Jaguar has been trying to implement itself in the sports saloon segment for a couple of years now. After the XFR comes the Jaguar XFR-S. The latest creation of the British home makes any potential buyer of an M5 or an E63 AMG think twice.
Jaguar has always tended towards “bathtub” luxury, for varnished wood and beige leather, but now it has discovered its more rebellious side, found that carbon fiber and stiff suspensions are more to the liking of the well-heeled with thirst for lateral forces and burnt rubber.
For the Jaguar XFR-S, the brand bets on the well-known 5.0L block with compressor, however the electronic management and the exhaust system were tuned to obtain more 40hp and 55nm, thus obtaining numbers dangerously close to those of German saloons: 550hp , 680nm, 300km/h top speed (which is not electronically limited!), and 0-100km/h in less than 4 seconds.
As the power has to be put to the ground, in addition to the engine, Jaguar has also optimized the torque converter and driveshafts. The suspension has been hardened 100% compared to XF (ok…they even forgot the “bathtubs”).
As we all know, it's not just numbers that make a car, and this XFR-S seems to be a cocktail of good feelings: for starters, there's the design, which most people will judge as modern, fluid and aggressive, as you want in a car of this kind and then…well, then there's the engine that doesn't use the “Twin Turbo of fashion” but a compressor that, despite stealing some energy from the crankshaft, delivers power from the first millimeter of pressed throttle, with the due associated symphony.
Despite getting great performances, this Jaguar XFR-S doesn't surprise there, it's because of its misfit Hooligan character with a huge rear aileron, which likes to go around doing powerslides.