Jaguar is keenly aware of the power of theater. Witness the various vents and shifters that rise from the interiors of its cars and the crackling, spitting, quite-insanely loud exhaust blare of its F-type.

So it should come as no surprise that, in conjunction with the North American debut of the 200-mph F-type SVR model at the New York International Auto Show, Jaguar went big on spectacle. The company closed down the Park Avenue Tunnel (near Car and Driver?s ancestral home of the One Park Avenue building) and allowed journalists to take a couple of rip-snorting runs through the tunnel in convertible SVRs. Each of the cars was mounted with various cameras and microphones to produce the movie-trailer-like video you see here. (If the intro doesn?t make you say, ?In a world . . .? in that movie-announcer voice, then you?re not paying attention.) Jaguar fitted the tunnel, which is only about 1600 feet long, with lighting that turned from white to red in response to the wail of the SVR?s titanium exhaust. We weren’t able to gather any driving impressions of the 575-hp SVR other than to note that it is indeed quick and nearly painfully loud as noise bounces around the tunnel in a swirl of aural violence. Somehow, despite the elaborate staging of the event, the video?s audio track fails to capture the full rage of the exhaust. It is positively, ear-woundingly aggressive. It does not purr, it does not rumble. It?s a constant explosion.
2017 Jaguar F-type SVR Debuts, Is ...