Jaguar XJ Supersport Taxi: Nürburgring Nordschleife's quick posh cab

Jaguar XJ Supersport Nurbrurgring Taxi

Jaguar has launched a ‘Taxi’ service at the Nürburgring Nordschleife with an XJ Supersport fitted with Sport & Speed Packs.

When most of us think of a Nurburgring Taxi we think of Sabine Schmitz frightening the life out of Munich businessmen with a swift lap of the ‘Ring in an M5. Sadly, Sabine doesn’t play Taxi driver any more and BMW use M3s.

But fear not, if you want to fork out for the roller coaster ride round the Nurburgring with someone who actually knows what they’re doing behind the wheel – and in a proper size car – Jaguar has the answer with their new Nurburgring Taxi.

The recipe is simple: Take one Jaguar XJ Supersport with its lively, supercharged V8 offering 503bhp, replace the seats with racing chairs and harnesses and…well, that’s about all it needs.

True, Jaguar has given the XJ taxi the Speed Pack and Sport Pack and a coat of non-standard matte grey paint – and a roll cage – but apart from those minor tweaks it’s a standard car. A big fat limo blatting round the ‘Ring – that can’t be good, we hear you cry? Wrong.

The new XJ is not just swift, it’s amazingly swift in £100k, 503bhp V8 Supersport guise. 60 mph comes up in just 4.7 seconds and a healthy dose of torque makes it feel even quicker. And thanks to its aluminium underpinnings it feels more like a sorted mid-size executive uber-saloon than an all out limo.

We don’t know what Jaguar are charging for a romp round the ‘Ring in the XJ. Last time we looked BMW wanted around €200 a lap (with three passengers) and Aston Martin wanted €300 for just one lap with one passenger in the V8 Vantage.

(Note: We’ve asked Jaguar what a ride round the Nurburgring in an XJ costs – we’ll update when we hear back.)