Jaguar XKR 5.0 2010 Review

Jaguar XKR 5.0

Road Test

RRP: $255,000 (manufacturer's list price, excluding on-road costs and dealer delivery)
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): 20-inch Nevis alloy wheels $1700
Crash rating: TBA
Fuel: 95 RON PULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 12.3
CO2 emissions (g/km): 292
Also consider: BMW M6, Maserati GranTurismo S, Porsche 911 Turbo

About our ratings

It's always a balancing act, making something already good even better. Too much refining can bowdlerise an icon, removing some of the rawness that made it so appealing in the first place.

So has Jaguar overbaked the latest XKR? The British luxury and prestige car manufacturer (now owned by Indian corporate giant, Tata), has shoehorned the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 into the engine bay of the XK, where once was fitted a 4.2-litre powerplant. In other ways too, the XKR has been improved, but it's the engine that is the primary point of difference.

The larger-displacement XKR seems to have misplaced some of the character of the older 4.2-litre model. While it growls on start-up, the engine note lacks the big-cat roar that sounded genuinely feline in the 4.2. We're told that Jaguar made the decision to imbue the 5.0-litre engine with a more conventional but beefier V8 sound on start-up.

Then there's how the engine spins up while using the shift paddles to drop the ZF box back a couple of gears. In the 4.2-litre car, the response was immediate in the same way as you might expect of an open-wheel race car. With the 5.0-litre -- and no fault of the transmission, we feel -- the response is significantly slower and less aggressive. It's like the newer engine has the torque, but won't spin up quite as quickly as the 4.2. That said, the 5.0-litre engine is astonishingly powerful and full of intent. It will happily rev to redline or hold a high gear up a long hill at 60km/h -- however you want to drive.

There's a price to pay for the supercharged V8's performance quotient. With most of the XKR's time spent on freeways and open country roads (around 200km or more), we succeeded in reducing the average fuel consumption figure posted by the trip computer from over 30.0L/100km to around 15.4L/100km, which is slightly more than we recorded for the 4.2-litre model and in easier driving conditions.

If it sounds like the 5.0-litre car is a backwards step fear not -- there are some definite improvements in the car's cabin. Jaguar has dropped the J-gate gear shifter of the older car in favour of the rotary dial lifted from the XF. Not everyone likes the new gear-selection device, but this reviewer does. It remains novel in its operation and delights first-time passengers with the way it sinks into the plinth when the engine is switched off. They also remark on the 'heart-beat' starter button -- a feature likewise introduced in the XF -- and the electronic parking brake.

Jaguar's interior designers have added a knob in the seat adjustment switchgear cluster to expand or contract the side bolstering in the backrests of the front seats. It's easy to use and provides the means for the front seats to snugly accommodate occupants ranging from petite to humungous.

The XKR is generally well finished, but the long and heavy doors don't close with 'Germanic' solidity. Then there are the ill-fitting fixtures in the luggage compartment; the flock-lined cargo blind, for example, or the cover for the DVD-ROM unit as another instance. The luggage compartment itself impresses for being fairly accommodating for a car of this type. It will hold a reasonably substantial volume.

There remain older elements of the XKR's design that we still appreciate; such things as the ease of alighting from what is a low-slung car, the highly effective front-seat heating and ventilation or the ergonomically intuitive multimedia interface for audio, climate control, satnav et al.

There are also USB/iPod connections under the centre armrest, but the audio interface won't recharge the iPod as systems in some cars will.

One item found in some German coupes and convertibles that Jaguar should perhaps adopt for the XK is the motor-driven retractable seatbelt pulley -- not because we're too lazy to reach around for the seatbelt, but because it would facilitate easier access to the back seat.

Dynamically, the XKR retains a nicely compliant ride quality, but gives nothing away in handling, steering or roadholding. It's a car that can be flung around furiously to good effect with either some or all of the electro-nannies in 'auxiliary mode stand-by' (off, in other words).

The car's braking performance is beyond reproach. It provides a clear signal from the first dab that it means business, but it's also a braking system that goes about its business quietly. There's none of the grinding vibration and noise in the XKR that some of us have come to expect of high-performance braking systems; just solid, dependable braking.

On a dark and rainy night, we took the XKR out for a run in the country, but settled for discretion over valour. Front-end grip was unbreakable, but oversteer is very easily induced in this car, either with power applied or on a trailing throttle. Even with the traction control left enabled, the car is potentially a handful in the wrong circumstances. That said, with the traction control fully operational, the stability control is very responsive and will keep you safe 99 times out of a hundred.

Without taking anything away from the Jag's suspension, the car has the sort of power to unsettle the rear end in fourth gear once the heavens open -- even with the traction control enabled. All power to Jaguar, so to speak, for having set up the traction control to keep things in check without leaving the driver feeling starved of performance.

It was apparent from that nocturnal drive that the XKR has excellent headlights. They don't swivel through the same magnitude of angle as those of other prestige cars, but they're set up more for wider-radius corners -- and presumably for that reason, higher speeds.

On high beam, they light up the road for kilometres ahead, but don't leave the driver blinded when dipped. Cornering lights are fitted as standard and are useful in a car such as this, since you'd be worried about 'curbing' a wheel rim or even incurring panel damage on unseen 'furniture' while parking at night.

Recognising that the XKR brings with it a lot of virtues (it's fabulously enjoyable to drive and extroverts will feel right at home in it with all the stares of passers-by), this cat also comes with the sort of vices that more practical types won't endure; such things as the cramped interior space for one. The reviewer's son found legroom lacking in the 4.2-litre XKR a year and a half ago. Now, approaching eight years of age, he's finding that legroom in the XKR hasn't improved any.

But that's to ignore the fundamental fact about this car. It's just too appealing. Menacing style, awe-inspiring engine note, arresting performance...

What are the key performance indicators for this car? Perhaps the rictus looks on the faces of other drivers and passengers in the traffic around you as the XKR sprints away from traffic lights, or your own guttural chuckle in the mode of John Jarratt's character, Mick Taylor, as it throws you back in the seat.

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