Arthur St. Antoine: Jaguar's stunning XF Sedan now comes in a new flavor; the ultra potent XFR. Driving the rear wheels, it's a front mounted 5 liter V-8, making 510 hp and running through a 6-speed automatic transmission. Let's watch this gorgeous new sedan on hot laps around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
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Arthur St. Antoine: Randy this is Jaguar's new high-output version of the XF Sedan, the XFR, your thoughts?
Randy Pobst: Surprisingly powerful, I didn't expect that; I think I had forgotten it was 500 hp; it reminded me as soon as I pulled out. So, I really enjoyed the engine very powerful at all rave ranges, a lot of fun there. I like the seats immediately, felt good and they were supportive on the track as well.
The handling to me was inconsistent. It depended on how I drove the car. What I'm saying is that, if I entered a corner doing one thing, the car would behave one-way, and then if I did that a little differently, it was different.
I found it difficult to be consistent, in terms of the car's behavior and handling. Where a part of that came from was that the turning was pretty good, but then at the middle of the corner wanted to understeer a lot, unless you are on the power and that could pretty quickly transition back to oversteer again.
So, the handling was changeable. And I didn't always know what's going to happen when I turned the wheel entering the corner. In terms of power oversteer, that part was fun. It was actually -- it was kind of my finger tip car; it could be balanced in power oversteer, which of course is very radical way to drive a car but it's also the most fun way to drive a car on earth. And it could be balanced pretty easily with just finger tips, which is kind of a good feeling as opposed to white knuckle, which some of these cars were.
Once I was back to power, I felt pretty good about what the car was going to do but before that is where I felt the inconsistencies. Now, I don't think it's quite ready for prime time that I think it could be more on rails, in other words the car that's on rails is consistent. When you enter a corner, you don't have to think about it lot. You just crank the wheel and then way you go. With the Jaguar you got to think about it; you got to be a little careful, because you get a little bit something different each time.
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