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Jaguar Land Rover Opens a Special Division

by Frédérick Boucher-Gaulin
Jaguar C-X75 Concept
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Photo: Jaguar

To cater to its most exclusive (and rich!) clients, Jaguar Land Rover announced the opening of a new branch, Special Vehicle Operations (despite the name, it has nothing to do with the Ford Mustang SVO). Its mission will be simple: create beautiful one-offs, high-performance variants and unique limited-production runs for both brands.

With the rise of the Middle East and Asian markets, luxury carmakers saw their sales rise considerably. To make sure they can answer to the increased demand , Jaguar and Land Rover selected 150 of their best employees to be transferred there. Those engineers will be free to design more unique vehicles, since they won’t have to take mass production into account.

This division will be run by Paul Newsome, who was previously Chief Technical Officer for the Williams Formula 1 team. His division will also be tasked with developing both brands’ prototypes. A restoration program will also be part of the branch, dedicated solely to the maintenance and refurbishing of older Jaguar and Land Rover models. Their first job will be to build the Lightweight E-Types that were recently approved for production.

Paul Newsome already has experience with Jaguar, having developed the C-X75 prototype. This gorgeous hypercar never saw production, but with the opening of the Special Vehicle Operations, it just might be possible that the 2-seater Jaguar will see a limited run…

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