2012 Jaguar XJ front view

2012 Jaguar XJ front view

2012 Jaguar XJ side view

2012 Jaguar XJ rear view

2012 Jaguar XF front view

2012 Jaguar XF front view

2012 Jaguar XF side view

2012 Jaguar XF rear view

2012 Jaguar XF interior

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible front view

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible stacks up against other six-digit luxury sports cars, but I’ve got a confession to make. Before we get down, dirty and up to our elbows in power figures, you need to know that this is my first real brush with luxury performance of this caliber. Move down the sports car’s side and you’re introduced to a full 188.7 inches of sprawling bodywork.

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible front1 view

With a lengthy 108.3-inch wheelbase, Jaguar’s designers had plenty of space to ply their art. From the sides, prominent haunches define the XKR Convertible’s profile before transitioning easily into a low-slung nose that rolls on for a country mile.

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible side view

Jaguar was kind enough to supply the XKR Convertible with a set of heated and cooled ventilated leather seats up front that are fully capable of boiling up a cup of Earl Grey should you become stranded far from a kettle at tea time.

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible side1 view

Jaguar has made damn sure that you feel the supercharged 5.0-liter V8 come to life, and it does so with a bark that serves as a harbinger of all sorts of naughtiness.

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible rear view

If the starting sequence is the gateway drug of Jaguar love, the first punch of the accelerator is straight methamphetamine. The six-speed automatic gearbox is a work of art, dispatching upshifts with quicker-than-thou precision and serving up rev-matching downshifts with a click of a paddle.

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible rear2 view

Even with 3,968 pounds of heft to scoot along, the dynamic suspension is perfectly firm for a series of apexes while turning buttery supple to accommodate imperfections in the tarmac. Still, check engine lights are nothing new or special, even on a vehicle with 2,200 miles on the clock.

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible rear1 view

We piled back out and the next day I got the pleasure of spending some time with the experts at Harper Jaguar.

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible engine

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible seats

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible interior

Though power always seemed ample on the highway, the Jaguar  XF’s engine performance eroded slightly as the miles piled up; most long-term test subjects clock in slightly stronger at 40,000 miles. In our initial test, the Jag sprinted to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds and to 100 in 11.8, covered the quarter-mile in 13.6 seconds at 107 mph, and hit 150 mph in 32.1. Before parting ways with the Jaguar, the car hit those same marks in 5.2, 12.2, 13.7 (at 106 mph), and 33.9, respectively. No one could call the latter numbers slow, and we saw small gains on the skidpad (0.89 g versus 0.88) and in braking (155 feet versus 158, excellent for a 4200-pound sedan).

Fuel economy over 40,000 miles was 20 mpg, between the EPA window-sticker predictions—15 mpg city, 23 highway—and a bit better than the government’s 17-mpg combined forecast. The sticker price on our XF’s Monroney was $66,210, an MSRP that included $2200 for the overly intrusive adaptive cruise control, which many of us could easily do without. However, that price is a little irrelevant because Jaguar has since discontinued this particular model. Jaguar XF choices now include two naturally aspirated V-8 models—a 300-hp 4.2 and a 385-hp 5.0-liter—and two supercharged editions: a 470-hp version of the 5.0-liter and the scalded-cat XFR, with 510 horsepower.