Jaguar XKR S GT

How much?	£135,000
On sale in the UK:	Now
Engine:	5000cc 32v supercharged V8, 542bhp @ 6000-6500rpm, 502lb ft @ 2500-5500rpm
Transmission:	Six-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
Performance:	3.9sec 0-62mph, 186mph (limited) 23mpg, 292g/km CO2
How heavy / made of?	1753kg/aluminium
How big (length/width/height in mm)?	4794/1892/1312mm

It may share the same 542bhp supercharged 5.0-litre V8 engine used across the Jaguar performance range, but the alphabet soup name alone tells you that this coupe is a little different. Of course, there’s a regular V8 XK coupe; then there’s the breathed-on XKR. Take another step and you’re in the hot XKR-S – so the GT version takes the game up to stratospheric heights as the fastest Jag this side of the XJ220.

It looks over the top on the outside…

And we love it. Only 30 of these cars will be built with Jaguar’s Clockwork Orange treatment, making this one of the most fearsome, angry road cars you’ll ever see. With its black Dark Lord nose, carbon aero fangs on the front bumper and massive carbon splitter, it looks like it’ll swallow your kids if it gets within two blocks. The bonnet stripes and that aping rear wing all scream confidence and a brashness that you’ll need a Lamborghini to compete with, and it sounds just as brutal. This has to be nominated for the best sounding car on sale in 2014.

So that cabin’s stripped out?

Partially: look closely inside, and you’ll see the crossbars of the roll-cage that’s taken care of the back seats and forms part of the super-stiff chassis set up. This XK isn’t just a little harder, but a whopping 68% stiffer up front and 25% at the rear than the XKR-S, which must make a regular XK feel like a bowl of custard. Adding to the feeling of solidarity is the racing seats – single-piece carbon-shelled jobbies covered in leather and Alcantara, which also covers the regular XKR steering wheel and the roof lining, while there’s carbon on the doors, too.

What’s it like to drive?

You need courage to drive a car like this on the street, with its bravado and visual aggression, and it’s no different behind the wheel. Drive the GT like a ‘normal’ car, and you’ve wasted the £130k you’ve spent in getting one of these rare machines. Of course, the driving position is snug and low down, with excellent steering adjustment and those bright-red racing harnesses telling you this car means business. There are regular seatbelts if you prefer, but the view through the rear mirror of the roll-cage, like two crosses swords, and that massive wing, egg you to use the race versions. Rear vision isn’t great, but those seats aren’t too hard even on long journeys – just avoid the solid bolsters when clambering in and out.
The red mist has to be contained, because if you’re complacent, the GT will easily make you swallow more than your pride. In the wet of recent heavy rains, this car requires brains and measure to drive at all, yet alone quickly. It’s 0-62mph claim is 3.9sec and is utterly believable in the dry, but a VW Golf R will leave it for dead in the wet, as the Jag’s more than eager to spin its 20in rear wheels. Despite this, the Dynamic Stability Control is pretty amazing. In default mode (that’s non-dynamic, ESP on) in torrential conditions, the tail will twitch at will – just prod the throttle – but the computer will catch it almost instantly. Flick it into Dynamic mode, and great tail-out action is part of the deal, but it still puts the power down reasonably if you’re smooth on the throttle.

So it’s a handful in the wet but masterful in the dry?

The GT is brilliant on dry roads and smooth surfaces, with tenacious grip and road holding, while its rigid set-up means that there’s almost no dive and squat whether you’re giving it 542bhp or jamming on the ceramic brakes. The stoppers don’t have masses of feel, but are solid performers, while the loud pedal has a smooth action before a nice beefy centre, where your foot commands that sonorous V8. That’s what this car is all about: making the most of the ridiculous 502lb ft torque and channeling that engine’s ability through the car to the road.
The regular XKR-S isn’t a good enough performer to be considered an capable point-to-point performer: it’s simply too soft, doesn’t change direction with the competence it needs to and is more of a show-off cruiser. This GT winds up the trash talk but actually delivers: it’s steering is super responsive, the weight transfer executed superbly and the traction levels – while still a tyre shop’s delight with the ESP switched off – in the dry see this coupe punch you into the future with ease. It’s addictive, confidence inspiring and pure joy, and part of that comes from the fact that you’re teetering on the edge of disaster: it’s snappy and will bite in the wet, and lets you know it.

Managing that power is the older six-speed ’box, one of the few signs that the XK is now a seven-year old car. It’s not as razor sharp in its changes as the eight-speed ZF in other Jags, but with those superb metal shift paddles, with the plus and minus symbols elegantly cut out of the metal, it doesn’t ruin the experience. At cruising altitude in this badass cat, an aggressive dose of right foot sees the Jag kickdown two gears, the snap and crackle of that V8 backing a ferocious bite forward. You’ll be searching tunnels to bounce that sound off.

Verdict

This car as entertaining as a Jag gets right now: it’s edgy, demands confidence and maturity while exuding a brash, attention seeking exterior. It turns heads when it’s parked. So it should, though, for something that costs £130k – £30k more than an XKRS and nearly double the base coupe’s price. The best news? This pricey, limited edition GT shows that Jag isn’t blind to what proper performance car driver wants: it’s ditched the wallowy softness of the XKRS’ set-up for a razor sharp, razor’s edge thrilling experience. So we can expect great things from the F-type R, as the XKR-S GT piles on an even greater weight of expectation.

Even so, it’s an important car for the company because, if nothing else, it shows just how boldly Jaguar is thinking nowadays. A decade ago a car as wild as the bespoilered, bewinged, 186mph XKR-S GT wouldn’t have been given a moment’s thought by the Jaguar brass, but now it’s here, in the flesh, grabbing the headlines and running with them in a manner that is totally out of proportion to the amount of money it cost to develop.
Jaguar announced to the world that it would build just 30 such examples, each of which would be left-hand drive and destined for the US market. Which is when the XKR-S GT story got even more interesting.
Because as soon as that initial run of LHD cars was announced, the phones at JLR began to ring. And ring. There were quite a few more people interested in buying an XKR-S GT than Jaguar’s board imagined. Hence the reason why the car you see here appears in right, not left, hand drive: Jaguar now says it’ll make at least 10 more cars for the RHD market, possibly as much as 20 if there is the demand.
So I guess the question is this; is the XKR-S GT worth all the hoopla that surrounds it? Does it drive as good as it looks? Or is it ultimately just a great big marketing exercise; a vehicle that carries a message - and a very big rear spoiler - but not much else when push comes to shove?
In engineering terms, it would certainly appear to be the real deal. Although the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine and six-speed automatic is unchanged from the regular XKR-S (the engine produces identical outputs of 542bhp and 502lb ft), there is much that is new beneath the GT’s more flamboyant exterior. Gone are the rear seats, replaced by a full roll cage. The front seats are lighter and far more supportive racing buckets, both with a full four-point harness seatbelt. But it’s the chassis and suspension – and the brakes – that have received the greatest attention.
In essence, the GT would appear to be a kind of rolling test bed for most of the good stuff that will eventually make its way into the hottest versions of the F-type coupé. The rear axle is new, much of the front suspension hardware has been replaced (and will appear in the F-type), the front track is a whopping 52mm wider (although the rear track remains unchanged) while the uprights, springs and dampers will each, in various forms, make their way into future quick Jaguars.
The brake discs are carbon ceramic, with huge 398mm rotors at the front and 380mm at the rear, thereby addressing one of the key criticisms of the regular XKR-S – that it can’t quite stop as well as it can go. Which is always a touch concerning when there’s one and three quarter tonnes of car to keep in check, although in this case the kerb weight has dropped by 40kg to a still hefty 1713kg.
Bottom line; the XKR-S GT doesn’t just stop better than the car on which it’s based, it’s also nearly 70 per cent stiffer at the front and 25 per cent stiffer at the back. Couple this with the wider front track, a set of fatter, stickier Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres (255 section front, 305 rear) and some 145kg of downforce courtesy of that big rear wing and some additional new winglets at the front, and what you end up with – in theory – is a very different animal indeed from the already quite wild XKR-S.
A car that can lap the Nürburgring, indeed, in some 7min 40sec, which is about where the original version of the current Nissan GT-R was when it tore the rest of the world – including the Nordschleife – to shreds not that many years ago.
If nothing else, the XKR-S GT’s 0-60mph time goes a reasonable way towards justifying its price on its own, at an impressively scant 3.9sec. What we are talking about here is a car with a surfeit of performance, in other words. A machine whose potential you might not ever exploit fully on the public road.
And yet, as it turns out, the GT is actually a rather pleasant car to drive on a public road, with a surprisingly compliant ride, lovely steering feel, not too much noise from its vast rear tyres despite the removal of those rear seats, and a far more civilised personality in general than you’d expect, given the way it looks.
On the road it feels stiffer and more controlled than the regular RS; there would be something strange going on were this not the case. But despite the extra control and the new-found absence of roll or lurch when changing direction quickly, it doesn’t feel compromised in terms of its ride quality.
It’s firmer than normal, yes, but it still feels like a Jaguar on the move over a typical UK B-road. The compromise it strikes here is more successful than that of the recent XFR-S, it must be noted, which, to be blunt, is almost too stiff for everyday road use.
Secondary observations on the road; it really does steer beautifully; on a dry surface the Corsas stick like the proverbial you-know-what to a blanket; the gearbox can never quite make its mind up which ratio it wants to be in, even if you select “sport” mode which, in theory, should mean it holds on to whatever gear you select manually.
The noise that erupts out of the four tailpipes if you give it full beans beyond 3000rpm is 110 per cent outrageous – to a point where pedestrians dive for cover, literally, if you are heartless enough to keep your toe in as you howl past.
Conclusion; on the road (preferably a dry one, although even on wet surfaces it proved to be a lot less of a handful than we expected) the Jaguar XKR-S GT is, well, something of a revelation truth be told.
You look at its wings and skirts and its ultra low ride height, then read the specification sheet and discover that it’s two times stiffer than normal, and think; this is going to be an unbearably uncomfortable, totally uncompromising, mostly unnecessary way to spend £135,000 on a Jaguar and give yourself a huge dentistry bill in the process.
But what you discover is, despite appearances, a really rather lovely car to drive. Not a Porsche 911 GT3 rival but, instead, something almost as quick and a fair bit more usable into the bargain.
What’s it like on a track? As we discovered at Castle Combe, not bad, not bad at all. And, so long as it’s not too damp, also very quick indeed against the clock.
Jaguar's decision to build more XKR-S GTs proves the model deserves its place in the world, and then some. It’s way more than just a statement of intent.

 A Jaguar, most will agree, is an animal that inspires with its awesome beauty. Part of that beauty is the sense of danger associated with the deadly predator. This trait, we believe, has been convincingly translated into automotive terms with Jaguar Cars’ latest offering: the XKR-S GT.
This GT's purpose is to fight, and to win. Based on the already manly XKR-S and developed by Jaguar's Engineered to Order (ETO) division, the GT receives several chassis and aerodynamic enhancements aimed at increasing its on-track prowess. The standard car’s brakes are swapped out for carbon ceramics that benefit from automatic pre-filling and pressurizing the brake system as the driver lifts off the throttle for quick top-of-pedal response. The new discs measure 15.7 inches up front and 15 inches out back, and are clamped by six- and four-piston calipers. The entire suspension has been revised with a wider front track, increased camber, and revised bushings; the adaptive damping system is height-adjustable, and the steering has been tweaked with a quicker ratio. ETO also fits unique, 20-inch forged-aluminum wheels on Pirelli Corsa tires sized 255/35 front and 305/30 rear.  

 The XKR-S GT is easily recognizable by the large intakes stretching nearly the length of its hood—if Homer Simpson has taught us anything, it’s that speed-holes make cars go faster—and its huge rear wing. The latter, as well as the rear diffuser, the wheel-arch “spats,” the canards, and the front splitter all are made from carbon fiber. Such exotica on low-hanging body panels will require the utmost care when navigating curbs, driveways, ramps, parking structures, or anything else you might experience driving in Anytown, U.S.A. All XKs are all-aluminum cars, and the GT is no different, and it adds an aluminum undertray for aerodynamic purposes.
The GT’s supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 is rated at 550 horsepower at 6500 rpm, and it produces 502 lb-ft of torque from 2500 rpm—identical levels of output as the mill found in the standard XKR-S. Jaguar promises a 0-to-60 sprint in 3.9 seconds, a conservative claim that we believe can easily be beaten. Top speed, somewhat curiously for a track special, is governed at 186 mph. But at that velocity, the XKR-S GT generates 320 pounds of downforce, and it probably wouldn't go much beyond this marker anyway.
Even in its GT form, the XKR-S retains an aging six-speed automatic, a competent unit to be certain, but one that seems slightly outdated after the adoption of the eight-speed automatic in other Jaguar Land Rover products. While the slushbox fails to generate excitement, we like the fact that the car has been fitted with a louder exhaust system with the ability, as the press release states, to "enunciate the car's aural character." The traction-control system also has been modified, and Jaguar cites the change as one of the reasons for the GT’s improved acceleration times versus the standard XKR-S, leading us to believe there’s a little more wiggle room to be had in the new setup.  

 The XKR-S GT will come in just one color: Polaris White with black racing stripes, as seen here. The cabin, including the leather seats and the faux-suede headliner, is finished in charcoal gray with red accents. The first units will arrive in U.S. showrooms in August, but just 25 will make the trip stateside. Prices will start at $174,895, a $42K premium over the 2013 XKR-S.
With the GT version, Jaguar proves there’s still life in the XK, which was first shown at the 2005 Frankfurt auto show. Design chief Ian Callum calls the new model "raw, focused, and devastatingly quick." There’s no doubt this dangerous cat is shooting to become the apex predator in its segment.