04:53AM - 17.06.'14
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News Source: autoblog.com
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We'd consider giving up vital organs for the opportunity to drive any number of vehicles on the Nürburgring: supercars, racecars, track cars, even hot hatches... but a station wagon? That might not seem like a top choice at first blush, but this is no ordinary wagon. This is the Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake. Now if that name leaves you scratching your head, there are several good reasons for that – not least of which is the unfortunate reality that, unlike so many performance-oriented crossovers and sport-utes, the Sportbrake is not offered in North America. But suppose it were, or that weren't a factor. You'd likely still be left wondering how the name Jaguar ended up on a station wagon in the first place, and how that machine wound up bearing the letters R-S, the suffix affixed only to Coventry's most hardcore performance models. Our brief story goes back a little over two years to when Jaguar revealed the XF Sportbrake at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, giving its mid-level sedan an elongated roof and added cargo capacity. The Sportbrake may not be the first wagon to wear the Leaping Cat badge, but following the lamentable X-Type Sportwagon, it could be argued that the XF is the first authentic Jag estate. In giving prospective Jaguar buyers the option of a wagon – or, conversely, wagon buyers the opportunity to drive a Jaguar – the quintessentially British automaker did not initially offer a performance version. Not until two years later when it revealed the XFR-S Sportbrake at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, skipping any conventional petrol-powered options (which it does not offer in any market save for China) and right over the XFR performance model offered on the sedan and going straight for the most improbable cross-breed it could have concocted. Having struck us from the get-go as the kind of wagon we had to get our hands on, we eagerly headed to Germany to experience it first-hand. Walking around any ordinary Euro wagon – say, a diesel-powered XF Sportbrake, for example – you may find yourself wondering how much space it has or how much stuff can fit in it. But circumnavigating the XFR-S Sportbrake, your eyes invariably gravitate less towards the back than they do to the front. That's where you'll find a familiar story, but one which we haven't tired of telling just yet: it's Jaguar's long-serving AJ-V8, an engine developed with Ford Premier Auto Group money in the mid-90s. The engine has powered models from Lincoln, Aston Martin, Land Rover, and even the retro Ford Thunderbird, but it has always been a Jaguar engine first and foremost, and by this point, it's found its way into everything Coventry makes. It's also been updated, having grown to displace 5.0 liters and pack a supercharger. But where the same V8 churns out 470 horsepower in the XF Supercharged and 510 hp and in the XFR, in this, its ultimate incarnation to date, output has swelled to 542 horsepower and 502 pound-feet of torque. It's the same spec you'll find not only in the XFR-S sedan, but also in the outgoing XKR-S Coupe and Convertible, the sleek new F-Type R Coupe and the flagship XJR sedan. But with a 4,336-pound curb weight – 200 pounds heftier than the sedan on which it's based – the Sportbrake is not only the heaviest of that performance sextet, its the heaviest vehicle Jaguar makes. In fact, it's weightier than some Land Rover offerings, models like the LR2/Freelander, Evoque and Defender, though considerably lighter than the LR4/Discovery, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. That nets the XFR-S Sportbrake a quoted 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds – 0.2 seconds slower than the sedan, but hardly sluggish for anything but a top-flight performance model, and downright blinding for a wagon with 19 cubic feet of cargo space (59 cubes with the rear seats folded). That combination of power and practicality put the XFR-S Sportbrake in league with only the likes of the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Estate, Audi RS6 Avant and Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon – each of which employs a different term for "wagon" – but, like the Jag, packs a forced-induction V8 with over 500 horsepower to rapidly haul whatever you've got. The Mercedes and Audi both offer more power and more torque for quicker performance, but get there with turbochargers and all-wheel drive. The supercharger and rear-wheel drive put the Jag more in line with the Cadillac, which may seem more out of date (especially with a new-generation standard CTS already out), but both the CTS and XF were introduced back in 2007, with the Jaguar undergoing a facelift in 2011. The CTS-V may also offer more punch for less cash, but that's only relevant in markets where both are sold. In the UK, the XFR-S Sportbrake carries an all-in list price of £82,495, representing a £2.5k premium over the sedan. Adjusting for the UK's typical price and taxation premium, we'd ballpark a price of $103k if it were offered Stateside. Unfortunately, it's not, but then, neither is the RS6 or the all-wheel-drive CLS63 AMG Shooting Brake, leaving only the E63 and CTS-V to duke out this particular battle on American roads. Our route took us along twisting mountain roads and sweeping spans of Autobahn from the airport in Frankfurt, westward through the Eifel mountains on a pilgrimage to hallowed ground: the vaunted Nürburgring Nordschleife. Jaguar rented out the track for the entire morning, also giving us the opportunity to sample the XJR and XFR-S sedans as well as the F-Type R Coupe (the latter only for a regrettably paced warm-up lap). Needless to say, the F-Type felt the most at home on the 'Ring, but the Sportbrake more than held its own. This, despite its weight penalty over both sedans (the larger XJ being made of aluminum versus the smaller XF's steel frame). The XFR-S also features a more performance-tuned suspension than the XFR or XJR (even the Ring Taxi version in which we later rode shotgun), and the Sportbrake's bits are further retuned to handle the extra weight. |
