New XK8 - my thoughts

[Andy665 0]

Had free use of a new XK8 coupe for the day today. Much better car than I thought it would be.

 

When I first saw photo's I thought it looked like an overgrown Hyundai Coupe but in the metal it is utterly gorgeous - more so in a light metallic with 20" wheels. The rear haunches are very muscular, the only weak parts of the external are the 70's style electric aerial and the internal detailing of the headlights is very weak.

 

Interior wise, quality is a country mile ahead of the old XK8, space up front is very generous, the rear seats are still a complete joke, not totally unusable (as my wife will testify too) but not far off. The keyless go is neat, the way the starter churns for a couple of seconds after the starter button is pressed and the engine is blipped before settling down to an idle is a great touch. Love the electronic handbrake, pull back on the little lever and handbrake is applied, moving into Drive or Reverse releases it automatically. The touchcreen infotainment system is easily the easiest I have ever used, was able to get to grips with everything with no need to refer to the handbook. Nice to see no wood in the interior and the leather covered dashboard is a real high quality touch, general feeling was of a very well built and sturdy interior, little areas of cost-cutting were limited to a couple of rough plastic seams here and there but you really had to look for them.

 

Driving wise, it was deeply impressive. 290bhp is not a lot nowadays butit felt quick, not massively so, there was certainly no kick in the back, it built speed very subtly, good job I was on a private road when I wound it round to an easy 140mph before having to back off. Standing start acceleration nothing like as impressive as its pick-up in mid-range, helped by the astonishing 6 speed ZF automatic. To be honest it felt plenty quick enough and I don't think that for most of the time you'd miss the extra 130bhp that the XKR provides.

 

Gearchanges were totally seamless, and in Sport mode would always clip the redline before changing up. The paddles worked very well but would have preferred them to remain fixed on the column rather than turning with the wheel. The throttle blip on downshifts, whenever in auto or manual mode really helped set the car up for corners.

 

Steering was a lot meatier and feelsome than I expected, helped by a very un-Jaguar like thick rimmed wheel. No real slack in the steering at all and gearing seemed just about right.

 

Ride comfort was amazing, especially when you consider it was running on the optional 20" rims, you heard bumps more than you felt them - don't know how Jaguar achieve this with such big rims.

 

Handling wise - lets just see that as I was on public roads (except for the speed test!!!) I got nowhere near the limits. No disercnible bodyroll, very little dive and squat, very unobtrusive traction control and monster amounts of grip. What was very impressive was the way the car seemed to shrink around you, was quickly throwing it around like the Rado, not intimidating to drive at all.

 

Summary - never really been a Jag fan but at £60k the XK8 would be a strong contender if I could spend that kind of money. Great compromise between a refined luxury express and a true sports coupe.

[CoxyLaad 0]

nice. I love the look of them.