Reviews
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The Poms have produced some shocking rubbish over the years – the Morris Marina, The Good Life, the English cricket team for much of the last decade – but it should be no surprise that Jaguar’s new M5-bashing XFR sedan isn’t.
Not even remotely close. Instead, 2009’s newest super-sedan is more like Jonny Wilkinson’s Rugby World Cup field goal or Kate Winslet’s chest. They are victories, wonders, and champions of the highest order.
That’s a big call when your trophy cabinet includes such gems as the original E-Type and the first XJ12, but it doesn’t take long behind the wheel of the new R-branded XF to realise that this car is a tremendous achievement.
The R scores a deeper front bumper with large, meshed lower air intakes rimmed in chrome, a subtly louvred bonnet with functional heat-extracting vents, meaty side skirts, a small boot spoiler, and four purposeful, protruding chrome rear pipes.
The mirrors feature new LED indicator lights (as do all 2010 XFs) and the R wears new 20-inch Nevis alloys along with a single ‘R’ bootlid badge.But the visuals are nothing more than garnish to the XFR’s banquet of talent. It is what’s growling behind the crinkly mesh grille that really sets this new Jag apart.
Gone is the likeable but long-serving 4.2-litre AJ-V8, in is the virtually all-new 5.0-litre direct-injection AJ-V8 ‘Gen III’.
According to Tim Clark, Jaguar’s Principal Technical Specialist, “we chose to stay with a supercharger because the transient response is so much better than with a turbocharged engine, even a twin-turbo one.”The new blower is claimed to be 20 percent more efficient, while a completely redesigned and more direct air intake reduces flow losses by more than 30 percent.
Jaguar offers nine new XKSS The result is dynamite. Power jumps from a respectable 306kW in the SV8 to a thumping 375kW, from 6000rpm to the engine’s six-five cut-out and shift-up point. That’s 23 percent more in a car that was already bloody quick.
Torque swells, too, from 560Nm to an AMG-rivalling 625Nm, but it’s the manner in which all that force comes into play that sets Jaguar’s new R engine apart.
In fact, Jaguar’s 5.0-litre R engine has managed to cherry-pick a whole bunch of the characteristics of its rivals’ engines, but the final blend is arguably the sweetest of all.
While the XFR offers similar bottom-end shove to Audi’s ludicrously potent RS6, there’s a far more natural progression to the way it builds torque. Its kick-in-the-back shove isn’t quite as violent, but lacking light-switch torque delivery in no way makes it feel any less satisfying.The XFR has substantially more low-rev muscle than its revvy AMG and BMW M nemeses, yet the fact that it only revs to 6500rpm fails to diminish its appeal. It simply suits the car’s suave yet devastatingly effective nature.
After much debate, Jaguar’s engineers decided to invest a lot of time eliminating the blower whine that once characterised an R-badged Jag in lieu of a clearer acoustic brand identity.
Some people will miss it, and others won’t, but there’s so much depth to the XFR’s soundtrack that you soon forget it was ever there in the first place. Indeed, the direct-injection 5.0-litre V8 plays a finer tune than ever.Jaguar’s acceleration claims don’t really do the XFR’s drivetrain justice. An 1816kg automatic sedan that hits 100km/h in 4.9sec (half a second quicker than the old SV8) and can nail the quarter in 13.1 isn’t hanging around by any means.
And it indicates what gear you’re in with a large, easy-to-see digit in the centre screen of its instrument pack.Approach 6000rpm when using the paddles and the previously white gear-number pulses yellow, and when you’re done with manual play and tire of exhaust-crackle games on overrun, you simply hold the upshift paddle for a moment and the XFR calmly slots back into either Drive or Sport.
Unlike an ABS/braking-based system, an electric motor controls the clamp load in the clutch pack to alter torque bias between the rear wheels.Jaguar claims this prevents low-speed understeer and delivers a progressive oversteer transition in all conditions, significantly enhancing traction, agility and vehicle stability.
But the effect in the real world is that the XFR offers superb levels of rear-end traction in both wet and dry, as well as potentially the best rear diff for power-sliding and drifting ever – even better, Jaguar reckons, than BMW’s brilliant mechanical M Differential in the M3/M5/M6. A racetrack drift session test surely awaits…On the road, with TracDSC activated (the mid-setting that allows some oversteer movement), the XFR’s traction and power-down capabilities are both immense.
Obviously huge 285/30ZR20 rear tyres help in this regard, but it’s the XFR’s superb adaptive suspension (with Jaguar-designed and developed electronics controlling Bilstein damper hardware) that keeps this large sedan feeling planted and balanced, yet comfortably playful.Even though the electronics are frantically monitoring every movement – from wheel position to damping compression, ride level, roll rate, and pitch from throttle and brake inputs – the XFR’s dynamics feel totally natural.
It’s more disciplined than the old SV8, but no less serene, making it impossible to pin-point a rough edge.Only its tyre rumble and rough-road ride quality await final confirmation on Australia’s sub-standard surfaces. In Spain, on fabulous roads outside Seville that are better surfaced than anything Australia has to offer, it performed superbly, carry-over brakes included.Beyond the thumping engine and even more polished dynamics, the biggest difference from the XFR’s driver’s seat is the seating itself. The SV8’s were comfortable, but didn’t hold you in place during hard cornering.
The verdict on road noise from the XFR’s Dunlop SP Sport Maxxs will have to wait until the XFR lands in Australia, too, but that shouldn’t be far away. May/June is its current arrival date.We can’t wait to drive the XFR at home. Much as we love having a dig at the Poms, you have to hand it to ’em. They’re bloody clever at doing great stuff at the premium end of the scale, and the Jaguar XFR is a shining example.
It’s as polished as you could ever hope a supersonic sports-luxury sedan could ever be, yet never to the point of being too slick. Despite the sophistication of its brilliant drivetrain and superb suspension, it is crammed full of character and personality. Not everyone thinks it looks great, and those 20-inch wheels are just a little too bright and pretty for this definitive British bulldog. But you just can’t help falling in love with it.Jaguar has had its ups and downs over its 78-year history, but when it produces a blinder, it does so in spectacular fashion. And the XFR, along with the equally stunning new XKR, is just that.
It is without doubt one of the best Jaguars ever built, and that’s gotta be a more lasting legacy than the bloody Ashes.
