18/07/2017
FEATURE BY GUEST AUTHORS
I had the chance as a Formula One journalist to cover the U.S. Grand Prix at Austin, last year, and for the race weekend I had for my daily drive the latest Jaguar four-door sedan, the XJL Portfolio.
What better place than the length and breadth of the Great State of Texas with its fabulous network of high-speed highways, backroads and toll roads posted at 80 mph, to road test Jaguar's entry into the luxury sporting "saloon" market, as the British call a 4-door sedan.
As it turned out, the U.S. Grand Prix itself was the latest chapter in the year long struggle between the two Mercedes-Benz drivers - Briton Lewis Hamilton and German Nico Rosberg - who have dominated the Drivers' Championship all season, with Hamilton - who calls America his second home and spends lots of time in the USA where he garages several classic cars - winning the round in Austin, where he has now won four times, thus keeping the Championship pot boiling until the end of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Austin as a race venue is fast becoming one of the favourite places to come for both F1 fans and F1 insiders alike. Once again, Austin did not disappoint, packing 269,889 into the grandstands during the race weekend. And in the paddock everyone who is anyone in F1 showed up, including American Chase Carey of Liberty Media, the company that is the new majority owner of F1; Carey is successor to Bernie Ecclestone, the long-time impresario of the sport, who was also at the race, just ahead of his 86th birthday. Concerts by pop star and 10-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift and Usher & Roots rounded out the weekend, with Swift's concert scheduled after F1 qualifying on Saturday and Usher & Roots scheduled after the race on Sunday, keeping the fans occupied and the traffic jams down.
As I have been to most of the F1 races at Austin, it always attracts an international audience but it is becoming evident that the influence of the race is spreading even within Texas as road signs for the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) were as far out as Bastrop, Texas, where I was staying, giving local motorists backroad options to the racetrack as an alternative to the main highways.
As for Jaguar, it used to have a Formula One team during the 2000 - 2004 time frame when Ford owned Jaguar, but Jaguar sold the team and factory to the current Red Bull team, which built up the team on the ashes of the old Jaguar works.
But there is a Jaguar connection to the COTA racetrack since COTA was chosen by Jaguar as the place to introduce the ferocious Jaguar F-Type to the Jaguar Land Rover dealer network in the USA, with the dealers able to thrash the cars around COTA as a way to familiarize themselves with the performance potential of the F-Type. While not as brutish as the Jaguar F-Type, the Jaguar XJ Portfolio I had is a slightly de-tuned version of the F-Type. Given the sporty character of the Jaguar Portfolio, it would make a good car around which to develop a support series for the F1 weekend as in the classic Grand Prix era when F1 drivers also drove in the undercard races, taking off the hubcaps and taping over the headlights before running cars that fans in the stands had in their driveways back home. For the moment, it should be said that Jaguar's racing activities are focused on the future; Jaguar announced recently that it will enter a team in Formula E, the all-electric racing series with cars that run on electric motors with batteries but look vaguely like F1 cars, a series that goes to street circuits across the world in places as disparate as Buenos Aires and Brooklyn!
Already a Movie Star
So the Formula One race is what we came for but the getting there was the real fun. I have wanted to try out the Jaguar XJL - the "L" stands for long wheelbase, which means an extra 5 inches of space in the back seat - ever since I first laid eyes on this model in the James Bond movie "Skyfall" in 2012. In one scene, actress Judi Dench as "M," Bond's boss as the head of the British Secret Service, MI6, is in peril because of an assassination attempt, and to save her, Daniel Craig as Bond, takes the wheel of M's official car - a Jaguar naturally - and her black XJL Portfolio sweeps around a corner in a drift, showing off its elegant lines and sporting curvaceous tail lights to begin a fabulous chase scene through the streets of Central London.
Poignantly, the beautifully done chase scene ends in an obscure backstreet where Bond and M ditch the Portfolio to elude their pursuers and transfer to the original sportscar that is the trademark of the James Bond franchise, the silver-birch 1964 Aston Martin DB5, which Bond has kept hidden for just such an emergency. M and Bond then proceed for a 4-hour trip to Bond's ancestral home in Scotland in the forty-eight year old DB 5.
To my mind, Bond and M definitely made the wrong choice in abandoning the Portfolio as this Jaguar is the kind of roomy and fast Grand Tourer you would want for a long road trip from London to Scotland. Indeed, at one point Judi Dench - by now, used to the cushy back seat of the Jaguar - gets a bit huffy and comments that the DB5 is "not very comfortable."
Off to the Races
My race weekend with a Jaguar was in the best tradition of F1 journalism as the dean of Grand Prix journalists in the 1960s - the late Denis Jenkinson of Motor Sport magazine - regularly drove to the classic European Grands Prix of his era in his Jaguar E-Type - "Jenks" actually bought two of them over the years - coming over from the UK on the car ferry and then heading out to France, Belgium, Zandvoort, Italy, Monaco or the Nurburgring as the Grand Prix weekend warranted. My trip to Austin was the modern equivalent and I hope Jenks had as much fun as I did.
The car Jaguar Land Rover loaned me for the Grand Prix weekend in Texas was its top-of-line 4-door luxury sedan (Base MSRP $83,200), painted Ammonite Grey, a close match to the color of the James Bond DB5. The current Jaguar XJ is the latest iteration of a long line of luxury sporting saloons that Jaguar has produced since the 1960's when the company had a bevy of such sedans (the Mark I, the Mark II made so famous in the "Inspector Morse" TV series, the S-Type, the Mark X), so many in fact that the policy decision was made to refine and channel Jaguar's design efforts in order to create one sedan, the original Jaguar XJ6 (1968-1973), the car which is the genetic forerunner of the Jaguar XJ Portfolio.
The design of these early XJ6 cars often took shape in the gravel driveway of Wappenbury Hall, the handsome pile that was home of Jaguar's Founder, Sir William Lyons, where he would ask the design team to do mock-ups of the designs they were considering in his driveway so he could see them in the flesh and then add his two pence as to the lines of the design.
I owned one of the original Jaguar XJ6 sedans - the last Jaguar that Lyons contributed to as to design - and this modern version, the Jaguar XJL, is a faithful update of the stylish but muscular formula that made the original XJ6 such a commercial success for Jaguar: a powerful 4.2 litre engine, beautiful and purposeful lines and chrome work, plush leather seats and Wilton carpets, burled walnut accents on the dash and window sills, independent rear suspension borrowed from the Jaguar E-Type, dual gas tanks and overall, an aristocratic air.
The Jaguar GPS
I know that Jaguar has coined the fancy name "Portfolio" for this luxurious sedan, but I would have called this spectacular grand tourer the "GPS," harking back to a variation on the Jaguar marketing theme of the 1970's, when Jaguar's motto was "Grace, Pace and Space..."
Starting with the Space, the Jaguar GPS is spacious all over, both for the driver as well as - unusually - the back seat occupants, who are not short-changed at all when it comes to legroom or comfort. Switching to the back seat at one point during our time with the car, I was ensconced in new-for-2016 quilted and perforated soft leather seats and you have at your fingertips all the electronic devices and creature comforts you could want: panoramic roof, the Meridian sound system, electronic hookups and climate and lighting adjustments of all kinds. It is the kind of back seat that makes you want to go for a long drive.
My loaner lacked what I will call the Trump Kids Option, the premium rear seat multi-media rear seat entertainment package, which features dual 10.2 inch LCD screens, Rear Media interface and touch tone remote control, plus two wireless headphones, $8,500 extra.
As for adult toys, the XJL Portfolio trunk is cavernous and will accommodate golfers and their equipment easily.
I was in New York City the other day near the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where all the United Nations diplomats stay and Park Avenue and East 50th are crammed with luxury Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi sedans and such but these potentates do not know what they are missing because what I am calling the Jaguar GPS outclasses them all for the back seat passenger. In the 2016 version of the Portfolio, Jaguar has added electric rear side window blinds, an improvement over your basic tinted glass to keep the prying paparazzi at bay, and the adjustable reading lights in the back seat of the Portfolio make it easier for these government bureaucrats and captains of industry to peruse their burdensome government reports or their... Financial Portfolio!
As to Grace, this is one of the most gorgeous designs from the hand of Ian Callum and his Jaguar Land Rover design team that rivals Callum's Jaguar F-Type R Coupe for the sheer flair and boldness of a design that Callum keeps improving on in minute ways year by year. When I sat in the initial iteration of what has now become the XJL back in 2013, it just looked and felt like a whole new direction for Jaguar and happily Callum & Co. have refined but have not uglified or compromised the looks of the car in these last three years. It is one of the few modern cars that was right from the start but that somehow continues to improve as to its handsome looks.
As for Pace, after the race at Austin, in order to avoid the incredible daytime traffic and current construction work on I-35, I drove throughout the wee hours from Austin to Dallas - a distance of just under 200 miles - and in this drive the powerful Jaguar was at its very best, literally gliding along the highways, putting everything behind it with ease, with me comfortable in the sumptuous cockpit with 18-way adjustable front seats, being serenaded by Billy Joel on SiriusXM Channel 18.
The Portfolio's engine was the supercharged 3.0 litre V6 rated at 340 horsepower, and having road tested the very hairy Jaguar 5.0 V8 rated at a brawny 550 horsepower in Jaguar's 2015 F-Type R Coupe, I actually preferred the supercharged 3.0 V6 for its superior drivability. You can order a Portfolio with the larger engine but what I found is that the 5.0 litre V8 made the F-Type very tail happy and prone to erupting in wheel spin at every turn whereas the 3.0 litre is there when you need it, permitting the Portfolio literally to leap forward in a passing situation, which is all the performance you really need.
Jaguar does offer for $121,000 a Hot Rod version of the Portfolio called the XJR LWB, which gets you the 5.0 litre V8 550 horsepower Supercharged Engine, red brake calipers, a rear spoiler, a blacked-out grille, black 20" alloy wheels, hood louvres echoing the Jaguar E-Type and quad tailpipes. I spotted one in the rich people parking lot "A" at the F1 race in Austin. I liked my more sedate XJL Portfolio better.
But it is the handling and traction of the Portfolio that is its most impressive characteristic, whether traversing the bumpy backroads outside of Del Valle, Texas where the Circuit of the Americas racetrack is located using the Dynamic Mode suspension setting for a sportier drive or simply going flat out on a billiard smooth toll road at speeds that would ruffle other cars but leave the Portfolio barely breaking a sweat.
Apart from the Portfolio's handling outside the car, the next most alluring aspect of the car is inside where with the ergonomic primacy of the driver's position is emphasized with creature comforts and seat adjustments abounding. Although the Portfolio can be a true 5-seater, upfront it is definitely a place for two. Jaguar's chrome console command centre between the driver and passenger is substantial - you feel that you are on the bridge of a ship - and full of mostly user-friendly controls to run the navigation system - the woman's voice was British in keeping with a car built in Castle Bromwich near Birmingham, England and much easier on the ears than the scratchy Garmin lady in my car at home - the climate controls, the 8-speed ZF transmission paddle shifter, various outlets for electronic devices and of course ample cup holders. The 272 page Owner's Manual for the Portfolio will keep buyers occupied as light reading for most of the 5 years/60,000 mile warranty period Jaguar gives the buyer, explaining the array of lights and welter of sensors and radar and cameras that surround the car, vital for a car with, it has to be said, so many blind spots that require monitoring due to the Jaguars XJL's sleek and silky profile. At 17 feet long, it is a big car.
Another option for $1,595 is Adaptive Cruise Control, with microwave radar in the front bumper that will sense if the vehicle in front of you slows down and give the driver an audible warning, resuming speed once the road clears.
Is there anything I did not like about the Portfolio? In the Jaguar F-Type R Coupe I tested last year, the 8-speed ZF automatic transmission had a conventional pistol shifter; the Portfolio retains the Rotary Drive Selector that Jaguar Land Rover and certain other upmarket cars feature and I just do not get that choice since to me it is at odds with the otherwise sporty character of the car.
The navigation system in the 2015 Jaguar F-Type I tested was somewhat of a weak spot, which was noted by many testers. The newer nav system in the Portfolio performed much better than the F-Type version but the Portfolio system did fail me once and shut itself off like an iPad you forgot to charge, but then the system perked up after a shutdown and re-start.
And one other important criticism that has a safety component is the obstructed vision from the driver's side when looking left from a standing start because those graceful pillars of the Portfolio get in the way of taking a backward glace as you enter a highway or are just getting started from a stop and are checking your surroundings. I found myself using the adjustable mirrors to see better rather than crane my neck. A small price to pay for the refined lines of this great looking car but a driver does need to be careful about visibility issues.
Sporty, safe, powerful, urbane and easy on the eyes: what more could a person who likes to the drive want in a car as we slouch toward the end of the internal combustion engine era. when spectacular cars like this one will be ancient artefacts.
It killed me to turn this fabulous car back to Jaguar and head for the airplane. I noticed that my loaner had New Jersey plates and I offered to drive it back to the East Coast!
In ten years - and perhaps sooner - we will have driverless cars or cars driven by robots, and it will be a shame that most drivers will never experience cars like this magnificent Jaguar XJL Portfolio, a true Grand Tourer. I want one.
Tom O'Keefe, a long-time contributor to Autosport.com, appeared as a historian on the re-mastered 2-disc DVD of "Grand Prix" and is writing a sequel to the film to be called "Team Orders."