 2011 Jaguar XKR convertible. Click image to enlarge |
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Review and photos by Jil McIntosh
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2011 Jaguar XK
Each year, I drive some 50 or more brand-new vehicles. Being a bit of a packrat, I take a photo of each one and paste it into a scrapbook; over the many years I’ve been doing this job, I’ve amassed nine such volumes. That’s a lot of cars and trucks. And out of all of them, I can honestly say I’ve never been more reluctant to hand one back than I was the Jaguar XKR convertible.
It’s expensive. It only really seats two people. It’s hardly the most practical car on the road. And if I ever win lottery money, this is the car I’m buying. Oh, yes, I’m in love.
It will take a lottery win for me, because the XKR convertible starts at $114,000. Mine was further accessorized with several options – heated windshield (and its annoying vertical lines), red brake calipers and a 20-inch wheel and tire package, which took it to $119,800 before freight and taxes. Looking this good doesn’t come cheap.
 2011 Jaguar XKR convertible. Click image to enlarge |
The “R” at the end of its name indicates a step up from the regular XK. Both use a direct-injection V8 engine, but the XKR adds an Eaton twin-vortex supercharger with dual intercoolers. I’ve always preferred the sound of a supercharger over a turbo, and I especially love what it will do: while the XK makes 385 horsepower and 380 lb.-ft. of torque, the XKR churns out 510 horses and 461 lb.-ft., that latter number starting at 2,500 r.p.m. and lasting all the way to 5,500 on the classically understated tachometer.
This Jag-rag shows two faces. When you’re just cruising around town enjoying the sunshine, it’s a pussycat, moving out as smoothly as can be under a light foot and with none of the twitchy throttle response that powerful cars can often exhibit. But push your toes down hard, and you’ll be wringing three syllables out of four-letter words. The car picks up speed effortlessly, and with a growl rather than a roar, thanks partly to an acoustic filter on the engine that, according to the company, is tuned to “tenor C” and which feeds that terrific sound into the cabin (there’s also a lovely blip out the quad tailpipes when the transmission downshifts). The official zero-to-100 km/h time is 4.9 seconds.
  2011 Jaguar XKR convertible. Click image to enlarge |
The ultra-smooth six-speed automatic transmission is accessed through a dial, rather than a lever, which in signature Jaguar fashion rises up from its flush mount on the centre console when the car is started. There’s lots of chrome on the console around that metal dial, though, and when the top’s down and the sun hits it, it’s blinding. There’s a Sport setting, but because of the gearshift configuration, the manual shifts are handled exclusively via shifter paddles mounted on the steering wheel. There’s one side for upshift and the other for downshift, as it should be, instead of the awful redundant push-pull variety.
It runs on Premium fuel, naturally, and the official figures are 14.1 L/100 km (20 mpg Imp) in the city and 9.1 (31) on the highway. Very surprisingly, I racked up just 11.3 (25) in my week of combined driving with it. I expected a supercharged V8 to suck up much more than that, but in retrospect, I did spend a lot of time just tooling around at moderate speeds in it. That was partly because even a slight stab on the throttle can take you into lose-your-license territory without even thinking about it, but mostly, it was because this car is so composed, so sweet, and just so nice for top-down driving, I found I spent a lot of time simply cruising around and taking in all the admiring glances that it garnered.
