The New Jaguar XKR-S : Fast and Ferocious

We know the drill. Stylish, swoopy, dignified and sophisticated to appeal to the suits, with clean hints of aggression built into the design to imply that the suits hit the squash courts every morning. That’s the sort of stuff Jaguar has been great at, and the characteristics that have given the brand its unique identity. Through the years and between the ownership changing hands, creator Sir William Lyons’ original plan of creating sporting saloons seemed to get diluted, with more saloon seeping into the sport, and more suits ending up at office than squash courts. The 2006 XK coupe saw a resurrection-return to sport roots, but this baby blue car that you see in the pictures is as close as it gets to the perfect realization of the sport-shot-in-the-arm that Jaguar needed, since the E-Type. This, is the Jaguar XKR-S. That’s the XK coupe, with the R signifying supercharged breathing, and the S to say that this is the fastest car Coventry has built to date.

And it looks like the fastest too. Jaguar designers led by the masterful Ian Callum – the XK coupe was his first design for Jaguar from ground-up – have ensured that very little of Jaguar saloon traits seem into the car, and the result is something that looks completely at home on a racetrack, and out of this world on the streets. There is an air of purposefulness to the entire design and it does look as if aerodynamics and driving poise dictated the creation of this car on the boards, as opposed to market surveys and bean-counter suggestions. Styling changes to the already good-looking XK keep the XKR-S right up to date with modern sports car design.

The most dramatic changes have been applied to the front of the car, radically altering its appearance and lending it an air of great assertion – in line with the sportscar theme. A new bumper, the oval air intake and the new carbon-fibre splitter and lower spoiler all make this car as ‘Need for Speed’ as Jag will probably get in the near future. At the extreme edges of the front fenders, vertical slots channel air down the sides of the car and along the wider sills for increased high-speed directional stability. All these changes aid the car’s aerodynamics too, and to balance it all off there’s a big spoiler that runs across the rear, to great visual effect. In it pretty Baby Blue paint, it is one gorgeous machine.

Underneath the bonnet rests a retuned version of Jaguar’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8, which now makes 550PS of power and 680Nm of torque – that’s right up there in the sportscar space. But get behind the wheel and stomp on the pedal, and it’s easy to know that this retune goes beyond just numbers. Aspirating through a twin-vortex Roots-type supercharger, a remapped ECU for the engine and freer breathing exhausts make for a most delicious roar that resonates through the cabin – oh what sound. The bits also give the car a significantly improved top end – now resting at a true sportscar figure of 300 km/h, apart from the blinding 4.2 second 0-100 km/h acceleration figure.

It’s still a 1,750 kilo car though, and though Jaguar has always made a big deal about the feline agility of its products, that’s certainly not a sportscar number right? There are enough trick parts in the body, steering and suspension to bring it up to speed in the corners though. Taking the solid foundation of the aluminium architecture as a starting point, both front and rear suspension systems have been upgraded, with electro-trick adaptive damping on the fly. The double wishbone front suspension has been comprehensively revised with a new aluminium steering knuckle that significantly increases feedback and precision.

Chuck the XKR-S into corners and you know that once again, numbers don’t matter much around here. Steering feel is almost from another planet. Light to turn in despite its mass with a finely calibrated resistance to body roll, the car doesn’t stay as square-on-four-wheels as some of its rivals, but getting back and hard on the gas in the exits is very reassuring, and is met with big thrill returns. The strong push in the middle of the rev range also means that getting the rear to step out is easy, and the stiff chassis ensures that a good dose of opposite lock keeps things well in check, without drama. 

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But what really seals the deal in favour of the quick cat is how comfortable it keeps things in the cabin while delivering all these shenanigans. The six-speed paddle-actuated ZF Gearbox becomes strikingly punchy and quick in Sport mode, but under Normal setting it remains just as smooth and comfy as one would expect from a street car. It may look quite extreme, but under its skin and on the street it remains close to a grand touring machine. To bring out the sportscar in it though, all one needs to do is go hard on the pedal and chuck it in and out of some corners, threading them one at a time aided by the great thrust and the delicious, ferocious roar of the V8. Hair raising stuff, quite frankly.

It is not a track-bred weapon, the XKR-S, but it’s still right up there on a race circuit in terms of lap times and sheer driving fun. Out on the open roads it is still a total blast to drive with as much overtaking grunt, comfort, and convenience as you would expect from a Jaguar. The fact that test mules are still running at the as-real-world-as-it-gets Nurburgring Nordschleife for long-term endurance testing just goes to show how the XKR-S is being thought of by Jag itself as a fast, sporty car for the street, albeit one that can hold its own on the race track as well. Looks like the cat is done prowling about and licking its paws – time to hunt, eh?