Jaguar XKR Review

Gorgeous Fastest Cat

In short: A stylish, high-performance GT coupe.

It has the grace of its namesake feline, the acceleration of its cousin the cheetah, the torque of an elephant and the determination of a rhinoceros. We bring you the newest wild cat out of the Coventry bag. Already enjoyed in the “base” XK version as a showpiece but slightly underpowered in this new world of over 400 horsepower, worry no more. This supercharged cat with 420 of them is ready to pounce. It is a bit large for easy city maneuvering with tricky rear visibility, but take it on the open road and you might not know where you will end up. A trip from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara nearly ended in San Francisco. Good for two adults, you’d be hard-pressed to torture two more by squeezing them in the two rear seats. Trunk space is acceptable in the coupe version from the long and gorgeously designed rear end, as are other parts with reminiscent Aston Martin shapes.

The front cabin has good ergonomic features and is a perfect cockpit from where to conduct your driving mission. You get heated 10 way power front seats, dual climate control with filter, and a 160 watt high decibel generating Alpine audio system. Instrumentation is simple and the touch screen control center tries to be as intuitive as possible. There is Bluetooth wireless technology that never found our Treo, effective adaptive bi-xenon headlights with power wash, keyless entry and start and a load of electronically governed safety feature systems. The interior in our tester rallied the classic with the modern with poplar veneer instead of the traditional burlwood.

So what distinguishes a base XK from the R model might you ask? Well, that supercharged powerplant shaving 1.1 sec to 60 mph, tight suspension, fat 20 inch wheels and tires and a few logos here and there with the classic cat and the distinctive R on the right rear end, on the brake calipers, the gearshift knob and wherever else we might have missed it. Best thing of all, it manages to escape the gas guzzler tax!  

The looks are there, performance is there, but can you imagine if they put in a normally aspirated V12 — now that would be some serious purring and pouncing.

Read a review of the 2010 Jaguar XKR Convertible

Photography: AlphaMedia

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(Updated: 05/21/10 NW)