Jaguar advertises the XE SV Project 8 as having 592 hp, but does it actually have that many ponies under its carbon fiber hood?
We’ve learned that sometimes carmakers will fudge their numbers a bit when it comes to reporting performance specs. Some automobile manufacturers will overestimate power, while others will underestimate. Some will say their car can get from zero to sixty far faster than it actually can, while others do the complete opposite.
So it’s a good idea to get cars tested by independent analysts wherever possible to keep these carmakers honest. Which can be a problem for rare and expensive supercars--not only do you need someone who owns the car, you also need to have someone with a dyno-testing facility nearby.
Lucky for us, Harry has both of those things. Thanks to the Harry’s Garage YouTube channel (and by way of Motor1), we get to find out just how accurate Jaguar was when they released the performance specs for their XE SV Project 8 supercar.
RELATED: JAGUAR XE SV PROJECT 8 BEATS OUT BMW M4 GTS AS THE FASTEST SEDAN AT LAGUNA SECA
The Jaguar Project 8 has a 5.0-L supercharged V8 which Jaguar advertises to put out 592 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque. Harry wanted to know if his fancy Jag actually produced that much power, and through the magic of the dyno, we found out it actually produced more power than advertised: 601.6 average peak horsepower.
Having 10 extra horses isn’t all that surprising, but there were a few other surprises with the Jaguar’s results. While crank horsepower was measured at 601.6, wheel horsepower was measured at 484.9 hp, which is a lot of power loss between the engine and the pavement. That’s roughly 20% of the car’s oomph lost to the transmission.
Another surprise was peak torque, which was measured at 506 lb-ft--10 less than advertised. That’s probably not enough to even notice, but it’s still interesting to see the Project 8 with more power and less torque than what it says in the brochure.
Jaguar is making 300 Project 8s starting at roughly $207,000. But don’t mourn for your pocketbook if you haven’t already bought one since they’re probably all sold by now. Manufacturing began in June.