On this episode of Ignition
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 What makes the XKR-S GT?
00:08 Well, there's a lot of what you can't see
00:10 and a lot of what you can.
00:11 The engine and transmission are basically unchanged,
00:14 but the steering system and the suspension
00:16 are either brand new or totally revised.
00:18 This hood is also completely new,
00:20 helps evacuate heat, and with some aerodynamic functions.
00:24 Now, the aerodynamic upgrades are rather comprehensive.
00:27 We have this big front splitter, those big canards and large
00:30 spats in the rear, an aluminum under-train, of course,
00:33 that massive rear wing and diffuser.
00:35 Jaguar says that gives you 320 pounds of downforce
00:39 at 186 miles an hour, but the downforce is there.
00:42 As for brakes, we have these big carbon ceramic rotors,
00:45 15.7 inches in the front, 15 inches in the rear,
00:48 six piston calipers in front, four piston calipers
00:51 in the rear.
00:51 This is all the hardware you need
00:53 to be a weapon at the track.
00:54 And here we should be able to find out
00:56 how well it all works.
00:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:01,
01:27 The GT requires a careful right foot during launch.
01:31 Get it right and you'll reach 60 in 4.1 seconds
01:34 in the quarter mile at 12.3 seconds at 119.7 miles an hour.
01:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:43 The GT's 23.7 second figure eight lap time
01:47 and average lateral acceleration of 1G
01:49 is a massive improvement over previous Jaguars we tested.
01:54 It matches the best we've recorded from the Porsche 911
01:57 and Chevy Corvette Z51.
02:01 A car like this is best experienced on the track.
02:04 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:14 XKRS GT on the track.
02:17 So we've already gone over what this car has,
02:20 the changes that Jaguars made to the XKRS GT
02:24 to make it more of a track car.
02:25 [ENGINE REVVING]
02:28 And I think the best way to think of this car is sort
02:30 of like a GT3 version of the XKRS.
02:35 Now it's an interesting thing because this car
02:38 doesn't have any more power.
02:39 [ENGINE REVVING]
02:41 But I don't think modern Jaguars need any more power.
02:45 This supercharged five liter V8 makes 550 horsepower.
02:49 And I think 450 pound feet of torque, that's plenty.
02:52 That's way more than you need.
02:54 What you need to be able to do is apply
02:56 that power to the rear tires.
02:58 And that's something Jaguars, or the modern Jaguars,
03:01 have had a lot of difficulty doing.
03:02 [TIRES SCREECHING]
03:06 They have this handling tendency that I've
03:08 gone on about great length, which is minor understeer
03:13 into a corner and then crazy nonsensical oversteer
03:17 as soon as you even think about touching the gas pedal.
03:21 Now that's fine for a street car.
03:23 And that's fine if you're just trying to show off your friends
03:26 and say, hold my beer, watch what I can do.
03:29 But when you're really concentrating on driving fast,
03:32 it's frustrating and not that fun.
03:35 Thankfully, this XKRS GT does away with all of that.
03:40 This thing is absolutely delightful.
03:43 And part of my shock is that this is finally
03:46 a really good handling Jaguar.
03:48 This is the Jaguar sports car that I've been
03:51 looking for for a long time.
03:54 The front end feels precise, sharp, accurate.
03:57 You feel like you can keep turning in and turning
03:59 into corners.
04:00 The steering feel is very good, very responsive.
04:03 Feels like it's working exactly in line with the front tires.
04:07 You still have some power oversteer.
04:09 You still have to be judicious with the throttle.
04:12 But it's nowhere near the extremes
04:14 of the current Jaguar lineup.
04:16 And we're still working with a ZF six-speed automatic.
04:22 And you know what?
04:22 It's fine.
04:23 I don't want a manual in this.
04:24 This transmission works.
04:25 This powertrain works.
04:29 Sure, I can understand some disappointment
04:31 that you're paying $170,000 or so for this car,
04:36 and the powertrain is no more special.
04:39 It doesn't sound any different.
04:41 It doesn't have any more power.
04:42 It doesn't look any different or anything.
04:44 There's nothing in the powertrain
04:46 that has improved or changed in this car.
04:49 But the handling is so improved that it almost seems worth it.
04:57 Now, the two most recent Jaguars we've featured
05:00 have been the F-Type and the XFR-S.
05:02 The XFR-S is the more sporting one of the two,
05:05 if you're going to believe the name.
05:07 So let's compare this to that.
05:10 Well, this definitely is more of a track-ready car.
05:14 The RS part of the name on the XF
05:17 may lead you to believe that it's for tracks, but it's not.
05:21 It's for drifting and showing off to your friends
05:24 how awesome you can power slide.
05:26 This GT is such a better button-down car.
05:29 It handles so sharply, so much more sharp than the XF.
05:35 It feels like a car you could take around a racetrack,
05:38 that you would want to take around a racetrack,
05:39 and you would enjoy doing so.
05:41 Everything they've done to this car
05:44 is just such a dramatic improvement over pretty much
05:47 any Jaguar I can think.
05:48 This may be the best handling Jaguar I've driven.
05:51 Now, of course, to set a proper lap time,
05:56 we're going to hand this car over to racing driver Randy
05:59 Post.
05:59 All right, we're at Streets of Willow in the new Jaguar XK-RS
06:06 GT.
06:08 Strong, strong, supercharged engine, 550 horse.
06:14 Balance is good through the first corner.
06:16 It's a fast sweeper.
06:17 Excellent turn in.
06:19 Little push in the middle.
06:21 Hey, unlike most Jaguars, this car's putting the power down.
06:25 Very unusual.
06:27 Different from any Jaguar I've driven
06:29 for the past four or five years.
06:30 Wow.
06:37 So far, I'm really impressed.
06:40 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:44 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:47 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:51 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:55 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:04 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:12 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:21 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:24 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:38 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:50 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:53 [ENGINE REVVING]
08:05 The GT is a giant leap forward for the Jaguar.
08:17 The GT is a giant leap forward for the cat.
08:20 The future 25 owners of the XKR-S GT in North America
08:33 are going to be some very happy people.
08:37 They're receiving a car that Jaguar
08:39 has paid careful attention to, one
08:41 that has a broad range of handling characteristics.
08:44 It's a far better behaved Jaguar,
08:46 something so precise and automated
08:48 when you want it to be, but a flick of the wheel
08:50 and a bit of throttle away from the mischief we're used to.
08:53 And it's this controllability that makes
08:57 the GT so fast and so much fun.
09:01 Jaguar has made this car work.
09:03 This GT transformation is worthy of high praise.
09:06 And we hope this indicates what the company
09:08 has planned for the future.
09:10 [ENGINE REVVING]
09:13 [ENGINE REVVING]
09:16 Braking a little too late.
09:18 Because you actually knocked the recorder into stop
09:21 for your cornering so hard.
09:22 Oh, no.
09:23 That's OK.
09:24 Did you get my leap forward for the cat?
09:26 We'll do that line one more time.
09:27 Yeah, that was good.
09:29 [ENGINE REVVING]
09:32 This is kind of like the F-type black series,
09:34 or the XKR black series.
09:36 And that's great.
09:37 The more of these cars in the world, the better.
09:39 But if you've got a 200 grade to spend on a track day car,
09:44 that would never go to the track.
09:47 It's a really old chassis, though.
09:49 It's fine.
09:50 I mean, it works.
09:52 (car engine roaring)
09:55 (lion roaring)