Key considerations
- Available for £50,000
- 5.0-litre V8 petrol supercharged, all-wheel drive
- Old but golden engine and an old-school but excellent chassis
- Infotainment and interior significantly improved on the ’21-on refresh
- Nothing much seems to go wrong
- Jaguar’s last ‘AMG’ is at least as good as its German rivals
Designed to pull off the handy trick of being both practical and an excellent drive, the regular models in Jaguar’s (mainly) aluminium-platformed F-Pace range put up decent opposition to cars like the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Mercedes GLC.
The supercharged 5.0-litre V8 F-Pace SVR of 2018 was on another level though. That one was put forward as an alternative to high-performance SUVs from the likes of Alfa Romeo (Stelvio Quadrifoglio) and Porsche (various Cayennes and Macans). Buyers seemed to agree with that positioning because the F-Pace SVR became the highest-selling Jaguar SV product ever.
The iteration we’re looking at here is the refreshed 2021 model year F-Pace SVR announced in December 2020 and marking a point in history as the last AJ V8-powered series production car to come from Jaguar Land Rover. As we totter into an ever more anodyne world, it stands out proudly as a gloriously analogue choice.
The ’21-on refresh had an enhanced torque peak of 516lb ft and a new torque curve intended to boost driveability and fuel efficiency. This plus the Intelligent Driveline Dynamics of the on-demand all-wheel-drive system and a new Dynamic Launch function that used driveline inertia to maintain the flow of power to the wheels during gearchanges knocked a couple of tenths off the 0-62mph time, dropping it to 4.0 seconds on the nose (3.8 seconds on the old-school 0-60mph run) in spite of its 70kg weight increase over the previous model.
Chassis changes included a new SV-calibrated steering rack, better brake feel and performance and retuned adaptive dampers. New bodywork reduced lift by 35 per cent and lowered drag, resulting in a 2mph increase in the top speed to 178mph.
What the F-Pace hadn’t had in its early days was an interior that could stand serious comparison with the German opposition, but the 2021MY put that right with higher-quality materials that gave it a genuinely premium feel. There was also the latest Pivi Pro dual-sim infotainment system displaying on an 11.4-inch HD curved glass touchscreen and over-the-air software update capability.
As of November 2024 the F-Pace SVR was still available on Jaguar’s new-fangled website under the title of 575 (that being the latest power output brought in for ‘24MY cars) SVR Edition. If you enjoy looking at images of unusual-looking people in weird clothing you’ll enjoy the new jaGuar browsing experience, but you won't find a new price for the SVR because Jaguar has wound up production ahead of its transition to an all-electric brand. We did however find a 1-mile example on PH Classifieds at £78,750 with ad copy suggesting that the new price for a similarly specced car would have been £97,395 – that final spec including the previously optional Meridian surround sound system, pano roof, head-up display and a few other bits and bobs.
Pre-facelift examples can be had for as little (relatively speaking) as £28,000 but they’ll have mammoth mileages on them, like over 140,000. For the 2021-on facelift cars that we are focusing on here, prices start at around £50,000 for cars showing 35-45,000 miles. That kind of slow depreciation suggests happy owners, but is that really the case or are there some skeletons in the jaGuar F-Pace cloSet? Only one way to find out. Let’s don our chiffon negligées, glue some sequins onto our faces and wander into the hopefully not-too-wacky world of the F-Pace SVR.
SPECIFICATION | Jaguar F-Pace SVR (2021-on V8)
Engine: 5,000cc V8 32v petrol supercharged
Transmission: 8-speed auto, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 550@6,250-6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 516@3,500-5,000rpm
0-62mph (secs): 4.0
Top speed (mph): 178
Weight (kg): 2,133
MPG (official combined): 23.1
CO2 (g/km, WLTP): 275
Wheels (in): 9 x 21 (f), 10 x 21 (r), 22 option
Tyres: 265/45 (f), 295/40 (r)
On sale: 2021 - on
Price new: £77,595
Price now: from £50,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data is hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
Jaguar said that the SVR was the only car in its class to have a 5.0-litre V8. In a time where power tends to come from smaller and more efficient engines, that might sound more like an admission than a boast, but let’s take a positive view on it and celebrate the fact that until late 2024 you could still buy a new Jag containing a dirty great AJ-V8 motor and a twin-vortex supercharger blowing it up to 550hp.
Yes, it’s an old unit dating back to the pre-Ford days, but what a unit. Not only did it deliver a fat, rolling wodge of poke and strong encouragement to give it the beans in manual mode, it sounded naughty in the process. The quad tailpipes of the remapped exhaust were all real, the engine defaulting to a quiet setting for those early-morning departures which it was perfectly happy to maintain if that was your wont, but it was also ready and willing to get up and go when asked in Dynamic mode.
Owners of pre- and post-facelift SVRs noticed that the pops and crackles of the early cars were a little harder to find on the later cars because the exhaust valves no longer stayed open all the time even in Dynamic mode. Removing the sound resonator and replacing it with straight pipes restored some anti-sociability.
The SVR used the gen-three version of ZF’s 8-speed 8HP70 torque converter gearbox, as used in the XE SV Project 8 saloon. It was designed to handle heavy-duty power, which meant that full torque could be accessed in every gear. That hadn’t been the case with the torque limited in the lower gears pre-facelift SVRs. The box had a fairly noticeable gap between 7th and 8th gears and a hardly noticeable one between 3rd and 4th, but even though the changes weren’t lightning-fast they were still slick enough to justify the ‘Quickshift’ appellation that Jaguar put on it.
The V8 SVR wasn’t a car you’d buy for its economy but then you could say the same thing about any petrol-fuelled F-Pace, given that none of them managed to return much more than 30mpg in normal use. You might as well have the SVR for the craic and just try to forget about the official figure of 23mpg. On the positive side, you could actually achieve that in normal use. Some owners have reported nearly 30mpg but you’d have to be stroking it pretty gently to get that and many might consider such a driving style to be inappropriate for an SVR. If you wanted to do some towing the SVR had a braked capacity of 2,400kg.
Some F-Paces had a problem with damaged or detaching water pump drivebelts potentially leading to a catastrophic coolant flow failure, but we’re not sure if the SVR was party to that. We ran a 2022 car through Jaguar’s multiple-step online service plan configurator to get an idea how much servicing might be and found that a 36-month plan would be £1,626, not including MOT costs.
CHASSIS
Adaptive dampers were the standard accompaniment to the F-Pace SVR’s all-steel coils and physical ARBs. 70 per cent of the bushes were new, as were the rear toe-links and front control arm links. The car supported Jaguar’s new JaguarDrive Control system offering Comfort, Eco, Rain-Ice-Snow and Dynamic modes, that last one being tweaked for the ‘21MY car to give stiffer suspension and sharper throttle and steering responses and create a bigger gap between it and Comfort mode.
Switching between the two main modes (Comfort and Dynamic) was easy, and you could select between those two settings to get individual engine, steering, gearchange and suspension setups without dragging the others along. The only time you had to have all four of those set to Dynamic was when you wanted to use the launch function. If you were still hearing the rasp on upshifts, that meant the launch mode wasn’t engaged because true Dynamic Launch on the facelifter gave you that continued flow of power to the wheels that we referred to in the overview. Some owners who thought they had lost the DL function were wondering if there was a factory limit on the number of launches available, but as far as we’re aware there wasn’t, so that’s a mystery waiting to be solved.
The steering was electrically assisted, variable ratio, and sharp in operation. The odd issues reported have been sorted by software updates. The rear-biased AWD – 10/90 front/rear split in Dynamic, 30/70 in Comfort mode, 50/50 in Rain-Ice-Snow, with never more than 50 per cent of torque going to the front end – worked with a retuned electronic locking rear diff and fine body control to deliver a pleasingly honed, Cotswolds-tuned driving experience for such a tall and heavy (2.1 tonnes) car. Small and easily controllable tail slides were on tap all day long.
A new 22-inch five-spoke wheel design in gloss black with satin grey inserts was added for the new car. P Zeros were the tyre of choice. The F-Pace could take big wheels without terminally damaging the ride quality but most would notice the difference between big and little. The payoff for any perceived over-stiffness was nicely connected handling that only something like a Porsche Macan could noticeably improve upon. In isolation, it was a rewarding and comfortable drive, not just by the standards of something that large but also in comparison to smaller cars that should have had the beating of it.
The braking system was given a new booster for the refresh. For some, it provided just a touch too much assistance at low speeds but there were no complaints about the actual braking performance. Unusually the rear brake discs were 1mm larger in diameter than the 395mm fronts, but they had just one single-piston sliding caliper as opposed to the four-piston fixed calipers at the front. The ’21 car’s pads were new. Auto Vehicle Hold was changed for the refresh so that it held the brakes indefinitely on a gradient until the throttle was applied with the transmission in drive.
Some owners have reported that the electronic parking brake hasn’t always disengaged despite the car indicating that it had disengaged it. The ‘fix’ there was to switch between reverse, neutral and drive a few times. Emergency anti-collision brake activation has also been known to come on when it shouldn’t have. This was usually attributed to an over-zealous sensor.
BODYWORK
Jaguar was keen to let us know that the new larger vents in the ’21 car’s front-half bodywork were all real and that they all had a purpose, to whit reducing lift, drag and turbulence and bringing extra cooling to the brakes. That plus a longer (i.e. full length with no visible shutline arcing between the headlights) vented bonnet with a wider power bulge and new diagonal blade elements in the lower bumper butched up the looks a bit by making it look like the front end was lower than before, even though it might not have been. Jaguar didn’t make such a big deal about the rear ‘vents’ as they did actually qualify for those speech marks. The defence, if any were needed, was that the resulting shape and width of the rear wings made possible by these ‘vents’ helped to streamline airflow.
Slimline LED quad headlights could be had with optional Pixel LED tech which split the main beam to reduce dazzle for oncoming motorists and adapted the beam spread according to speed and road curvature. Some 2022 model F-Paces were fitted with the wrong-spec tailgate lamps, leading to a recall.
If you were below standard PH powerfully-built stair dominator size you could tick a box for deployable sidesteps.
INTERIOR
A good bit of remodelling went into the ‘21MY SVR’s interior, which greatly benefitted from the EVA 2.0 electrical architecture previously seen in JLR’s EVs. Seat and door inserts and the new 12.3-inch configurable driver display were covered in Alcantara and the revised three-compartment centre cubby and midroll were done in posh Windsor leather. The 12-way memory seats could be upgraded to very comfortable and supportive 14-way Performance seats cloaked in the same Windsor moo.
The F-Pace was strictly a five-seater, and if you were making use of all of those seats the bods in the back needed to be on friendly terms. If they weren’t when they got in they probably would be by the time they got out. The BMW X3 had more legroom in the back but the Jaguar traded that for extra boot room: its 650-litre space was a hefty 100 litres or so more than you got in the Audi, BMW or Mercedes rivals. That figure went up to well over 1,800 litres with the back seats folded down, although that was by Jaguar’s optimistic ‘wet volume’ measurement which simulated the loadspace filled with liquid. There was plenty of space in the front, although the optional panoramic roof nibbled into your headroom a bit. Plentiful storage options included a glovebox you could actually use for transporting items larger than gloves.
Framed by a magnesium alloy casing, the 11.4-inch curved touchscreen for the dual-sim Pivi Pro infotainment system was three times brighter and nearly 50 per cent bigger than the old one. It responded quickly to the touch too, which wasn’t something you could say with much conviction about many earlier Jaguars. Android Auto and CarPlay were both present and the wheel-buttoned voice control worked well. A new knurled-edge ‘metallic’ rotary controller was added for the refresh. Stopwatch, G-meter and pedal graphics could be viewed when you were in Dynamic mode.
HVAC functions could be quickly controlled via two bigger-than-before knurled knobs below the touchscreen, a good thing, but not everyone approved of the fact that you couldn’t go sideways with the stubby new shifter to get it into manual. Instead, you had to yank it back a couple of times. There could also be a slightly annoying delay in the arrival of forward motion when you were coming out of Park and going into Drive. In traffic that encouraged you to leave it in Drive, which might not be the best thing for any car’s long-term health.
Active Road Noise Cancellation monitored road surface noise intrusions and created an opposite-phase soundwave to mask them. UK customers also had the benefit of a Guardian Mode that would ping their smartphones to tell them that their F-Pace was being nicked. Oh goody. 3D surround camera tech gave you a selection of views when manoeuvring. The rear-view mirror could be switched from a conventional reflective view to a feed coming in from a tailgate camera. That worked nicely. Not quite so successful were the touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel which were a bit too fiddly to be used without a degree of forethought. Wireless charging was a payable option, as were a head-up display and Meridian 650watt 17-speaker surround sound.
There was a recall on damaged front seatbelt pretensioners tubes in 2022 cars. Some 2020 and 2021 F-Paces were recalled for premature deactivation of the automatic seatbelt locking retractors which could result in insecure child restraint. ‘SOS service not available’ has been reported by quite a few owners.
PH VERDICT
We seem to be saying this in far too many of these buying guides, but once again we’re in last-chance territory here. The original F-Pace SVR that was announced in 2018 for sales starting in 2019 was a lovely drive and the mods made for the 2021-on refresh made it even nicer.
Not only did the SVR make the most of the big V8’s character, modern-day restrictions permitting, the cabin improvements – content, materials and how it was all put together – put the SVR right up there with the best in terms of its quality feel and ambience. If you have the cash to make a straight choice between pre- or post-refresh cars, a drive in both should soon convince you to go for the newer one if only for the considerable attraction of its new infotainment system.
As mentioned in the overview, used facelift SVRs start at the same money in November 2024 – around £50k – as they did a year ago. That’s partly because the new price didn’t take long to rise from £75k to £85k, albeit with more stuff like the 22-inch black alloys and Performance seats coming as standard, but it’s also a reflection of how good the car is. It’s the sort of value retention that Jaguar will be happy to see in its conventional fare before the brand migrates to a bold new land of EV disruption, or whatever they call it.
The fact that such a characterful powertrain came in such a sweet-handling and entirely practical package should surely be enough for anyone in the market for a do-it-all vehicle with a side order of nose-thumbing to at least put it on their shortlists. F-Pace SVR rivals like the BMW X6M, Audi RSQ8 or Porsche Cayenne GTS Coupe were either heavier, less powerful or more expensive, making the Jag a compelling choice even before you got into the emotional engine-based side of things. The apparent lack of issues and common problems adds to its appeal.
The most affordable example on PH Classifieds in Nov ’24 was this 49,000-mile 2022 car in red, its low price of £52,631 possibly reflecting a white interior that might not look so fresh in another 30,000 miles. Just over £3k on top of that would get you this 12,000 mile black-on-black car from the same year, complete with Performance seats and pano roof.
In 2023 a SVR Edition 1988 with Midnight Amethyst paint, gold forged wheels and detailing and gearbox mapping from the Project 8 was brought out to commemorate the 240mph XJR-9 . 394 examples were built. It’s not difficult to imagine one of them fetching a few bob in the future.
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