Jag Fleet out in Force

Current line-up is arguably the company’s strongest ever

A trip to the Nurburgring gave me a chance to try Jaguar’s full range of cars: the XK, XKR, XF, XFR and the new XJ. In between getting a ride in a stunning XK120 from Jaguar’s heritage fleet and trying not to shout “I’m not a good passenger” on one of the hot laps with proper drivers, I got chatting to Gordon Snoddy, Jaguar’s global PR officer.

“I think,” he said, “that the current range of cars is the best in Jaguar’s history.” Of course, this is a head of marketing talking, and they are not known for speaking ill of their product. But the more I think about it, the more he has a point.

Some might argue that the cars Jaguar has on sale now aren’t individually as great as the company’s icons such as the E-type, D-type or C-type, but those were not on sale at the same time. In fact, the only time I think the company had such a strong line-up was between 1962 and ’65, when it was making the E-type (the current XK), the Mk 2 (XF) and the Mk X (XJ). No doubt this type of talk will infuriate fans of the Mk V and Mk VII as they were both being built at the same time as the XK120 and C-type. However, this is purely an observation that Jaguar’s current cars are quite simply very, very good.

I was astonished that the XFR was so nimble around the track, as not only was it running on normal tyres and with normal brakes, it actually felt quicker than the XKR. I mentioned this to one of the professional drivers and they agreed. I brought it up again that evening with a couple of fellow journalists and I was literally shouted away from the table, so perhaps it is a matter of opinion. Much like the observation about Jaguar’s line-up…