My day...
As Carnut said earlier make sure you go in at the Aston Martin entrance and not the Heritage Museum one....
When you arrive your car is valet parked and you go in and register. (Free Jag pen no.1)
Then tea/coffee crap breakfast and fill in the disclaimer. ( Free Jag pen No.2)
I was looking at what people were driving/arriving in and suprisingly there were more Mercs than most so they had their target market aimed very well.
A 15-20 minute talk from the Jag UK managing director who looked decidedly uncomfortable making his speech but hey ho! It's all about the marque....
Apparently it's about 226mph on the salt flats with a bit of tweaking so these cars can go quick.
We then go out and select a nice XK convertible put the roof down and check out some 20 odd miles of sunny Oxfordshire/Warwickshire countryside, with the roof down it sounded wonderfull especially at full chat in 2nd/3rd gear.....
The sat nav is pre programmed with the route set in different way points and yet some drivers still went their own way, we were following one car when sat nav told us to turn right they went straight on!!!
Arrived back to then go out in the XF diesel, whilst interesting the instructors pegged us back a bit even on track, I suppose it was designed to get a feel for how easy and comfortable the car was to drive and yet still have a bit of sportiness to it. Ah well! I could have been in any semi-luxury saloon like an E class or a Lexus or whatever.....
Next up the XK-R supercharger, this time we were allowed to open up a bit more.... this was much better!!! It had a great deal of punch and the convertible really felt like a proper GT, only managed to get 170 on the clock so not quite as quick as Carnut....how on earth did you manage 174? I left it right to the end of the straight before braking to the point of the instructor seriously insisting I apply the brakes...hehe...
The speed thing is hard to get to grips with as your on a really wide track and even at 140-150mph you just don't get the feeling of speed, there's nothing near to judge it against, I really prefer handling tests thats when you get a good sensation as to how great a car really is, only my humble opinion though
and as for these big Jag's they were really well set up, hardly any bodyroll left/right forward or back they had it pretty sorted with the active damping control. They just did not "feel" nimble enough for me....
Anyway
Back to base and fill in the "what did you think forms".... (Free Jag pen No.3
)
Had a great morning out the organising was great and the cars were brilliant, bottom line though, would I buy one? Have to say no. I'm not ready for this type of car, whilst the insides of the cars were well engineered I got back in my C and felt it was just as good, even a little better and way more fun to drive. Oh! and a LOT louder.
Who ever has yet to go you will have a great time and well worth the visit. We got a nice gift package left in the car at the end too.
Thanks Jaguar if only Mercedes would do this once in a while!!!.......but then I wouldn't know as I already have one and I suppose the exercise is to get the oposition to switch.
Cheers all
Mark.
