As a petrolhead, there isn’t anything that can put a smile on your face quite like more power. The sensation of the engine growling and your head being pushed back to the seat as soon as you put your foot down is one that brings unparalleled joy to every car enthusiast. Keeping this in mind, there are quite a few car manufacturers that build cars with demonic power and acceleration but that’s where all the good things end.
In the market for sportscars, one often has to make the compromise of luxury and comfort to experience the power and while that seems like an understandable sacrifice for many, a certain British manufacturer believes otherwise. Over the years, Jaguar have been the standout manufacturer for offering some truly spellbinding luxury while packing a heavy performance punch.
Recently, I was invited to the Jaguar Experience event (officially called as the Art Of Performance Tour) in Mumbai, where I got the chance to experience the entire Jaguar range firsthand. Now, being only fifteen has its own advantages and disadvantages and here, it seemed like more of the latter. For obvious legal reasons, I wasn’t able to drive the cars, yet, there was a lot that I was able to learn sitting in the passenger seat. Here is my take on the event and a car by car breakdown of the entire Jaguar range that will make you realise that you don’t always need to compromise comfort for the thrill…
The experience
The structure of experience events like this one is that there are multiple activities for you to play around with and get a good feel of the cars in your brief periods with them. Short, but enticing activities like a slalom and an acceleration test among a few others help you feel for yourself what all the fuss is about. A team of ultra-experienced experts, who knew the car to depths I hadn’t really imagined, guide you to drive the car to its full potential. There’s hardly a stain on that side of things. However, you do tend to realise that these activities are only meant to show a certain, sporty aspect of the car while the important details that matter to most motoring enthusiasts such as fuel economy are not discussed very thoroughly.
Yet, it still makes sense; in India, those who can afford a Jaguar pay little attention to things like this – the focus for the prospective buyers is the speed, the stability and the comfort that the car offers and that was catered to pretty well. Finally, was it relevant? In my opinion, it does seem like it. Jaguar very intelligently invite the select few they believe could be potential buyers and they check all the boxes on the guests’ wishlists. You get an hour’s worth of pure driving pleasure, some hearty refreshments while you wait for your turn to arrive and quite a bit of information about what could be the next car parked in the garage of your multi-crore bungalow. Sounds pretty good to me!
The Jaguar range
Ah yes, the exciting bit you have been waiting for.
The F-Type:
Let’s begin with the most popular car in the entire range – the nimble, hard top F-Type. Although I spent the least amount of time in this beast, it was the one that put the biggest smile on my face. In an acceleration test, I first got to ride shotgun in the calmed down F-Type Coupe which has a V6 that produces a fairly decent 375 horsepower. As a consequence of the sheer lightness of the machine, the acceleration was surprising, yet truly enjoyable. As if that wasn’t enough, I then got to have a go in the manic F-Type SVR Coupe which has a 5.0l V8 that produces 570 horsepower!
Again, the power and the aggressive growl of the V8 just gets you all the time and unlike in the Coupe, my head slammed back on the highly cushioned seat as a consequence of the psychedelic acceleration. Not a bad experience at all! Moreover, I was somewhat surprised with the quality of the interior. Normally, performance sportscars are not the lushest places to be in but both the F-Types were quite a pleasant surprise. Yes, the low ride height means that you do need to be good at your yoga to get in and out of this car without any issues. However, that is all subdued by the performance of the F-Type. If only I could spend more time with it…
The XJL:
Personally, this was my favourite car of the lot; on its own, the regular XJ is quite a competent machine with the right mix of comfort and insanity but the XJL belongs in a different category altogether.
Honestly, I find it quite hard to identify what XJL stands for – is it XJ Long, owing to its blue whale-like wheelbase, is it XJ Luxurious, describing its wealth of extravagant novelties or is it XJ Ludicrous, keeping in mind its insane agility and abundance of power?
In reality, all three of them make sense. The reason why it is my favourite partly boils down to the fact that I am not allowed to drive it yet; the back of this limousine-esque car probably is the coziest place for one to be. Describing the the interior and the amenities that this car offers will probably need a book, but I can assure you that once sit in the back of the XJL, the rest of the world feels a tad bit spartan. I guess it fulfils its purpose then!
The F-Pace:
If you are an ardent follower of The Grand Tour, you might be quite familiar with the sporty SUV that is the F-Pace. Although it was the most affordable of the lot (which consisted of a Bentley Bentayga and a Range Rover), it did spring out quite a few surprises and proved that it was good value for money.
However, is it value for money here in India? From a comfort point of view, yes. It is quite a nice place to be in and personally, I wouldn’t mind sitting in there for a long journey. The speed and stability is there when you need it; you do feel the urge to explore its full potential and the car does tend to respond pretty well to that which is a plus and the handling is supreme for an SUV. All in all, you get quite a bit for your money and that makes the F-Pace a smart choice.
The final verdict:
The common denominator of all the cars that I experienced was the power; there was no shortage of grunt available and the exhaust noises were quite pleasing. In the F-Type, it was more like a well-prepared orchestra playing a soothing symphony; there aren’t a lot of sounds that beat a V8. With a lot of clever systems such as Torque Vectoring, the cars do feel incredibly stable and under control while not compromising on the fun. In my mind, that’s a win-win situation.
Holistically, events like this are quite relevant to the buyers and once the cars trap you in, it’s hard to resist the urge of going for a test drive and eventually, making these cars as your daily drives. That is what makes the Jaguar range quite a big success in India. The art of performance? 100%.
