2003 Jaguar S-Type R - Style, Grace and Wickedly Sinful Performance
As the timeworn saying goes 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Still after a week of utter bliss tucked comfortably in the driver's seat of the marvelous S-Type R I feel hardly corrupted. Or maybe that's the subtlety of this masterful cat? It's a vixen the likes of Bathsheba, flaunting its gorgeous body while dancing rings around most of its competitors as it leads the environmentally righteous away from the straight and narrow roadways down to the hedonistic depths of gas guzzling inefficiency, smiling all the way.
Gas guzzling? OK, it's a lot more efficient than the 28.1 / 13.2 L/100km (10.1 / 21.4 mpg) Bentley Continental T, but 18.5 / 9.2 L/100 km (15 / 30 mpg) is still pretty dreadful in the city at least. Its highway mileage rates just slightly more than it's normally aspirated V8 sibling.
But really, does the S-Type R customer truly care about fuel economy? After all the 4.2-L V8 is boosted by an intercooled Eaton supercharger to a staggering 400-hp, from the stock 4.2-L V8's recently upgraded 300. Press the accelerator to the floorboard and the Jaguar leaps to 100 km/h from standstill in a mere 5.6 seconds. That's almost a second quicker than the S-Type 4.2 and a full 2 seconds faster than the standard 3.0-L car. The R's 179 kg (396 lb) increase in curb weight is obviously not a problem. As quick as it is, it clearly hasn't been designed to compete directly with the edgier 6-speed manually shifted BMW M5. Rather than neck snapping, tire smoking acceleration the civilized Jaguar charts its own high-performance course similar in direction to the Mercedes-Benz E55.
As the timeworn saying goes 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Still after a week of utter bliss tucked comfortably in the driver's seat of the marvelous S-Type R I feel hardly corrupted. Or maybe that's the subtlety of this masterful cat? It's a vixen the likes of Bathsheba, flaunting its gorgeous body while dancing rings around most of its competitors as it leads the environmentally righteous away from the straight and narrow roadways down to the hedonistic depths of gas guzzling inefficiency, smiling all the way. Gas guzzling? OK, it's a lot more efficient than the 28.1 / 13.2 L/100km (10.1 / 21.4 mpg) Bentley Continental T, but 18.5 / 9.2 L/100 km (15 / 30 mpg) is still pretty dreadful in the city at least. Its highway mileage rates just slightly more than it's normally aspirated V8 sibling.
But really, does the S-Type R customer truly care about fuel economy? After all the 4.2-L V8 is boosted by an intercooled Eaton supercharger to a staggering 400-hp, from the stock 4.2-L V8's recently upgraded 300. Press the accelerator to the floorboard and the Jaguar leaps to 100 km/h from standstill in a mere 5.6 seconds. That's almost a second quicker than the S-Type 4.2 and a full 2 seconds faster than the standard 3.0-L car. The R's 179 kg (396 lb) increase in curb weight is obviously not a problem. As quick as it is, it clearly hasn't been designed to compete directly with the edgier 6-speed manually shifted BMW M5. Rather than neck snapping, tire smoking acceleration the civilized Jaguar charts its own high-performance course similar in direction to the Mercedes-Benz E55.