New 2013 Jaguar XJR debuts: Price from £92,335

Jaguar’s new flagship performance saloon car – the 2013 Jaguar XJR – has debuted in New York and we have full details. Price from £92,335.

[nggallery id=1454 template=customlinks]

Jaguar revealed just last week that they are reviving a badge from the past and launching a new range-topping performance XJ – the 2013 Jaguar XJR – at the New York Auto Show. And now it’s here.

Last week all we got was a single picture of the new XJR, but now we get a full gallery of new XJR photos to browse, and it does look good.

Jaguar has been suitably conservative with the cosmetic, go-faster bits bolted on to the XJ to turn it in to the XJR, with just a new set of 20″  alloys, a smattering of ‘R’ badges – inside and out – ‘R’ sills, quad tailpipes, a small boot spoiler, front splitter and new trim options for the interior with contrast stitching and a choice of carbon fibre or Piano Black trim.

But it’s under the bonnet the most interesting changes have taken place, with the XJR getting the same 542bhp V8 we’ve seen in the XKR-S and new XFR-S (and, of course, the new XKR-S GT) which gets the XJR to 62mph in a very respectable 4.4 seconds and on to 174mph.

But Jaguar hasn’t simply upped the power, they’ve made sure the new XJR can not only cope with it but exploit it too and, most importantly, with little trade-off in refinement.

Mike Cross, Jaguar’s man who knows how to set up a Jaguar, said:

The XJR offers greater steering precision, higher levels of control and enhanced high speed stability, with the trade-off in refinement being very small. The increase in power and torque give this car truly effortless, seamless performance

That means tweaked dampers and spring rates to get the most out of the XJR with new settings for the active electronic diff and DSC hopefully taming the SuperSport’s sometimes wayward application of the power on offer.

Jaguar has also played with the XJR’s eight-speed auto ‘box to deliver more rapid shifts – and to respond to enthusiastic driving – without taking away the calm that needs to be in traffic or when plodding around.

Corner Recognition will also keep the gearbox in the right gear when cornering and the gearbox can also tell if you’re in the middle of a series of overtaking manoeuvres and will stick with a lower gear to offer immediate response.

The new Jaguar XJR is now available to order from Jaguar UK dealers and will cost from £92,335 for the SWB version. And our Editor is currently counting his pennies as he gets over his ‘crisis’.