Test drive Jaguar XKR-S compartment since 2011

Love for the beast

If Jaguar is scary on this, then only at low speed. It's time to press the gas!

The car is the most similar to a living creature of a person’s creation, the new Jaguar XKR-S is perfectly confirmed by the correctness of these words by Sir William Lyons, who founded Jaguar 75 years ago.

Sound. Once having heard the voice of this motor, you can no longer forget it. He does not look like any other V8. It has neither hysteria Ferrari, nor the roar of Corvette, nor the rage of AMG engines. This sound climbs under the skin, which is immediately covered with goosebumps. He enters the bloodstream, and she begins to boil from adrenaline. He blurns his eyes and turns off the brain. All! You are in captivity, you do not belong to yourself. All that I want to immediately press the gas to capacity to hear the voice of the beast again. But even when this beast is silent, it is difficult to remain indifferent. He appeals to his eyes. An incomprehensible shape of the headlight, a wild blue color, unusual for Jaguar spoiler. He looks at you point blank, but you do not understand him. His eyes keep a secret in itself. Sports car? Grand Tourism? Extreme track version? Now he certainly will not let you out of the tenacious claws. The desire to understand him will be again and again forced you to jump behind the wheel.

XKR-S is not just a car of metal and plastic. He is alive. He has his own unique character. A very variable character. An empty sport on the standards of a sports car, a soft suspension and a rude voice of an angry regulars of a pub. Thus he comes in front of you when you rollerly rolled around the highway. He does not seem awkward, no. It's just a walking car, a great option for a girl who wants to seem cool and strong. But it is worth accelerating to at least to 150 km/h, as the magical power of aerodynamics begins to change XKR-S. The steering wheel is pleasantly heavy, and you feel how the car falls to the ground, digging tires into the asphalt Portuguese of the Highway. And the faster you go, the more confident yourself feels. If Jaguar is scary on this, then only at a speed of 50 km/h. And if so, then it's time to press the gas again.

In the film, Jaguar, the power of the sacred cat instills in the dodger and cunning, but the weak spirit of Francois Perren, obsessed with the money. By itself, a soft and uncertain thing, he becomes an unstoppable warrior in battle. His cat's eyes are horrified by opponents, his fingers, like the claws of Jaguar, leave deep wounds, his strength is limitless. Each time, clicking on the gas of the most Jaguar, you seem to cause the spirit of the jaguar. He turns a wonderful car into a wild predator.

The spirit of a large cat helped Perren to cope with villains in the forests of the Amazon in one of the most amazing places on the planet. I release the beast on the best modern highway in Europe. Circuito Do Algarve is perhaps inferior only to the great spa and the northern loop, but it is baked from the same test. High -speed bends, blind turns, crazy height drop and almost complete absence of simple sections. Here it immediately becomes clear who is worth what. No wonder the test pillets of the British brand passed more than a dozen circles along this highway during the final refinement of the flagship coupe.

Therefore, XKR-S in Algarva is. This is his hunting possessions, here he shows himself in all its glory. Yes, this is still a Gran Tourism. A heavy and rather soft car. But in it the beast was painstakingly awakened. The suspension has become tougher, the engine is more powerful, and the car itself is lower. Therefore, on the track, JAG is able to deliver a lot of pleasure. You just need to carefully monitor the balance of the machine and correctly use the dynamic redistribution of mass. The beast is noticeably rolling and pecking with his nose, but this can be turned for a good. We load the controlled wheels, rest on the outer wheels into the asphalt, roll into the turn and gently add the gas. The coupe flows in a turn, as if by notes. And you can step aside, boldly pressing the pedal. The hind legs of the beast smoothly break into a shallow skid, and Jaguar in a spectacular sliding leaves the turn. Beautiful, spectacular and fast.

Click! The instructor encourages. And I gradually begin to go faster and faster. The track is so complicated that you simply do not have time to think about the features of the behavior of the car. Blind apexes, turns of a variable steepness, descents and climbs. By the end of the third, penultimate, circle, I finally lost touch with reality. The track seemed to hypnotize me, and Jaguar became a continuation of my body. The track, the car and I became one. My arms and legs earned separately from the brain. It is in this state that Formula 1 riders include before each start, because then the reaction rate increases. You’re going on the machine. I will not say that I rushed with unprecedented agility, but the circle turned out to be very clean and neat. And for this I must say thanks to Jaguar. He remained a reliable partner both on hard braking, and in high -speed shifts from a turn to a turn, and on exits from the turns. This, of course, is not an extreme track sports car, but still gives an incomparable buzz on the XKR-S on a racing highway.

This Jaguar will not give its own on the plain of the autobahn, or in the jungle of the racing highway, or in the mountains, which were also abundant in the vicinity of the racing highway. On short straight lines leading from one mother -in -law to another, Jaguar does not even have time to really bargain with the engine, as it should already be slowed down. And so every 1015 seconds. The head is already starting to spin, and the hands manage to get tired of constant rotation of the wheels, and the XKR-S does not care. Brakes do not think to get tired, although outside the window and +34. The most interesting thing is that the brake mechanisms remained the same as that of the standard XKR. There was simply no need to change them. That's what it means done with a margin!

But over the suspension, aerodynamics and the engine, they worked pretty well. The compartment has become 10 mm lower, the springs are 28% tougher in front and 32% behind. The new diffuser, anti -wing, other bumper all this significantly increased the clamping force. At the same time, the mass remained at the same level, because all the plumage is made of carbon fiber. The motor became 50 liters. with. It is more powerful and 55 nm more powerful (550 hp and 680 nm, respectively). But the most important modification of the XKR-S is a cavity with a special membrane connected to the intake manifold. When the compressor gains full power, the membrane begins to vibrate, and the rebel pipe enhances these vibrations and converts them into growls. It is this change that gives a new compartment a significant part of its charm, because without a branded roar this beast would probably not make the impression.

Of course, XKR-S is not perfect. The brake pedal drive is too soft and uninformative, which at first simply scares. It seems that the brakes have overheated. In some places there are simple materials in the cabin, as if taken from Ford Mondeo. Multimediacomplex is not as convenient to use as modern systems of German competitors. The LCD display brings it in the sun, but all this does not matter any meaning. I have never traveled to Jaguar that would be perfect. It always has something that you have to close your eyes. But you will still love him for the charm, beauty, nobility and honesty. And to forgive loved with their shortcomings is so natural.

 
SUMMARY
Once, by pressing the gas and hearing the voice of the beast, you will never be able to forget it. Memories of him will not leave you anymore. So I can’t forget the frantic racing on the serpentine, the last circle in Algarva, the shots on the auto track, when I could not resist and the XKR-S cut off to 240 km/h. Jaguar is far from the best sports car on which I traveled. He is very far from Porsche 911. But Porsche is the most perfect mechanism in the world. And Jaguar is a living creature. It's great that Jaguar does not forget the covenants of their founder. It is foolish to talk about horsepower, seconds and kilometers per hour. The driver is associated with Jaguar XKR-S Relations of a completely different order. This beast is able to give its owner a lot of happy moments. He gives rise to endless respect and love. And true love is eternal.



 

Source: Cars