Jaguar Performance Academy - USA
Discussion
I was asked to report back on this in another thread, so here goes!
Not sure whether Jag offer something similar in the UK, but buyers of XFR/XKR and XJ Supers get an invite to the Jaguar Performance Academy, free of charge. They only run a few a year, but the weekend before last I finally got my chance at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, TX. There were about 15 owners there and a fleet of 2012 XFRs and XKRs - no XKR-Ss sadly! They were in a variety of colours and specs - a few XKRs had the black pack which looked perfect. A couple had the -S Recaro seats which were ideal for the track sessions and I thought were quite comfortable anyway, but my US co-drivers were generally unimpressed by them.
The course was run by a bunch of assorted professional racing instructors - at least two of which had some serious experience in F1, Indy Cars, Le Mans etc. in the shape of Roberto Guerrero and Davy Jones. We spent the morning in the XKR (in the wet!) doing Autocross runs (40 second sprints on a winding coned course) which the shorter XKR excelled on. We were told to set all cars to Sport mode, Dynamic mode on and TracDSC and we used them in that set up all day. Next, on a drying surface and with the XFRs, we did some handling skills on a short oval and figure-of-eight, learning how to apex properly, brake hard and ease off progressively, and various other fun stuff - power sliding, correcting oversteer and understeer. I learnt a huge amount here, not least how effective the car's stability control is. Once I had worked up a rhythm on the figure-of-eight, the instructor secretly hit the DSC button to turn it off completely and the car just spun straight out. It was very difficult to drive aggressively with it all turned off. Nice to know what happens though!
In the afternoon we got helmets on and went onto a faster (but short) circuit with a few interesting turns. Max speed was just over 100mph so nothing outrageous (the 31 deg banking of the Indy track was outside of us and looked very tempting, but we werent allowed on it!) but it was enormous fun and we were able to swap between XFR and XKR at will, lapping with instructors and a few lead-follow sessions too. Lastly, we went back to the XKR's and set some dry times on the Autocross course (I came second by 0.07 seconds - fastest loser, as they say!) before doing one more hot lap on the track with the instructor showing us how it should be done (my impression: not much faster than me, but much harder and later on the brakes!). Dinner the night before, breakfast and lunch were all included, a small goody bag and some photos and videos were given to us as mementoes. All in all, a very worthwhile experience that Jaguar USA obviously invest a lot of money and effort into. They run an advanced course that you have to pay for, but I am seriously considering it.
So, what of the cars? I have a 2011 XFR which I love, and I find it hard to see the value in a less practical and more expensive XKR. But after the Autocross, I was convinced that I wanted one badly enough to make the swap. Looks wise they are a winner too, and they sound much nicer than the XFR. The driving position and the Recaro seats made it feel that much tighter and an altogether more wieldy weapon than the XFR. Moving on to the handling courses in the XFR, it felt heavy and harder to manage in general. But on the faster circuit, the XFR started to shine and by the end of the day I was back in the fold. The XFR felt more stable (probably is - longer wheelbase) and while the handling showed little difference between the two, when the XFR started to slide, it was very progressive. The XKR felt a little more snappy. The XFR felt like it could be steered on the throttle to a degree, so was much easier to keep online. The instructors all said that the XFR was the faster car - they found they were getting better lap times in it. It was pretty marginal though - I doubt many would tell the difference on the road, and the better sound and better looks of the XKR will make it more desirable for many folk anyway. They are all lovely cars!
More impressively, we drove the hell out of these cars all day and there wasn't a hint of failure (OK, a side bolster in one of the XKRs had failed!) and certainly not any brake fade at all. I am enormously impressed at the capabilities of these cars when driven hard, and yet the 270 mile journey home afterwards was as comfortable cruise as one could hope for. I am also looking to do some Autocross events here in Houston soon too - looks like the ultimate "turn up and drive" event for the ultimate "turn up and drive" race car!
Not sure whether Jag offer something similar in the UK, but buyers of XFR/XKR and XJ Supers get an invite to the Jaguar Performance Academy, free of charge. They only run a few a year, but the weekend before last I finally got my chance at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, TX. There were about 15 owners there and a fleet of 2012 XFRs and XKRs - no XKR-Ss sadly! They were in a variety of colours and specs - a few XKRs had the black pack which looked perfect. A couple had the -S Recaro seats which were ideal for the track sessions and I thought were quite comfortable anyway, but my US co-drivers were generally unimpressed by them.
The course was run by a bunch of assorted professional racing instructors - at least two of which had some serious experience in F1, Indy Cars, Le Mans etc. in the shape of Roberto Guerrero and Davy Jones. We spent the morning in the XKR (in the wet!) doing Autocross runs (40 second sprints on a winding coned course) which the shorter XKR excelled on. We were told to set all cars to Sport mode, Dynamic mode on and TracDSC and we used them in that set up all day. Next, on a drying surface and with the XFRs, we did some handling skills on a short oval and figure-of-eight, learning how to apex properly, brake hard and ease off progressively, and various other fun stuff - power sliding, correcting oversteer and understeer. I learnt a huge amount here, not least how effective the car's stability control is. Once I had worked up a rhythm on the figure-of-eight, the instructor secretly hit the DSC button to turn it off completely and the car just spun straight out. It was very difficult to drive aggressively with it all turned off. Nice to know what happens though!
In the afternoon we got helmets on and went onto a faster (but short) circuit with a few interesting turns. Max speed was just over 100mph so nothing outrageous (the 31 deg banking of the Indy track was outside of us and looked very tempting, but we werent allowed on it!) but it was enormous fun and we were able to swap between XFR and XKR at will, lapping with instructors and a few lead-follow sessions too. Lastly, we went back to the XKR's and set some dry times on the Autocross course (I came second by 0.07 seconds - fastest loser, as they say!) before doing one more hot lap on the track with the instructor showing us how it should be done (my impression: not much faster than me, but much harder and later on the brakes!). Dinner the night before, breakfast and lunch were all included, a small goody bag and some photos and videos were given to us as mementoes. All in all, a very worthwhile experience that Jaguar USA obviously invest a lot of money and effort into. They run an advanced course that you have to pay for, but I am seriously considering it.
So, what of the cars? I have a 2011 XFR which I love, and I find it hard to see the value in a less practical and more expensive XKR. But after the Autocross, I was convinced that I wanted one badly enough to make the swap. Looks wise they are a winner too, and they sound much nicer than the XFR. The driving position and the Recaro seats made it feel that much tighter and an altogether more wieldy weapon than the XFR. Moving on to the handling courses in the XFR, it felt heavy and harder to manage in general. But on the faster circuit, the XFR started to shine and by the end of the day I was back in the fold. The XFR felt more stable (probably is - longer wheelbase) and while the handling showed little difference between the two, when the XFR started to slide, it was very progressive. The XKR felt a little more snappy. The XFR felt like it could be steered on the throttle to a degree, so was much easier to keep online. The instructors all said that the XFR was the faster car - they found they were getting better lap times in it. It was pretty marginal though - I doubt many would tell the difference on the road, and the better sound and better looks of the XKR will make it more desirable for many folk anyway. They are all lovely cars!
More impressively, we drove the hell out of these cars all day and there wasn't a hint of failure (OK, a side bolster in one of the XKRs had failed!) and certainly not any brake fade at all. I am enormously impressed at the capabilities of these cars when driven hard, and yet the 270 mile journey home afterwards was as comfortable cruise as one could hope for. I am also looking to do some Autocross events here in Houston soon too - looks like the ultimate "turn up and drive" event for the ultimate "turn up and drive" race car!
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