Jaguar F-Pace SVR
There are those who promote and subscribe to the notion that size doesn’t matter. Proof here that it does…
Size matters. Mostly. For sure bigger is not always better, and small can be perfectly formed. And there’s a reason a happy medium is happy, no doubt. Less chafing, probably, at the very least. But, let’s be honest, size always matters.
The Jaguar F-Pace SVR pictured here is a case in point. This mid-sized SUV’s sales success post-launch led a transformation – actual, and in terms of perception – of the whole Jaguar brand. It’s modern, relevant, extremely good-looking, versatile, capable and great value; those in search of grace and space could ask for no more. Moreover, the F-Pace spawned a baby brother E-Pace and an all-electric sister I-Pace, later European Car of the Year. The revolution started here.
But transformed or not, Jaguar is a sporting brand at heart – and while practicality and the ability to carry people in comfort and safety is a noble cause, this moment was always going to come. The moment a bunch of engineers, happy they’d built a taller Jaguar that could grip and handle like a smaller Jaguar, said, “Well, we could stick a five-litre V8 engine in the nose and see how that goes.”
From 0-60mph in a nick under four seconds and on to 178mph, is the answer.
Clearly, in a car of this type, that’s borderline ridiculous. Supercar-fast in a five-seater that offers a panoramic view over hedges. But holy moly, it’s beguiling. The all-wheel-drive that makes the F-Pace handy in a wet field at the gymkhana also delivers prodigious levels of grip to enable the SVR’s slingshot acceleration. And it does so with a soundtrack ripped clean from the heavens – a deep, barrel-chested, sonorous bellow from the fist-sized pipes out back as 542bhp is deployed with the ferocity of a fighter leaving the deck of an aircraft carrier.
By any rational measure, it shouldn’t work, but it does, and gloriously so. On optional 22” rims (21” are standard), the F-Pace SVR looks every bit as gangster as it sounds and has an unerring ability to shrink distances very swiftly. Jumping between two legal limits, 30-70mph, takes 5.6 seconds, and that surprises people, the driver included, on occasions. Thankfully, there’s plenty of agility beneath the brute force.
Thanks to a recent upgrade the interior is a place of beauty, too, a lesson in modernity, a model for ease of use and sumptuously finished. Most notable are the heavily bolstered Performance seats culled from the F-Type sports car, enrobed in distinctive quilted leather, that deliver a luxe passenger environment of the kind you’d hope to find in a premium motor with a price tag a touch north of £78k.
We all know that hybrids and all-out electric are the automotive future, and that we are likely seeing the last days of big-bore V8 engine that consumes petrol at the (not entirely unimpressive) rate of 23.1mpg. But as a car enthusiast, you have to applaud and salute in equal measure this anachronistic combination of power and consumption while it lasts.
It is big, and it is clever. Size matters.
Jaguar F-Pace SVR // 5.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 // 542bhp // 516lb/ft torque // 0-60mph in 3.8 seconds // top speed 178mph // 23.1mpg combined // 275g/km CO2 // From £78,165 // www.jaguar.co.uk