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Jaguar XJ Facelift Tested on the Nurburgring Nordschleife

Jaguar has been testing the facelifted XJ full-size luxury sedan since the beginning of the year. More recently, engineers have taken the lofty British bruiser to the Green Hell in Germany, which basically means that the 2015 Jaguar XJ is currently in the fine tuning stage of the development process.
2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring 9 photos
Photo: CarPix
2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring2015 Jaguar XJ Tested on the Nurburgring
The X351 generation of the XJ has been introduced 5 years ago and some voices in the industry hint that Jaguar's flagship model will get an all-new model in 2016. Whatever the future holds and whether the new XJ will ditch its Britishness for a more Germanic Mercedes-Benz S-Class luxury recipe, only time will tell. But until then, there's a facelift in the pipeline, expected to hit dealers later this year or early 2015.

The car spotted by our carparazzi on the Nurburgring sports a mildly different wire mesh grille compared to the one on the outgoing model. The lower side air intakes are also featuring slightly different L-shaped chrome ornaments, while the front bumper seems to be more rounded and clean in design. As for the camouflaged headlights, we can't identify any differences, but we're certain that they'll be revamped to match the new stylistic language of Jaguar, which will debut on the all-new XE saloon later this year.

As for the wheels, the ones fitted to this test vehicle appear to be the same as the rims included in the optional Sport Pack. The front wheels are chuck-full of brake dust, which only means that engineers are testing and calibrating the suspension of the 2015 Jaguar XJ like crazy and with good reason - the current model is a tad firmer than the cloud-like soft setup of the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class. As for the rear, changes in this area are minimal and only the tail lights might get freshened up a little.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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