For pretty much all of the bigger European sport/luxury->ke505 brands, confusing nomenclature has been a bit of a problem at one point or another. While some companies (like, say, Porsche)->ke1 don't really seem too bothered by it, Jaguar->ke39 has decided to deal with the issue of higher performance trim levels and exactly how they're named. The current naming scheme means that there are S and R trim levels, which haven't been all that difficult for people to wrap their heads around, but above the R is the R-S and R-S GT, and this is where people start getting lost, according to Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations Division head John Edwards.

Edwards says that the R-S and R-S GT trims will be cut from the lineup and replaced simply with an SVR trim, used as the ultimate expression of a given model. Edwards admits that these won't necessarily be quite as hardcore as the GT models were, as accessibility will be more of a priority. But as the 2015 Range Rover SVR, the first of the SVR models has shown us, these will still be plenty hardcore models.

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Why it matters

Plenty of car companies get by with nomenclature far more confusing than Jaguar's, and if Jaguar's rearranging of the performance lineup to include just S, R and SVR models seems extreme, that's because it doesn't really seem to be about the nomenclature. Jaguar Land Rover is simply taking a more streamlined approach to building extreme models, consolidating all of the work into SVO. This is similar to the approach used by the Germans, with Mercedes-Benz,->ke187 BMW->ke178 and Audi->ke14 all having dedicated performance divisions. It seems to work for the Germans, but Edwards doesn't want SVO to become too similar. So there won't be any “plus” models, versions which add just a bit more, like AMG's->ke8 Black Series models, or the BMW GTS models. SVR badges will denote the ultimate in performance, and there won't be any limited-production runs of anything.

2017 Jaguar F-Type SVR

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