Jaguar XKR Coupé
Speed And Black review
by Mike Grundon (14 September 2010)
If you thought Jaguars were all about elegant gentlemanly class or good-natured sportsmanship, you've really got to see this version of the latest XKR sports coupé. Forget the supercharged five-litre engine for a moment. Just look at it. An idiot can see this isnt about smiling and doffing your hat as you overtake on the Queen's highway. This is about pointing the nose at the enemy and pulling the trigger.
We'll come to the stats in a minute, but first you need to know this is a special version equipped with what's known as the Speed and Black pack. This means it has a higher top speed than the already fast XKR, it has different aerodynamics to keep it firmer on the ground, and all the outside metalwork that would normally have a bright metal finish has been turned a solid and purposeful black. Combined with the bodywork's deep and serious shade of red, this gives the car a dynamic tension beyond. It's menacing to see coming up in your rear view mirror, and you'll breathe easier when it’s passed you and scorched off down the road in front.
Okay, so it looks the business, but it goes pretty well too. That big GEN III V8 engine is the latest addition to the XKR range and it replaces the old 4.2. We're informed it's no more thirsty nor polluting, yet it's got 23% more power and 12% more torque on tap. What does that mean? Well that's 503bhp and 461lb/ft of torque which will pull the 1.7 tonne coupe through the 62mph mark 4.8 seconds after take-off, pass the quarter mile post in 12.9 seconds and hammer on up to a top speed of 174mph.
It has to be said that all those figures, except the top speed, are identical to the standard supercharged XKR. The "Speed" part of the Speed and Black pack adds 19mph to the electronically limited terminal velocity, different mapping of the Active Differential Control to reduce steering sensitivity at the higher speeds, and a revised splitter under the chin at the front and a larger spoiler on the tail, "to provide increased balance and a reduction in lift". I'm not qualified to say whether the extra 19mph actually demands such radical alterations to the bodywork, or whether it's more of a styling statement.
The "Black" part of the pack is certainly a style issue - and why not? The darkening of the finish on the 20" wheels, the wire mesh grille and the window surrounds, makes for a darkening of the demeanour of the whole package. Put simply, it looks more like a racing car than a road car.
I'll be honest, the look does it for me. Even considering my long-held belief that the current XK headlamps aren't nearly as handsome as they were on the first model, I have to admit my heart beat slightly quicker for seeing this car.
Settling into the driver's seat and closing the door behind me, I almost laughed with childlike delight to see the red light in the start button was double-pulsing like a heartbeat. Nice touch. Well done. Firing up the engine, the JaguarDrive Selector rises under your left hand like the spaceship controls in the 1980s children's film Flight of the Navigator. It's the big chrome knob that replaced the J-gate selector for the automatic gearbox . . . I'm afraid.
Turn it to D and drop the switch on the electronic parking brake and the big cat pads serenely along the drive to the main road. You're looking past the long sculpted and ventilated bonnet to the outside world and hoping there isn’t something low down and out of sight on which you could prang those expensive wheels or aerodynamic bolt-ons.
The XKR behaves itself perfectly in traffic. The engine and gearbox pull you out and along smoothly and quietly, and the brakes rein you in with more feel than my Vauxhall Astra, despite the fearsome-looking red calipers and discs bigger than a tea tray.
But it's where the road opens out, long and empty that you get a chance to unleash the beast within. Push the accelerator down into the carpet and the car explodes forward with a great trumpeting from the two double-barrelled exhaust ports. Gearshifts come and go almost without ripple, whether in fully automatic or when using the sequential paddles under the steering wheel.
Thundering out along the road in Drive is stirring enough. Switching to S and using the paddles makes it a bit more involving and if you're winding up and down through hills and country where lots of shifts are necessary, it's the only way to properly play.
One niggle here. Those paddles feel and sound really thin, cheap and plasticky. A driver picks up subliminal messages of quality as much through touch as through sight, smell and sound. Leather, wood and metal are good to touch. Action Man accessory plastic is not.
Back to the road and there are settings and buttons to make the engine and systems more responsive - revving higher before changing gear, that sort of thing. But this beast is so powerful and the standard settings so good that short of putting the car on a race track it would be difficult to wring much more than a marginal advantage from them.
Grip is phenomenal. It says a lot for the electronic differential, the suspension set up and the traction control systems that so much power can be pushed into the tarmac through the admittedly substantial footprints of the rear 285/30Z Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tyres.
I'm a big fan of the XK series, despite rather than because of the massive array of entertainment, climate and driving technology it now offers. There's something about the heritage themes that stretch back to the E-Type, the attraction of an exhaust note more beautiful than anything you can put on the CD player and the appeal of flying the flag on adventures to far-flung places. This car has all of that and more.
Whether or not anyone actually needs the Speed and Black pack is doubtful. You'd have to travel at maximum engine scream over vast distances on unrestricted European roads to get any benefit from it. That extra top speed isn't even going to give you any advantage on track days, while the extra 20kg over a standard XKR may theoretically count against it.
But without the Speed pack, you can't have the Black pack and that could make all the difference. The extras add £4000 to the £75,500 cost of an XKR coupé, but if you're already prepared to spend anywhere near that kind of money on a car, maybe the extra hike is worth it.
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