Alloy Cat
October 1, 2005
Mike cross is a quiet, mild-mannered chap you might never suspect of being
the top test-driver for Jaguar cars. But neither would you suspect Cross of
being a thief, unless you witnessed him drift a prototype XK coupe sideways
through apex after apex around the Motor Industry Research Association’s test
track in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, successfully dislodging every coin from your
pockets. So, despite my initial disbelief that Jaguar’s chief engineer of
vehicle integrity could commit petty larceny while driving, I managed to lose
more than 5 pounds sterling with Cross at the wheel, and we never even wagered.
Vehicle integrity, he says. ; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
(Click image to enlarge.)
Granted, the stakes are plenty high as parent Ford Motor Co. attempts to
reestablish the Jaguar brand in the face of renewed competition from
BMW,
Cadillac, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, and Lexus—the list goes on. It
is really no
wonder Cross spends so much time at the track. Jaguar is
betting big that the
road to riches lies in developing a product that
will drive as good as it
looks.
The British manufacturer has fallen on hard times of late, a tradition that
takes place about as often as the census. Ten years ago, the ailing company rose
like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes on the success of its XK coupe and
convertible (known internally as X100), a model that sold more than 90,000
copies over its decadelong life cycle. Since then, however, Jaguar’s sedan
offerings have come up short of the mark set by other European competitors. So
with the debut of an all-new two-door sports coupe, success now rests heavily on
the shoulders of X100’s immediate successor, code-named X150.
Built at the Castle Bromwich factory alongside the innovative XJ four-door,
the new XK will share several components—among them chassis
architecture,
aluminum technologies, and a V-8 engine—with the recently
redesigned sedan. As
in the XJ, the XK’s engine develops 300 hp at
6,000 rpm and 310 ft lbs of torque
at 4,100 rpm, and the combination of
air induction and a semiactive muffler
system gives the AJ-V8 engine a
voice to match its performance.
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