Review: 2019 Jaguar F-Pace SVR
The market potential for hot SUVs isn’t one that would have presented itself five years ago, but look at that space now: Audi SQ5, Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, Mercedes AMG GLE 63, BMW X5M, Porsche Macan Turbo… and now Jaguar’s F-Pace SVR. Purists might not like the uneasy blend of high performance and a high ride, but the market says otherwise. It’s nothing if not a challenge for engineers.
Unlike the Range Rover Sport SVR, the heated-up F-Pace does at least have performance credentials behind its badge: Jaguar is no stranger to speed. Neither is Special Vehicle Operations, JLR’s bespoke department which breathes hot air on any model if you have the cash, and bullet-proofs Defenders, creates one-off special projects, styles up bog-standard road cars, and so on.
From the outside, the SVR version the F-Pace isn’t raucously different, which is a good thing in our book. There are larger side skirts, vents in the bonnet and a rear spoiler lip, and new bumpers, plus optional 22-inch forged lightweight wheels, but that’s it.
Inside, the changes are stylish: thin leather seats (ours in pale cream leather with black inserts), stitched in the Jaguar lozenge and embossed with SVR. A sports shift gear selector (i.e. normal gearstick) replaces the JLR rotary knob, and there are aluminium paddle shifters on the SVR ports steering wheel.
But it’s all about the performance. The group’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine sounds gratifyingly rumbling when you start it. In part that’s thanks to a variable-valve active exhaust which is 3.8kg lighter than the standard one.
Thankfully, the ride in normal mode is soft enough to make this car your daily driver, for the commute or school run. The chassis has been tuned by SVO and features uprated dampers and springs that are 30 per cent stiffer. On rough surfaces in Sport mode, the ride is bone shaking, so leave it in standard mode, which, bizarrely, felt just as spritely to me and my co-driver on our twisting French mountain test route as Sport mode did. We decided that might be to do with heavier steering in Sport mode.
Undoubtedly, the engine, which has been around for a while in various models, including the Range Rover, is still a thing of beauty. It delivers 550 horsepower and a stonking 680Nm (503lb ft) of torque, and delivers a surprising rush when you plant your foot on the throttle, meaning 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds, which is rude for a family SUV that still has room for five adults and luggage. Just don’t ask about the fuel consumption when you do that sort of thing.
SVO has given the transmission bespoke quick shift calibrations and introduced electric power steering, adaptive dynamics, a sports-tuned rear differential and torque vectoring, to the dynamic stability control and all-wheel drive systems.
The result is a good-looking, hard-working, fun-sounding package, which is also remarkably cheaper than a Range Rover Sport SVR (it sounds more in keeping with the brand than the Sport SVR in our opinion, too).
Stat attack
Price from: £75,335
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic, all-wheel-drive
Power/torque: 550PS @ 6,000-6,500rpm/680Nm (503lb ft) @ 2,500-5,500rpm
0-62mph: 4.3sec
Top speed: 176mph
Economy: 23.7mpg
Kerb weight: 2,070kg