At its official unveiling at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the special edition Jaguar XKR Goodwood Special made quite a sensation. Now the company has decided to put the car into production and latest reports suggest the production version has made the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes 58 seconds. Granted, that’s no 6 min 58.16 seconds provided to us by the Ferrari 599XX, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
During an interview at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Jaguar’s managing director, Mike O’Driscoll said "This is definitely not a level of performance anyone would have associated with the XKR before now." He also said the production version will have a top speed of 186 mph.
The 2009 Jaguar XKR Goodwood Special was powered by a supercharged 5.0 Liter V8 pumping out 510 HP. It was painted in a lime green exterior color and featured a lowered suspension, 21" alloys, and a tweaked exhaust system.
For a company that hasn’t exactly produced scorching results in racing competitions it’s participated in recently, Jaguar is hell-bent on returning to its perch as a racing team to be feared. In the latest episode of the Jaguar Return to Glory video series, the RSR team leaves no stones unturned on their passion for racing and desire to build the RSR XKR GT2 as a race car that’s capable of racing with the best of the best and the elite of the elite.
If there’s one video that provides you with everything you need to know about how the men and women behind the scenes work together to make the RSR racing team live up to its enormous potential, this episode of the Return to Glory video series is about as good as it gets. These guys live for racing and they’re working their hardest to make sure that the product is capable of producing results.
What goes on in building a race car? That’s a question that’s been asked by curious bees since time immemorial, but since the whole process takes a long time to be documented in detail, Jaguar’s US-based racing team, Jaguar RSR, was kind enough to show us how they built their XKR-based GT2 racer from the ground up - in a little more than 30 seconds.
While the specific details of the whole process are a little too fast for our liking, the time-lapse video does show us a quick overview of the building process of the car that’s scheduled to compete at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans as part of the brand’s 75th anniversary.
Any time EVO’s Chris Harris makes it to the pages of Topspeed, you can be sure that he’s probably driving something that we’d also like to get our hands on.
Harris takes the new Audi supercar up to task against some of its brethren including a Porsche 911 Turbo, a Jaguar XKR, and a Ferrari California. Harris each takes turns on each supercar, describing the pros and cons of each and decides which of these four powerhouse supercars people should get more bang for their buck.
If there’s somebody who knows his way around super cars, it’s Chris Harris. His opinion shouldn’t be taken lightly by those getting ready to invest on any of these four high-powered machines.
Jaguar will unveil two special editions Jaguar XKR in March at the Geneva Motor Show. Called "XKR Speed Pack" and "XKR Speed and Black Pack" this two special editions are based on increasing the car’s performances.
The XKR Coupe with new optional Speed Pack can hit an impressive top speed of 174 mph thanks to a unique engine and transmission recalibration. Besides that it adds a revised front aerodynamic splitter and larger rear spoiler to provide increased balance and a reduction in lift.
The XKR Speed and Black Pack will be available in Ultimate Black, Polaris White or Salsa Red and boast eye-catching 20-inch gloss black Kalimnos alloy wheels. It also adds red painted brake calipers contrasting strongly with the black alloy wheels, while body colored front and rear spoilers.
