Class: LL4
Lap time: 3:02.2
Base price: $165,995
As-tested price: $175,995
575 hp • 3766 lb • 6.5 lb/hp
Tires: Continental ContiForceContact
F: 255/35ZR-20 (97Y), R: 295/30ZR-20 (101Y)
Yes, we are skeptical Yanks, but jeez, sometimes the Brits ladle on the history a bit thick. Does a topless F-type with a shark-fin fairing and white roundels over British Racing Green paint (a $10K option) have Le Mans D-types dancing in your head? If so, then perhaps the $175,995 you’d pay for this one might seem worth it. Whatever you do, however, don’t take this dandified cat to a track unless you want a graduate course in driving on ice, leading to a thorough tail waxing by a kid in a one-third-as-expensive BMW M2.
To a car, the Jaguars we’ve run here have always stood out as the oversteering handfuls, the cars most prone to go sideways when you really need them pointed at least roughly in race direction. It’s a combination of high horsepower, less-than-magnetic tires, and the trait that the British love in their cars above all things: hyper-reactive steering combined with rock-rigid roll control. Thus, hilarious oversteer rather than safe, respectable, dull understeer. It may entrain you and blanch your passenger, but it will not make you especially fast around a circuit.
The Project 7 fits the pattern, a short wheelbase and a supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 juiced to 575 horsepower only adding to the thrills. Unfortunately, the Continental ContiForceContact tires are not up to the task of containing all that rage, the car suffering difficulties both turning and laying down the power, which led to 182.2 seconds of, well, if not terror then a slightly alarming degree of frustration. Through the various sectors, the Project 7’s closest analogue is the giant, slip-sliding Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, an absurdly hopped-up, 707-hp cop car that is nearly 800 pounds heavier. That should tell you something about the sharpness of this Jaguar’s scalpel.
As with all the current R- and SVR-rated Jags, the Project 7—basically a rear-drive SVR coupe with no roof except for a simplified bikini top—rips the air with delightful chortles from its none-too-muffled engine. The brakes are good, and the car can probably be made to dance more gracefully with a few modifications.
It’s darn expensive, though, and will be clobbered by cheaper (though less aurally assertive) cars on track day. Keep this particular cat out of the jungle, however, and it’ll purr sweetly for you.
Averaging the Field
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Mean: 3:06.0
Median: 3:05.8
Mode: 3:05.8 (four)
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Including all the oddball cop cars, SUVs, kit cars, and race cars we’ve brought to VIR, the median lap time of 201 cars around the 4.1-mile Grand West Course is 3:05.8, which puts the polka-dotted Jaguar F-type Project 7 in the better half. But there is one notable Jag that is even quicker: the 2015 F-type R coupe. Despite being heavier and less powerful, the R lapped VIR 1.2 seconds faster than the 7. Maybe the all-wheel-drive system of the upcoming F-type SVR will prove to be the whip needed to tame the F-type at Lightning Lap No. 11.