The F-Type Project Seven: A Car Like No Other

I have to say, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with the F-Type Project Seven. This car is truly special, and for those who may not know, it's only 250 units that were produced, making it an exceptionally rare and hard-to-find car. I feel incredibly lucky to be one of the select few who get to experience this beast on the road.

As you can imagine, there are some pretty significant changes that set the Project Seven apart from its standard F-Type counterpart. For starters, the engine has been upgraded by 25 horsepower, bringing it up to an impressive 567 horsepower. This is a substantial increase over the standard V8 model, and it really makes a difference in terms of performance.

Another key change is the rear-wheel drive layout. Now, I know what you're thinking - can't Jaguar produce a fully fledged V8 F-Type with rear-wheel drive? Unfortunately, that's not an option for this car. However, I'm not complaining. The Project Seven's all-wheel drive setup provides exceptional traction and control, making it an absolute joy to drive on twisty roads.

One of the weight-saving measures taken during development was the removal of the full mechanical roof. This may seem like a small thing, but it actually resulted in a 45kg reduction in weight overall. Additionally, some stiffening was done to improve handling and dynamics.

As I mentioned earlier, this car is noticeably stiffer than my old F-Type R and the current standard model. However, on the motorway or cruising down the highway, things can feel a bit firm. But as soon as you find yourself on a twisty road, this car transforms into a full-on track-ready machine. It's exhilarating, to say the least.

So, why am I so obsessed with this car? For me, it's not just about the performance or the looks (although those are certainly impressive). It's about the overall driving experience. This car is a true driver's car, designed to provide exceptional feedback and connection to the road.

However, as much as I love this car, I do need to be kind and critical of its potential flaws. As exhilarating as it is, I'm not sure that raw performance is everything I need from my next F-Type. I've pointed out a few areas where things could improve, but for now, I'll continue to live with the Project Seven and see if I can find even more positives that outweigh its negatives.

One thing's for sure - this car has certainly won me over, and I'm excited to continue exploring its capabilities on the road. If you're interested in learning more about this car or Jag's other models, be sure to subscribe now and turn on notifications so you don't miss any future episodes. And if you've enjoyed today's video, give it a thumbs up - I'll catch up with you very soon!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello and all welcome to scene through class i've had the keys to this f-type r now for about four months uh if you don't know it's a loan from jaguar whilst i hunt for my next f-type i used to own one of the original f-type r coupes and the minute i sold it well i regretted it so at the start of this year i declared enough is enough it's time to get a jaguar back in my life however not only do i need to work out the finances i also need to work out which f-type i want to get i feel like i've kind of been there done that with the old r and why the old v6 will feel a little underpowered compared to what i'm used to so i've really been weighing up the old svr or this new r but i have also said if this year goes unbelievably well and somehow magnitude finance can make the numbers work there's a small chance i might be able to consider one of my all-time dream cars the f-type project seven and i was speaking to jaguar and they said well you spend a lot of time in the old svr and now i spent quite a bit of time in the new r why do you spend some time in the project seven that way you can weigh up all three not just financially but also how they make you feel what they're like what they're like to live with i was like best company ever so yes right now i'm on my way to jaguar classic to pick up a project 7 which i'm going to be using for the next few days what is life so welcome to jaguar land rover classic i have never been here before it's like santa's grotto everywhere i look i'm like amazing classic heritage incredible jaguars and land rovers i mean look at this thing going around behind i want it i need it this could become a very expensive trip i already knew that i was going to fall in love with the project 7 and just be trying to figure out how to buy one but now i've seen like the xkrs gt there's an e-type reborn there's a whole load of land rovers and raindrops here that i'm just getting over excited about um so this place is a showroom you can buy some of these cars that are on display then behind me there's a full-on workshop where e-type reborn and d-type continuations are made but project seven and project eights are also serviced and then behind that you've got the collection which is essentially well a collection of old jaguar land rover race cars sports cars prototypes x press cars and that is where the project 7 which i'm collecting is lurking so we're gonna head back there see what we can see on the way and then yes pick up a project seven it's one of one of those days it's not working but i'm pinching myself oh my giddy aunt look i mean look at that that's what i'm here to collect but look at all of this i've literally died and gone to jaguar land rover heaven look at this an xkss continuation this thing obviously basically the road version of the jaguar d-type car which basically inspired the project 7. these things are stunning this is okay this is what i'm lining up next i'm about to go and just literally molest the classic team saying when can i drive this oh so nice with this kind of classic heritage green and then the tan interior the thing about d-type and xkss is yes this central sort of housing it makes the driving position quite narrow but look at the curved glass unbelievable um so many things catching my hand here it's quite ridiculous we've got some very early swallow and ss cars here this is the beginning of jaguar's lineage i suppose or at least the jaguar company loads of land rovers in some amazing specs gonna come back to this baby very shortly also look at look at so many of these classic jacks i'm not gonna know what a lot of these things are but just oh and look at that oh that's the very original concept of the new defender when they first showed off the kind of new defender as we know it that's what we saw and a lot of people were like what is that but actually you can now see kind of how it evolved into the final product and yeah it's kind of a cool thing to see that i absolutely love this this we really need to talk about that is the original design concept of the project seven again we'll come back to that in a second because oh my god that's like an early is that a jag is that a meal emilia car or just a jaguar melee something maybe slightly different but anyway very cool loads of things hidden away oh my god look at those are those d-type continuation shells or just early bodies i don't know what's going on back there very oh my god there's so much there's so much i don't know where to begin each side oh and that's a that's a bond range rover svr that's another very early sort of launch or prototype for defender um both sides there's some amazing cars look at these little junior d types another small junior cars knocking around i can see a formula e car series one formula e one e car right at the back there um oh i wonder if there's a formula one car here who remembers jaguar's formula one team now looking out but obviously it's going to be so low i'm probably not going to see it some more oh i can say some more e-types but look it's a bloody cx-75 the jaguar hyper car that never was that should have been obviously appeared in james bond but this was generally a thing at one point uh unfortunately since i guessed funding or for whatever reasons they decided not to go ahead there's actually two of them here i think they look fair well this one definitely decommissioned because it looks like it's been absolutely trashed um obviously from the film with all the sort of damage and things like that look back here though xkrs gt another one very early vas f type don't even know what that is behind it some amazing things i feel like i shouldn't be back here of course this is the e type lightweight continuation which is being raced at the moment nearly 400 horsepower in this piece look how huge those tyres are unreal and then i mean just some beast i don't even know what they are this place is so special look at that fire what even is it i don't know anyway enough farting around let me bring you on to the main show of course the project seven this as i mentioned earlier is the sort of initial design concept the first time anyone ever saw a project seven it was this car and i'll take you way back to when i used to own my f-type r coupe and one of the sort of first modifications or looks that i launched for that car was heavily inspired by this design concept launch prototype project 7 thing the white dot the lipstick the white stripe and even the tire writing was all inspired by this actual car whilst many of you might think this looks like a standard project seven it's actually not there are some sort of key differences most noticeably around the windscreen so this kind of initial design had this very low and rate front windscreen which i guess didn't pass regulations so they had to sort of put slightly more standard windscreen on even though on the final version it is still a bit more raked than on a standard f-type then also look at these wing mirrors super sculpted all in carbon fiber these very fat side cells and front lip the wheels with these sort of carbon fiber ones now on my car back in the day i didn't have this exact design but i did try and get those carbon fiber wheels so it looked vaguely similar now the tyre writing on this car has faded a little bit over the years um but that's what i was trying to recreate with the tire writing on my own car and then yes as we go into the cabin you'll see that it's only one actual driver's seat in this initial concept where of course the final car did come with a passenger seat most other elements did actually make it on to the final production version which is fairly impressive big old rear wing and then yes that massive diffuser very very cool to see but yeah for all of those that sort of knocked those sort of early days with me and my f-type and the white dart and the tie writing things like that here is why i did it it was a celebration of this car which i saw and thought oh my good lord far too over excited okay buddy thank you very much absolutely yeah i'll see you down there hopefully and then maybe on monday morning you might hear me before i see you love it cheers buddy thank you very much i'm going to have fun trust me this is nuts so just to brief you kind of quickly on exactly what's going to be happening oh i've got to check out firstly yeah of course mate no problem i got got overzealous there but yeah to brief you quickly on exactly what's gonna happen right now gonna head back down to london which is gonna be an interesting first trip with this car sort of motorway journey as you can see no roof and more on that later then tomorrow i'm going to go out and do a little bit of driving before heading to goodwood revival huge event happening here in the uk over the weekend kind of a classic version of festival of speed uh jaguar going to be there celebrating 60 years of the e-type and also i'm going to ah i'm revealing too much but yeah lots to do with this car and it's going to be an appropriate kind of adventure i think all good thank you very much right okay here we go wish me luck people what luck do i need apart from my bank balance i tell you what i've spent so much time in the new f-type recently i forgot just how ludicrous these old cars sound especially the project 7 fully bespoke svo exhaust for these cars and yeah well as i just proved it's absolutely mad um motorway journey was fairly easy i kind of assumed because while there's kind of less protection and everything's a bit more extreme that the journey would be a bit intense but it wasn't it was fairly chill and the weather's so nice that it's just a nice place to be in here now we're back in london i have come across my first sort of small negative point about this car and kind of building a list of pros and cons to wear it up against the new r and the old espionage i've come across my first con that's because tonight i actually need to street park this car which means to pull over and put the roof on now when jaguar initially designed this car it was meant to be truly ruthless like the d-type that inspired it no roof at all it's a little barketta style car but i guess pressures from people above the design department said no the car needs to have some kind of protection for countries where well it's not always this kind of weather so some sort of wet weather protection for the cast they came up with this kind of i'm gonna call it more of a tent than a roof um when you fit it to the car you can only go like 60 65 miles an hour it's not fantastic and then when you take it off the car unfortunately you lose all of your usable boot space because the various components that make up the sort of tent or roof well yeah take up the entire boot so really not ideal but if you live somewhere where it's sunny or when it's a nice day who cares and i've only had a few hours with this car i'm still feeling mega excited and positive i'm not gonna let this bring me down what i thought i'd do is show you what goes into putting this tent slash roof onto the car now this is very difficult to do with one person we're gonna give it a try uh oh no i've just forgotten how to say we put uh do we leave that up yes oh sorry so we leave that up because we're gonna need these hooks now which bits do we get out first yes these are the bits that we get out first now this is a sort of very used marketing slash press car so um some of these parts aren't looking fantastic ignore that this part slots just there onto this kind of carbon fiber oops i'm pretty sure that's in place now oh god which side is that for i think that's that's for this side no that must be for this side i think that's now on you know it feels all right and then where's the other one for the other side if it was pouring with rain i would be in trouble about now so then this goes onto there okay so now we get to the main roof itself which actually is in here okay so let me unravel it and now this actually does that there we go oh i didn't even work out this and this clips onto here oh i'm starting to get out of breath little ear piece you've got to tuck on there oh i shouldn't have put that there we go it's not that's hard to do so i got to get these these pins in so maybe if i come underneath that yes yes yes progress and then the final stage is these hooks which have a little lever there you go bring a bit of tension nice one over here use the little leave a bit of tension and i think oh no also let's not forget the lovely carrier bags which still do take up quite a bit of space in the boot gotta be honest and ding i think we've done it got to be honest i'm not sure how dry this thing would keep me if it really did start to rain but at least it's i'm protected in here while the car is protected i feel a little bit more relaxed about leaving this thing street parked tonight so yeah as i mentioned it's supposed to be a completely ruthless car this is this is doing something so i'm thankful for that at least anyway tomorrow morning as soon as i wake up it's coming straight back off i tell you that so yeah i will see you right now tomorrow for some proper driving to remind myself why i love this thing so much foreign i thought today i would just let you all revel in the glory that is the f-type project seven well there's only really one way to describe this card it is glorious i have missed the ridiculousness of this exhaust so much that new f-type r sounds really good especially for a modern car but it hasn't got a touch on these old f-types and especially the project seven now i wanted to today kind of address what this car is because i was speaking to uh paul wallace and tony this morning and they were like how's that car any different from the f type r you're driving now and i was like how dare you insult me this way so yeah for those of you that are like what is this sam what is the project 7 why are you so excited well firstly only 250 of these cars were made so they're exceptionally rare hard to find and also hard to get the chance to get behind the wheel off so thank you jaguar thank you jaguar classic it started life as yes a convertible v8 f-type not too dissimilar to the one i'm driving now but of course the old shape and then lots of things change yes lots of things not just the stunning bodywork firstly we've got 25 horsepower increase so we're up to like 567 odd horsepower rather than the 550 we had in the standard v8 convertible at the time it's not quite as much as the svr or the new r which are up at 575 but it's still substantial because it's all going to the rear wheels this for me is a very important fact the project 7 is rear-wheel drive nowadays you can't get a sort of fully fledged v8 f-type from jag in rear-wheel drive form the only one they do is the 450 which is 125 odd horsepower down on the r and this car so hey it's still a lot of fun but it's a little bit new it's not as absolutely maniacal as this car is there was also a weight saving on this car around 45 kilos because we got the kind of tent and not the full mechanical roof we we saved some weight there and then things got stiffened up and i'm actually going to add that to my con list because this car is noticeably and i would say significantly stiffer than my old f-type r and definitely the current f-type r that i'm running around it now that's because it's supposed to be focused it's supposed to be able to go on track and it's supposed to give you more feel from that front end it's just on the motorway and poodling around that things feel a bit well firm however the minute you find a nice twisty road it doesn't matter because yeah this thing becomes a full-on race car are you starting to understand why this is so much more than some fancy bodywork i think it's potentially the best f-type they ever made just look at it i am obsessed but as exhilarating as this car might be i need to be kind of hyper critical because exhilaration isn't all that i'm looking for from my next f-type and i have pointed out a few potential negative points that i wasn't expecting about the project seven but this isn't the end of my time with it i've got a few more days to kind of live with it and see if i can get over those negatives or find even more positives that outweigh and etc etc to see if maybe i need to really force myself and push myself to try and be able to afford a project 7 over an svr or a new r there'll be more content to come with the project 7 and with jaguars in general so make sure you subscribe now turn on notifications so you don't miss those future episodes and my thoughts on this car but if you've enjoyed today's video give it a thumbs up and i'll catch up with you very soon you\n"