Jaguar XFR-S arrives ahead of LA debut

The Jaguar XFR-S – Jaguar’s most powerful saloon car to date – has leaked out ahead of its debut tonight at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

[nggallery id=1317 template=customlinks]

Jaguar has been playing tease with the car they hope will take the fight to the BMW M5 and Mercedes E63 – the Jaguar XFR-S – ahead of its debut tonight at the Los Angeles Auto Show. But the first photos have arrived ahead of Jaguar’s planned debut.

We’re hoping that Jaguar has managed to bestow extra power on the very appealing XFR without wrecking the stuff that makes Jaguar saloons so appealing – the dynamic/ride balance – which, if they have, will make the XFR-S a more appealing bonkers sports saloon than the German offerings.

The promise is all there with a new butch front end, a more aggressive body kit, chunks of carbon fibre, a huge rear wing for extra downforce, a new diffuser at the back, stiffer springs, a new rear subframe with stiffer bushes, a tweaked active diff and a tweak of the stability control for more fun. Inside, there’s aluminium trim and piped leather seats and some XFR-S logos. Which all sounds very promising.

But under the skin is what matters most. That means the supercharged V8 from the XKR-S with 550 horses going through the eight-speed ZF ‘box to the back wheels and promising 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds and a top speed of 186mph. Economy – at least official economy figures – stay the same as the regular Jaguar XFR.

We’ll have more photos and more detail when the Jaguar XFR-S gets its official debut this evening.