The Jaguar XKR is a highly respected sports tourer which has been applauded by the international motoring press and owners alike.

Although the XKR is indeed a highly capable car, we identified significant handling issues such as:

• Poor chassis stability during normal driving and gentle acceleration.
• Inconsistant chassis response and feedback.
• Slow turn-initiation response.
• Poor rear traction under hard acceleration.
• Poor rear traction stability under hard braking
• Excessively harsh ride
• Excessive under steer

The above traits and charteristics lead to an erosion of driver confidence, a reduction in dynamic performance and of course a loss of driving enjoyment.

Our initial conclusions are that the overall ride quality is poor which displays all of the down sides of heavily sports orientated suspension but with none of the expected dynamic performance benefits. The overall chassis performance is so poor that the ability to easily use the engine’s power is severely limited which makes spirited driving challenging and unenjoyable. We found that under extreme circumstances such as confronting a slight road hump on the apex of a corner, or one rear wheel encountering a pot hole or adverse road camber, the suspension becomes uncontrolled to an unacceptable degree.