Seven things we learned about the Jaguar F-Type SVR

No, really. That’s the biggest, most surprising thing you learn spending time with the SVR, so we’ll kick off with the comfort. You see the bucket seats, carbon brakes, two-tone wing and expect the marketing team to have injected the SVR’s adaptive dampers with iron ore, but the tweaked ride actually results in a comfortable, well-controlled car that just deals with stuff.

It feels especially better sorted at the rear axle – more on your side, and that, teamed with all-wheel drive, makes the fastest, priciest F-Type the most approachable F-Type. Good news, if, like most people, your driving ability doesn’t increase proportionally with your bank balance.

Even on my crazy laps jostling with all the classic Jags, the F-Type was pushing the limit of what its brakes wanted to handle. Okay, Le Mans is the sternest test possible, with intergalactic straights leading into several big braking zones, but there were a couple of occasions after some hefty stops that the optional ceramics felt like they’d quite fancy a rest.

That’ll be because the SVR is still a lardy car. Optional ceramics specced (but with a glass roof rather than the available carbon panel), this one’s still well over 1700kg. The dash is quite tall, the hips prohibitively wide, and the glasshouse fairly narrow, so altogether it’s fairly intimidating if you’re looking for something to punt down a British hedgerow-lined country road.

Yes, it’s supercar fast, this big British bruiser. It’s not so much the 567bhp and 516lb ft delivered by a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 that feels so utterly unstressed you’d be unsurprised to see a tuner easily tickle that output up by three figures. No, it’s the fact you can deploy all that power thanks to all-wheel drive. Great for lairly photogenic powerslides, the rear-drive F-Type R, but it’s frankly a liability in the wet and thoroughly unrewarding to drive just about all the time because of how hard you’ve got to work to restrain it. The SVR wants you to use more of its prodigious performance, more of the time. ‘Course, you could just get yourself an F-Type R AWD for £20k less…

The eight-speed XF gearbox is a cracking transmission, seeing exemplary duty in everything from the BMW M135i to Jaguar’s own XF. It’s the auto of choice for all F-Types too, but does feel slightly exposed in the SVR. Upshifts are just about smoothed out, but there’s a slight jerk and lack of crispness that a dual-clutch offers. The downshifts are the real bugbear though, just too delayed from when you tug the cool metal paddle.

Shocked? Yeah, us too. But with the SVR pulling well under 2000rpm in eighth gear, the V8 settles down and sips at super unleaded, returning around 25mpg on an 80mph cruise across France. Another tick in the GT credentials box.