Developing a successor to the Jaguar C-Type was a daunting task. The roadster had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1951 and 1953 so its heir had to be highly competitive, but stiff competition from big names like Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin made winning the endurance more difficult than it had ever been.
In one sense, the new Jaguar F-Type is a simple car to discuss. It is dynamically very good, though it has a particular character, like any well-done car. It looks beautiful, which you can probably glean from photos, and this fortunately turns out to be a judgment that holds up upon seeing the car in the aluminum and leather. It is comfortable and usable in daily driving, although it has rather strict cargo limitations. And it is expensive, although there is a reasoned argument that the F-Type is priced below its likely competitors.
There’s no shortage of love for Jaguar’s stunning XK (and its various iterations) among the Winding Road office staff. Heart-stopping style and sumptuous luxury combine with a variety of 5.0-liter V-8 engines to create an excellent GT car. Still, even the 550-horsepower XKR-S is more GT than true sports car. If you are one of those lamenting this fact, then Jaguar has answered your prayers.
The Jaguar XKR-S represents a kind of supercar that is, at once, both strange to conceive and utterly approachable. That is has legitimate supercar credentials is undeniable: massively fast, quick off the line, spectacular handling both on a track and on the road, gut-churningly beautiful to behold, and significantly more rare than even other fast Jags. And yet, there’s nothing intimidating about the driving experience, unless you happen to be scared off by loud internal combustion engines (in which case this isn’t the article for you, anyway).
Jaguar has announced the fastest droptop it has ever made, the very-limited-production XKR-S Convertible. How fast is that? 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, with a top speed of 186 miles per hour.
What the XK is not is a true driver’s sports car. The automatic transmission is a bit too lazy when one asks for quick shifts. The motor, while plenty potent, has got an awful lot of weight to shift in this big coupe, which makes the experience something well short of “scary” fast in all cases. Perhaps most telling though, is that the XK never really commits to turning in like a smallish sports car should—preferring to take longer, stately arcing turns in favor of fast directional changes.
It’s not too great of an assumption to say that our readers understand that a vehicle can provide as important of a supporting role as a flesh-and-blood actor. And, since the Jaguar brand has been around for much of the history of moviemaking, it’s no surprise that these cats have made their way into starring roles in so many movies.