- Doors and Seats
4 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
4.0SC, 8 cyl.
- Engine Power
276kW, 525Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (95) 10.3L/100KM
- Manufacturer
RWD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, 100000 KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
Jaguar XKR
The Autostrada del Sol rises from Bolzano in northern Italy to the Brenner Pass and the Austrian border. This 80 km of elevated multi-lane freeway is one of the world's great roads, not least because its constant, high-speed curves rush through chocolate-box alpine scenery.
Snap-frozen winters and balmy summers have long since rippled the autostrada into long, soft waves; not really noticeable at 100 km/h, but at twice that speed, even a good car will begin to surf, gently rising and falling, shuffling on its suspension. Beetling mountains mean the road is punctuated with rapid-fire, daylight-to-dark tunnels bored through solid rock.
The combined effect is sensory overload, like some hat-backwards, car-chase video game.
So there I was, in a $230,000 Jaguar, supercharger whining like some giant, mutant hair dryer, exhaust barking off the rock wall on one side and down into the valleys below. Pinch me, but please don't wake me up, because waiting at home is a road test Kia.
Barring the limited production XJ220 supercar, this Jaguar is the fastest, most potent ever built, and one of the most expensive.
My car, like my travel itinerary, was obviously meant for Juan Antonio Samaranch or Kerry Packer: five countries, five days and nothing less than five stars. From chateau to schloss, an orgy of luxury designed to win friends and influence people.
From Dijon in France to Frankfurt, Germany ... via Geneva, Bern, Interlaken, Milan, Genoa, Brescia, Verona, Innsbruck and Munich. About 500-600 km a day and five to six courses for dinner. As one does ...
The pollies would justify it as a fact-finding mission. Media Watch would call it a junket. Media Watch would be right. And I plead guilty to souveniring all those little shampoo bottles and bars of soap with the ritzy hotel logos on them.
The invitation said Jaguar wanted Drive to experience its new supercharged XKR on the roads for which it was designed. Write whatever you like, they insisted. Oh-ka-a-a-ay ...
The substantial sub-plot to this bonhomie is about softening a long-held Jaguar reputation for iffy quality and the sort of engineering depth that hasn't cut it in the fast lane, not since the E-Type of the 1960s.
Jags may be beautiful but they have also been fragile. For serious autobahn clout, the heavy metal tags belong to Porsche, the jumbo Benzes and Munich's fast-arrow 5 and 7 Series. Now Jaguar, a seemly brand for gentlefolk, wants to play with the deutsche marques. After nearly a decade under Ford's wing, with several billion dollars of Detroit money invested in shiny new factories, tooling and paint shops, Jaguar is about to lift production fourfold with a raft of new, more affordable models.
Neither totally new, nor by any measure affordable, the XKR plays an important role in the blueprint. This is the shock weapon, a car charged with regaining Jaguar's autobahn cred and casting a halo over the soon-to-be-expanded catalogue.
The old XJS was more an oozer-cruiser than a true GT car. Even the current XK8 (on which the XKR is based) has its fat Pirellis planted firmly on the boulevard, where top-down running won't disturb the 'do.
The XKR is all hard-edged bad attitude: headlights ablaze, blinkers-flashing, outta-the-way 250 km/h aggro. No surprise, really, that the request to build such a car emanated from customers of Jaguar Deutschland who wanted XK8s with more serious schnell! Is it anti-social? Probably. Fun? Yes-s-s! Consider the specification: a 4.0-litre V8 with a big Eaton supercharger pumping away. No Jaguar transmission could handle the nearly 30 per cent boost in power and torque, the stuff that makes the wheels spin and the tyres smoke. Instead, Germany's ZF, preferred supplier to Mercedes, provides a five-ratio automatic which can play the smooth operator around town but lock down tight and bang the shifts through when serious acceleration is required.
The XKR sprints to Australia's legal limit faster than a Honda NSX, Mercedes SL60 AMG, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Aston-Martin DB7 or Ferrari F355, according to independent testing by Britain's CAR magazine. It is only shaded by Porsche's new 911. For the record, the Jaguar XKR coupe clocked a 5.3-second pass; the Porsche 5.1s.
How does it feel? Like being fired down the road, your honour. From 160-200 km/h, speeds which our Staysafe Committee insist turn the brain to mush but which are everyday events on autobahns, the Jaguar has few rivals under a million dollars. It is artificially limited to 250 km/h, a speed it reaches just 39.5 seconds after take-off. The standard XK8 takes 105.6 seconds. Read that last sentence again.
Without its electronic speed limiter the XKR has run around Italy's high speed Nardo test track at just under 290! Even Kerry Packer, noted fast car connoisseur who famously turbocharged a Jaguar XJS in the early 1980s, isn't going to need more power.
He is not among the 40 grown-ups, who presumably lead otherwise responsible lives, about to take delivery of XKRs in Australia. Most will succumb to entirely unnecessary bursts of acceleration, just to hear the supercharger do its thing.
The noise is a fiercely mechanical whining of gears overlaid with rich, almost baritone chorus. At full stretch it is blood-stirring, almost Wagnerian, as the world outside spools into fast-forward. Under-pinning the whirry, whirly bits is Jaguar's computer-active technology suspension: CATS for short.
If not quite Formula One-style "active" in its body control, the CATS system is "adaptive". This means the Bilstein shock absorbers vary their stiffness in response to electronic commands every few milli- seconds. The result is flat, firm handling aided by huge, specially made Pirelli tyres.
The whole package is wrapped in walnut and leather and stamped in the now familiar XK8 body. The only giveaways to brutal intent are the mesh grille, fluted vents in the bonnet and huge alloy wheels.
Criticisms? Heavy braking from warp speeds reminds the driver this is a car of considerable mass. At 1,650 kg the coupe weighs 320 kg more than a Porsche 911. Jaguar is working on improved brakes and a replacement for the incredibly crude arrangement that covers the stacked roof of the convertible. A power-operated lid will soon replace the hand-fitted vinyl cover. Unlike Benz and Volvo, Jaguar doesn't have pop-up rollover safety bars on the XKR convertible. On that serious safety issue, no fix is in sight.
Don't likes? The too-small instruments, the blocked rear vision in the coupe, seats that really should provide more under-thigh support and the lack of a manual transmission.
Of the two XKR models, the coupe is the better-balanced machine but both will become collectors' items of the future. Not since the E-Type has Jaguar produced such an explosive and compelling machine.
But then again, can you believe anyone who's been wined, dined and duchessed like an IOC delegate? If we weren't exactly being bought, we were being leased by the day. So pass the Pommery, lie back and think of England ...
PUMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 with four valves per cylinder/ Eaton supercharger
Output: 276 kW at 6,150 rpm; 525 Nm at 3,600 rpm.
Weight: 1,640 kg (coupe); 1,750 kg (convertible)
Combined cycle fuel consumption: 12.2-12.6 L/100 km
Price: coupe $203,000; convertible $231,000.
WHEN ONLY THE BEST ...
Road: The Sustenpass, Switzerland. Like skiing flat-out for half an hour. Tight second and third gear corners, snow-capped mountains, grand vistas ... and enough black ice to test the traction control system!
Tunnel: Switzerland's Gotthard Tunnel - it's 19 km long!
Lunch: Five courses served at Villa Principe Leopoldo, overlooking Lake Como. Won't bore you with the details ...
Dinner: Really wish you were there for Villa D'Este's sturgeon and warm salmon salad, followed by artichoke ravioli with scampi and veal with herbs and truffle sauce.
Wine: 1992 Faiveley Gevry-Chambertin Burgundy from Les Cazetiers.
Hotel: For its views and ambience, the appropriately named Splendido in Portofino, Italy.
Bill: One night at Hotel Victoria Jungfrau, Interlaken ... a mere $1,500 (that's what it said behind the door). For that you get to keep the soap and the shampoo.