26 May 2013

The Jaguar XKR is very photogenic


The F-Type might be the car of the moment for Jaguar but the XK is still a knockout looker.  I took advantage of some late evening sun to take some photographs then applied a few filters.  The XKR looks stunning, even if I did cheat and use technology to bring out the colours.  All the photos were taken with an iPhone 5 and I applied Snapseed filters.
This XKR is painted Kyanite Blue which looks sensational.

I've driven about 30 miles in it so far.  The driving position is perfect for me - legs out, seat tilted back, arms slightly bent.  The handling is pretty good but I've only driven on drenched roads, which leads me on to the engine.  The 510bhp supercharged 5 litre, V8 is shockingly, massively powerful.  Too much for the XKR on wet roads.  I'm looking forward to a decent drive in the dry.

The interior isn't fussy - it's focussed and ergonomically almost perfect.  The touchscreen which controls the radio (it's got DAB) and other functions is really easy to use - much more so than Mercedes' COMAND system.  The only thing I don't like so far are the gear change paddles which are too close to the wheel, and too plasticky.  For £80k a sliver of carbon fibre would have been nice.