SAID THE late Japanese fashion designer, Issey Miyake, once, “I am not sentimental about the past. I like to think aboutwhat is next.”
This is view taken bymostmanufacturers when it comes to the cars used to develop newmodels. Despite their cost and potential place in history, by being rough, ready and often unfinished prototypes, these hard-worked hacks are often destroyed without a second’s thought.
There are rare exceptions though, such as the crude X100mule we featured in the December 2021 issue. Another is this SV Project 8. Used to develop Jaguar’s latest and probably final saloon-based supercar, it hasmanaged to dodge the crusher to spend its retirement in the safe hands of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.
The XE SV Project 8 was the work of Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations, the company’s top-secret skunkworks based at Prologis Park outside Ryton-on-Dunsmore, six miles south of Coventry.
It followed SVO’s first official project, the F-TYPE Project 7
