It all started with a 6.30 Am Start from Oliver Hammond (@Renault velsatis) house in Manchester, for what would be the Blueprint for one of the Most exciting days I’ve looked forward to in a long Time,
We hit the Motorway in the Vauxhall Zafira Sri Touring kindly provided for us by Grimshaws Vauxhall in Eccles, (more on that in a seperate blog/review)
We hit the Entrance to Jaguar-LandRover around 9.30Am parked up took a few pics in the carpark then went to the Visitors entrance to book in only to be told “Sorry we don’t have you down”
With the Thought of having to turn around and go home, we were worried, then we heard the words that sounded beter than winning a tenner on the lottery “Your at the wrong Entrance” Yesss!! was all I could hear in my Head, and when I turned around standing right behind me was Twiter Buddy and www.Simonscarspots.com Guest spotter Robert Griggs-Taylor @Robgt2,
So After making our way to the RIGHT entrance and Meeting Faye Goldstraw, (@Jaguarukpr) and Chris Auty, (@DrivingSpirt) it was time to Pick a car to drive,
Now our Brief was quite Simple, Pick something Non Supercharged, as there would be queue’s of people waiting to Testdrive them, So what did I choose first?
Yes you guessed it the Jaguar Xk-Rs Convertible,…Well it would’ve been RUDE not to really.
Now This Xk-rs is the Most Expensive,Fastest,Beautiful car I’ve ever Driven, or likely to ever drive again, (However I will remain Impartial)
The Front and Side views of the Xk-Rs are the best angles to view it, the rear is a little bit disapointing, as it’s not that exciting, and that’s the view normal motorists see most of,which is a shame although it does have a carbon fibre wing, My idea to make the Rear more exciting would be to Make a Pair of Fingers pop up, flicking the Birdie everytime you overtake something German.
The Carbon Fibre theme continues inside to with the added bonus of Visible Stitching In the Racing Seats,Dashboard and Door Inserts,
Start the engine and the Xk-Rs Thunders into life with a deep throbbing rumble,
On the road this £103,000 186mph supercar is an absolute delight, it can be driven effortlessly at 30 mph without a car in the world, but put it into sport mode and 0-60 comes up in 4.1 seconds, now I’ve driven some fast cars with a 0-60 time of 7-8 seconds, but 4.1 is a totally different fast, it’s Mindblowing!!, and the noise is better than all of the cliches you’ve ever heard about it.
Handling wise you’ll run out of Talent long Before the Xk-rs does, it’s poised at any speed.
I Absolutely LOVED it!!
Next up on my Testdrive was the Xj-L 3.o Diesel,
The Xj Diesel is a very Important Car for Jaguar and one I really wanted to Drive since, It was on show at Goodwood Last Year,
Looks Wise It’s Jaguars Most desirable Car for at Least 20 years in their Executive Range,
The Agressive Front and Rear End just shouts, ‘Yep i’m special’ and I don’t mean that it needs Special shoes, more of a Know I’m Very Succesful in what i do special.
The Xj’s Interior continues with that Special feeling to, From The Blank Dash with the Jaguar logo on,
Which Changes when you press the Ignition Button to a computerised Lcd display
There’s Leather and Suede Everywhere,including the door Pillars
Leather Dash and Suede Pillars
The seats Are Sumptious, supportive, Being every bit as comfortable as they Look, Even The Rear Passengers are well and truely Catered for with Electric adjustable Seats, The Model I drove Portfolio Lwb had Acres of Legroom, It was also Equipped with Jaguars Rear Entertainment syetem at £1530,00
Rear Seats and Footplate 
Badge
Tapered Lighting curves
Rear boot Badge
On the Road The Jaguar Xj-L is As Refined as it Looks, The 3.0 Diesel is Almost Silent, Has loads of Torque throughout the Engine Range, overtakes Effortlessly, Makes a fine Long distance cruiser, has some Bodyroll through corners when pressed hard, A claimed 40.1mpg, with a price of £69,520 not including options, In all Deserves to be top of it’s class untill I can test it’s Rivals.
Next up was the RangeRover Autobiography Supercharged,
Now I’ve never been a Fan of RangeRovers as such, But have always wondered what the Fascination of them was, So I was delighted to Climb Aboard the Supercharged RangeRover Autobiography, And Climb Aboard I did, This RangeRover is Huge a long way up from the Ground.
The Interior Comes With Every option you could possible think of, then Loads of them you wouldn’t have thought of,
The Best Decritpion I can Give is ‘Imagine your Favourite upstairs room in your House, With your Favourite chair, A deep Wilton Carpet, with a Steering wheel coming out of the far wall to drive it……Now stick a Rocket Engine on it, And thats exactly what it’s like’
It was Great, but at £86,435 exc Options it’s as much as some houses BUT still the best 4x4xFar.
Then I Drove The Most Tail Happy car of the Day !
Let Me introduce you to the Jaguar XF-R,
A 5.0 litre Supercharged Rival to the Fast Bmw,Audi,Lexus M,S,F models respectively Priced at £65,350, with 510Bhp, 625nm of torque, a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds, with a claimed mpg of 22.5mpg the Figures Seem impressive for what seems like a Tyre squeeling Track and road car of this class,
Again This is another Jaguar that Looks great from the 3/4 profile, Again being nice but Bland from the back, The Interior Again is very very high quality with Leather and Carbon Fibre everywhere But the Good Design Feature in this Jaguar is when you push the Start/Stop button on the dash, The Air Vents automatically Open or Close
But also all of these types of super saloons have to be good at handling City and town driving and not just motorways, the Jaguar Xk-R holds it’s own very very well on all road surfaces, but does encourage go faster driving the Radar cruise control is brilliant, I know it’s not a new feature but I’ve never driven one and was very impressed with the way the Jaguar speeded up or slowed down not just by how steep the road is, but also by the distance to the car in front,
The Jag was a good all-rounder being let down a little by rear space in which 3 adults will find it a squeeze.
The last car of the day was the LandRover Defender 110 crewcab
When I was given the keys to this £30,000 LandRover, I though it was a mistake and someone had switched the keys and fob for 1 of a 2002 Rover 214 they were almost identical,
Once inside I was immediately dissapointed with the Interior, I turned the key and it sounded like the 122bhp engine was from Massey Ferguson, The Gearbox was like trying to stir porridge with a 6 foot spoon but with more lumps and bumps, the clutch was heavy, Noise surpression was like the exhaust was right behind the drivers ear, and I know it does more than 50mph but you wouldn’t want to, Even LandRover don’t publish 0-60 times because i think they even gave up..all in all not what a £30,000 car should be like.
I think it’s probably a really different case when the Defender’s off-road,
Ah! I did like The wheels though.
All in all a Fantastic day and a big Thanks to Jaguar and LandRover, Faye Goldstraw,
and Grimshaws Vauxhall in Eccles for providing our chariot for the journey
