JAGUAR PROJECT 7

JAGUAR BILLED its Project 7 as a ‘collectorsedition sports car’ when it was launched in 2015. Only 250 were produced at a cost of £135,000 and all sold out. Inspired by – and named after – Jaguar’s seven wins at Le Mans, Project 7 takes styling cues from the legendary D-type.

Project 7 was first seen at Goodwood in 2013 and so much interest was shown in the concept car that the Jaguar skunkworks, Special Vehicle Operations, set about turning 250 F-types into latter-day Ds. The cars were whisked off to SVO, where composite upper rear bodywork was fitted along with a windscreen that’s 114mm shorter and a soft-top to serve as an occasional roof. The resulting car was 45kg lighter than a conventional F-type V8 R Convertible for a £43,000 premium – about a grand per kilo. You got a 186mph top speed in return, mind.

It would have easy for the Project 7 to have become a pastiche but it’s beautifully resolved. Although the V8 roar is a riot, the car itself is supple, refined, fast and easy to live with, so it remains a Jaguar to its heart, and a very special and collectable one at that.

The glorious 5.0-litre supercharged V8 is boosted to 567bhp and the car comes with carbon-ceramic brakes (thank goodness). It has rear-wheel drive with an eight-speed Quickshift automatic transmission. Front spring rates are up by a massive 80% to cope with the extra downforce the body generates at 186mph.