First Drive: 2021 Jaguar F-Pace SVR Review

As you’ll likely know, Jaguar has been busy lately upgrading its model range with fresh styling and welcome tech updates based around its latest Pivi Pro infotainment system. Ahead of recently announced plans to go electric hybrids inevitably play a big part, and we’ve done our bit by driving the new P400 version of the F-Pace. Thankfully V8s still feature and, if that car’s 400PS (294kW) of supercharged, turbocharged and electrified worthiness all sounds a little too complicated, here comes the 550PS (405kW) SVR version like that slightly lairy mate who – back when parties were a thing – would totally misjudge the mood of the room and burst in late, a little more refreshed and boisterous than everyone else. Still, friends like that inevitably turn out to be great company and so it is with the SVR.

Translating brand values honed over decades of building sensuous, low-slung sports cars and saloons into the age of high-riding SUVs and electrified crossovers is a challenge the deft pen of Ian Callum helped Jaguar navigate with more success than many of its rivals. In both style and spirit only the Alfa Romeo Stelvio comes close, the Quadrifoglio version of that car – in our eyes – the closest rival to the SVR version of the F-Pace.

Certainly, Jaguar has – wisely – not done a great deal to the looks, beyond a nip here, a tuck there and some new forged wheels. As Dynamics Manager Ross Restell points out when talking us around there are no fake vents or bumper mounted exhaust trims on this car – everything is functional and proper, meaning a welcome fit for purpose validation to the satisfyingly muscular looks.  

On paper it’s, again, a case of evolution not revolution. So the SVR sticks with the 550PS (405kW) V8, deploying its burly 700Nm (516lb ft) through the same eight-speed automatic gearbox and fully variable and heavily rear-biased all-wheel-drive system, with an active locking diff at the rear for good measure. Suspension remains a pleasingly old-school combination of coil springs and mechanical anti-roll bars paired with adaptive dampers that – along with steering and other parameters – can be tuned via the driver modes to suit your mood. Mechanical updates are more or less restricted to a burlier torque convertor from the Project 8 and new ‘e-booster’ brake servo.

For all that familiar sounding tech the switch to next-gen electronic architecture gives Ross and his team more to play with. Put simply, the computers can react more quickly to the information from the sensors in the dampers, stability control, steering, differentials, throttle, brakes and other systems to deliver a much, much sharper drive than before, while retaining the scope for improved refinement at the same time. These are all just tools, though, and Jaguar’s real skill remains applying the human touch to the final set-up.

In the first few hundred yards the SVR feels much like any other performance SUV. Which is to say big, brash, domineering of its space on the road and treading a fine line in social acceptability. That, for some buyers, may be the point. But the F-Pace also has bags of charisma, and the skill of the engineers is evident in the way it goes along the very same bumpy, unpredictably cambered and poorly surfaced B-roads on which it was developed.

The V8 is exactly as rude as it’s always been, supercharging meaning it builds to a thrilling crescendo rather than dumping it all in your lap in the first 1,500rpm like some turbocharged rivals. The weight dulls off-the-line response but, once up to speed, it piles on more very enthusiastically indeed. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically, truth be told. There is a little brittleness at low speeds but you soon appreciate the surprising delicacy and precision with which you steer this big old beast of a car. The spec sheets say the Stelvio Quadrifoglio can’t match the SVR’s firepower but it does weigh as much as 300kg less, which translates to its livelier, more agile feel on the road.

Credit to the SVR’s sense of flow, though. With greater bandwidth between the settings you can tune it to your tastes – we settled on Dynamic, manual shifts on the paddles and Trac DSC but with the standard steering weight – and the long hours perfecting the damper tuning, bushings and other settings pay off with a combination of poise and refinement that’s truly impressive for such a lump. Jaguar has the confidence in its damping to let the F-Pace float in the middle of its damper stroke over camber changes and rapid-fire bumps without ever feeling wallowy, which is in marked contrast to ‘slam it back on the deck’ approach of most German rivals and more comfortable as a result. Throw in improved sightlines over the hedges from the extra height and a very real willingness for being steered on the throttle and – whisper it - you wonder if perhaps the performance of a fast SUV is easier to appreciate than that of some ‘proper’ sportscars out there on real roads.

For more detail about the welcome improvements to the F-Pace interior see our review of the regular car. The SVR is basically this with bells on, with figure-hugging (and super comfortable) sports seats for four and a pleasingly expensive feeling sense of quality. This is helped by the standard suedecloth/Windsor leather upholstery in the SVR (in unapologetically brash contrast colours on our test car) and lashings of Alcantara on door cars, dashtop and elsewhere

Again, impressions of JLR’s Pivi Pro infotainment system are as per those of the standard F-Pace. While there are various other detail changes – like the switch to a more conventional gear selector – the 11.4-inch curved screen literally dominates the interior space and your interactions with the car’s systems. Good news? It’s a physically attractive interface, matched with clean, logical menus and tons of functionality. The digital ‘dials’ also get an SVR twist and look good, though the mapping displayed here looks disappointingly pixelated and old-fashioned compared with the slick graphics on the main screen. Smartphone interaction is pretty slick, though, and seamlessly displays album covers and other info even when only connected via Bluetooth. If we’re being fussy the sound from the standard Meridian speaker system wasn’t quite as sharp as we’d have hoped, though it’s fair to say it’s competing with a lot of tyre roar (there being a lot of tyre) and the sound of that V8 snarling through the quad tips of the switchable active exhaust system. Truth be told, that’s probably the only soundtrack you really need.  

The appealing ‘skunk works’ vibe of the SVR and its Special Vehicle Operations breeding sets it apart from the rest of the F-Pace range and means it has a character all of its own. Which is just as well, because considered rationally the 400PS (294kW) of the six-cylinder hybrid we drove previously is more than enough to make a car like this entertaining. And it costs at least another £13,000, not to mention the ruinous running costs. Clearly there’s nothing rational about choosing a supercharged V8 in this day and age and, short of one of those unedifying ‘F*** you, Greta!’ bumper stickers it’s hard to think of a less on-message combination of vehicle and engine. Appreciation of this car doesn’t have to mean taking an antagonistic stance to the prevailing winds of change, though. It may be a bit of a dinosaur. But, as any five-year-old will tell you, a T-rex is still cool. Big V8s have a similarly enduring appeal and ability to inspire childlike glee. And, that being so, we should let them roar while we still can.