Jaguar Land Rover launches Special Operations

SVO division to build special-order cars for the two brands, restore classic Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles

Jaguar 
Jaguar Land Rover SVO will build special editions and custom-ordered cars for the two brands. 

Lockheed Martin has Skunkworks, Aston Martin has Q, andJaguar Land Rover now has the Special Operations division for creating exclusive special-order cars. Special Vehicle Operations (Special Ops for short) will focus on creating custom commissions and restoring heritage models from the two brands, in addition to offering special lines of cars; similar to BMW's Individual division.This in-house division will replace the Engineered to Order division that was responsible for cars like specially commissioned Daimlers and expedition-spec Land Rover Defenders.

Special Operations will be based near Coventry, U.K., and Jaguar Land Rover will show off the very first cars at the upcomingGoodwood Festival of Speed. A team of 150 specialists have been tapped for the new division, which will be run by John Edwards, former brand director of Land Rover, with the engineering side of things overseen by Paul Newsome, former chief technical officer with Williams Advanced Engineering. The new Special Vehicle Operations division will have a customer commissioning suite where buyers will be able to consult with the team on custom orders, in addition to its own paint shop.

Special Vehicle Operations will also work on restoring classic Land Rovers and Jaguars; this part of the business will utilize the existing workshop at Browns Lane in Coventry. In this regard, SVO will be like Mercedes-Benz's Classic Center, carrying out factory restorations to the highest standards. SVO's work will also concern Land Rover's partnership with luxury fashion house and outerwear specialist Barbour.

The debut of the new long-wheelbase Range Rover should keep Special Vehicle Operations busy for some time, as that will be a fertile platform for customizations, though we suspect that the few coachbuilders like Carat Duchatelet that work on Range Rovers won't lose too much business.