2001 Jaguar Xj8 ~clean Carfax 2 Owner~ Garage Kept ~ Low Reserve ~ Loaded~ on 2040-cars

Auto blog

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.

How and why Jaguar designed an electric SUV

Adrian Belew, front man of famed progressive rock band King Crimson and collaborator with Bowie, Zappa, and the Talking Heads, released a prescient song in 1982, but we didn't know exactly how prophetic it was until this week. The song was titled Big Electric Cat, and its lyrics seemed to predict nearly 35 years ago the unveiling of Jaguar's first all-electric vehicle, a production-ready crossover concept with the not-so-ingenious name, I-Pace. She arrives like a limo/Smooth and moving/On the prowl through the crowd/To the beat of the city/She glows in the dark/Wherever she parks/Concrete crumbles and the night rumbles. At first glimpse of the I-Pace, you may not have precisely the same feeling of disintegration as the roadbed Belew mentions, but there is no denying that the new Jag is important for the brand. Flush with investment from its corporate overlords at Tata, the company is on its most robust product offensive ever, rounding out its lineup to become a full-range manufacturer, investing in autonomous driving and projective head-up technologies, nearly doubling global sales, and now going electric. "This is probably the most important car since the E-Type, I really mean that," says Jaguar director of design Ian Callum. "And when we get this car out into production and it gains recognition and popularity, I think history will show it's a significant step for the brand. Not only because we're embracing the future, quite openly and honestly, but because we're going to beat the rest of them. Tesla is there already, but none of the rest." As a challenger brand – one not in the top of mind consideration set like rivals at Mercedes, Audi, or Lexus – Jaguars are made or broken on this kind of differentiation. The I-Pace is certainly distinctive, and looks like nothing else on the road. Like many contemporary Jaguars, its rear three-quarter view is its most compelling, with the slender half-round taillights inspired by the legendary E-Type that were first revived on the F-Type and have since become a signature. But here, the rear end is shaved off and in an angular concavity that seems an effort to take as much mass as possible out of the back, and one that echoes elsewhere on the vehicle: in the scalloped sides, in the continuous path of glass from the base of the front windshield to (almost) the base of the rear liftgate. But especially in the foreshortened and deep-nostriled hood.

2019 Jaguar F-Pace SVR Second Drive Review | A thunderingly good performance cat

Jaguar entered the high-performance SUV game late with the F-Pace SVR, but hopping on the unstoppable freight train now is better than ignoring it completely. Just like its European competition, the Jaguar has a delightfully overpowered engine and luxury in spades, as well as handling that borders on the uncanny. But if there’s a downside to the F-Pace SVR, itÂ’s that it falls victim to the same issue that plagues its competition: not enough differentiation. From a size, shape, power and features perspective, the SVR doesnÂ’t stand out next to others like the Mercedes-AMG GLC 63, BMW X3 M, Porsche Macan Turbo or Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio. But, there is a but: One factor makes the 2020 Jaguar F-Pace SVR unique among the competition. Jaguar gave the F-Pace SVR 550 horsepower and 502 pound-feet of torque – great numbers, but itÂ’s how the SVR makes them thatÂ’s the kicker. Instead of a smaller, twin-turbocharged engine, Jaguar tapped its 5.0-liter supercharged V8 for duty. This makes it doubly unique: the largest displacement in its class, as well as the only one to feature a supercharger, making the driving experience palpably different than the rest. With a blower and all that displacement, thereÂ’s no lag. Power hits early and with authority, throwing us back in the nicely sculpted leather buckets. The SVRÂ’s mid-range is especially impressive, and thereÂ’s no drop-off in power as the engine approaches redline. Turbocharging technology is virtually lag-free in most applications these days, but the SVRÂ’s engine is still sharper and responds quicker than the rest. The others may be as quick or quicker than the Jaguar in a straight line (the SVR hits 60 mph in 4.1 seconds), but none are able to match it in throttle response or engine character. And then thereÂ’s the sound, that glorious exhaust cackle thatÂ’s a near carbon-copy of the F-Type SVR. Our future may be electric, but the pipes on this crossover are welcome in this world for as long as they care to stay. Their cacophony of growling and crackling is louder and meaner than any other high-performance SUV on sale today. Some hooligan who thinks just like us mustÂ’ve engineered it. The only thing missing among the loud noises is that of a supercharger whine. Not even a hint of it is audible from inside the cabin, and the supercharger is the biggest performance factor that sets this car apart. Let us hear the whine, Jaguar.