2017 Jaguar F-Type SVR Quick Drive Review (W/Video)

It's like a scene from "Need for Speed." It's late at night on Park Avenue, right in the middle of Manhattan. Pools of light puddle in the tunnel ahead. As I mash the gas, the atmosphere explodes into a snarling, spitting wall of sound, and the gray convertible lunges forward like it's been launched off an aircraft carrier. The pools of light begin strobing in my peripheral vision as the extraordinary surge of thrust builds and builds and builds, the eight-speed automatic slipping seamlessly from one ratio to the next. Oh yes. The 2017 Jaguar F-Type SVR is hella fast.

Jaguar claims V-max in the SVR Convertible is 195 mph. The SVR Coupe will reportedly hit 200 mph, making it the fastest road-going Jaguar in history apart from the 212-mph, mid-engine XJ220 of the early 1990s. But the XJ220 was a hand-built hypercar; just 271 were built, each with a price tag north of half a million bucks. The F-Type SVR Coupe and Convertible, officially launched in the U.S. at the 2016 New York International Auto Show, are regular Jaguar production models with base MSRPs of $126,945 and $129,795, respectively. Insiders expect the U.S. to be the world's biggest market for the cars. You can log on to the Jaguar USA configurator and build your own right now.

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The first mainstream Jaguar product from SVO, Jaguar Land Rover's in-house hot shop, the F-Type SVR is powered by the 567-hp, supercharged, 5.0-liter V-8 that appeared in SVO's limited-edition Project 7 convertible. Peak power is delivered at 6,500 rpm, with peak torque of 516 lb-ft available between 3,500 rpm and 5,000 rpm. Compared with the F-Type R's powerplant, the SVR engine delivers 3 percent more power and torque, courtesy of tweaks that include a new low back-pressure exhaust made from titanium and Inconel, a chromium-nickel alloy F1 racers use for their exhausts.

Not only does the F-Type SVR have more grunt than the F-Type R, but it's also 55 pounds lighter. That new exhaust system saves 35 pounds alone, and if you order the optional forged alloy wheels, carbon-ceramic brakes, and carbon-fiber roof, total weight savings are about 110 pounds. Factor in the retuned all-wheel-drive system plus the eight-speed ZF automatic that's been recalibrated to deliver faster, crisper shifts, and you're rewarded with a 0-60-mph acceleration time of 3.5 seconds, says Jaguar. We suspect that's a conservative number, however; the last F-Type R we tested, heavier and less powerful, ran a 0-60-mph time of 3.3 seconds en route to an 11.6-second quarter mile.

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We weren't going to find out a lot about the SVR's upgraded suspension in the Park Avenue Tunnel, so we'll wait until we get the car out on the track before we pass judgment on the effectiveness of the SVR's suspension upgrades. A new rear knuckle increases camber stiffness 37 percent and toe stiffness 41 percent, and the front stabilizer bar has been softened 5 percent while the rear is 5 percent stiffer. That's about it in terms of the hardware; the rest, says SVO director Mark Stanton, is all about software tuning.

The all-wheel-drive system, which can funnel up to 100 percent of torque to the rear wheels, has been optimized to deliver a sharper launch and more immediacy in terms of chassis response, and the steering, shocks, stability control system, plus the torque-vectoring electronic rear differential are all tuned to balance the car and allow the driver to take advantage of the quicker turn-in response and better rear-end grip afforded by the hardware changes.

The F-Type SVR is, says Stanton, noticeably more agile than the all-wheel-drive F-Type R, with better stability in high-speed corners, as well. If he's right, the SVR could be a formidable contender at this year's Best Driver's Car shootout. The timing will be tight, but Jaguar's hoping to free up a car for us immediately after the global media drive so we can find out.

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It's fast. It's loud. And it looks spectacular, especially the Coupe. Up front is a revised front bumper that's been widened to smooth airflow over the front wheels, and it features large air intakes on either side feeding upgraded intercoolers. Larger vents in the hood help extract unwanted heat, and vents behind the front wheels help extract high-pressure air from under the front of the car.

There's an aggressive new carbon-fiber spoiler at the rear attached to the panel that serves as the movable spoiler on regular F-Types. That panel is fixed on the SVRs, but the carbon-fiber spoiler motors rearwards from its pylon mounts, pushing deeper into the airflow at 60 mph on SVR Convertibles and 70 mph on Coupes, cutting drag by 7.5 percent and reducing lift 45 percent. The aero upgrades also include a new rear diffuser, made possible by the twin longitudinal mufflers that replace the single transverse unit of the standard F-Type exhaust, to further reduce rear axle lift.

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Inside, the SVR gets new 14-way adjustable sport seats finished in a quilted stitch pattern that, says Jaguar design chief Ian Callum, was inspired by the lozenge shape of the old Jaguar logo from the 1950s. The seats are finished with contrasting piping, and the steering wheel features larger paddle shifters finished in silver-anodized aluminum.

SVO's Stanton describes the new Jaguar F-Type SVR as a more focused car that's lost none of the F-Type's everyday usability. His boss, SVO managing director John Edwards, sums it up event more succinctly: "It's a 200-mph, all-weather supercar."

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