Jaguar have just taken the wraps off the fastest road car they have ever made and it sure is something special, welcome to the 2015 Jaguar F-Type Project 7 that will officially be debuted at this years Goodwood Festival of Speed! Many of you may be wondering where you have seen this car before, well almost 12 months to the day, Jaguar unveiled the F-Type Project 7 Concept at Goodwood. 250 examples have been confirmed for build by the manufacturer and production will begin in the Spring of 2015.
Although the car is obviously based on the F-Type convertible it will be built in a very different fashion, only the very basics of the car will be shared. This is a result of the foundation of an all new special operations department that will be used for both Jaguar and Land Rover cars. JLR Special Vehicle Operations will be acquiring their own and separate facility in the West Midlands, UK, where a special team of 150 people will build, by hand, all 250 examples of the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 over a six-month period, more details of SVO in the future.
The Jaguar F-Type Project 7 represents the most performance-focused derivative of the acclaimed F-Type range and will be the most performance focused Jaguar on sale. With 567 bhp and 680 Nm being produced from its 5.0 litre supercharged V8, the fully road-legal racer will hit 100km/h in 3.9 seconds and will keep pulling to a top speed of 300 km/h, only stopped by an electronic limiter.
The Jaguar F-Type Project 7 features an all aluminium body and as a result the car weighs 80 kilograms less than the standard V8 convertible at 1585 kilograms. Power in fed to the rear wheels, which we are sure can burn rubber to the drivers hearts content, via an eight-speed Quickshift transmission and a second generation Electronic Active Differential (EAD) that first debuted on the R Coupe.
To help stop this topless racer, to which a roof panel can be fitted, Jaguar have opted to have carbon ceramic brakes fitted as standard on the Project 7 car, something that was an option on the R Coupe. Another standard feature is Torque Vectoring by Braking (TVbB) which when combined with EAD dramatically aids the cars handling characteristics.
Do not for one second think that through all of the track focused attire that Jaguar have sacrificed the emotion and charter that we all fell for in the F-Type. For starters the car sounds brutal, we know this as we headed to Goodwood today for the press unveiling of the car. Visually the car is a lot more potent and looks better yet than the bite the back of your hand gorgeous Coupe courtesy of Ian Callum and his incredible design skills.
The carbon front splitter in a work of art, as are the carbon side skirts and very complex rear diffuser. This is all before we even get to the rather bizarre yet astonishing fairing behind the drivers head! 2014 represents 60 years of the three times LeMans winning D-Type, a car that was on display along side the Jaguar F-Type Project 7. Along with the large bump, the Project 7 takes inspiration from the D-Type’s shorter windshield.
The visual enhancements are not purely cosmetic either, Jaguar have done extensive testing, both simulations and in wind tunnels, and claim that the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 is produces 177% more downforce than the F-Type convertible when at vmax. The interior remains very much unchanged, certainly no bad thing, with the addition of a pair of very cool Carbon racing seats with five-point-harnesses and a plaque complete with Ian Callums signature.
As perviously mentioned, only 250 examples will be produced and Jaguar exist that they will make no exception to exceed this figure. Prices are rumoured to be less than £140,000 (€175,000) but this figure is yet to be confirmed. Either way we are sure all the examples; which will be available in red, green, black, white and blue, will be snapped up very very quickly!
