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Put a gun to my head, hand over a winning lottery ticket and tell me to go out and bring back the best grand touring sports car money can buy, and I may just return with a Jaguar XK. Ask for the best large or midsize luxury saloon, however, and you will not get a car crowned by a leaping jungle cat. Read Dan Roth's review of the 2007 Jaguar XK Convertible, and you'll wonder just how the current XJ, S-Type and X-Type can be sold under the same brand as the XK Coupe and Convertible.
So what happens when you add an "R" to the XK? For one, the price jumps by $11,000 to $92,500. Aside from that, the high-performance version of Jaguar's sexy drop top kicks things up a notch from mild to medium strength. As good as the XK is, does the additional consonant make that big of a difference?
Put a gun to my head, hand over a winning lottery ticket and tell me to go out and bring back the best grand touring sports car money can buy, and I may just return with a Jaguar XK. Ask for the best large or midsize luxury saloon, however, and you will not get a car crowned by a leaping jungle cat. Read Dan Roth's review of the 2007 Jaguar XK Convertible, and you'll wonder just how the current XJ, S-Type and X-Type can be sold under the same brand as the XK Coupe and Convertible.
So what happens when you add an "R" to the XK? For one, the price jumps by $11,000 to $92,500. Aside from that, the high-performance version of Jaguar's sexy drop top kicks things up a notch from mild to medium strength. As good as the XK is, does the additional consonant make that big of a difference?
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We're such fans of the standard XK's design that ordering up an XKR without the new front end would be a preferable option. We'd keep the new wheels, chromed side vents and extra set of exhaust tips, as we do believe in differentiating your power player from the rest of the lineup. That said, we could deliver countless bystanders and passerbys who disagree with us. You may remember that the XKR Convertible was with us at the 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise, and surprisingly (at least to us) the convertible from Coventry drew in more than its fair share of gawkers while parked on Motor City's most famous avenue. Despite our reservations, Jaguar must have done something right with striking a balance in the XKR's design of elegant grace and aggressive tendencies.
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The Jaguar XKR Convertible's folding cloth top hardly spoils the car's profile. It does, however, gobble a good amount of trunk space whether up or down. There's still enough room back there for a couple of soft bags, and we found the trade off more than worthwhile on sunny days when we dropped the top and basked in the aural delight of the cat's subdued purr. While there are technically a pair of chairs behind the driver and front passenger, we never managed to bring a full four along for the ride. The rear seats have literally no leg room, so consider them an adjunct to the trunk.
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We'd be remiss if we didn't mention the newest Jag that was just revealed, the 2009 Jaguar XF, before ending this review. We were hoping after the production XF was unveiled that we could say the XK and its variants weren't the only fetching felines offered by Jaguar, but alas, we can't. The XF's exterior didn't fare so well on its way from concept to production model, so the XK remains the most attractive Jag available. And if you add an 'R' on the end, it just gets better.
All Photos Copyright © John Neff / Weblogs, Inc.
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