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Jaguar previews Vision Gran Turismo SV

Firm lets its imagination runaway with updated 1903hp quad-motor racer capable of 255mph

By Sam Sheehan / Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Vision Gran Turismo machines might not be launching at the rate they were a couple of years back, but there are clearly still plenty of reasons for manufacturers to keep gamers behind the virtual wheels of their digital creations. Case and point, Jaguar and its just-revealed quad-motor Vision Gran Turismo SV, which evolves from the 2019 EV into a 1,903hp, 255mph future endurance racer. It's been created by actual employees of Jaguar's Special Vehicles design and racing departments. So the high-tech features are not totally pie in the sky...

The Jag's increased output, for example, isn't beyond the realms of possibility these days - see the 2,000hp Evija for proof - and it's been achieved with the addition of a fourth electric motor to the layout. Said to utilise tech from Jaguar's I-Type Formula E racer and mounted on the front axle, the new motor is paired to its own single-speed transmission like the others, and powered by lithium-ion battery cells. Flat out, the virtual car is claimed to sprint from 0-60mph in what would be a startling 1.65 seconds.

The wheelbase remains 2,721mm (that's 99mm longer than an F-Type's) but the body has grown by 861mm (!) to 5,540mm, thanks to extensions designed to increase downforce with minimal drag. You can't miss the one at the back, with a low-set, XJR-14-aping wing that is active so as to allow that high top speed and massive lateral loading. It works with a larger splitter at the other end, and a sculpted body that channels air around the turbulent wheels and along the underside through the car's rear diffuser.

Jaguar SV's senior aerodynamics engineer, Micheal O'Regan, said that "all the aerodynamic features have been painstakingly optimised through cutting-edge computational fluid dynamics analysis - in exactly the same way [his staff] do with real-world projects such as the Jaguar I-Type Formula E race cars". The virtual machine has a drag coefficient of Cd 0.398 while generating 483kg of downforce at 200mph, helped by the active features which automatically move depending on the driving scenario.

Still, we know what you're thinking: how would such a car constitute as an 'endurance' machine when it's liable to empty its batteries in a few laps of La Sarthe? As with most of these Gran Turismo creations, Jag doesn't provide the answer. It's a virtual car with the word 'Vision' in its name, after all. That being said, the prospect of high-powered electric racers that can run for extended periods isn't so far-fetched these days, what with the likes of in-road (or in-circuit) charging already in development in some countries. But for now, Jaguar is concerned only with the car. You'll be able to drive the new Vision Gran Turismo SV virtually for yourself sometime next year.