The Engineer Car Review: F-Pace SVR

"We call this thing The Magnificent Beast,” jokes Ross Restell, lead engineer for vehicle dynamics at JLR’s Special Vehicles Operations department. He’s referring to the new Jaguar F-Pace SVR that sits waiting for us across the car park. Just then, one of the cars starts up, its 5-litre supercharged V8 roaring into life like an angry lion woken from its slumber. I swear you can feel the ground shake.

We’ve been here before, of course. Luxury SUVs are big business and that means premium manufacturers are scrambling to outdo each other in the world of super-fast, super-sized off-roaders. Alfa Romeo has the Stelvio Quadrifoglio, Porsche has the Cayenne Turbo and even Jaguar’s sister company Land Rover has an indirect rival in the form of the Range Rover Sport SVR.

But while the Range Rover Sport SVR is a gloriously silly hot rod that blends laugh-out-loud performance with Land Rover’s traditional mud-plugging capabilities, the F-Pace SVR is an altogether more serious attempt at a performance car. It has a very credible base in the standard F-Pace – already one of the best handling SUVs on the market – and a lot of work has gone into creating a civilised, well-rounded package.