Unfortunately, Bill Ford is not here in the Basque region of Spain to answer questions. But Russ Varney is. In truth, it is people like Varney who drive optimism within Jaguar.
He's the chief engineer for the supercharged, 420-horsepower XKR coupe and convertible, as well as the 300-hp, non-supercharged XK, also sold in coupe and convertible form. Chief engineers like Varney are in demand by car companies around the world, yet he remains steadfastly loyal to the company where he started working at 15.
"Jaguar is too big to be a small company and too small to be a big company," said Varney, a soft-spoken, yet no-nonsense type, from the hard-scrabble world of the post-war British Midlands. "That's the situation we're in."
As a consequence, Jaguar doesn't turn a profit. The opposite, in fact.
Worldwide sales at Jaguar declined to 89,904 last year from 118,918 in 2004. It has continued to run up billions of dollars in losses since Ford bought it for $2.5-billion (U.S.) in 1989. Some say the tab now is as much as $10-billion. In fact, Ford, which is in the midst of its own North American crisis, said in December it would invest another $2.3-billion to help pay for a reorganization at Jaguar.
In a nutshell, and as I've said before, Ford has made a hash out of Jaguar. The worst of it has had to do with forging ahead with wrong-headed product decisions.
But Ford has also treated Jaguar like a management training school, bouncing bosses in and out like yo-yos. Ford's leadership seems to have had only a passing regard for the specialness of Jaguar. From a business perspective, it's been a colossal mess. Shareholders should be furious and employees like Varney should be despondent.
Yet somehow Varney and others at Jag are not. "We discuss what's going on, but don't worry about it. We've got jobs to do," he said. From my end, the latest cars defy the logic of what you would expect to find at a company battered and beaten by circumstances and decision-making largely out of its control.
In any case, the 2007 XK launched earlier this year is a real gem. It has striking good looks — the hind end and rear three-quarters are particularly spectacular — and the mostly aluminum XK drives beautifully. In the few months since it went on sale, Jaguar has taken some 9,000 orders and 5,000 XKs have been delivered. Meanwhile, Jaguar has 1,300 orders on the books for the XKR, even though the car won't go on sale until December and deliveries won't be made until January.
Only a very few potential customers have even driven the XKR, so this is quite surprising, given the ferocity of competition in this tiny slice of the performance sports-car market that includes the BMW M6, Mercedes-Benz SL55, Cadillac XLR-V and Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo. They must have heard and believed Varney's vision for the XKR: "The car you want to be in on your favourite canyon road on the best day of your life."
It is not difficult to find superb driving roads here in northern Spain, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the green slopes of the Pyrenees. The coastline is rugged, but just inland there are rolling hills and, if you head northeast toward France, there are spectacular mountains.
The locals here call this part of Spain País Vasco in Spanish and Euskadi in Basque. Just to the north of our driving route is San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque.) One hundred years ago, the Spanish aristocracy frequented San Sebastian to enjoy its spectacular beaches. Today, it remains a resort area, but not just for the rich and privileged.
Our driving route takes us through Frias with its landmark castle of the Duke of Frias. Frias, with its cobbled walkways, was apparently carved into the mountainside between the 12th and 16th centuries. At a coffee stop here, Varney takes time to contrast the XKR with its chief rival, the M6, which "delivers the performance fairly firmly. You have to be an expert driver to extract its performance. We think we have found an opportunity to get into this other place where there is a balance of performance and refinement."
Really, that's the niche Jaguar is trying to fill with all its cars, present and future — cars with performance, refinement and, of course, style. The 2007 XKR is without question the best car Jaguar has ever produced. Purists will probably say the modern car will never become a classic like the E-Type of the 1960s, but that's a specious argument. It's not trying to be.
What matters is that this latest Jaguar is faster, better built, more comfortable and more satisfying to live with from behind the wheel or the passenger seat than anything Jaguar made decades ago. The E-Type was then; this is now. And now also means outstanding results in the latest quality surveys. It is now reasonable to put Jaguar and quality into the same sentence with Lexus.
The XKR, of course, is based on the completely new chassis of the XK introduced in the spring, "only 30 per cent more," chassis engineer Michelle O'Connor said. That is, the steering is 30 per cent sharper, the driving responses are 30 per cent quicker, the five-second 0 to 100 km/h time is 30 per cent faster and mid-range passing times are 30 per cent quicker.
All that and a weight gain of just 70 kilograms over the normal, non-supercharged XK. As Varney so cheekily points out, if you take an XKR and add 30 cases of wine, you've got the M6. "We couldn't get flabby with the XKR," he said. "We just had to maintain that lightweight advantage." The secret, of course, is aluminum. Most of the chassis and all of the body are made of light, stiff aluminum.
The XKR also gets 120 hp more, which is a 40-per-cent bump over the XK. With 420 hp on tap for well under 1,489 kg for the coupe, the XKR has an impressive power-to-weight ratio that's actually 36 per cent better than the standard XK.
The source of that power is Jaguar's familiar, 4.2-litre, aluminum V-8. It has twin cams operating four valves per cylinder, but it's been specially tuned for the XKR. In addition, to accommodate the supercharger, intake valve timing is variable for the first time on the XKR.
What's missing is the familiar supercharger whine. When you mash the throttle there is a nice enough grumble, but it's muted, which I think is a mistake. Varney does not, however.
Meanwhile, the exhaust has been tuned to produce a raucous, throaty V-8 sound at full rip. At idle, it has the smooth character of a German V-8. An Active Exhaust system accounts for the well-orchestrated sounds.
All the power is channelled to the rear wheels through what may be the fastest-shifting traditional automatic we've ever seen — shifts can take less than 0.6 seconds, or nearly half a second faster than a typical automatic, and 0.1 seconds faster than the best automated manual systems, according to Jaguar.
The ZF transmission essentially has two modes: "D" for everyday driving and "S" for sport driving, in which gears are held much longer and downshifts are quicker and come with a timed throttle blip. The work of the shifter is integrated with vehicle dynamics. That's a fancy way to say downshifts are ordered up automatically when needed for hills and sharp corners.
Of course, if you want to take control yourself, you can do that, too — via the paddles behind the steering wheel. The whole package delivers acceleration that is faster than an Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
The endless twisty bits, the long sweepers and fast straights of this area in Spain were a perfect place to stretch this cat's legs. The XKR holds a line well and the throttle responds lightning quick.
There are good reasons for this. Compared to the XK, the XKR has brake discs with 26 per cent more braking surface, while cooling efficiency has been improved by 37 per cent. The heftier brakes can haul the XKR down from 100 km/h in about 2.5 seconds or less.
The spring rate is also stiffer by 38 per cent in front and 26 per cent in the rear. The roll bar is a millimetre thicker and the dampers are 25 per cent firmer all around. There's also a rear strut-tower brace that's been added to match the more aggressive setup.
O'Conner, the engineer in charge of the chassis and steering effort on this car, says the numbers tell a story, but it is the "black art" of tuning the suspension and steering that makes all the difference. And the secret to that is experience, expertise and, well, a bit of magic.
In any case, the car does have a CATS (Computer Active Technology Suspension) system that switches the dampers between soft and firm. The computer-controlled system has been tweaked for better reflexes, to be more sensitive to inputs that call for a switch from soft to firm. Indeed, there is nothing harsh about the ride, yet the car is quick and responsive.
And the steering is also very good. It is a variable-ratio, electro-hydraulic servotronic system that responds to speed inputs. There isn't much the steering tells you about road surfaces, but the weighting is just right and responses are smooth and instantaneous.
The rest of the chassis package includes a stability control system tuned for race driving. That is, brake and throttle interventions are slight unless they are really needed.
This is a very good, very capable chassis. It also flatters drivers in that it is easy to manage. Both O'Connor and Varney said the XKR is all about "accessible performance" and I managed to access quite a bit of it.
Of course, the car is not inexpensive. The coupe XKR starts at $117,000, while the convertible lists from $127,000. Even at that price, this car alone can't make Jaguar profitable.
But the XKR and XK show that given the right resources and a free hand, the people inside Jaguar may give their Ford bosses good reason to keep the "For sale" sign off the brand entirely.
2007 JAGUAR XKR
This latest Jaguar is faster, better built, more comfortable and more satisfying to live with from behind the wheel or the passenger seat than anything Jaguar made decades ago.
SPECS
TYPE: High-performance, luxury sports car
PRICE: $117,000-$127,000
ENGINE: 4.2-litre V-8, DOHC, supercharged
HORSEPOWER/TORQUE: 420 hp/413 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION: Six-speed automatic
DRIVE: Rear drive
FUEL ECONOMY (litres/100 km): 13.1 city/8.7 highway; premium gas
ALTERNATIVES: BMW M6, Mercedes-Benz SL55, Cadillac XLR-V, Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo
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