Jaguar XF test drive since 2007 sedan

Jaguar xf: not on Freud

The car flew along the track, caring a thin sheaf of sparks from an even layer of fresh snow. The ZF automatic machine clicked like walnuts, throwing monstrous shells 560 nm from under 20-inch discs, put down on the thirty-fifth profile of the Pirelli Sottozero tires. We have not yet removed the frame, and the gasoline rolled out half of the tank. But the temptation to go through another turn with an open throttle on the Jaguar XF SV8 was too large.
 
William Lyons, one of the founders of Jaguar, began his career as a junior seller in the garage of Sunbeam, forgotten now, which finally left the market in 1982, but the economy of Europe, undermined by the First World War, demanded a different way to move: simpler and cheaper.
Lyons began to make motorcycles with a stroller, which he designed for a couple with his neighbor William Walmley. Later, engineers founded the company Swallow Sidecar Company, which first engaged in the manufacture of all the same motorcycle strollers, and later automobile bodies. Before the publication of the first classic Jaguar series, the S-Type series was still as many as 42 years old
The current XF model, the successor of the S-series, is the Jaguar attempt to move away from the usual stereotypes associated with the brand. It has much more German severity than English snobbery. Inside, the enhanced power structure from the latter S-Type and the suspension of sports XK. And outside
 
Sigmund Freud would make a completely accurate diagnosis that the owner’s subconscious should symbolize a long arrow-shaped hood, sloping sides, hypertrophied, especially for the sedan, the arches, however, will not go beyond decency: Jaguar XF is truly beautiful. To find fault with the perfect and, at the same time, screaming forms can only be out of envy. Looking at the price tag, I accumulated it in full.
Sir the driver wants to level his own complexes? Then Jaguar chose the right chef-designer to his team. Jan Kolam once managed to make Aston Martin perfect; Now he simply drew Jaguar similar to him.
But XF does not just resemble the elongated Aston Martin V8 Vantage, it is almost the same fast.
I no longer remember that the business class sedan was so happy when the gearbox selector got into the Drive position. Unless M-Power performed by the five BMW, even at idle speeds with a muffled roar of liberated release, but Jaguar takes not only with power and accompaniment.
 
He and the selector, in the usual sense of the word, does not: when you touch the Start/Stop Engine button, pulsing before the ignition to the tact of the heart rhythm, a zinc rotary washer leaves the central tunnel, the head of the traffic modes.
Damn entertaining thing! It is unusual to use it for the first time, but intuitively understand that it is possible to deal with it more convenient and faster. The British even transferred these facts to numbers, considering the puck eight times more effective than a traditional lever.
The Jaguar XF salon itself is drawn to a small sensation. Everything needs to be tactile: leather, metal, plastic the latter is harsh, but there are not so many.
There were no such jaguars with a slope in the techno yet! The salon light is turned on with a contactless sensor, it is enough to bring the hand to the plafon, the glove compartment has an opening touch key. When climate control, the deflectors are automatically hidden in the front panel, emphasizing the single interior style.
 
At the console of the keys at least, good, a multimedia screen located above, touch; He heads most functions: from navigation to heating the seats. Comfortable? Not quite: the menu is rather confused; In addition, you will have to learn to get into the working icons.
Nevertheless, the compressor eight under the hood deserves to be noted by at least a few sports strokes in the cabin. Chrome lining on the thresholds is great, of course, but it would be much more effective to immerse the driver in more tenacious on the sides of the chair; And at the same time to install devices, the testimony of which on a sunny day could be read without peering into the scales to the rubs in the eyes.
A couple of times I went a lot with my elbow on the middle tunnel! But the technical component is much more interesting.
Verser petals are a thing. Here, unlike less powerful automated counterparts, they are really needed! Especially with intensive acceleration and in Sport mode,
The switch is clear, short: the gas pedal is still centimeter from the coveted Kick-Down button, and the power flow was not interrupted: acceleration in higher gear is so even and extremely powerful.
 
The effect intensifies if you feel the Dynamic Mode key on the medium tunnel, which nullifies some softness of the gas pedal and converts XF suspension into a more rigid mode of operation. Now Jaguar is ready to release claws, and it seems easy to help him in this: acceleration, turn, counterattack and theoretically the rear axle in the drift should already rush after the front
Hey guy! What is the displacement, what is such a drift? These comments are not mine, but they are loudly pronounced in its electronic language, a system of dynamic stabilization, which almost instantly strangles the engine and tenaciously and brazenly, digs into the brakes.
Here I am already flashing. After all, it is one thing when the system prevents you from breaking firewood, if you are too aggressively using the rear-wheel drive combination and 416 horsepower, and another when you simply cannot turn around, almost checking the wheel in place. The X-EF is not a vegetable with a X-Type nameplate, which means that the driver should be allowed more. A mess, I concluded briefly and reached out to the key to disconnecting dynamic stabilization.
It is worth noting that the DSC system can rest in different ways: either slightly weaken the control in the intermediate mode of Trac Mode, or fall asleep completely. I used the last, holding the shutdown key about 10 s, as required by the instruction
Now Jaguar XF SV8 hid anger at me. I decided to avenge Freud and other nonsense. Without stabilization, the slippery coating becomes a trap: the speed set is enchanting, but no one except the driver takes care of the trajectory of movement. I slightly crossed the angle of the attack and already carries you sideways.
On the winter road, such maneuvers are really fatal: such a strong provocation comes from the Dynamic Mode sports regime with disconnected dynamic stabilization. Just slip, but in the right direction! This is not felt to a certain speed, but it is worth getting to the rolled snow and Jaguar is ready to argue with Nissan Silvia in the ability to lick the stilettos of turns in endless skidding.
In the blind devices, speed is not visible, and the sound of the motor only adds courage. It is dangerous, but without this Jaguar XF mode, there is no 4.2-liter eight, nor a mechanical supercharger, nor a magnificent machine gun. But it is precisely such freedom of action, which is so dangerous and, at the same time, attractive, that comes to nullified the awkward attempts to connect the screaming appearance of the machine and the uncertainty of itself its master. It is justified here.
And according to the same old man Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I believe that the one who found in difficult crisis times 3,325,000 rubles, necessary to familiarize with the Jaguar world with SuperchaRged on the trunk lid, has long outlined his own complexes. Completely and forever.
The car is provided by Omega-Primeum \u200b\u200bby the official jaguar dealer.
 
 
 

Source: Wheel magazine [February 2009]