2013 Jaguar Xj Portfolio Edition on 2040-cars

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Exploring Romania's storied Transfagarasan Highway in a Jaguar F-Type V8 S

Top Gear is, in some ways, a victim of its own success. When it declares a road the best in the world, like it did with Romania's Transfagarasan Highway during its 14th season, you can't blame people for showing up and wanting to check it out. Of course, then the road becomes clogged with tourists and is less fun to drive.
But is it possible that there is an even better driving road in Romania? One that is higher, smoother and undiscovered by tourists - at least not yet? Henry Catchpole from Evo thinks that he may have found it while driving a Jaguar F-Type V8 S that makes a sound that evokes a World War II British fighter plane.
Scroll down to take a brief trip to Romania and bask in the wonderful roar of this topless Jaguar.

Jaguar's EV future starts with three 'sports crossovers' in 2025

Who'd have thought Cadillac and Jaguar would have so much in common? Once paramount luxury brands that lost their respective ways around the same time, floundered with one not-good-enough product after another, and have several failed reboots on their resumes. Given one last chance by their parent companies to get it together, both committed to all-electric lineups. And both have made it clear they're targeting the super-luxe demo, with Bentley the marque that always comes up as the hare in the distance. Cadillac appears to have made an outstanding shot off the line, its Lyriq bringing home reviews worthy of long-ago Cadillac, the Celestiq promising everything we screamed for from Cadillac concepts like the Escala and Ciel. We have two more years to wait for what Jaguar's bringing, the English automaker not expected to show near-production concepts of it coming lineup until a "globally significant" auto show that year. Autocar calims to have a few more details out of Jaguar HQ about what's to come. The product lineup has been guesswork to now. Autocar says it's going to be "a trio of ... electric sports crossovers." If that's the case, that means the F-Type puts an end to Jaguar's run of sporty, luxurious coupes — for a spell, at least. According to the report, the new range starts with a model around the size of the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo wagon, which is an inch shorter than a Cadillac Lyriq. Two- and four-door variants will offer single- and dual-motor powertrains. Pricing is expected to begin in the GBP80,000 ($96,406 U.S.) to GBP90,000 ($108,457 U.S.) bracket, which would make this EV the highest starting price for any entry-level production Jaguar in maybe ever. Right now, the I-Pace starts at GBP66,350 ($79,957 U.S.), the F-Pace at GBP46,250. The most expensive model among the range is the F-Pace SVR at GBP81,150 ($97,792 U.S.). It's thought the upper end of the lower-end EV could "push prices to GBP120,000" ($144,610 U.S.) before getting to the SVR trims.     There's no info on the middle sibling. The flagship is anticipated to start around GBP120,000. Two motors and all-wheel-drive would be the default powertrain, prices hitting GBP200,000 ($241,016 U.S.) for SVR models.  The aim is to earn comfortable profit selling no more than 60,000 vehicles globally per year.

Editors' Choice: Top Five 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show Debuts

Consider the 2015-16 auto show season officially kicked off. The Frankfurt Motor Show offered a great look at the newest crop of production cars and conceptual machines, and brought some old favorites back into the spotlight for a closer look. (The Alfa Romeo Giulia, for example, debuted in June, but this was the first time most of us saw it.) Now that the dust has settled and we're all on flights back to the US, our editors cast their votes for their personal favorites from the Frankfurt show. These are the cars we truly loved seeing the most. But unlike other shows, there was no one runaway winner – all of the Top Five received positive praise from our team. We won't spoil the results, though. Scroll down to see what we liked most from this year's Frankfurt expo. 5th Place – MERCEDES-BENZ IAA CONCEPT View 12 Photos MIKE AUSTIN: The clean lines on this concept have me excited for a more elegant beauty to future Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Next to the Concept IAA, the lovely S-Class Coupe looks like an overstyled barge. DAVID GLUCKMAN: Yeah, the extendable rear is neat and all, but I'm more interested in the front-end styling of this one. It looks like the Tron version of a 300SL, in a good way. I'm hopeful it portends the future of Mercedes design. STEVEN EWING: I was super impressed when Mercedes said that, with the rear end extended, this concept has a drag coefficient of just 0.19. That's crazy aerodynamic. I'm not head-over-heels about the styling, but I think the lessons learned from this concept are really important, and will play a huge role in the future of Mercedes' products. 4th Place – ALFA ROMEO GIULIA View 15 Photos SEYTH MIERSMA: I can hardly express how in love with this car I am. The styling feels creative, modern, and evocative, without going over the top. The proposed performance is spectacular. And the Alfa badge speaks to a legacy of romantic motoring. DAVID GLUCKMAN: Pretty Italian car makes big promises and will probably deliver on about three quarters of them. I think that will still be enough for me. JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I'm really intrigued by the Giulia. It looks great, sounds awesome, and I'm expecting it to have a load more character than its German rivals. I hope I'm not disappointed. 3rd Place – JAGUAR F-PACE View 15 Photos GREG MIGLIORE: It's the first SUV for Jaguar, and I think they nailed the design, capability, and electronics. It's the right car at the right time.