I mistreated a brand new Jaguar and lived to tell the tale.
Let me unpack that a but for you. Last month, I was test driving multiple vehicles at the great race track at Road American in rural Wisconsin as part of Midwestern Automotive Media Association Spring Rally. There were two classes of cars available for testing at the event. On the one hand, there were performance cars meant for the world class race track. The rest were vehicles the automakers in attendance intended only for street and highway driving around the farm roads and small town surrounding Road America.
Jaguar brought its new XJL to the rally and marked for street driving only. The 2014 Jaguar XJL takes the standard XJ’s features (all-wheel drive, an eight speed transmission, a 340 horsepower engine) and adds an extended wheel base for more space in the passenger compartment. The result is a powerful luxury car and aspires to the measurements of a limousine Town Car.
New Jaguar F-Type Coupe Debuts at COTA in Austin
The result is one of Jag’s most impressive and luxurious vehicles — a car that embraces Jaguar’s upscale British pedigree with a smooth, sophisticated ride. It’s up to the F-Type and the new F-Type Coupe to restore Jaguar’s sports car identity. The XJL is perfectly content devoting itself to luxury and comfort.
I knew all of those facts well before I got to Road America. But, I’d already driven the F-Type at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin and enjoyed the experience immensely. When I saw the XJL, I jumped at the chance to re-experience some of that Jaguar sophistication in a track environment. However, as noted, the XJL’s keepers only wanted the car on the roads — far from the 14 hard turns of Road America.
But, I was riding high on adrenaline. I would spend all day, any day doing speed laps on a race track — especially in some of the cars I get access to in this gig. On track days, I bounce from car to car, never wanting to waste time I could be spending on the pavement.
The end result of all that was I missed the sticker on the XJL delineating it for street use only. I tracked it…And, it was fantastic. Even with its length, it handled every turn with minimal under steer — and 340 horsepower was more than enough to push it north of 125 mph on the straightaways.
When I brought the XJL back into the pits, its owners could smell the hot brakes and asked the inevitable: “You tracked it? With an extended wheel base?”
I had to sheepishly apologize, but I’m not sure that was entirely fair, considering the XJL handled the track without a hiccup and could’ve carried two passenger on the entire run in absolute comfort.
I think Jaguar should have more faith in their XJL.
