Thread: 2012 Jaguar XKR-S in Action

Feast your eyes on this French Racing Blue XKR-S, Jaguars most potent series production car to date.

The uprated supercharged AJ-V8 now delivers 550 bhp and 502 lb. -ft. of torque to deliver zero to 60 mph in 4. 2 seconds and a 186 mph top speed. Furthermore it sprints to 100 mph in under nine seconds. And while it delivers these stunning headline figures, 80 percent of the maximum torque is on tap from under 2500 rpm and 95 percent below 4000 rpm, which must make for a hugely flexible driving experience.

Extensive use of Computational Fluid Dynamics has resulted in some significant aerodynamic updates to the car including a new, lower front splitter and larger grille openings to force more air into the engine bay. Whilst the vertical fins on either side of the front spoiler prevent air from peeling away from the sides of the body at high speed which is further helped by the 70mm extension to the sills that help keep the air attached. As a result front lift is reduced 33 percent and rear 14.

The deeper front spoiler is balanced by the rear wing and venture whilst the nose has a steeper, flatter angle to it than the more rounded nose on the standard XK.

The front suspension has also been tweaked for sharper, more immediate steering by installing a new, stiffer knuckle to the front suspension thats similar in concept to that Nissan employs on its GT-R to reduce camber change under hard cornering. The Active Locking Differential has been retuned together with the Bilstein based suspension controlled by Jaguar developed software.