JAGUAR XKR Review

When you sit in your large office chair and think about the comfort offered by the XKR, it seems almost impossible for a single thing, the fact that it’s a Grand Tourer, to compensate for so many facts that should keep if from offering this to you. We’re referring to things like a 100 mm ground clearance and the fact that its suspension has to cope with 510 hp, as well as its bewildering shape.

However, spend one minute inside the car and you will prove yourself that you were wrong. This thing’s purpose in life is to devour one mile after another and it couldn’t do that if the driver became the weak link in this long distance cruising chain due to its lack of comfort.

You’ll feel cosy even before entering the car, just by looking at the seats -the perception of width offered especially by the backrest is impressive and the controls on the door just let you know that you’ll feel fine.

And then there’s the suspension. It may not be able to adapt 100% to your performance driving needs, but it doesn’t have to, as it is capable of filtering every negative emotion of the road.

The cabin is flooded with electricity - the seats, the steering column and everything that needs to be operated by running electrons is just like that.

Just like in the XFR, the engine and the gearbox can take each other by the hand and take a walk in the park if this is what you want. You’ll be able to cruise at amazing things without feeling a thing. Yes, you can overtake in a decent manner by using just a third of the acceleration pedal’s travel and the active exhaust makes sure there will be no growl to interrupt your meditation behind the wheel if you don’t want it.

The XKR is all about aluminum. The metal is used for the vehicle’s body, as well as for its engine, which keeps the weight down, but this doesn’t mean that the XKR is a light vehicle, as it tips the scales at around 1,750 kg (3,860 lbs).

If we take a close look at performance divisions these days, we’ll see a rather high rate of in-range sharing and this tendency is very strong in Jaguar’s line-up. For example, the XFR we tested a few weeks back and the XKR share key mechanical components, such as the engine, gearbox, differential and adaptive dampers, but the carmaker manages to offer such a different experience in the two beasts, that you can instantly forget about all that.

Let’s make a special moment by opening the hood. No, we don’t want to draw attraction from the crowds, all we want is to talk about the supercharged 5.0-liter V8 unit a little bit.

The 5.0-liter AJ-v8 Gen II powerplant has a black belt in engineering, mastering skills like a variable camshaft system that relies on the positive and negative torques created by the movement of the intake and exhaust valves, instead of on the oil pressure. You can even skip the engagement ring - just by an XFR and tell your fiance that the engine uses Diamond-Like Carbon Coating for its bearings. What else? direct injection, a state-of-the-art supercharger with a helix rotor design and others.

Jaguar wants to trick us into thinking that the XKR uses an internal combustion engine, but in fact this mill is an explosion itself. The thing you'll love the most will be the INSTANT response across the rev range.

And then there’s the ZF six-speed automatic gearbox, one of the best torque converter transmissions available on the market today. The 2012 model year facelift for the XK range will bring an eight-speed auto to the XK, but the R version will stick to the current one - don’t worry, it’s not the same you get in the XF diesel, as it has had both hardware and software upgrades. You also get a mode in which the computer leaves the gear changing entirely to you, so it won’t shift up even if you hit the rev limiter.

The 510 hp are offered between 6,000 and 6,500 rpm, while the 625 Nm maximum torque is delivered between 2,500 and 5,500 rpm. The XFR’s acceleration is bewildering, but the XKR is even better - mostly thanks to the weight difference between the two (150 kg/330 lbs) and to the fact that the latter has been gifted with a much more aggressive character.

Let’s take the exhaust, for example. While the XFR offered a pleasing growl, sometimes, you wish you received more. The XKR’s exhaust uses special valves devils, to bring hellfire on Earth when your right foot demands this.

How does this translate in the real world? Well, the official 0 to 62 mph times only give the XKR 0.1 seconds ahead, but this doesn’t even tell half the story, as the coupe’s in-gear acceleration clearly outshines the saloon’s one.

We can’t end without mentioning the other engineering degrees this cars has: the active differential, which make a classic LSD look antique, as it doesn’t listen to centrifugal forces - it has a mind of its own a.k.a an electric motor - and the adaptive dampers, which really do help a lot, as this is a car that, even when riding on 20-inch rims, manages to be ambidextrous, shining in terms of both ride and handling. However, just like in the XFR, the Adaptive Dynamics system feels a bit too reactive, it doesn’t offer instant response.

The XFR combines raw force with state-of-the art technology in order to be able to offer the dual character expected from a proper GT.

This chapter and the interior are the only areas that offer necessary but not 100 percent sufficient. You receive delicious stuff, but there are a few things that could’ve been offered but are missing.

Let’s take the cruise control, for example. It’s simple to use and it will do its job just fine, but why hasn’t this car been fitted with an adaptive one, wouldn’t that have been in the GT spirit?

However, like we said, don’t get us wrong, this feline really holds enough toys in its paws. The touch screen on the center console can be used to control multiple functions, such as the two-zone climate control system, which, together with the heated and ventilated front seats, make adjusting the interior temperature a child’s play.

But probably the sweetest thing you can use the touch screen for is to control the Bowers and Wilkins audio system, which is... nice. Yes, that’s all we can say about it - would you listen to music in a car with an engine that sounds like this? We didn’t.

Of course, the touch screen can also be used to interact with the navigation system, which is easy to use - however, our test car didn’t come with the latest map update, so we really couldn’t rely on the system.

The seats offer a 10-way, electric-powered adjustment, coming with a useful function that allows you to play with a little knob in order to adjust the lateral support. Other goodies include heating for the steering wheel and the windshield, a rain sensor, a headlight washing system and others.

As for the front & rear parking sensors, these are well calibrated and user-friendly, so you’ll immediately become close friends.

Just like we said in the XFR test drive, we like our expensive cars a bit more “cutting edge”, and this cat is up there, but not quite on the podium.

As you can imagine, gentlemen like the XK(R) do not fancy attending crash test events. Thus, we have no official data on how the vehicle would react if it had to take off its jacket and enter a fist fight with official obstacles.

One might consider that a coupe with a large (we mean this in the European way) V8 and a supercharger is a car that’s likely to get you into trouble, but the XKR proves this is not necessarily true. Yes, driving it and expecting to keep your license untouched is like believing that your wife and mistress can become friends, but the cat’s agility keeps you from sending it into the wild.

We’ve got a clever differential that also uses an electric motor to keep things together, adaptive damping, and Dynamic Stability Control system with a “Track” mode that slaps the car back into place while allowing you to have some fun. These ingredients make sure that the vehicle’s only contact with the outside world is made via its tires.

However, we did miss the blind spot monitoring system that the XFR we tested was fitted with.

Of course, we took the liberty to imagine how things would be if you used the car to challenge the laws of physics, which would of course send you flying into the landscape or any other obstacle. There were a few things that allowed us to keep our peace of mind, such as the fact that we are talking about a coupe, so the torsional rigidity should be pretty high and the airbag cocoon around us.

However, since the XKR wasn’t officially tested, we can’t just toss a coin and assume that it’s worth a royal rating for this chapter, so we’ll give it 8 out of 10.

This was one of the “easiest” cars we’ve ever tested. What does the aforementioned adjective mean? It’s simple: you really only need to spend a few minutes driving the XKR and you’ll fall in love and this has nothing to do with the fact that the example we drove had a price tag of around EUR 113,000 ($162,380 at the current exchange rates). You’ll want to enter a long-term relationship with this car. And, just like in a fairy tale, you’ll fall in love over and over again.

While the XFR managed to conceal its claws a bit too well, the XKR is the perfect definition of duality. You’re planning to start a journey and the number of miles is frightening you? Use the XKR and it will be the distance that will run scared.

The duality of the XKR’s character allows you to cruise, overtake and tackle many types of roads effortlessly and, when boredom kicks in, or you just want an (over)dose of strong feelings and emotions, all you have to do is ask. In maximum 15 seconds you’ll be in for a ride through hellfire.

The chassis is a perfect companion for the flexible V8 and this is what makes the XKR such a good Grand Tourer. It’s nice to see how Jaguar engineers have managed to create a suspension that, even though feels rather reactive than active, manages to keep 510 hp in drift without having to claim your internal organs in exchange, as well as a steering that allows you to tackle any corner at a frightening speed, but doesn’t give you a turning cycle the size of Pluto’s orbit.

Does this car also have flaws? Of course. First of all, we would’ve wanted it to be a gifted with more advanced technology. Things like a head-up display would’ve made the whole package even more interesting.

But the biggest improvement that we’d bring to the XKR would be focused on the interior. The cabin of this car should be inspired from a concert hall, it should be extremely spacious and imposing. It’s not bad in its current form, but just not quite what you’d expect.

We’ll go back to comparing it to the XFR. Yes, it has lost a tiny bit of the “magic carpet-ness”, but instead, it offers a much more powerful roar, so, in the end, you receive a more valuable car. You can really forgive Jaguar for sharing so many core components among its models, not only because these work so well, but especially because the results are so different.

This car is extremely frightening, but not for the people that are inside it: the clever diff scares the tete-a-queques away, the suspension sends road imperfection crying to their mommies and so on. Driving the XKR feels like reading living poetry, which is why one of these cats has just joined the autoevolution garage. We’re off now, we have to put our bookshelf in order...