It isn’t every day you’re allowed the opportunity to take a car like Jaguar’s flagship XJ SuperSport for a spin.
That a gentlemans’ agreement requires your drive to take less than half an hour to enable the next person to have a go makes the experience something to savour even more, if hugely teasing.
At the recent Jaguar-Land Rover experience day held at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire, the teasing continued all day.
To a red-blooded male the experience of driving Jaguars in small, delectable samples is akin to being presented with the finest ladies from your “top ten” list, but only for ten minutes.
Thus, my half-hour in the XJ SuperSport could be likened to a fleeting kiss with a beautiful woman, something to enjoy and a memory to keep, but frustratingly short of enjoying the whole experience.
Ever the professional, I memorised as much as I could. The first glance – a long, elegant shape in Jaguar’s Polaris White paint, with the mesh grille and 20-inch alloy wheels giving off just the right dose of aggression without tarnishing any impressions of luxury and class.
The XJ’s pert rump isn’t to all tastes, but it’s nothing if not distinctive, and on this long-wheelbase model the proportions work well with the narrow bands of darkened glass.
Once inside, the impressions of class don’t diminish. You sit relatively low, like a sports car, but no surface within reach is anything less than immaculately trimmed, and the steering wheel is perfect both to look at and to hold.
There are surprise and delight details too – a central cubby-hole trimmed in purple – purple – felt, the LCD instruments, and the rotary gear selector that rises from the centre console when you prod the small starter button.
Doing that also elicits a bark from the engine. It’s an artificial bark – while the sound is real enough, the engine is tuned to do just that when starting. But it’s a little reminder of what lies beneath the long bonnet, in case you had any designs on simply wafting to your next destination without a sound.
On the move, it’s the silence you appreciate first. That, and the perfect weighting of all the major controls. Some may like a little more heft to the steering, but it feels just right given the surroundings, fluid and accurate whatever the current pace.
Change the tempo and the engine finally comes into play. Where once it had been quiet, a distant murmer from somewhere beyond the prow, now the Jaguar roars. With over 500 horsepower the pace gathers rapidly, accompanied by the glorious bellow of that 5.0-litre V8 – not intrusive, but audible enough – and the whine of the supercharger.
Such a large car, of such a weight – just short of two metric tonnes – shouldn’t be able to move as fast as this, but it does. Perhaps more impressively, it feels no less nimble than the Jaguar XFR I’d driven moments before, testament to the weight savings of aluminium construction.
All the while, the cosseting interior provided me with the perfect driving position, and the ride shrugged off whatever the local roads could throw at it – sure, you could feel the imperfections, you knew they were there – but the XJ never let their presence intrude on the experience.
But just like that, it was over. I’d somehow reached the gates of the Heritage Motor Centre again. And my fleeting romance was over, with no guarantee that I’d ever get to enjoy another moment.
There is, of course, an element of personal taste. Everyone has their own idea of beauty and perfection. The XJ isn’t beyond criticism – the styling divides opinion, for example. While well-trimmed, I was surprised at the action of some interior parts – that purple-trimmed centre cubby closes with a clunk, where even in a lowly Volkswagen it would shut with – at most – a well-damped click.
But the XJ proved the most special car of the day, both in the way it drove and the way it made me feel, for those all-to-brief thirty minutes.
It is – at the risk of alienating myself – my Keira Knightley. And like an on-screen kiss, my brief XJ experience isn’t quite as real, nor as perfect, nor as enduring as you might really, really wish for.
You can be damn sure I’ll steal another kiss at the next event, though…
Word and Photos // Antony Ingram
Compared to its key competitors like Audi A8, BMW 760Li etc, the new Jaguar XJ Super-Sport edition also stands out as the best choice for a high-performing luxury sedan.