Where to start........WOW!!!
Had the car for over six hours so plenty of time to do a thorough test, ended up at Sutton Bank, Ripon well pretty much all of North Yorkshire and those fantastic roads up there.
Leaving the dealership I depressed the accelerator as I would in the S5 and err instant wheel spin, set off up the road and the car simply launched itself, so reminiscent of the Porsche Turbo. This car has some serious grunt and a major kick up the arse, the mid range power is just phenominal and the noise from those quad exhausts, not quite as deep as the XK but louder especially in dynamic mode and sport mode.
So onto the familiar twisties and straight away the steering felt spot on, turns in beautifully and very good feedback. Unlike the XK I immediately felt confident and comfortable pushing on that bit more along my favourite stretch of road. Bends executed at VERY impressive speeds lets just say and for a car of its weight, length and wheelbase it flicks through the 'S' bends very competently. The mistake I did make initially was to floor it through the bends as I would in the S5.........silly mistake! There's so much power on tap I felt the back end protesting a tad, orange light illuminating BUT no loss of grip. Put brain in gear and tried again through some more twisties and much better. The key was to power out of as opposed to into, through and out of the bends......job done.
The gearbox is bloody good in the XKR tbh, it is very responsive, far less dictatorial than most auto boxes in all modes and in dynamic mode where you control the gear changes via the flappy paddles on the downshift it gives a blip of the engine for that bit of effect. It's gear changes up and down are fast and smooth. I was impressed. Ride is firmish in standard mode but more than comfortable enough even on bumpy surfaces and in dynamic/sport mode it still provides an excellent ride quality despite stiffening the dampers, quite some achievement actually.
Seats are very good providing more than enough side support both on bolsters and swab. The whole cabin is a very pleasant place to be and driving along the A1 the car simply wafted along effortlessly with just a hint of that exhaust note in the background.
I could go on but I can't really convey how good this car is tbh. It's not a balls out super sports car like the Porsche Turbo, it's not as raw and doesn't quite have the poise and grip. But if you want a car that is Jekyll and Hyde, will crusie effortlessly along the motorways then become a totally different animal on A and B roads and does involve you and does excite by the bucket load, then this is the car imho. Overtaking on A and B roads was just SO phenominal, just like the Porsche Turbo, blink of any eye and you're past and pressed back into the seat in the process.........just fantastic!
The car I had today has done 20k miles, no rattles, no squeaks, no rips or tears, feels tight as a drum and after my 6 hours of playing returned 20.7 mpg. Check out the standard spec. because it is VERY impressive, too much to list.
Is this Jaguar an old mans car........no way Guys, just no way. I'm serious, this car is something else for what it can do and what it does do. I like this car........no I love this car. At one point Steve told me to stop grinning lol.
Another surprise when I eventually returned to the dealers, they'd washed and vacced the S5, can you believe it. Never been on a test drive and had my car valeted!
