[captainaudio]

I drove an XKR-S yesterday, Jaguar was the sponsor of the Lime Rock Historic Festival and they had a number of cars available for test drives. Tne XKR-S is not really a competitor of the M3. It is more of a cometitor of the Maserati GT or an M6.

It is very fast (550HP) and the suspension is excellent. The transmission is a ZF automatic but it is tuned for performance and aproaches the performance of a DCT. The interior feels very upscale, and the seats are great. It definitely feels more upscale than a 3 Series including an M. The suspension has a better balance between ride and handling that any recent BMW model that I have driven. It also does not come with RFTs and has room for a full size spare - a huge plus for me.

Although it is very high performance and handles very well it is not as hard edged as an M3. It is a superb grand tourer but not something I would take to the track. My wife won a rafle for a "hot lap" around the track in one and was not impressed but I suspect that was due more to the driver than the car. She is very used to riding aroung Lime Rock in an M3 with the Drivers Club instructors. Her comment was "He wasn't going fast enough, Simon (the club coach) is faster". A few years ago she rode around Monticello Motorsports Club in an XKR with former LeMans winner Davy Jones and was far more impressed,

I have scheduled another test drive at Jaguar Manhattan so I can see how it does on the war ravaged NYC streets. The XKR-S is a very impressive car but at $135,000 I don't expect it to be a big seller.

CA