Mercedes’ AMG, BMW’s M, and Audi’s RS. The big three German manufactures all have their own tuning division which has proved to be a key and integral part of their product line ups. Looking at the success of the German in-house tuning arms fellow manufactures from around the world have followed suit. Lexus now has their F division, Chrysler their SRT cars and now Jaguar Land Rover have joined in with their recently launched ‘Special Vehicles Operations’ (SVO) division. Not to be confused with the TV series, SVU.
The SVO division will primarily handle on developing and producing ‘halo’ version of Jaguar Land Rover models in the same fashion as AMG Mercedes models. What makes JLR’s SVO unique is that these halo models aren’t limited to being performance orientated. SVO will also produce ultra luxury variants and allow for bespoke customisation, think Aston Martin ‘Q’ or Jaguar Land Rover’s current Autobiography trim line.
On top of this, SVO will also produce special limited run cars similar to the Jaguar Project 7 and the E-Type recreations. The heritage arm of SVO will also handle restorations, recreations and servicing of classic Jaguar Land Rover vehicles.
Slightly less glamorous is the availability of something called SVO “lifestyle” products which will appeal to the same people who buy Ferrari branded coffee mugs and Aston Martin cufflinks.
This all sounds very exciting. I’m all for more powerful, more luxurious and more personalised JLR cars but is too much choice a good thing? No doubt the bespoke scheme will produce some outrageous cars (I’m thinking a lime green Range Rover with an orange roof?).
I’m also curious to know what will happen to ‘R’ badged Jaguars? Whether they’ll disappear all together or coexist with SVO. In which case, how powerful will SVO models be if current Jaguar R cars, like the XJR, has around 550bhp already? And I daren’t think about a supercharged SVO Range Rover Sport!
I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of vehicles SVO will come out with and where Jaguar Land Rover will take it in the future. What do you guys think?