CAR magazine (South Africa) recently tested the new Jaguar XFR for their August 2009 issue. And boy did they shake Indo-Brit down!
According to CAR the XFR dispatched the 0 – 100km/h time in just 4.66 seconds which interestingly was slower than its chief rivals the Audi RS 6 (4.62) and the oldest car of the lot, the BMW M5 (4.64).
Incidentally IN4RIDE tested the RS 6 and got 4.81 seconds at 1500m above sea level.
But in real life those miniscule differences are almost impossible to detect. Under normal circumstances a guy who knows his way around a car, driving the XFR, could conceivably trash those other two. Anyways, there’s more to a car than mere numbers (tehehe) but numbers are the only thing we can measure. The rest like driving feedback, handling aptitude and so on are largely variable depending on many uncontrollable circumstances. Again, the XFR scored highly there as well, getting great marks for both comfort and superior sports car-like handling.
So good was the car apparently that CAR Editor John Bentley described it as the “epitome of grace, space and PACE” while deputy editor Hannes Oosthuizen said “the best car I’ve driven in months. Perhaps years. Possibly ever.”
We’ve often suspected that the XFR would cause a major upset in this segment. These suspicions will be put to the test when we take it through a Gauteng altitude (about 1500m) road test and possibly a shootout with the M5. A very nice man from Bavaria Avenue has promised us a suitable example of the moerskont M5…
*Update: it doesn't seem that a suitable BMW rival to the XFR will be forthcoming due to the fact that the car has gotten on in years and keeping it for too long in the press fleet would cost too much money. Nevertheless an M6 will certainly be forthcoming. Now, if only we can get a response from Jaguar about the XKR we might have ourselves a proper smack-down...
