New Jaguar XJ - the last new Jaguar XJ tease?

Mike Cross - Jaguar's Chief Engineer Vehicle Integrity - talks about the Driving Dynamics of the New Jaguar XJ

When Jaguar sent us the last teaser video on the new Jaguar XJ, they promised us faithfully that it was the penultimate one. But as that was less than a week ago, and the new XJ isn’t going to be revealed until 9th July, I have a sneaking suspicion there may be more to come!

This time we get a new talking head – Mike Cross, Chief Engineer – Vehicle Integrity – so I’m pretty sure he has a fair degree of knowledge on his subject (actually, as an aside, it’s Mike who will be driving the Jaguar XKR Goodwood Special up the Hillclimb this weekend. And Mike must be important, because he gets a moody-looking pro mug shot to go with this piece!). And his subject is something that will make or break the new Jaguar XJ – Driving Dynamics.

This is where the new XJ should stand above the offerings from Mercedes and BMW – its ability to play super-saloons with the big boys but slip seamlessly in to ‘Waft-Drive’ when you want it to. According to Mike:

With the new XJ we’ve tried to balance all the driving attributes. So the car firstly needs to drive like it looks – the dynamics are both agile and comfortable. But we’ve also tried to make the engine and transmission to be both agile, responsive but also smooth.
We’ve got a light stiff body- and that allows us to engineer precision into the suspension without engineering in harshness; so you get the best of both worlds. So in all ways with the new Jaguar we’re trying to balance response with smoothness, comfort with agility, and in terms of the way the cars sounds – there’s a power sound when you exercise the car, but its also quiet and refined when you’re cruising.
It’s quite a large car, but it absolutely doesn’t feel like it. It’s very agile, but it’s still refined and comfortable.
It’s a great car to be driven in but it’s an even better car to drive.

We can’t argue with anything Jaguar has told us about the new XJ. It seems to fulfil the wish-list that every super-saloon lover has. I do hope they’ve got it right. All these teases have been fun (ish!) – and some quite informative – but they have set the bar so high it’s hard to see how they can deliver.

Do hope they do, though.