Jaguar Land Rover has set up a new Special Operations division to create high-performance versions of its existing models alongside one-offs and heritage models.
The performance engineering part of the S.O. business will be called Special Vehicle Operations, which is likely to trigger a feeling of déjà vu among anyone old enough to remember Ford’s identically named in-house U.S. tuning arm in the 1980s. The wider Special Operations division will also be responsible for creating one-offs and show cars, bespoke options on existing models, and also the creation of limited runs of heritage models, including Jaguar’s recent announcement of plans to build six ‘new’ Lightweight E-types. It’s also been suggested that it may spit out a run of cars based on the righteous F-type-based Project 7 concept.
SVO will be headed up by Paul Newsome, who led development of the C-X75 hybrid supercar while working for Williams. It will work with both Jaguar and Land Rover brands, with sources inside the company indicating one of its first projects is likely to be a performance version of the Range Rover Sport.
We’re told that Land Rover is determined not to lose out on the power battle that has been developing among other top-end SUV makers, and we can expect the SVO-tuned Sport to be significantly quicker than the existing Supercharged version thanks to both a brawnier engine—likely the 550-hp version of JLR’s familiar 5.0-liter V-8—and some major suspension revisions.
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From the outside, Special Operations looks like a belated response to the in-house German tuners: AMG at Mercedes, Quattro within Audi, and BMW’s M division. But at least it’s a response. We’re looking forward to finding out what it’s going to produce.
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