2009 Jaguar XKR Convertible Las Vegas NV

December 10, 2009   By Brian Alexander, Road Test Editor

2009 Jaguar XK Series


2009 Jaguar XK Series
DriverSide Overview
By and large, car guys hate performance convertibles. There are, after all, inherent issues. Take a coupe and chop off the structurally integral roof, and suddenly you’ve got a wobbly chassis that requires lots of very heavy bracing to keep it from being an unstable mess on the road. It’s kind of like a restaurant table with one leg slightly shorter than the other three – you can live with it, but it just might annoy the hell out of you. So the XKR convertible should feel inferior to the coupe in just about every way. Except it doesn’t, because the boys who designed it in Bizarro World – er, Coventry, England – decided to do the whole thing backwards, building the convertible first and fitting the coupe around it. It’s proven an effective tactic, blessing the convertible with uncompromised poise and feel while only packing on an additional 110 lbs over the coupe. That means it’s still legitimately fast – 0-60 mph comes in a brisk five seconds – and also a good steer on twisty roads. On a sun-soaked day with the top down and the active exhaust blaring a V-8 soundtrack, it doesn’t get much better.

What's to Like
In sunny weather, just about everything – typically lavish Jaguar refinement, the heavens above and the supercharged V-8 – blend together into blissful perfection. With the top up, wind noise is nearly nonexistent. Where the regular XK fells like it has just enough power, the supercharged XKR comes across as properly potent.

What's Not to Like
Digital screens located in the instrument cluster and on the center console prove difficult to read in direct sunlight. Strangely, there is no rear windscreen and the rear windows cannot be raised when the roof is down, leading to lots of wind noise and buffeting for taller drivers. Trunk space is quite limited, though we have seen worse. Next year’s model will have a new direct injection 5.0-liter engine with over 500 horsepower. Yikes.

The Drive
DriverSide Driving Impressions
For a performance car, the XKR’s active suspension is incredibly forgiving, remaining floaty over even extremely coarse surfaces. It simply glides over the road. The steering is direct but power-assist is dialed up so high it feels about as authentic as non-dairy creamer. Still, it’s accurate and predictable – all that really matters in a near-two-ton convertible. As with the XF and XK, the six-speed automatic transmission remains excellently judged, blipping paddle-activated downshifts with sophisticated precision. The supercharged engine means power delivery is torque-heavy at all revs, but the engine really comes alive above 4,000 rpm. And thanks to active exhaust, you’ll get to hear that V-8 roar when you&rsq...

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