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Channel 4 Reviews Jaguar XK
http://www.channel4.com/4car/feature/feature.jsp?id=3654
Good value at £70,000? Yes, really
Through the tunnel we hurtle. The roof is down and the sound effects from the convertible version of Jaguar's new XKR are, well, unique. The rat-tat-tat part of the V8 beat is particularly crisp - a hi-fi buff might say it has well-defined transients - and there's a deep bass underlay complemented by the muted whine of the supercharger. The whole soundscape is more precise, higher in the tech than a US muscle car's beating bellow, and somehow more cultured than the chopped-metal rumble of an SL55 AMG. Think Aston Martin V8 Vantage without the induction gulps. For the car that the XKR is, it's just right.
And what, exactly, is that? Pricewise, we're in sub-SL500 and BMW M6 territory. Sportiness-wise, we're with the M6 and approaching the SL55 and the 911 Turbo, for these are the cars Jaguar's engineers had in mind when creating the XKR. That doesn't mean the XKR is meant to emulate them, though. Instead it gives a taste of what they can do while making it more 'accessible'.
This has several meanings. The price is part of it, making a car which costs £67,495 (coupe) or £73,495 (convertible) seem conspicuously good value (it's an £8495 premium over the regular XK). Another part is that you can get into an XKR, feel instantly at home in it and enjoy the feel of its supercharged performance without having to risk an automotive ASBO. That's the problem with the 911 Turbo, for example: driven at licence-preserving speeds, it feels lazy and turbo-laggardly. Only when you squeeze the accelerator hard and engage warp drive can you feel what it can do. The rest of the time is just frustration.
The XKR has 416bhp (up from the standard car's 300) and 413lb-ft of torque, which in a 1665kg car of all-aluminium construction is probably sufficient. It lets you surge to 60mph in 4.9 seconds, and were there not a 155mph speed limiter it would probably be good for about 180. An exhaust bypass valve which opens under speed and load, like an Aston's or a Ferrari's, adds to the sense of aural occasion, but the intake noise is silenced to mute that supercharger whine, disliked by some past buyers of blown Jaguars. Enough remains to let you know it's there, but it meant that the engineers have had to rely on the exhaust alone for mechanical music. They seem to have cracked it, though.
An XK with the volume turned up
To let onlookers know you have the hot XK, the XKR has a mesh front grille and air vents in the bonnet, like the previous-generation car. It also has deeper front and rear valances, four exhaust pipes and a new wheel design, but the tyre sizes are unchanged. And if you go for the aluminium interior decoration instead of the wood, as you should, you'll find a coarser 'weave', as seen in the original XK concept car.
The XKR is positioned as a rapid and driver-pleasing GT - 'an XK with the volume turned up' is how the man in charge of dynamic Jaguar-ness, Mike Cross, puts it - but it's an open secret that there'll be a harder-edged, lightweight version in the future. They call it XKR-R in the factory, but we may come to know it by another name.
If there's a criticism of the regular XK, it is that a really keen driver going really quickly on a challenging road might crave some more lowdown urge and tighter control of the body's movements. The trick with the latter is to do this without destroying the ride, and Jaguar probably does a better job than any other carmaker here thanks to Cross's supernatural understanding of suspension systems. He's always adamant that a Jaguar must 'breathe' over the road, and not be so tied down that it gets choppy and uncomfortable. Apart from anything else, a breathing car is a faster car because its wheels are in better contact with the road and the driver isn't being battered. (That's why a World Rally Car has a suspension suppleness that would astound someone steeped in a culture where stiffer and lower equates to sportier.)
Shades of Ferrari 599
Naturally, the XKR conforms to the Cross criteria. Its front springs are 38% stiffer, the rears 26%, the disparity down to the supercharged engine's extra weight and the fact that it's a good idea to engineer in a touch more steady-state understeer into a rear-drive car whose tractive effort has been increased (so says Cross). The adaptive dampers' calibrations are altered for a 25% increase in damping force, and the anti-roll bars are thicker. The brakes are bigger, too.
Result? A firmer, more planted Jaguar but one which still glides over sharp edges and is never, ever harsh or agitated. There are shades of Ferrari 599 here; it's that good. And it makes a mockery of the Aston Martin DB9, all £106,850 of it, with its fidgety ride and dreadful road noise. The XKR has meatier steering than the XK, too, with genuine road feel managing to battle its way past the power assistance so you can sense properly how the front wheels' grip level is changing.
So you pile into a bend, feel how the tail momentarily helps point the nose (that's the rear dampers deliberately stiffening before the fronts), press the accelerator and feel a lovely surge of torque as the tail squats and you fire out of the curve. On a dry road it's better with the ESP in its first stage of disengagement, so the power isn't cut back when the rear tyres are nearing their tractive limit. It's more fluid that way, and the ESP will still intervene if a major miscalculation occurs.
Taut chassis, torquey engine; it's the ideal combination. The coupe is a touch sharper, but only a touch. Amazingly, the convertible has exactly the same suspension settings (usually an open car's are softer to disguise the floppier body), yet there's almost no shudder over bumps. It's the tautest, keenest big convertible I've ever driven. Both XKRs have a cross-brace between the rear suspension towers, incidentally.
Jaguar or Porsche? It's a tough call
The icing on the XKR cake comes from the gearbox, though. It's the usual ZF six-speed auto with Jaguar's own shift programming, modified here for faster shifts which are more 'definite' without being abrupt. Jaguar could have made the shifts undetectable apart from the engine note, as a double-clutch DSG transmission can be, but its research suggests that drivers of a car like this to feel just a hint of mechanical gearshift activity.
It is, probably, the best torque-converter automatic in the world (except in Sport setting, which is too violent), especially in its manual mode. Too many Tiptronic-type shifts feel remote and disconnected from the action, not doing exactly what you want when you want it, so after a time you give up using them. Not so the Jaguar shift with its steering-wheel paddles: it's as instant as a DSG or a Ferrari F1 shift, smoother than the latter without the need for fancy throttle footwork, and blips up the engine revs for a perfect downchange just as they do. And you can go straight into manual mode at any time without moving the selector. Marvellous.
The XKR isn't quite as bombastic as an M6 or an SL55 AMG, but it's plenty potent enough for excellent entertainment. Its price makes the other uber-GTs look indulgently expensive, and overall it's a more satisfying drive than they are. The only snag, for Jaguar, is that buyers might go for an XKR over an XK because the enhancements are such remarkable value. And that may harm residual values of the XK.
There remains one question: XKR or similar-price but less powerful Porsche 911 S? It has never been a tougher call.