By Andrew Ganz
Friday, May 8th, 2009 @ 5:03 pm

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Jaguar has ever made a genuinely bad car. Sure, the British Leyland era created some hopelessly complex and, inevitably, unreliable designs, and Ford ’s ownership resulted in one well-publicized gaffe, but every car to bear the leaping cat has impressed in one understated way or another once you’re behind the wheel. As much as I hate to spoil the surprise: The heavily revised 2010 XK and XKR, Jaguar’s personal luxury two-doors, follow tradition in every possible way.

Yes, even the Ford Mondeo-based X-Type, where the power of a badge triumphed all else. Cheaply watered down by Jaguar standards, it nonetheless made an excellent Ford and a mediocre Jaguar – but hardly a bad car.

As my mind is digging through my mental history of Jaguar cars to find an outlier, I can’t help but think that the revised 2010 XK convertible I’m driving along a twisting, winding road overlooking the Mediterranean might be the foremost hedonistic ride to ever emerge from Coventry. While the design is no longer completely fresh, having been introduced for 2007, the insertion of a pair of all-new pair V8 engines into the sensuously long, E-Type-esque bonnet has only further upped the Jaguar character of these coupes and convertibles.

Not your average mid-cycle update
For 2010, the XK and and its high-performance XKR brother receive a pair of brand new V8 engines that they’ll share with the XF and XFR sedans, as well as most of the Land Rover lineup. Thoroughly new, and not just revised versions of the outgoing V8s, the North American market XK is powered by a naturally-aspirated 5.0-liter V8, while the XKR receives motivation from a supercharged version of that motor.

To go with their new engines, the two cars get a revised front fascia, aerodynamic mirrors and LED tail lamps. Inside, JaguarDrive, a rotary knob gear selector first introduced in the XF, migrates to the two-doors.

The style, penned by Jaguar’s esteemed Ian Callum, is evolutionary, yet quite similar to to the basic themes fellow foreign-owned British marque Aston Martin has followed since the DB7′s 1994 arrival. Not surprisingly, both the DB7 and the XK bear Callum’s signature.

Long and sinewy, the XK gives the impression that it is never standing still. Like a sprinting greyhound, its sheer athleticism is evidenced by taut, tightly pulled skin with a minimum of superfluousness aside from a pair of gills tacked on to the fenders.

The interior looks and feels a bit more like the groundbreaking XF for 2010, rather than like Jaguars of yore, but those trading in an XJS (there’s bound to be one of you) won’t feel out of place. A simplified center console, improved materials and new front seats add a bit more of a custom-tailored feel to the overall package.

Power is up to 385 horsepower and 380 lb-ft. in the naturally-aspirated XK and 510 horsepower and 461 lb-ft. for the XKR. That’s a healthy 85 extra horses on the XK and 90 on the XKR. Yet after having driven two examples, an XK convertible and a hardtop XKR, those figures don’t mean a thing. Neither powertrain is ever remotely underpowered, at any speed, thanks to tuning that maximizes low-end torque for real-world driving.

Behind the wheel
In fact, it’s the open-top XK, with its baritone growl, thanks to a particularly unrestrictive exhaust, that grows on me the most. Convertible cowl shake has been all but erased on most modern convertibles and the XK hardly deviates. Though it eschews the de rigueur folding metal hard top that graces nearly all of its rivals, the thickly insulated soft top quells sound nearly as well as the hard top.

Its balanced chassis, which tends towards nearly neutral handling, seems like a perfect mate for the flexible V8. The car whips through corners feeling much more agile than a nearly 190-inch-long two-door should be, even though the ride stays supple over poorly finished concrete. That Jaguar is able to achieve such precision without detracting from ride quality is astonishing.

If one change could add to the driving experience, Jaguar’s engineers might want to dial in a touch more road feel to the steering. Though precise, it feels almost too geared towards grand touring than the corner carving this machine begs to do, as I discover while my mind wanders to thoughts of the E-Type crunched in the original Italian Job.

On the contrary, the XKR excels more as a motorway cruiser. Its mountain of torque is wasted on tight curvy roads or even sweeping corners because it can overpower the chassis if you’re not paying full attention. While few things are as fun as oversteer-induced powerslides on a closed course, they’re best left to bootleggers, not Jaguar drivers, on the open road. The standard stability control system was too quick to intervene, even when kept in aggressive driving-oriented competition mode, meaning the car was either without power in the middle of a curve or, with the system off, the nose was pointed towards oncoming traffic.

Where the base XK reveals its tremendous balance, the XKR felt a little too soft to be a true performance coupe. To properly compete with the high-power bad boys of the personal luxury coupe class, Jaguar needs to dial in a bit more sport to the suspension.

As Jaguar tries to reinvent itself as a builder of fast, sexy cars, we can’t help but wonder what direction the next-generation XK, still a ways off, will take. The current XK excels in the Jaguar tradition as a highly refined grand touring convertible or coupe, capable of confident corner carving even if its high-performance model’s powertrain has advanced beyond the underpinnings. Stick with the naturally-aspirated XK and you’ll find an impeccably balanced sporting car truly worthy of the Jaguar badge. A very, very good car indeed.
2010 Jaguar XK Coupe base price, $82,150
2010 Jaguar XK Convertible base price, $88,150
2010 Jaguar XKR Coupe base price, $95,150
2010 Jaguar XKR Convertible base price, $101,150

Words and photos by Andrew Ganz.

2010 Jaguar XK Convertible

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