Jaguar XE Reims Edition – it’s Blue, and there are just 200

The Jaguar XE Reims Edition is a Limited Edition Jaguar XE with a French Racing Blue paint job celebrating Jaguar’s racing history.

There’s no arguing about Jaguar’s storied history on the track, and it’s a powerful marketing tool when selling performance models, and a halo-caster for more prosaic models in the Jaguar range too.

But is it the most obvious choice to take a modest compact-ish saloon car and give it a stand-out paint job and a name evoking historic racing success, rather than do it with a performance model with a real edge?

Jaguar clearly think so, because they’ve delivered a new Limited Edition model – the Jaguar XE Reims Edition – with Jaguar’s paint job of choice for extreme performance models – French Racing Blue – and a name which pays tribute to the Jaguar D-Type’s maiden victory in 1954 at the 12-hours of Reims.

The starting point for the creation of the Reims Edition XE is the XE P250 R-Dynamic S with the 2.0 litre Ingenium petrol engine, and Jaguar has added that French Racing Blue paint job, a black roof, black mirrors, black sill inserts and 19″ gloss black alloys.

Jaguar has added to the cosmetic titivations with privacy glass, heated seats and a Cold Climate Pack (stuff like heated screen and steering wheel to go with the heated seats to keep you toasty),

With a limited run of just 200, the XE Reims Edition isn’t going to see Jaguars XE sales improve much, but every little helps for a car selling less than half it did three years ago.

The Jaguar XE Reims Edition costs from £38,295, around £3k more than the XE P250 R-Dynamic S.