1995 Jaguar XJR - Road Test - European Car

As charter members of the Heavy Right Foot car club, we bemoan the loss to American shores those great Euro performance sedans of recent yore: the BMW M5 and the Mercedes-Benz E500. Bestowed with fast-revving powerplants, suspensions taut enough for hot laps on the old Nrburgring circuit, and enough supple inner lining to pamper top listees on the Forbes 400, these two German super-sedans were veritable Porsche-skinners in disguise. Cars to trade a V-8 Ferrari for. No lie.

Today, BMW's 540i and Mercedes' AMG-tweaked C36 strive to fill the steel-belted shoes of their legendary progenitors. And, just when you thought nothing more exciting than a rich burled wood-encrusted Jaguar Vanden Plas would ever emerge from Coventry, England, a real surprise comes along: a fire-snorting, supercharged supercat dubbed the XJR.

The mission of the 400 XJRs destined for duty in stars-and-stripes land is to change Jaguar's stodgy image with a single pressure-packed punch to the solar plexus. Like its Black Forest foes, this car is a sedan for the high-endorphin set: based on a relatively conservative rear-drive platform, but muscle-built for exceptional performance. Powered by an Eaton-supercharged 4.0-liter DOHC inline-six, this is the first production Jaguar ever to utilize forced induction. The Roots-type blower is similar to the unit used on the Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe, which shouldn't come as a surprise, considering Ford Motor Company has owned the stately British carmaker since 1989. (Insiders tell us the marriage-and the resulting infusion of Yank dollars-is working wonders for the oft-beleaguered 72-year-old British automaker.) Turning at 2.5 times engine speed, the Eaton M90's positive-displacement supercharger produces up to 10 psi of boost and creates a torque curve as flat as a Yoko Ono Christmas album-but with none of the debilitating long-term side effects.

An output of 322 horsepower at 5000 rpm and a mogul-moving 378 pound-feet of torque at 3050 rpm prove the super-Jag's virility. Compared to its normally aspirated XJ6 stablemate (245 horses at 4700 rpm and 289 pound-feet at 4000 rpm from the same 4.0 liter basics), the tenor of the XJR is more than a little nasty. Although the displacement of the two Jaguar six-cylinder engines is identical, the supercharged version receives additional internal ribbing to the cylinder head, a tougher head gasket, and a beefier exhaust manifold. Both motors utilize cast aluminum pistons, but the XJR powerplant chooses slightly revised camshaft profiles and a lower compression ratio (8.5:1 versus 10.0:1) to handle the boost requirements.

An air-to-water intercooler also is employed and incorporated into the intake manifold. Opening the hood for onlookers is guaranteed to incite an outburst of oohs and aahs, as even the mechanically inept can't overlook the red "XJR6 supercharged" signage or the huge silver, satin-finished cam cover.

The start-up and idle temperament of the XJR powerplant is indistinguishable from the smooth-as-Cadbury-chocolate XJ6 engine, but merely nudge your big Lord Nelson against the gas pedal, and an instantaneous rush of torque moves the 4215-pound cat in a hurry. Zero-to-60 mph is a 6.6-second thrill ride, while the quarter mile whooshes past in 14.9 seconds at 95.9 mph. Both feats occur about a second quicker than what a new 6.0-liter 313-horsepower $77,250 Jaguar XJ12 can muster, despite the king-cat's 50-percent-greater displacement and twice as many cylinders. The XJR's performance also is strong enough to rub fenders with the smaller and lighter C-Class-based M-B C36 (0-60 mph in 6.4 seconds) and the Bimmer 540i automatic (6.9 seconds). Amazing what a little hot air can do when blown into the right places.