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The fabulous Jaguar E-type was a sensation in its day — a
glamorous 1960's stiletto heel of a car — slim, elegant,
powerful, capable of nearly 150 mph — and able to take on
a Ferrari at half the price.
After the smashing E-type, Jaguar trotted out a series of
somewhat compromised cars. Oh, they were recognizable as
Jaguars, but they were Grand Tourers, not true sports cars.
Coventry's cats aren't supposed to be hard-edged racers, but
they've got to be capable mile-eaters that can accelerate
hard, and sweep through a succession of tight, decreasing
radius turns without breaking a sweat. The company's
founder, Sir William Lyons, summed up ‘Jaguarness" as
"grace, space and pace."
But competition today is ruthless. The newest XK coupe
and convertible have to be the best Jags in 40 years.
And they are.
Emotion isn't the only hallmark here, nor simply, is performance.
Jaguar's huge investment, a few years back, in a
state-of-the-art aluminum stamping plant, is paying off. The
2007 XK's bonded and riveted monocoque alloy substructure
scores a rock-hard 34 Hz (an SL is 26 Hz; a BMW 6-
Series is 30Hz. The XK is 50 percent stiffer than its predecessor,
and over 400 pounds lighter. That's aircraft technology.
And here's how it translates:
When a car's chassis and body are really rigid, engineers
can fine-tune the suspension to a fare-thee-well. The suspen-
sion consists of the ‘classic' sports car combination of
unequal-length wishbones and coil springs in front, and
unequal-length wishbones in the rear, paired with coil
springs once again. The drive-shafts act as upper links.
Jaguar's improved Computer Active Technology
Suspension (they call it CATS, naturally), is a highly sophisticated,
two stage adaptive damping system with sensors
that measure the XK's attitude, pitch and yaw, input steering
wheel angle and brake demand, then adjust all four shocks
independently in nanoseconds, and there's two-stage
Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), as well, so the new XK
corners flat, reminiscent of a race car, but with no suspension
bottoming and no drama.
Jaguar's chief engineer (and very skilled test driver),
Mike Cross proudly states, "This is a very advanced car.
The driver is the center of attention," he continues," and
we've used technology to help us where it makes sense."
This car's incredible lightness of being means it needs
less power and uses less fuel. And it's ULEV II rated. OK,
you can get 300-bhp in a naughty little Subaru WRX these
days, but in Jaguar's 3,671 pound XK fixed-head coupe (the
convertible is just 88 lb more), the high-revving, 4.2-liter 4-
cam, V-8, with Variable Camshaft Phasing (VCP), feels like
a lot more motor. (We can only imagine what the 400+bhp
R-type will be like, and you can bet, that's coming.)
In the meantime, the newest XK iteration is bloody fast,
and Jaguar has included every necessary performance bell
and whistle. Beside the variable cam phasing, there's 310
lbs/ft of meaty torque, a drive-by-wire throttle, perfectly
weighted steering, and new, Nürburgring-tested, raceinspired
ventilated discs with ABS and EBD. Weight distribution,
while not the ideal 50/50 is excellent. It's 52.6/47.4
for the coupe, and 52.1/47.9 for the convertible. |
