Fast Cat: Jaguar XKR-S Road Test

I had a strange feeling of déjà vu. Looking out of the window at a grey sky filled with drizzle and a day driving a 500+bhp coupe ahead of me, I got those familiar little butterflies in my stomach that shouted to me “push it that bit too far and you’ll be in a hedge, boy” that I got before driving the Mercedes SLS.

Still, a day driving a supercar in drizzle is still better than a day not driving one at all so off I went to my pickup point at écurie25’s clubhouse in Wakefield, where as I pulled up I saw my ride for the day – the 542bhp Jaguar XKR-S. I’m man enough to admit that as I rounded the corner and saw it sitting there in jet black with black wheels, all spoilers and aggressiveness, I clenched. It’s a mean looking car, make no mistake.

So, the usual handover process was done and I was clear to take in the Jag and get to know it before setting off. To call the XKR-S aggressive is like saying that Charles Bronson had ‘a bit of a temper’. At the front, there’s a low bumper with a jutting carbon fibre splitter sitting below the grille which houses the famous Jaguar’s head and a new R-S badge. At the sides, just ahead of the front wheels are new aerodynamic vertical ‘vanes’ to help direct airflow – I’m not sure if they actually do that, but they look fantastic. At the rear there’s a diffuser housing the four exhaust pipes and a large wing sits atop the bootlid with the centre section in carbon. The only splashes of colour on this XKR-S are the red brake callipers behind the gorgeous 20-inch black alloy wheels.