With past debuts like the Project 7, Jaguar remains one of the local British brands intent on keeping the "speed" in the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed. This year, it's shining the spotlight on a more extreme side of speed, and its presence promises to be one of the big highlights of the event. It will be showing several fast, pretty cars from its present and past, including the all-new XJR Rapid Response Vehicle. The specially prepared performance sedan is built to support the Bloodhound SSC in its quest to break the land speed record.
Jaguar Land Rover will highlight its role as technical partner of the Bloodhound Project to give this year's Goodwood exhibition a bit more oomph. The XJR RRV will make its debut at the show, joined by the previously revealed F-Type R Coupé RRV. Both cars will tackle the famed Goodwood Hill, and Bloodhound SSC pilot Andy Green will be behind the wheel of the XJR RRV.
The latest piece of hardware from Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division, the XJR RRV has been modified for carrying specially made support equipment. SVO ripped the rear seats out of the base car, added a roll cage, and installed purpose-built housings for holding the customized equipment supplied by Angloco. It also added a set of flashing safety lights behind the front grille and finished the specialty build off with the colorful Bloodhound SSC livery.
The XJR is sure to be left far behind by the 1,000-mph (1,609-km/h) Bloodhound SSC, but it does have the power and performance needed to arrive quickly when called upon. Its 542-hp 5.0-liter supercharged V8 pushes it to 60 mph (96.5 km/h) in 4.4 seconds before unleashing a top speed of 174 mph (280 km/h).
The XJR RRV and F-Type R Coupé RRV, which was revealed at the Coventry MotoFest several weeks ago, will go on to support the Bloodhound SSC team during testing and official land speed record attempts. Jaguar has an impressive resume in the field, having provided Rapid Response Vehicle support for the last two land speed record vehicles: Richard Noble’s Thrust 2 in 1983 and Andy Green’s Thrust SSC in 1997.
The Bloodhound support car won't be the only Jaguar debut of interest. The new and improved XJ will make its world debut at the show, and the production version of the F-Type Project 7 special edition will show its face for the first time. The Project 7 will join the RRV cars on the hill, along with the Jaguar XE S and some members of Jaguar's heritage collection, including the XJ13, Group 44 E-type, Long Nose D-type, TWR XJS and Broadspeed XJ12C.
We'll have more about Jaguar's debuts, and all the other fast, fascinating cars of Goodwood, after the show gets underway on June 25. Before then, enjoy a two-minute recap of the XJR RRV customization in the video below.
Source: Jaguar
