Detroit Motor Show - Jaguar XKR and XFR
12th January 2009
The world-famous Detroit Motor Show is underway and a lot of new metal is being unveiled, ranging from green eco cars such as the Fisker Karma (A rival to the Tesla electric sports car, and ironically created by the same man who designed the Tesla) to red-hot metal such as Audi’s new and improved version of their already-stupidly-popular Audi R8. In this article we’ll start with the most important aspect - the Brits.
First person to point out that Jaguar is now an Indian company will be shot. Jags are British, regardless of paperwork. End of.
Big news from Jaguar. They didn’t unveil a new ‘car’ per se, so much as a new engine. They’ve developed a whole new supercharged V8 engine - a 5.0L glorious little beast - and said as an aside that they’re popping it into a brand new Jaguar XKR and an even-more-brand-new performance version of their XF, creating the ‘XFR’.
The XFR (pictured above) will - thanks to the new V8 and lots of high tech mechanical bits - produce a staggering 510bhp, with a 0-60mph time of 4.7 seconds. Of course, this would all make sense in the sports coupe Jaguar XKR, but the really big news is this XFR because remember - this is a four-door executive saloon. it’s got nice carpets, a gorgeous leather interior, and all the creature comforts you’d expect in something like an S-class mercedes. And yet this car will only be 0.1 of a second slower than the sports coupe, the XKR. So even if you have a wife and kids you can still have a car that will utterly destroy a lot of performance cars on the road today.
The engine is actually pretty clean too… by V8 standards. The Jag’s rivals would be the BMW M5 and M6, which produce less power despite having big V10 engines. They produce at least 350g/km of CO2 whereas the Jag’s engine is expected to produce less than 300g. So you can own a car like this and be comfortable in the knowledge that there is virtually no car in the same class as this that produces less CO2 per kilometre. Although those interested in a car this powerful really wouldn’t give a damn anyway, if we’re honest.
As evidence to support the comment I made above, Jaguar says both cars will get a ferrari-style electronic differential (mechanical bits in charge of the wheels) that can be set by the driver for their driving taste, including (and I quote): “easy drifting when the traction control is turned off”.
Yeah. I’d imagine with 510bhp and rear wheel drive, drifting would definitely be possible. See what I mean about their target audience?
You’ll have noticed the new styling cues that seem to have been inspired by (or copied completely from) the Aston Martin DBS, which is definitely no bad thing. New side skirts, alloys and bonnet vents. It trades the XF’s elegance for a more muscular and aggressive appearance. It worked wonders with the DBS and in my opinion it’s done the same job with the XFR.
Finally the bad news is the XKR version is set to cost £72,400 and will arrive in March/April time this year. But the XFR - which is at least as good as the XKR but slightly slower - will be less than £60k. Why it’s so much cheaper I don’t quite understand.
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It really does look like the offspring of an Aston Martin+Jaguar parent combo. Not sure I like the looks of it, too chunky (which is basically what I don’t like about the Bugatti Veyron).
[Reply]
Comment by pei — January 12, 2009 @ 9:44 pm