Jaguar XF Sportbrake: official pics and details

These are the first official images and details of the new Jaguar XF Sportbrake

By Riggers / Wednesday, 29 February 2012 / Loading comments

It's the car we've all been waiting for; a Jaguar (car) with enough boot space to humanely fit in a jaguar (cat). Flippant remarks aside, the XF Sportbrake (read: estate in marketing-speak) is a crucial car for Jaguar, allowing it to take on the likes of the Audi A6 Avant, BMW 5 Series touring and Mercedes E-Class estate.

Now usually it's not really our thing to talk about such things as boot space (1675 litres with the seats down), remote-fold levers for the rear seats, an extra 48mm of headroom, or a soft-close tailgate that can be specified with a fully powered open/close functionality, but these things are important on estates. So there we are - we've just mentioned them.

Of perhaps more interest is the self-levelling rear air suspension, or the Adaptive Dynamics System - which continuously monitors the suspension and can adjust damping rates accordingly up to 500 times a second. Or maybe the fact that the XF Sportbrake matches the saloon for rigidity and aerodynamic drag...

As for motive power, from launch the Sportbrake will be diesel only, with the 2.2-litre four-cylinder and two versions of Jaguar's 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel available - the higher of which will be the 442lb ft, 275hp version.

There is also rumour of a V8 petrol version, but Jag is keeping shtum on that for now...