Leaping cat

As soon as I take delivery of an emerald green Jaguar XKR convertible, I start seeing them everywhere. On two occasions, I’ve been alongside identical models on I-95. I flipped the owners a thumbs-up and they smiled back.

The impression I give in the $80,000-plus supercharged Jaguar XKR is of having it all, and flaunting it too. So the thumbs-up has an altogether different meaning than if I was driving, say, a Toyota Prius. That message would be, "Look, we both care about the environment!"

Since my car is a rarefied XKR, with 100 horsepower extra and a $10,000 price premium, what were those other owners in mere XK8s thinking? To paraphrase monologuist Eric Bogosian, it might have been, "Damn, look at that guy — I should have bought the R!"

My friend Jeff owns a 2000 XK8 and he came over to check out the differences. In addition to the extra power and the fancy 20-inch wheels, he admired the navigation system and what he perceived to be more comfortable seats. A mesh grille sets it apart from lesser models. But in many ways, despite the five-year gap, the cars were identical.

Jaguar has a history of holding on to a good thing, and the XK8 has been a very good thing. The venerable British company (which started as Swallow, building motorcycle sidecars) has sold 70,000 XKs (33,000 of them in the U.S.) since 1996. That kind of sales means little to big-volume companies like GM or Toyota, but Jaguar (now subsumed into Ford) is and always has been a niche carmaker.

The XK evokes the classic models, with both name and appearance. The XK-E was the styling model, but even the earliest Jaguars, like the SS-100 and the XK-120, were simply gorgeous. The E-Type’s shape (probably the loveliest of any car, ever) evolved out of racing practice and the need for effective aerodynamics.

Jaguar lost its way in the late 1970s. The cars had a reputation for poor build quality, which wasn’t enhanced by the company’s frighteningly complex V-12 engine. The six-cylinder XK engine soldiered on, a holdover from the late ’40s.

As it happens, I had my first drive ever in an E-Type last week, and it makes an interesting comparison with the XKR. Both cars make sublime noises, handle wonderfully, accelerate like demons and draw admiring glances. In both cars, I peer over the windshield and feel a bit cramped. The problem is much worse in the XK-E, where my feet are too big for the pedals. In the XKR, if I put the seat back, I obliterate any possible rear-seat room and draw anguished cries from my children. But they loved watching the fully automated top go up and down.

The 4.1-liter supercharged V-8 engine develops 390 horsepower, stirred (not shaken) by an elegant six-speed shifter. It takes 5.4 seconds to reach 62 miles per hour, and will hit 155 mph, all the while maintaining 17 miles per gallon in the city, 24 on the highway. Like the old problematic V-12, it’s silky smooth through the rev band.

An interesting optional feature of the XKR is adaptive cruise control, which will actually take over control to maintain a safe distance between the car in front. I sampled this technology on a fast run through Indiana recently, and it works uncannily well, though it’s a bit unnerving.

The XKR is show-offy, sure, but it actually delivers the goods in the place where those big tires meet the road.