Tuesday 11th September 2012

Jaguar XF Sportbrake takes a Tour of Britain

New Jag supports 'Wiggo' once more

---

Cycling fans will already be familiar with Team Sky’s duo of Jaguar XF Sportbrake, following Bradley Wiggins’ domination of Tour de France. Now, one of the cars has taken to Britain’s roads for yet more public exposure, in support of Team Sky’s Tour of Britain entry.

This will be the first time Brits will see the XF Sportbrake uncovered and in action across the Tour’s 800-mile route – and, given the huge following our Olympics gold-winning Team GB cycling team have gained over the past few weeks, it’s probably going to gain quite some attention.

This will mainly be down to the amazing roof rack, which appears to carry an inordinate number of bikes and wheels (fully loaded, the XF Sportbrake takes nine bikes, and many more wheels).

The car’s also decked out in bespoke livery and has both race radios and TVs to ensure the race can be followed by the team in detail. Jaguar says Team Sky itself had input into how the car was converted.

Jaguar gave Team Sky two prototype XF Sportbrakes, both of which were in action during Tour de France. One of them is touring Britain, supporting the riders both at base and, more significantly, on the road: cycling fans will be familiar with how they follow the riders closely while en route, handing over fluids and supplies where necessary – and, of course, helping fix any mechanical issues.

As official car supplier to Team Sky, Jaguar’s taking an unusually active role in building a relationship with the cycling team. Converting two cars so extensively isn’t the work of a moment: even more impressive is the fact Team Sky was given two prototype models well in advance of the car officially going on sale (they were handed over in June, six months before deliveries begin in November).

While these relationships can sometimes seem a bit lip service, this one is more convincing than most. Of course, the fact Team GB and Team Sky have performed so well over the past few months has certainly helped, too. As Jaguar global brand director Adrian Hallmark said: “the British public is incredibly proud of our nation’s sports stars right now.

“The Tour of Britain is a great opportunity for Jaguar to underline its support for Team Sky.” 

[drchris]

Got a lot of interest in this car. Can't wait to see one in 'the real world' and have a poke about.

[Tracked_Out]

I was privileged to win a ride in the Rapha Condor team car on the first stage of the tour on Sunday and saw the new Sky jag up close on several occasions (one or two a little too close for comfort!). It has massive presence on the road, not to mention a very cool hooter that they used regularly when muscling past the other team cars to get to their guys in the peleton.

[oilit]

prediction of the day:-

This car will end up being auctioned as a xf prototype with the provenance of Bradders - supporting historic british TDF win, which helped build the profile in the british olympics, and then went on to support the british cycling event ... final hammer price - inc liveries and special roofrack and a backup bike - £50-60k

[Antj]

prediction of the day two

seeing as the police love the XF already, expect to see these as traffic cars very soon

[Jimbo.]

oilit said:

prediction of the day:-

This car will end up being auctioned as a xf prototype with the provenance of Bradders - supporting historic british TDF win, which helped build the profile in the british olympics, and then went on to support the british cycling event ... final hammer price - inc liveries and special roofrack and a backup bike - £50-60k

Or being a prototype/pre-production car, the car is still Jaguar's (on free loan to Sky). Upon being returned to Jaguar, it'll be crushed...

[OldSpeed]

There must be at least three of these cars as the one I got a snap of on stage one had a different registration to the two featured above.

[oilit]

ah if there's three I revise my prediction to a value of £20k - since they are common as muck !

[Benmac]

There were definitely two following the race yesterday.

[ewenm]

I thought they looked great on LeTour and good to see them showing themselves on the Tour of Britain too. Great product placement by Jaguar.

[Lancs Jag Boy]

Typical Jaguar. They were too late with a 4-pot diesel for the XF and now they are too late with the estate version. They are four years into the production life of the car ffs!

They made the same mistakes with the X Type. Somehow I just cannot see their German rivals waiting so long to introduce important variants of 3 & 5 series or C & E class.

[CRB1]

If you look at my You Tube vid of Bradley and the car - (Try - Bradley Wiggins Fontenay sur Eure) seems like they need to sort out the rear suspension. However most cars on the day were smacking the tarmac at that point. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BRAD!

[Throttle Body]

Does anyone know where you can get a roof rack like that? It is very difficult to get more than 4 bikes on a car, I find.

[richardaucock]

OldSpeed said:

There must be at least three of these cars as the one I got a snap of on stage one had a different registration to the two featured above.

Great image! Will seek further clarification from Jaguar...

[Tracked_Out]

Typically each team has three cars - two support cars following the race (one of which will go to the front if a team gets a rider into the break) and a third car that travels to the feed zone, hands out the musette bags to the riders and then travels to the finish to await the riders. I must admit, I didn't look to see if Sky had three of these at the start on Sunday - they could have been using one of their older cars for the feed zone duties...

[Tracked_Out]

Here's a pic I took of Cav and Wiggo slipstreaming one of the Jags on Sunday to get back to the peleton after a "natural break". This car seems to have yet another different reg number to the ones shown above (DLU), so perhaps there are even more cars!

[LewisR]

There are a few. I was at the Norfolk Showground for Stage 1 as well as at a position near Great Yarmouth. I think that there are at least 4. I have two in one video shot !

The reg. plates so far are:

VX12 CWN
VX12 CWO
VX12 DLU
VX12 DLY

Any others seen on the ToB?

Edited by LewisR on Wednesday 12th September 14:14

Edited by LewisR on Wednesday 12th September 14:15

[LewisR]

Oh, I photographed an X-Type in Sky colours too!

[lindrup119]

Spotted DLU and DLV

[excel monkey]

Jimbo. said:

Or being a prototype/pre-production car, the car is still Jaguar's (on free loan to Sky). Upon being returned to Jaguar, it'll be crushed...

Hopefully will spend some time on display as a motorshow ornament prior to that.

Antj said:

seeing as the police love the XF already, expect to see these as traffic cars very soon

I thought the feedback from the police (user Elroy Blue on this thread) wasn't so great - they don't cope with prolonged hard use as well as their German competitors http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[richardaucock]

Received official word, guys: well spotted, those who noticed!

---

There are indeed more than two XF Sportbrakes with Team Sky now.

Jaguar prepared two Sportbrakes in time for the the Tour de France that served the Team so well, they now have another two.

Currently two are in Spain and the other two are supporting the Team at the Tour of Britain this week.