2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged

When I first saw pics of Jaguar’s XF, I was a little deflated. While the grill gives me a vague Jag vibe, I don’t think the front end is nearly aggressive enough. Right now, only real estate agents and retirees unconcerned with resale value drive Jag sedans. The XF was supposed to be hot enough to make young professionals who’d otherwise opt for an Audi or BMW drop their iPhones. I wanted to see something bold. Something that screamed vicious. Something I’d notice from a half-mile away. And with all due respect to Jaguar design director Ian Callum, for me, it’s just not there. Now, in all fairness, there hasn’t been a Kitty which looks as good from the front as it does from the back since the mind-bendingly gorgeous E-Type, and the hindquarters of the XF are dead sexy. Bottom line is, I wanted to love this car. Jaguar is one of my favorite marques—I own a ‘78 XJ6L—and since I knew how much the company has riding on it, I wanted the XF to be wicked. And it is. I loved it.      

That’s not to say the XF is perfect. The pedals look cheap. The brake calipers should be painted. The metal looking window controls should be actual metal. But getting into it feels awesome. The light on the start button pulses like a heartbeat, and while I understand that could sound gimmicky, it’s not. At all. Push that button, and the much-touted tranny dial rises from the center consul as the aluminum dash vents open. The way the XF wakes up has kind of a luxury spaceship feel, and I love the fact that Jag has admitted that the vents only open upon start up because it looks cool. But the engine is what makes this Kitty shine.

The 4.2 liter supercharged V8 puts out 420 horsepower, and it makes the XF such a total blast to drive. Jag claims it’ll get to 60 in 5.1 seconds, and while I didn’t bring my stopwatch, the car’s blistering acceleration made it almost maddening to drive in town. All I wanted to do was mash the gas and hear the V8 wind up. Rob was fresh off a test drive of Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage, and after driving the XF, he said the Jag’s paddle shifters almost felt better than the ones in the Aston.

In automatic mode, the XF is a total pussy cat. But when I used its paddle shifters in town, I actually managed to make Ari—one of CarDomain’s project managers—kind of sick to his stomach with all of my stop-and-go punchiness. While I realize that doesn’t speak worlds about my driving, I think it’s actually proof of just how quick Jag’s new Kitty is.

Over the weekend, my best buddy Jamie and I went from Seattle to Portland, and since the weather was typical Northwest crappy, we just bounced down there on the interstate. But after a spirited night on the town, the skies had cleared, so we knew we needed to take the long way home. After selecting the "no major roads" option from the XF’s nav system, we counted the seconds until exactly 12:00PM, and we were off.

I can safely say that the drive back to the Emerald City was some of the most fun I’ve ever had behind the wheel. Aside from one decidedly unfortunate encounter with traffic—where do you have to go to completely escape it today?—the roads were clear, and with the gorgeous Bowers & Wilkins system bumping and the majestic Northwest scenery ripping by, it was easy to forget that we were actually driving toward a destination.

Honestly? I have to say that the week I spent on the Bullrun made me a more than a little "impatient" when it comes to a clear stretch of open road. And on this trip, I was fortunate enough to have encountered some conditions where I felt it appropriate to indulge my inner hooligan. There are a couple of wonderful lengths of highway 101 which stretch along the coast between Portland and Seattle, and my only regret about the way I spent those miles is that the drivers we passed couldn’t have had more than a couple of seconds to enjoy the XF’s beautifully sculpted hind quarters. Then we were gone. Pity, that.

In turns, I felt super-connected to the Jag. The Pirellis held corners great, and the twisties we encountered on the way home were no match for the XF. Basically, driving this car fast is easy as hell. Keep your eyes on the road and you’re good to go. The XF will go where you point it. Even after an entire workday of driving, I didn’t want to get out.

During my week with the XF I put almost 900 miles on the clock, and Ienjoyed every one of them. Jamie actually spends his days as an audio engineer for one of Seattle’s most respected studios—Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews record there—and you can read his full review of the Bowers & Wilkins sound system here.