Jaguar XJR revealed

27 Mar, 2013 10:52am Luke Madden Comments

A new high-performance Jaguar XJR has been unveiled on the eve of the New York show

The new Jaguar XJR, which is powered by a 542bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8 engine, has been unveiled on the eve of the New York Motor Show.

Capable of covering 0-62mph in 4.4 seconds (three tenths faster than the 503bhp XJ Supersports) and hitting a limited top speed of 174mph, the XJR brings supercar performance to the XJ range.

As you can see, the Jaguar XJR gets a new bodykit, special louvres in the bonnet and quad tailpipes at the rear. A set of bespoke 20-inch alloy wheels wrapped in Pirelli Pzero Corsa tyres, a boot-lip spoiler and some trademark R styling touches, such as the red Jaguar badge in the grille, finish off the look.

The mechanicals have been tailored for faster driving, too, including an upgraded steering system with valves taken from the F-Type, quicker shifts from the eight-speed automatic gearbox and recalibrated suspension honed at the Nurburgring.

Ian Callum, Jaguar’s Design Director said: "This XJR is the flagship XJ and I'm delighted we've got it back into the range. This is a premium luxury supercar that also has an extremely purposeful look to it. This car will surprise, there's no doubt about it."

The XJR will go on sale this summer, with a starting price of £92,500.

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This is good news. The big cat is back!

Better than boring and overly common German rivals. Jaag is always an excuse to be better..

A pointless car that will only be bought by 20 people.

Actually, they are quite popular, and they are escort vehicles for ministers and diplomats

Absolutely! Today's Jaguar Land Rover company is a great success story. The more performance Jaguar cars offer the better they sell in aspirational markets like China, raking in the foreign currency every person living in the UK needs. Just on those grounds no real Jaguar is pointless.

As for the joy of driving, respecting the law, a Jaguar is always a great pleasure, excepting the sacrilegious anomaly of the Ford years, (the car that shall remain unnamed by Jaguar fans, but it was about the size of the Mondeo of the time...). Such pleasure is far from pointless.

So what is pointless about Jaguar today? The knee-jerk, ill-informed and hackneyed comments that certain people make on the web, at every opportunity. They epitomise pointlessness.

The Jag 5.0 litre V8 supercharged has been pushed to 600bhp. It got 225mph in an XFR on Bonneville Flats.

This has made me tent!!

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