2004 Jaguar X-type Base Sedan 4-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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2016 Jaguar XE pounces on the Parisian port

It's been about five years since Jaguar discontinued the misguided X-Type and exited the compact luxury sedan market, but today marks the British automaker's re-entry into the segment with the public debut of the all-new XE.
Pitted against the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the new Jaguar XE is based on an all-new aluminum architecture that will underpin many new felines to follow, and packs a new family of four-cylinder engines. That is, aside from the range-topping XE S pictured above, with the super-six borrowed from the F-Type.
Conservatively styled but elegant and uniquely Jaguar, the XE isn't set to arrive Stateside until 2016. So unless you're planning a trip overseas (with a stop at a Jaguar showroom on the itinerary), our gallery of live shots from the floor of the Paris Motor Show here at the Porte de Versailles may be the best look you'll be getting at Coventry's latest for the next couple of years.

Jaguar XE SV Project 8 slices record Nuburgring lap down to 7:18.361

No production four-door vehicle has ever come close to breaking a seven-minute lap on Germany's Nuburgring (we see you WRX STI Type RA NBR), but manufacturers are slowly inching toward the achievement a few seconds at a time. Jaguar announced that it returned to the famed racetrack with its XE SV Project 8 and clocked a 7:18.361 lap, a new sedan record that's 2.9 seconds faster than the Project 8's previous record.  When Jaguar debuted the Project 8 in 2017, it had the makings of a specialty car that would slither into the shadows as quickly as it blasted onto the scene. But it's been quite the opposite. Jaguar has continued development of the vehicle and offers three different versions, including a touring variant. Production has lasted into the 2019 model year, and we recently tested one to get a handle of just how monstrous the thing truly is.  Much can change and be learned in two years, though, and Jaguar wanted to follow up its first trip to the Nurburgring, where it posted a record-setting time of 7:21.23. Under the guidance of Project 8 development driver Vincent Radermecker, the Jag ran the circuit in 7:18.361 on July 8, 2019. It did so in two-seat track pack spec and on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires. Jaguar made sure to clarify a detail about the run and the time. The 2017 time was done on the then-used 20.6-kilometer (12.8 miles) setup, and so was this time. But starting in 2019, the Nurburgring began officially recording times on the full 20.832-kilometer (12.94 miles) lap. Using the 20.832 lap, the Project 8 recorded a time of 7:23.164. With that run, the 592-horsepower supercharged Project 8 is the first vehicle to set an official whole lap record in the mid-range production car class. Watch the 7:18 run in 360-degree video below.   This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Jaguar lets first outsiders drive new F-Type

What do you do when you're an automaker with an all-new and brand-defining sports car, one of them with a supercharged V8 cranking out 495 horsepower? You let proven race drivers test them out on track and on the road.
And what do you do if you're Jaguar and you're in that situation? Why, naturally, you make a video of it. That's how we get footage of racers Martin Brundle, Justin Bell and Christian Danner being choppered into the UK's Snetterton track to test the V6-equipped Jaguar F-Type S prototype. Then when they're finished with kerb-lined apexes, they take the V8 S prototype out onto the roads to run it through hedge-lined apexes.
According to one of them, "very fast, very nimble, great engine" is what will soon be headed our way. Check it out in the video below.