The Jaguar brand has been known to create some of the most elegant and beautiful cars in history. Case in point, the Jaguar E-Type. But the British marque has also manufactured special editions of their already existing saloons and sports cars. This time, we’re talking about the Jaguar Special Vehicle Operations-developed XE SV Project 8. The XE SV Project 8, which already holds the title of the fastest saloon car in the world, beat its own record lap time at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. It set the fastest Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time for a four-door production car once again, which stands at 7 minutes and 18.361 seconds.

This new officially-verified time on the 20.6 km (12.8-mile) lap is 2.9 seconds faster than Project 8’s previous benchmark set in November 2017 and 7 seconds faster than any other four-door production car has achieved.

Project 8 is also the first vehicle to set an official whole lap record in the Nürburgring’s mid-range production car class, lapping the 20.8 km (12.94-mile) circuit length in 7 minutes and 23.164 seconds.

The car’s height-adjustable twin-spring coil-over suspension was set in ‘track’ ride height, with adjustable front splitter and carbon fibre rear aerodynamic wing positioned for maximum downforce and stability.

The final record runs Project 8 was fitted with new off-the-shelf ultra-high performance Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres. Tested and chosen by SV engineers for their capability on the track, the road-legal tyres use rubber compounds directly transferred from Michelin’s competition tyres.

Jamal Hameedi, Engineering Director, Jaguar Special Vehicle Operations, said: “The original Nürburgring time set by Jaguar XE SV Project 8 demonstrated the extreme performance envelope of the world’s fastest production sedan, but the SV team is driven by a motorsport mentality and we knew Project 8 could go even faster. This new official record time is a fitting reward for everyone who has played a part in pushing the boundaries for our customers with Project 8.”

The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 is powered by the most highly tuned 447 kW (600 PS) version of Jaguar’s 5.0-l Supercharged V8, the all-wheel-drive Project 8 is capable of 0-100 km/h in 3.7 s (0-60 mph in 3.3 s) and a top speed of 320km/h. Project 8 also features a fully-enclosed flat underbody for enhanced aerodynamics.