After hanging out one afternoon, a few of my car buddies were talking cars and sharing how they are all very excited and hyped up over the new Dodge Charger and Challenger Hellcat, a factory issue Musclecar/musclesedan producing over 700hp from a supercharged Hemi. I jokingly chimed in, "well respect its roots, pun intended, but the XJR is the Grandfather of the Charger Hellcat, being an earlier 4 door sedan car with a supercharged V-8.
That snowballed into questioning what was the earliest and earlier 4 door sedans that did feature a supercharged V-8, RWD platform and to which some of us believed the XJR to be amongst the first.

I know the 37' Cord Supercharged 812 Had a supercharged v-8 but that was in a FWD platform, and in turn does not follow the typical muscle car/muscle sedan formula, and found several other sedans with superchargers on six cylinder engines but again not a single one that had a supercharged v-8 in a rear wheel drive car.

It would be cool to think the XJR to be the first, but i find that hard to believe.

So, does anyone know of any earlier car or cars, or was the XJR indeed the first RWD sedan to have a supercharged V-8?

 

At least the 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk:

1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk Supercharger story

Studebaker Golden Hawk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blower Bentleys

Bentley 4½ Litre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mercedes SSK

Supercharged engines by Mercedes (from 1916) | Daimler > Company > Tradition > Special Topics

 

So while supercharging has been around for decades with many cars having them fitted, so far I have come up with a plethora of supercharged coupes, or two doors, but not a single one I have come across was built as a four door sedan, or saloon.
No to be picky or difficult plums, but all three cars you have listed and linked are all coupes or two doors, while supercharged, they are not sedans.

 

Well I really don't care

Does it really even matter how many cylinders are involved aside from how many doors?

The 1995-1997 XJR/6 is supercharged and certainly their proud owners will tell you there is not much difference.

 

Haha, fair enough!
I truly love all cars and all different types of engines and motors but I was curious if the X308 XJR was the first of its kind! Its kinda cool to think of the XJR as a bit of a departure from the way it was done before, and if it was done before, it would be quite nice to draw that line and see how the technology and development progressed over time.

I love tracing the lineage for different ideas and concepts in the automotive realm, finding out where ideas were sourced, and where and when they were perfected is always a fascination to a car nerd like myself!

 

Aston Martin, did 3 Vantage special type 1`s that had 4 doors and twin supercharged 5.3 V8 engines as a special order for a customer.
But at a total of 3 can hardly be called production cars.
As far as I can make out they were made in 1996, so a close call with the X308.

 

That's okay Jimbo, I understood your trivia question. Four door sedan, rear wheel drive V8. Is that correct?

 

Cool find!
A very rare and exclusive car, and not really a production model in my opinion, as a coach built car for some very special, well, wealthy customers! But man, a 600hp Aston Martin 4-door is way cool in my books!
And since all threads are cooler with pictures,
borrowed from Aston Martin Works-

image hosting no register



upload pics

Indeed! First Four door, rear wheel drive sedan with a supercharged v-8!

 

Ford had supercharged four door sedans in 1957....our local police dept had one

 

I don't know whether it was the first or not but X308 XJR was, at the time of its launch, the fastest sedan on the planet.

 

Not quite. The old Lotus Carlton would put it in the dirt, as did the W210 E60 AMG. Both were produced in actual numbers.

 

I forgot to write the word "production". The XJR was the fastest production sedan (saloon) in the world.

At the time of the XJR launch, the Carlton was long no more in production (produced 90-92 only) and the E60 AMG was only an option (on special order). I don't think Jaguar made the "fastest production saloon in the world" statement without first making sure it was correct.