2010 Jaguar XKR Preview

XKR Photos

It might look like the 2009 XKR, but the new 2010 is a much more potent sports car. (Photo: American Auto Press)

Jaguar, no longer playing second fiddle to Aston Martin, is pulling out all the stops. (Photo: American Auto Press)

The performance upgrades aren't minimized to just the sports car lineup, but the 2010 XFR will soon become one of the most powerful performance sedans anywhere. (Photo: Jaguar)

The new XKR is not only the most powerful, but the best looking yet. (Photo: Jaguar)

The coupe is especially attractive, as has long been the case with XKs. (Photo: Jaguar)

The XKR might even handle corners better than the V8 Vantage... a showdown is in order. (Photo: Jaguar)

Brothers will do anything for each other. Especially when their parents tell them they have to. And brothers are exactly what Jaguar and Aston Martin became when Ford bought the two erstwhile independent British automakers in the early 1990s.

Self-proclaimed “purists” may have at first bemoaned and balked at the sale of two of their most treasured, authentically British brands to the American auto giant, but the truth that all must concede by now is that Ford’s guardianship could not have come at a better time for either Jaguar or Aston Martin. The former had long since lost touch with the values that put it on the map, resorting to the production of staid, antiquated vehicles mired by poor build quality and unable to stand up to the competition from Germany and, to an increasing extent, Japan as well. Meanwhile Aston Martin had also, in the words of the Righteous Brothers, “lost that lovin’ feeling”, its sublime classics giving way to engorged luxury muscle cars that lacked the finesse and appeal of their predecessors. Both Jaguar and Aston Martin needed revival, but neither had the funds – or, some would say, the vision – to make it happen. Ford, as time would reveal, had both.

The trouble was that the two stoic auto marques overlapped too much, both producing uniquely British sportscars and luxury sedans (more so in Jaguar’s case but part of Aston’s legacy as well) with similar appeal. The issue became increasingly relevant across the industry as large automotive groups began acquiring smaller carmakers like so many collectibles. Ford’s Italian rival Fiat, for example, faced the same issue in positioning Maserati, which it had acquired around the same time as Ford did Jag and Aston, against its premier asset and longtime rival Ferrari. Both Ford and Fiat arrived at the same conclusion: namely, that some distance was needed between two former rivals if they were to survive and thrive under the same roof. But neither Ferrari nor Aston Martin could be taken much higher than the stratospheric market position they already occupied. In fact Aston would need to broaden its client base in order to prove financially viable, and that would mean Jaguar would have to make some room.

When Ford arrived at Jaguar’s headquarters in Coventry, England, they found prototypes and plans for a new sports car. The company’s XJS coupe, built on a shortened chassis borrowed from the XJ sedan, was never a suitable replacement for the iconic E-Type, so Jaguar was giving it another go. Without the funds to build a new platform, the XJS was further modified and fitted with more curvaceous bodywork styled by Ian Callum, a talented young designer whose work under Ford’s Premier Automotive Group would later come to define both marques. According to some accounts, Jaguar didn’t have the cash to put it into production, so the plans were mothballed until Ford unearthed them. Others say the new corporate overlords decided Aston needed the project more than Jaguar, so they moved the plans across the English countryside to Newport Pagnell. The truth probably lies somewhere in between, but in any event, Jaguar’s loss was Aston Martin’s gain. The project was given new life as the DB7, a timelessly stylish grand tourer that put Aston back on the map and its more cumbersome stable-mates in the past while forecasting the succession of stunning Astons that were to follow.

Over the course of its nine-year production run, the Aston Martin DB7 was built in half a dozen different versions and sold over 7,000 examples, making it the most successful model in the company’s history. Jaguar had to watch patiently while its big brother enjoyed the success, but its patience paid off and a sibling rivalry ensued in the form of a horsepower war between the two sister companies. A couple of years after the DB7’s debut, a resurgent Jaguar launched the XK series coupe and convertible, itself based on a heavily modified version of the chassis which Aston had borrowed from its kid brother in the first place, but with a new V8 engine at its heart. The AJ-V8 was an all-new design, only the fourth in the company’s history and its first ever V8. It was showcased in the new XK8, with a supercharged version powering the more performance-oriented XKR. Finally Jaguar had regained what it had lost up the corporate ladder: with 370 horsepower, the XKR held the upper hand to the DB7’s 335. “Anything you can do, I can do better,” answered Aston, replacing the super six in the DB7 with a more suitable V12 producing 420 horsepower. The sibling rivalry continued, but Ford was always careful to keep Aston ahead in the race.

Over the course of the following decade, Jaguar focused on its four-door sedans of various shapes and sizes while the XK continued on largely unchanged. Meanwhile, Aston Martin’s range of sportscars, devoid of four-door models (pending the upcoming debut of the new Rapide and the revival of its long-dormant Lagonda division) expanded exponentially under Ford’s parentage. The Vanquish joined the DB7 in 2001, further cementing Aston’s lead in the horsepower race against Jaguar with 460, augmented to 520 in 2004 with the Vanquish S. The final iteration DB7 GT, with its 435-hp V12, was replaced in 2004 by the all-new 469-hp DB9, while the smaller V8 Vantage hit closer to Jaguar’s home in 2005 with a 380-hp derivative of the Jaguar V8 – ten horses stronger than the XKR and without the need of a supercharger.

By 2006 the old Jaguar XJ platform, though extensively modified by now, was hopelessly out of date, having been in use for the better part of two decades. Aston Martin’s sportscars and Jaguar’s sedans themselves had already ditched the old chassis in favor of new platforms funded by Ford’s injection of capital. The XK8/XKR was the last model still running on the old platform, and after ten years of waiting patiently for its day in the sun, a brand new Jaguar XK finally emerged. Underpinned by an all-new aluminum chassis, Jaguar’s engineers had designed the new XK from the outset as a convertible instead of chopping the roof off as an afterthought. The result was an incredibly rigid yet lightweight frame in either coupe or convertible body-style. Styling was penned, once again, by Ian Callum, who had ushered in a new wave of design for both Jaguar and Aston Martin. The new XK’s styling carried many similar design cues to its Aston-badged big brothers and a front end that recalled the classic E-Type. Like the original project that Jaguar had to sacrifice to the DB7, the new XK had been designed to succeed.

On the horsepower front, Jaguar’s powertrain engineers still had to be mindful of their position against the more expensive Astons, but that didn’t stop them from keeping their bigger brother on its toes. The base V8 in the new XK produced 300 horsepower, significantly short of the 380 offered in the baby Aston V8 Vantage which employed a version of the same engine. Although higher-end models kept Aston ahead in the race, with the aid of a supercharger, the new XKR put Jaguar firmly in Aston Martin territory with a prodigious 420. Aston would later respond in kind by updating the Vantage with a revised V8 that, naturally aspirated, offered the same output as the air-fed XKR, but not before both storied marques would leave their parents’ house as Ford divested from its British assets.

Aston Martin was the first to go, sold to an international investment consortium headed by David Richards, the chief of racing consultancy firm Prodrive and mastermind of Aston Martin’s dominance in sports car racing. The following year, Jaguar, along with its sister company Land Rover, was sold to Indian automaker Tata. With its ties to Aston completely severed and both marques now under separate ownership, Jaguar was finally free to move its sports car program into new realms of performance and upscale markets over which its big brother had cast an indomitable shadow for nearly two decades.

The most recent revision of the XKR which you see here is the embodiment of those aspirations. Unveiled at the recently concluded North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the new XKR is nobody’s kid brother, demonstrating exactly what Jaguar’s performance engineers are capable of without any artificial constraints placed upon them. This is Jaguar unleashed.

The 2010 Jaguar XKR would be considered, by most accounts, a mild revision of the outgoing model. Its state-of-the-art aluminum monocoque chassis carries over unchanged. The design, save for a few minor updates, is the same as the outgoing model’s. But few would count that against the silken Jag, whose curvaceous lines are almost universally admired in the industry. No, what separates the new XKR from its predecessor is the heart transplant it has undergone: in the place of the 420-horsepower AJ34S supercharged V8, the beating heart of the new XKR, is the next-generation 5-liter version, its supercharger supplemented by direct injection to twist out an astonishing 510 horsepower. That figure alone puts the Jag well ahead of Aston’s V8 Vantage, ahead of the V12-powered DB9 as a matter of fact, and on par with the flagship DBS supercar that has appeared in the last two James Bond films.

To give you an approximate idea of how powerful an engine lies beneath the bonnet of the 2010 XKR, consider the following. The previous fastest road car in Jaguar history was the XJ220, a svelte supercar with a high-strung, twin-turbo V6 that produced 549-hp and propelled it to a terminal velocity of 217.1 miles per hour at the Nardo high-speed test track in Italy back in 1992. That record, astonishing as it stood, was broken this year at the Bonneville Salt Flats by a barely modified XFR sedan with the same engine that powers the XKR, only with its engine management unit derestricted and its supercharger increased slightly in boost, hitting a top speed of 225.7 miles per hour. In a sedan. Jaguar pegs the XKR’s 0-60 mph run in 4.6 seconds, which we reckon may actually be a conservative estimate. Top speed is artificially limited to 155 mph, but change the firmware – which is not something we would advocate, we’re just speculating – and there’s no telling what the lighter, more slippery super-coupe might achieve.

The epic amount of power generated by the spooled eight is channeled through the latest version of Jaguar’s six-speed automatic transmission, complete with paddle shifters behind the steering wheel to afford its driver an extra degree of control without having to, heaven forbid, actuate a clutch. The steering wheel itself is a new three-spoke design, the offset centerpiece of a subtly revised cabin. The previous XKR’s interior space was one of the more suitable environments from which to discover the world’s roads, and Jaguar has wisely chosen not to mess with it too much. To supplement the paddle shifters, Jaguar has fitted its proprietary JaguarDrive Selector, a stubby metal cylinder which emerges from the center console to control the transmission settings. Above it is a concave start/stop button for ignition, and a new color touch-screen dominates the dashboard to control the vehicle’s extensive multimedia system which integrates the considerable sound system, climate control and satellite navigation. In true Jaguar style, a variety of leather and trim options are available to the discerning buyer.

Helping the XKR deliver all that power to the tarmac is a new Adaptive Dynamics system that replaces the old cleverly-named Computer Active Technology Suspension – CATS for short. Adaptive Dynamics integrates the full roster of driving aids, including adaptive damping, dynamic stability control and, for the first time on a Jaguar, an electronic differential. Exterior updates, meanwhile, are limited to new wheels, an updated front bumper, a new spoiler around back, LED taillights, redesigned side mirrors with integrated LED indicators, and color-coded air vents.

Both coupe and cabrio body styles are available, as is a naturally-aspirated version, now called the XK Portfolio, offering 385 horsepower in place of the previous base XK’s 300. That’s a mighty powerful Jaguar to be sure; more powerful in naturally-aspirated form, in fact, than the original supercharged XKR that debuted in 1997. And that’s no mean feat. I bet that the team of Jaguar engineers who were left with no choice but to hand over the DB7 project to Aston Martin would be suitably impressed, especially since it now generates more power than the DB7 did in the first place. In fact, some of them are probably still there and had a hand in developing the latest XK. But what must impress them even more is how far the XKR, representing the pinnacle of Jaguar’s GT program, is stacking up against its big brother.

Let there be no mistake made about it. Jaguar is all grown up now, and nothing – including Aston Martin – is going to stand between the XKR and the open road.

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