Jaguar World Magazine XJ8 Owners Guide June 2011 Back Issue

Four am on a Monday morning
is never a pleasant time for the alarm clock
to ring, particularly so when the Monday in
question is a Bank Holiday, but today I’m not
going to moan. Honest.
In fact, having dragged myself into semiconsciousness
and then out of bed, the
morning starts particularly well with a surreally
traffic-free trip from Kent to Heathrow. If only
the M25 were always like this it would be a
joy. I might even do the odd lap just for the
hell of it. Of course, at 117 miles around –
speed limit notwithstanding – it would be
the world’s largest circuit by some margin,
but at least none of the corners would be
challenging enough to need remembering. In
stark contrast, my destination for the day is the
world’s longest circuit, and one where knowing
the corners is very much an advantage; the
Nürburgring Nordschleife. Unfortunately, I’ve
never driven one of them. Hmmm.
The good news, though, is that the
day that lays ahead will include
instruction from a quartet
of drivers that between
them have completed
many thousands of laps
at the ‘Ring, not least
Frank Klaas, Jaguar
Land Rover’s global head
of communications. Having
competed at the Nürburgring many
times over a period of around 15 years, Mr
Klaas is well aware of the challenges that the
circuit presents both to machinery and man.
It says something then of his confidence in
Jaguar’s products that he’s happy to let those
with no first-hand experience of its 12.93 miles
and 154 corners relatively loose on it in the
marque’s current crop of supercharged cars:
XKR, XFR and XJ Supersport. Having said
that, he’s keen to point out very clearly: “If you
make a mistake here, this will cause a problem
immediately…” Hmmm again.