Sporting Jaguars have always played third or fourth fiddle to the highly formidable Germans. In the power-addled world of enormous, stubby, exhaust pipes and low profile tyres, the performance nomenclature of ‘M’, ‘AMG’ and ‘RS’ have simply towered over the red and British Racing Green ‘R’. To solve this, the once placid, comfort orientated British manufacturer, has ushered in a new era of hardcore R-S models. It started with the XKR-S coupé and convertible, and now it’s spreading to the XFR-S saloon.
Some spies have snapped it doing its preparation laps at the Nurburgring in Germany before its 2013 launch. The 410 kW super-saloon shows some go-faster styling embellishments over the regular XFR. At a glace, we can see some bigger, flared, wheel arches and lower side sills for one. The 20-inch wheels of the XFR remain, but now the front is adorned with gaping air-intakes and a further sculpted front bumper. Day-time running lights still loom bright in the rear-view mirrors of slower moving traffic. A matte black grille accompanies a pair of supercharger nostrils on the bonnet. A larger boot lid spoiler is noticeable at the rear as well. This kitty-cat has some big cat presence.
To give it the performance of a big cat, the XFR-S’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 will allow it to do 0 – 100 km/h in 4.6 seconds and accelerate on to a de-restricted top speed of close to 280 km/h. If other Jaguars are anything to go by, we’re expecting the XFR-S to come at a R500 000 price premium over the R1 million XFR. Expect its arrival in the middle to late 2013. We hope that’s enough to take on the hi-tech M5 and E63 AMG, because R1.5 million is quite a lot more expensive than them both.
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