Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 18,214
- Location
- Shakespeare’s County
I noticed someone on PistonHeads in ecurie25 has just had one of these for 24 hours as part of his car club membership and his writing and Photos will put mine to shame... but I'll have a crack and sharing the experience.
I borrowed this French Racing Blue XKR-S from lets just say 'work associates', essentially its an executive management level car that he's had since June last year and has had 16k miles put on in that time. This weekend I would be using it to travel to my cousins wedding and then for a trip to Cheltenham, with blasts in between without my more delicate cargo. In all I put 430 miles on the car.
First thing to do was give it a good wash and interior clean as it was somewhat grubby and I dont like having bits of other people in the cars i use.
Seats are amazingly support and look the business with the coloured stiching, shoulder wings and 'harness' cutouts with the RS embossing. The carbon look vinyl is employed as infill sections of the seat leather and ties in with the far more appropriate carbon on the doorcard in lieu of wood
or leather as you would find on an XKR. Notice the switches in the consoler forward of the sliding armrest lid that are hiding the cupholders.
Winter - softer throttle response, smoother gearchanges, always pull away in 2nd.
Dynamic - Throttle response and gearshift management is changed, damper variable damping shifts to delivery better body control active exhaust opens sooner and wider.
DSC - Press once for TracDSC - less intrusion and handy for snow, hold to completely turn it off and kill yourself.
ASL - Set a speed limit on the dash like cruise control but the car wont break it.... handy!
Electric handbrake - Urggg. Atleast it turns off when you drive away (yes dont rev the car when in D) and packages neater.
One 6 year old just about fits with a povety spec car seat thats small enough to drop into the bucket form of the squab and short enough to allow his knees to bend!
The car does an impressive job of being massive but offering limited occupant space.
Once in the car its right to look at whats on the Radio, this being a 'young man's Jag' Radio 1 on the DAB system is selected and heating control setting managed with hard keys but fed back on the Home screen. No cooling on these seats but there is a heated wheel, good for warming in winter and presumably effective for drying the sweat ridden handsprints after opening the 5.0L Twin Vortex Supercharged V8 throttle.
Look still lots of leather for the dash topper, continuation of the blue stitching and also a strange textured plastic finished to emulate metal.
Fortunately the whole range of enthusiatice driving would ultimatley end with these, thankfully, sizable brakes.
Decided this was now the time we'd set off for the parent outlaws to let my son open some birthday presents a day early (wedding on the Saturday - same as his birthday) going via Burton-on-Trent Cooper Sq shopping in the 'Blue Jaguar' he kept reminding me I had promised as a birthday treat
Note my selected parking position was purely defensive but we already has a crowd of observers who proceeded to walk a lap of the car 'just looking at the car'.
Got to parent outlaws (not married yet) and did the birthday cake stuff etc etc before going out for a proper drive
Next day it was wedding day which resulted in less driving than one would have hoped but did allow a degree of showboating thanks again to my selective parking The chapel was behind this shot (Walton Hall, nr Wellsbourne for anyone familiar).
Even with a moderately prompt pull away you can only imagine the noise it made at this point
A friend took some pictures on a decent camera but they have suffered a little from overzealous photoshopping IMO.
Even after a full day of wedding stuff driving home around midnight at 2C ambient temperature wasnt particularly concerning as the car maintains the Jaguar duality with its Jekyll and Hyde nature, dynamic mode was switched to winter mode and everything tamed down.
Next day trip to Cheltenham.
Decided to fill up and then hit the motorway, so the car was already warm and sitting at 75mph or so with the occasional deployment of torque the car was respectable in terms of fuel use. Annoyingly it doesn't have an instantaneous readout to give you an idea when optimising your speed but 75 felt good, I was overtaking stuff and cars were overtaking me = maximum exposure for the 'young man's Jag' PR machine.
Took it for a good drive arround Cheltenham town centre... generally showing off and making noise. You have to be careful when parking it with the carbon splitter!
Nice view from my friends house, he sure wouldn't mind looking back at that after getting in from work! He's only 29 but was massively impressed previously having little regard for Jaguars. Seems my PR machine was gaining traction! I also took a neighbour of my parents out as he has mentioned he'd love the new XKR to my Dad, the new 'fast one', that or an Aston as a retirement present to replace his X100 XKR carbon edition. First thing he did after the drive was go on the net to see how much they were going for.
In terms of words to decribe the car. Well Incredible, but then im biased and have limited exposure other marque 500bhp+ machines. Straight from the start the S treatment over the XKR is supported by elements more than the extra plastic on the outside. The seats change the focus of the interior, whilst still allowing the GT aspect of a 2+2, if anything they offer marginally more room in the back. The engine barks into life with ferocity not experienced in the XKR with its V8 thrum, the road noise is immediately noticable as you start moving thanks to the performance orientated XKR-S P-Zero tyres that allow delivery of the 186mph limited top speed. The steering is immediately more responsive, masking the cars mass and reminding me of a nimbler Honda S2000 rather than the XKR. Just watch the kerbs as this car is WIDE.
The driving mode offer dynamic and winter, with the usual D and S on the rotary gear select. Manual gear selection is possible with the paddles on the wheel and will not automatically change up in S or with dynamic mode applied. Dynamic winds back traction control instrusion but I think you would have to be pretty brave to go straight for DSC off on this car! One feature of the RS range is that DSC only takes 3 seconds, not 10.... hows that for driver focus'd
I can't describe how fast this car is. Power is available anywhere, anytime and just planting in D whilst cruising letting the step down demand decide what gear to be in would raise a giggle from the most hardened of auto cynics. Absolutely incredible tractive thrust and noise with the scenery around you, including cars, moving backwards at a rate that defies belief. Through the corners is where care and discipline is required. Anything more than 1/8 of a turn will present traction issues where DSC will flash up, engine power will cut and the diff will straighten the car with a rather violent realignment of the car. Dont do that.
Get the car into a rythmn and ignore the sheer brutal pace that it has, it just gathers you a lot of speed that needs shedding on a B road, and the car will settle to cover some serious ground with impressive composure and massive grip. The Electronic differential that offers a degree of torque vectoring has been re calibrated on the RS and it allows you an impressive feel for the car allowing mid corner adjustment with both the steering and throttle.... just dont get tramping on the throttle, that red light on the dash with start flashing at you again.
I can not really describe just how bonkers it is, but the other side of the coin is I dont care if it only had half the horsepower just aslong as it retains the noise.... without using the car speakers like BMW Actually thats a lie, the power is needed to justify that front bumper and rear spoiler!
The XKR-S defines the peak of XK range but is where the F-Type starts and I cannot wait to have a go!
I borrowed this French Racing Blue XKR-S from lets just say 'work associates', essentially its an executive management level car that he's had since June last year and has had 16k miles put on in that time. This weekend I would be using it to travel to my cousins wedding and then for a trip to Cheltenham, with blasts in between without my more delicate cargo. In all I put 430 miles on the car.
First thing to do was give it a good wash and interior clean as it was somewhat grubby and I dont like having bits of other people in the cars i use.
Seats are amazingly support and look the business with the coloured stiching, shoulder wings and 'harness' cutouts with the RS embossing. The carbon look vinyl is employed as infill sections of the seat leather and ties in with the far more appropriate carbon on the doorcard in lieu of wood
or leather as you would find on an XKR. Notice the switches in the consoler forward of the sliding armrest lid that are hiding the cupholders.Winter - softer throttle response, smoother gearchanges, always pull away in 2nd.
Dynamic - Throttle response and gearshift management is changed, damper variable damping shifts to delivery better body control active exhaust opens sooner and wider.
DSC - Press once for TracDSC - less intrusion and handy for snow, hold to completely turn it off and kill yourself.
ASL - Set a speed limit on the dash like cruise control but the car wont break it.... handy!
Electric handbrake - Urggg. Atleast it turns off when you drive away (yes dont rev the car when in D) and packages neater.
One 6 year old just about fits with a povety spec car seat thats small enough to drop into the bucket form of the squab and short enough to allow his knees to bend!
The car does an impressive job of being massive but offering limited occupant space.
Once in the car its right to look at whats on the Radio, this being a 'young man's Jag'
Radio 1 on the DAB system is selected and heating control setting managed with hard keys but fed back on the Home screen. No cooling on these seats but there is a heated wheel, good for warming in winter and presumably effective for drying the sweat ridden handsprints after opening the 5.0L Twin Vortex Supercharged V8 throttle.
Look still lots of leather for the dash topper, continuation of the blue stitching and also a strange textured plastic finished to emulate metal.
Fortunately the whole range of enthusiatice driving would ultimatley end with these, thankfully, sizable brakes.
Decided this was now the time we'd set off for the parent outlaws to let my son open some birthday presents a day early (wedding on the Saturday - same as his birthday) going via Burton-on-Trent Cooper Sq shopping in the 'Blue Jaguar' he kept reminding me I had promised as a birthday treat
Note my selected parking position was purely defensive but we already has a crowd of observers who proceeded to walk a lap of the car 'just looking at the car'.
Got to parent outlaws (not married yet) and did the birthday cake stuff etc etc before going out for a proper drive
Next day it was wedding day which resulted in less driving than one would have hoped but did allow a degree of showboating thanks again to my selective parking
The chapel was behind this shot (Walton Hall, nr Wellsbourne for anyone familiar).
Even with a moderately prompt pull away you can only imagine the noise it made at this point
A friend took some pictures on a decent camera but they have suffered a little from overzealous photoshopping IMO.
Even after a full day of wedding stuff driving home around midnight at 2C ambient temperature wasnt particularly concerning as the car maintains the Jaguar duality with its Jekyll and Hyde nature, dynamic mode was switched to winter mode and everything tamed down.
Next day trip to Cheltenham.
Decided to fill up and then hit the motorway, so the car was already warm and sitting at 75mph or so with the occasional deployment of torque the car was respectable in terms of fuel use. Annoyingly it doesn't have an instantaneous readout to give you an idea when optimising your speed but 75 felt good, I was overtaking stuff and cars were overtaking me = maximum exposure for the 'young man's Jag' PR machine.
Took it for a good drive arround Cheltenham town centre... generally showing off and making noise. You have to be careful when parking it with the carbon splitter!
Nice view from my friends house, he sure wouldn't mind looking back at that after getting in from work! He's only 29 but was massively impressed previously having little regard for Jaguars. Seems my PR machine was gaining traction! I also took a neighbour of my parents out as he has mentioned he'd love the new XKR to my Dad, the new 'fast one', that or an Aston as a retirement present to replace his X100 XKR carbon edition. First thing he did after the drive was go on the net to see how much they were going for.
In terms of words to decribe the car. Well Incredible, but then im biased and have limited exposure other marque 500bhp+ machines. Straight from the start the S treatment over the XKR is supported by elements more than the extra plastic on the outside. The seats change the focus of the interior, whilst still allowing the GT aspect of a 2+2, if anything they offer marginally more room in the back. The engine barks into life with ferocity not experienced in the XKR with its V8 thrum, the road noise is immediately noticable as you start moving thanks to the performance orientated XKR-S P-Zero tyres that allow delivery of the 186mph limited top speed. The steering is immediately more responsive, masking the cars mass and reminding me of a nimbler Honda S2000 rather than the XKR. Just watch the kerbs as this car is WIDE.
The driving mode offer dynamic and winter, with the usual D and S on the rotary gear select. Manual gear selection is possible with the paddles on the wheel and will not automatically change up in S or with dynamic mode applied. Dynamic winds back traction control instrusion but I think you would have to be pretty brave to go straight for DSC off on this car! One feature of the RS range is that DSC only takes 3 seconds, not 10.... hows that for driver focus'd
I can't describe how fast this car is. Power is available anywhere, anytime and just planting in D whilst cruising letting the step down demand decide what gear to be in would raise a giggle from the most hardened of auto cynics. Absolutely incredible tractive thrust and noise with the scenery around you, including cars, moving backwards at a rate that defies belief. Through the corners is where care and discipline is required. Anything more than 1/8 of a turn will present traction issues where DSC will flash up, engine power will cut and the diff will straighten the car with a rather violent realignment of the car. Dont do that.
Get the car into a rythmn and ignore the sheer brutal pace that it has, it just gathers you a lot of speed that needs shedding on a B road, and the car will settle to cover some serious ground with impressive composure and massive grip. The Electronic differential that offers a degree of torque vectoring has been re calibrated on the RS and it allows you an impressive feel for the car allowing mid corner adjustment with both the steering and throttle.... just dont get tramping on the throttle, that red light on the dash with start flashing at you again.
I can not really describe just how bonkers it is, but the other side of the coin is I dont care if it only had half the horsepower just aslong as it retains the noise.... without using the car speakers like BMW
Actually thats a lie, the power is needed to justify that front bumper and rear spoiler! The XKR-S defines the peak of XK range but is where the F-Type starts and I cannot wait to have a go!
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nice write up and nice pics.
