Supercharged Jag XF Does 225 MPH at Bonneville

Muwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! As you probably know by now, we here at Autopia really love all things Bonneville Salt Flats and land speed record related. And we also love cars that are seriously, seriously overpowered. So when we heard that someone had taken a perfectly good Jaguar XF, and stood on the gas for as long as they could and took it out to East of Wendover, well, we just had to take a closer look.

For starters, this wasn’t just any yahoo who decided to do this (there’s plenty of those running around). No, this was Paul Gentilozzi, owner of Rocketsports Racing who successfully led Jaguar to five series victories between 2001 and 2006 in the Trans Am. That would be the same Paul Gentilozzi who used to run a CART team, was part owner in the series, competitor at Indy, and all around great guy.

Paul’s Jag is powered by the all-new AJ-V8 Gen III engine and beat Jaguar’s previous speed record of 217.1mph set in the XJ220 in 1992. The car ran with minor aerodynamic and safety mods to meet the requirements for a Bonneville run. Safety first, even past the double ton.

That speed of 225mph was achieved with via horsepower from a remapped ECU, a modified air intake and exhaust system and revised supercharger settings. No internal engine components were changed and the six-speed automatic transmission was standard, including the gear ratios. All of which is pretty impressive … how many times have we seen an LSR car splatter the big end all over The Flats? Answer: Too many.

“During my career, I’ve raced worldwide from the southern tip of New Zealand to Le Mans. Along the way, I have been privileged to drive and own so many exciting cars but I’ve never driven one that was as exciting to drive fast as this Jaguar,” said Gentilozzi.

The new Jag XFR, the first XF to carry the ‘R’ badge. That little red R defines Jaguar’s most performance-focused models. The XFR is powered by an all-new supercharged 5.0-liter V8 engine developing 510PS and 625Nm of torque. That gives it enough grunt to accelerate from standstill to 60mph in just 4.7 seconds, and is capable of reaching an electronically limited 155mph … or 225mph if you take that limiter off, are crazy enough to trailer it out to The Salt Flats and happen to be Paul Gentilozzi.