The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 is fast around a race track. In fact, it claims a saloon record at the Nürburgring with a Nordschleife time of 7 minutes 21.23 seconds. To refresh your memory, the winged version of Jaguar’s stately sports saloon is a mad machine with a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 under the hood, tuned to produce no less than 592 bhp and 516 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to make it Jaguar’s most powerful road car, and with just 300 planned for production, it’s also exceedingly rare.

Merely spotting one in public is a sight to behold, but as you can see from the video above and screenshots below, this Jaguar isn’t just partaking in some low-speed parade laps. The footage comes from Gumbal on YouTube, and though we don’t have details on this particular drag racing venue, it’s clear the plucky Brit is trying to stave off a German invasion. A string of Mercedes-Benz competitors show up to challenge the Jag, including a red AMG GT R adorned with plenty of sponsorship stickers, a C63 saloon, and an AMG GT 63 S 4-door.

Gallery: Jaguar XE SV Project 8 Drag Racing Mercedes

That last one is something of a grudge match, because Mercedes claimed a "fully fledged four-seater production car" Nürburgring record with its GT 63 S last October. The time was approximately four seconds slower than the Jaguar, but Mercedes sliced some hairs by pointing out the XE SV Project 8 had the optional track package, which deleted the saloon’s rear seat. This video, then, can potentially put to rest some questions about which car really is the fastest saloon, or four-seater, or however you choose to quantify it.

Unfortunately, the video doesn’t really help in that manner. The cars line up a couple of times for side-by-side runs, but we’ll just say the outcome is inconclusive. Hit the video above to see what we’re talking about.

Source: Gumbal via YouTube