Tastefully trimmed cabin includes agreeably restrained use of carbonfibre touches
28 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 24 APRIL 2 019
For what it’s worth, though, I
don’t buy the theory that new broom
Michael van der Sande (formerly of
Alpine) could have sent this car back
for significant overhaul as one of his
first orders of business. A nine-month
delay might seem like a long one to
us, but in the car industry it’s about
enough time to re-engineer a pair of
wiper arms and a boot light.
Anyway, here it is: Jaguar’s
answer to the Alfa Romeo Stelvio
Quadrifoglio, Porsche Macan Turbo,
Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S and
every other daftly over-endowed
mid-sized SUV that £70,000 can
buy at the moment. Mooted since
the launch of the regular F-Pace
in 2016 but assiduously denied by
JLR spokespeople for a long while
thereafter, the F-Pace SVR brings
Jaguar’s bombastic, supercharged
5.0-litre lump to a class where V8
engines are a relative rarity and
where it should, therefore, post some
outstanding performance stats.
Except that it doesn’t – not quite.
542bhp is certainly an outstanding
output for the Jaguar to lay claim
to, but 1995kg is a pretty significant
number, too, when one or two of the
car’s key rivals are the thick end of
200kg lighter.
And so, needing 4.3sec to hit
62mph from rest, the F-Pace SVR
is actually slower off the mark than
several of its rivals, according to
its manufacturer’s own claims.
To people who value these cars
for the sheer absurdity of them, I
fear that may not be unimportant.
It’ll be interesting to find out how
the car goes against our road test
timing gear, and to extract a few
more meaningful performance
measurements for it when we get a
chance – because I just can’t believe
a car with this engine, up against
rivals that almost all offer less under
the bonnet, isn’t a more dominant,
accelerative force. We’ll see.
The F-Pace retains steel coil
suspension, the rates of which have
been increased by 30% up front and
10% at the rear, and gets uprated
adaptive dampers as standard.
Forged alloy wheels of up to 22in
in diameter come in, on the outside
of uprated brakes with lightweight
hubs and discs that measure up to
396mm across. The car’s primary
driveline mechanical ingredient
remains ZF’s ‘8HP70’ eight-speed
torque-converter automatic gearbox,
which drives through a ‘hang-on’
style clutch-based four-wheel-drive
system that tends to favour sending
torque to the rear axle before it
shuff les it forwards. But the all-newdriveline component is a torque-
vectoring e-diff sat between the
rear wheels and unlike one used
anywhere by SVO before.
Inside the cabin, the F-Pace SVR
avoids the more lurid upholstery
colour combinations we’ve seen
of late on the Range Rover Sport
SVR (or at least our test car did),
having instead a nicely understated
combination of tan and black leather
w it h s ome at t r a c t i v e c a rb on f i br e
decorative trims used quite sparingly
but well. Regrettably for this tester,
however, the interior doesn’t avoid
c a r r y i n g ov e r v e r y si m i l a r s p or t s
seats (with integrated seatbacks-
cum-head restraints) as those seen
on the Range Sport SVR, which
would be a lot more comfortable if
t he y d id n’t p ok e y ou i n t he ba c k of t he
neck every time you attempt to settle
deep into the bolsters.
Grip and steering responses are good, but it can feel its size on narrow roads
TESTER’S NOTE
I love the way JLR’s
big V8 sounds: so
wonderfully brassy
and bold under power,
without too much
overrun crackle. And
I love that you have
to get deep into the
accelerator before
you start hearing the
supercharger – but
it’s so great to hear
when you do. Here’s
hoping it has plenty
of years of service
left in it yet. MS