In The Comfort Zone
by David Finlay (14 Jul 06)

This is not a view that Jaguar would necessarily endorse (and indeed some of the top brass reacted unenthusiastically when I mentioned it recently), but I still feel that the XJ is the car the company most wants to make - perhaps not in financial or marketing terms, but at least to the extent that it is home territory.

Although I like all the current XJs, and although if I were to buy one myself it would probably not be the XJR, this 400bhp 4.2-litre supercharged model is without doubt the most dramatic in the range. To me, it has all the usual Jaguar attributes of (in the words of the old advertising slogan) grace, space and pace. I like the shape, even though others complain about its reference to a car first launched in the 1960s; it's very roomy, though there isn't a long-wheelbase version for lanky rear seat passengers; and oh boy, is it quick.

It is surprising, though not paradigm-shiftingly so, that a car of this size can leap from 0-62mph in just over five seconds and perform similar high-speed tricks on its way to a limited maximum speed of 155mph. More important is the way it does all this.

For example, it does it very quietly. You still hear the muffled roar of the V8 engine when you're using lots of throttle, but compared with previous supercharged Jaguars the none too pleasant whine of the Eaton compressor has been quelled. The original sound effect - something like a greatly extended quack, if you can imagine that - has been reduced to a more distant high-pitched tone which now seems to be part of the engine noise rather than an irritating addition to it.

The way you can use the power is also deeply impressive. Regular readers will know that there's an enthusiasm in this office for cars whose suspension set-up includes relatively soft springs controlled by carefully tuned dampers. Several high-performance cars on the market are disappointing because the balance is wrong, and a remarkable proportion suffer disastrously from the exactly opposite condition of over-hard springs mated to dampers that are too weak to control them.

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