Five of the coolest limited edition Jaguars of all time

Jaguar: a car brand which makes you proud to be British. Even though over the years the Coventry-based manufacturer has gone through more ups and downs than The Big Dipper, it has never ceased making amazing cars. It was Enzo Ferrari himself who declared the E-Type the most beautiful car he had ever seen – praise doesn’t come much higher than that.

Not only does Jaguar make great cars, it also knows a thing or two about making limited edition models: cars which are either downright bonkers in terms of performance or immediate collector’s items. Or both. This week Jag treated us to the Heritage Edition F-Type - a special edition of its V8 roadster limited to just 60 examples and painted in the Sherwood Green paintjob of the original E-Type.

That got us thinking about the other limited edition Jaguars which set our pulses racing…

XE Project 8 (2017)

The ultimate super-saloon, the Project 8 is based on the Jaguar XE but is stuffed with a fire-breathing 5-litre supercharged V8 engine which produces 592bhp and 700Nm of torque, making it Jaguar’s most powerful road car to date. With just 300 made, even if you’ve got the £150K to buy one you will probably struggle. An extra £10,000 buys you a track pack which swaps the back seats for a roll cage and adds carbon race seats in the front.

F-type Project 7 (2013)

Like the Project 8, the Project 7 is the work of Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division which created the most hardcore version of the F-Type roadster around. Using Jag’s 5-litre supercharged V8 and shaving 45kg from the regular car, the rear wheel drive Project 7 is pretty nippy, knocking of 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds. All of the 250 made were sold immediately, even though it cost £135,000.

XKSS (1957 and 2017)

The Jaguar D-Type is one of the most beautiful race cars of all time but back in 1957, once the race season was over, Jaguar decided to convert 25 D-Types into roadgoing cars and call it the XKSS. All but nine were completed, with one bought by Steve McQueen, but when the last nine were damaged in a fire Jaguar decided to abandon the project. That was until 2016, when it decided to rescue the remaining cars and turn them into continuation models.

C-Type (1951)

Only 53 models of the Jaguar C-Type were ever built and they were made specifically for racing, with the C standing for competition (it was officially named the XK120-C). The C-Type won at Le Mans twice thanks to its lightweight aluminium body and 3.4-litre straight six engine, and if you can find one of those winning cars for sale today it’ll cost you around £2 million to buy. There are plenty of replicas out there though, which cost a lot less.

XJR 100 (2001)

To commemorate the 100th birthday of Sir William Lyons, co-founder of Jaguar, 500 special edition XJRs were built, with just 82 of them sold in the UK. They all featured a 4-litre supercharged V8 engine which produced 370bhp - not too shabby for a saloon - and most were finished in black with red stitching throughout the interior. If you see one on the roads today then that’s the day to buy a lottery ticket, they are about as rare as it comes.