Jaguar Xjs, 1987, V12 Coupe on 2040-cars

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Jaguar XE promises to net 'over 75 mpg,' just not for us [w/video]

With around a month away from its world debut on September 8, Jaguar continues to issue a constant drip of updates about its upcoming XE compact luxury sedan that's aiming to take on the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4. Where the company's last bit of info focused on the car's suspension setup, this time Jag's putting the spotlight on the new model's modular platform and making some big promises about it, too. How big? Try over 75 miles per gallon big.
That's the headline figure that Jaguar is claiming for its new sedan, but it's keeping mum on just what powertrain will realize that figure. Furthermore, that result is on the European test cycle, which is more lenient than America's EPA testing regime. In any case, when the XE hits the road, Jag says it will be the most efficient vehicle from the company, ever.
That's thanks in no small part to the aluminum-intensive monocoque chassis underpinning the sedan. It's constructed from a new grade of the lightweight metal called RC 5754 that uses a high portion of recycled material. "The Jaguar XE body uses over 75-percent aluminum content, which far exceeds any other car in its class. This gives us a body structure with unrivaled low weight: it's light but also immensely strong with extremely high levels of torsional stiffness," said Dr. Mark White, Jaguar Chief Technical Specialist; Body Complete.

2021 Jaguar F-Pace hides big interior and powertrain changes under familiar sheetmetal

Jaguar's first-ever crossover is getting a major update. The 2021 Jaguar F-Pace, while looking not much different on the outside, is hiding an all-new interior as well as new engines. The changes to the exterior are quite mild, rather like those of the F-Type. Headlights and taillights are more slender, with the tails losing their little rounded sections altogether. The grille and diffuser areas of the bumpers have been slightly changed, and the main grille gets different inserts on all trims. The fender vents now get the "Leaper," the cat logo, embedded in them. Under the hood are two types of engines. There's the familiar turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder at the base of the range with 246 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. Above that are two versions of the new inline-six-cylinder engine, both of which use a regular turbocharger and an electric supercharger. The less-potent version makes 335 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque, while the high-output version makes 395 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. Each engine also gets a belt-driven starter-generator powered by the same 48-volt electrical system that drives the electric supercharger. All engines are coupled to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and rear-biased all-wheel-drive system. The interior gets the most immediately noticeable changes. The curvy, rounded dash of the outgoing model is replaced with a more crisp design with better-integrated air vents and large sections of contrasting leather and other accents such as metal or wood trim. An available 11.4-inch infotainment screen dominates the center stack, and it runs the new Pivi Pro infotainment system launched on the Land Rover Defender and the Jaguar I-Pace. This infotainment system can support pairing two phones at once and can receive over-the-air updates. The instrument cluster is available as a 12.3-inch screen that can be configured to show an array of different information including navigation info. The old shifter dial is replaced with a small leather and metal shift lever. Jaguar is also including more features as standard in the F-Pace. Among them are heated seats, a Meridian sound system, keyless entry, blind-spot monitoring and a surround-view camera. Active noise cancellation is also standard and a first on a Jaguar. Pricing and the on-sale date for the new F-Pace have not yet been announced. Related Video:

Harry bravely drives Jaguar XJ-S V12 1,000 miles to Monaco

There are a great many cars we'd like to take on a transcontinental journey – especially across Europe. And a good portion of them would probably be grand tourers with twelve-cylinder engines. We're just not sure we'd be as brave as Harry Metcalfe, who drove his 1980 Jaguar XJ-S V12 from his home in the UK all the way down to Monaco. Don't get us wrong, the XJ-S looks like a rather comfortable ride, and with the V12 is surely both smooth and powerful. It's just that Jags didn't have the best reputation for reliability back then, and we'd have been at least a little worried that we wouldn't make it all the way across France on this trip. Nor are we sure we would have wanted to without air conditioning. The model in question, as you'll find out if you watch the video, is an early 1980 example, produced just before Jaguar updated the line with the High-Efficiency versions. As such, it's got a bit more power and shorter gearing than later models. The XJS (as it would later be labeled) would undergo a number of updates over the following years, and would stay on the market until 1996 when the XK came along to relieve it. By Harry's reckoning, his early XJ-S was every bit as good as the Porsche 928 and other front-engined GTs of the era, and would have been more fondly remembered if it hadn't had to live in the shadow of the E-Type that came before. You'll want to watch the 17-minute video of the journey, undertaken for a cover story to appear in the September issue of Octane, to see for yourself. Related Video: