500 hp, which would be significantly more than the 444 hp in the BMW M3 Competition Package and even more than the 493 hp in the M4 GTS. In the F-Type SVR, that same 5.0 liter V8 makes around 550 hp, but expect it to be tuned for less in the smaller, more civilized XE.
The Jaguar XE SVR will also most likely have all-wheel drive as-standard. Both of the other SVO products power all four wheels only, as there’s just too much power and torque for just two tires to handle. So that will probably be the case here with the XE SVR. It’s also not surprising considering the other vehicles in the segment, such as the Mercedes-AMG C63 and Audi RS4. That will give it a traction advantage over the BMW M3, which will help a lot for bragging rights such as 0-60 mph times.
It will also boast lower suspension, stiffer springs, lighter chassis bits and stickier tires. It will obviously be a much faster, far nimbler handling sedan that could have a real chance at tackling the M3 Competition Package. The standard Jaguar XE is a superb sport sedan that combines probably the best handling in the segment with stunning good looks. It lacks a bit in the luxury and technology department, when compared with the 3 Series, but that won’t matter as much in this segment where performance is king.
[Source: Auto Express]
