Jaguar World Magazine No.144 Five Sports Cars You Can Afford Back Issue

I was lucky enough to drive two fabulous Jaguars for this issue – an XF
Sportbrake 3.0-litre to tow our caravan to Spain (p80) and an F-TYPE V8S
for my Donald Campbell tribute (p48). As much as I adore the former’s
power it’s not really a practical car. I’m not talking about the F-TYPE’s often criticised lack of luggage space but rather with only two seats it’s not ideal for a family man like myself. What I need I thought on yet another school run to collect my boys individually, was either a) to give the kids away or b) a car with all the practicality of the Sportbrake but with the engine and performance of the F-TYPE V8. Thankfully for the sake of my children Jaguar has produced such a machine. The company’s leaders have always denied an R version of its estate was on the horizon. In 2012 Jaguar’s Global Brand Director, Adrian Hallmark, admitted such a car would be interesting but, “it would be tricky to reengineer the self-levelling rear suspension to cope with the high performance of such an engine”. But the lure of a performance estate was obviously too great
because at this year’s Geneva motor show Jaguar unveiled the incredible XFR-S Sportbrake. With the same basic specification as the saloon version it gives this supercharged V8 load-lugger a limited top speed of 186mph and a 0-62mph time of just 4.6 seconds. Compare those figures to the F-TYPE V8’s and they’re almost identical. Yet there is one big difference between the two cars, or rather 1,479 differences since that’s how many extra litres of space the Sportbrake has over the F-TYPE. I know from my recent trip to Spain how practical the Sportbrake is, whilst Jaguar’s supercharged V8 gives any vehicle it’s fi tted to a staggering performance. Put the two together and you create my almost perfect car (at 22.2mpg only a fuel card would make it so). If you’ve got kids or simply require extra space but enjoy powerful Jaguars I’m sure you’ll feel the same.