Skip advert
Advertisement
Long term tests

Jaguar XFR

Ollie's been driving other supercharged cars this month. Do any match up to the mighty XFR?

Jaguar XFR long term

Supercharging is a great way of getting more power from an engine – providing it’s done well. In the last few weeks I’ve driven a couple of cars that have had superchargers bolted on after they left the factory (the Paramount Aston V8 Vantage and the Abt R8-R, issue 139), and you can tell that they don’t really belong. Even in the thoroughly engineered Abt you get the sense that Audi’s R8 just wasn’t designed to be supercharged; it doesn’t quite suit the car.

Advertisement - Article continues below

I’ve never had that feeling while driving the XFR. This is a car born to be supercharged. You can tell it’s been part of the development process from the very start and it goes a long way to proving that supercharging still has its place when all around are using turbos.

What I particularly love is that there’s so little inertia in the supercharger, no feeling that the engine is having to work to turn the screws. Get on the throttle and the XFR just leaps forward, no whine, just a bit of exhaust flutter.

I think it helps that the Jag is fresh from its 15,000-mile service, carried out at a cost of £483. Which is pretty steep, but then £193 of that was for new brake pads – a reminder that this is a big, heavy car.

 

Running Costs

Date acquiredJune 2009
Total mileage17,007
Costs this month£483
Mileage this month3090
MPG this month20.7mpg
Skip advert
Advertisement
Skip advert
Advertisement

Most Popular

Honda Civic Type R (FN2) – the car world's greatest misses
Honda Civic Type R FN2
Features

Honda Civic Type R (FN2) – the car world's greatest misses

Its lineage contains some hot hatch greats, but the late-noughties Civic wasn’t one of them
26 Mar 2025
Performance Link Mazda MX-5 R300 review – an MX-5 with Honda VTEC power
Performance Link Mazda MX-5 R300 – front
Reviews

Performance Link Mazda MX-5 R300 review – an MX-5 with Honda VTEC power

A screaming 296bhp Honda VTEC engine and a full chassis upgrade package turn the NC-generation Mazda MX-5 into something altogether more thrilling
25 Mar 2025
Used car deals of the week
Main used car deals
Advice

Used car deals of the week

In this week’s used car deals, we’ve sourced everything from a Mazda MX-5 to a McLaren 720S
26 Mar 2025