Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Jaguar Considering Track-Focused Special-Edition XKR-S Coupe

2012 Jaguar XKR-S

Jaguar is considering building a handful of special-edition XKR-S coupes—of course, with just 100 of the super coupes being built each of the next three years, the "non-special" car already will be a rare sight.

Frank Klaas, Jaguar's global head of communications who describes the XKR-S as an "ambassador of the brand," said that the proposed special-edition model would appeal to the guy who wants to drive to the track, lap or race to his heart's content, and drive home. As such, the car might lose its rear seats and gain lighter stereo and HVAC units for the touch-screen-based systems, hard-core racing seats, a fire-suppression system, unique gauges, and track-focused aero addenda. A roll cage may or may not be part of the package, depending on the markets in which the car is sold. (If the examples of various track-ready Porsche 911s are anything to go by, ours would be one of the markets to do without the cage.)

As with the standard XKR-S, this variant—which could be named after the Nürburgring, where production-grade XKR-S models have allegedly posted sub-eight-minute lap times—would be built by Jaguar's in-house Engineered To Order (ETO) group. (If the XKR-S is an ambassador for the brand, consider ETO the consulate. Klaas promises that the ETO team, which quietly fulfills requests for bespoke cars for high-value customers, will play a more prominent role in Jaguar marketing in the future.)

We weren't told whether the special-edition coupes would add to the annual 100-car XKR-S allotment, but Klaas did say that a harder-core version of the convertible is not being considered at this point. Watch for a vehicle to be floated out to gauge interest at either next month's Geneva auto show, or, more likely, the Paris auto show in the fall.



from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com




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