2022 Jaguar F-Pace SVR Review: Long in the Tooth, Still Packing Big Fangs

It’s been around a hot minute, but SVR’s aging SUV still makes a good case for itself.

Published June 10, 2022

It’s hard not to have a little bit of pity for the poor folks on the Jaguar side of JLR these days. While their Land Rover brethren are rolling out one new version of an icon or best-seller after another these days — Defender, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport — Jaguar is left languishing under a surfeit of sexy new product.

The all-electric I-Pace broke new ground for EVs when it launched, but that was four years ago, and it’s changed little since then even as the rest of the world rocketed by like they’ve gone to plaid. The sultry XJ sedan was put out to pasture, and its sexy all-electric replacement was axed just months before it was scheduled to launch. The dynamic 3 Series-fighting XE sedan is also gone; the larger XF four-door endures, but only with a turbocharged four-cylinder under its hood and with exciting variants like the supercharged V6 version and the sexy station wagon body style long departed. The F-Type sports car is going on a decade old, and while it once offered a wide variety of powertrains, gearboxes and price points, it’s now down to one engine. (Admittedly, that’s the supercharged V8, inarguably the best of the available choices.)

JLR’s bigwigs have made bold promises about what the future holds for the brand: a move further upmarket, new body types, more electric vehicles. For now, however, the company is in the doldrums, kept afloat only by the sales of its twin gas-powered crossovers: the compact E-Pace and midsize F-Pace.

As it turns out, however, the F-Pace SVR still offers plenty of reasons to consider it even after all these years.

The F-Pace SVR is fast, loud and fun to drive

Plenty of cars can go fast, but only a Jaguar can have zoomies. And the F-Pace SVR has more zoomies than a caffeinated housecat at 4am, thanks largely to the mighty beast that lies beneath its hood: a supercharged V8.

It may be on the older side of new car motors — the 5.0-liter eight-pot traces its roots back to 1996, and its relations have been found in everything from Aston Martins to Ford Thunderbirds — but it’s hard to argue with the results when you nail the gas and feel the Jag grip and rip ahead with all four paws, supercharger and exhaust pipes roaring in harmony. Whether merging onto the highway or tearing up a back road, it’s a hoot of a partner — perhaps not the most engaging driver’s SUV from a traditional sense, but undoubtedly one of the most fun to toss around.

The Jaguar F-Pace SVR may be the best-looking performance SUV

Since the supercharged V8-powered F-Pace SVR joined the lineup in 2018, the swoopy super-SUV market has proliferated like bacteria dropped into a jello-lined petri dish. The Lamborghini Urus, the Audi RS Q8, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, the BMW X6 M Competition, the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupe — they all aim to offer the same blend of coupe-esque style and sports car-esque acceleration.

Still, even with all those contenders to pick from, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that’s better-looking than this aggressive Ian Callum design. It’s perhaps the best example of that elevated-station-wagon look that crossovers, arguably, should strive for. Slice a little visual weight out of the lower part of its body, and it would be a dead ringer for the dearly departed XF Sportbrake.

Inside, the F-Pace has been the beneficiary of more than one tech update over the years; the latest brings with it the newest version of Jaguar’s infotainment system and yet another update to the brand’s shift lever, which have gone through more iterations than Lady Gaga’s hair over the last decade.

All told, after a few days of testing the F-Pace SVR, my biggest wonder was, given how long this thing has been around, why don’t I see more of them on the road? Here in the greater New York area, it feels like Uruses and RS Q8s and four-door-coupe BMW M SUVs are a dime a dozen, but Jag’s contenter is a good deal mre rare. (Of course, not an hour after I thought that, I wound up stumbling across another F-Pace SVR in a New Jersey parking lot.)

To be quite frank, there ought to be more of them around; considering it has a five-figure starting price starting with an 8, it’s significantly closer to fiscally reasonable than any other SUV that goes this quick and looks anywhere near this good.