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Jaguar XJ50: Time For Tea
JAGUAR XJ50
TIME FOR TEA
Words by Carlo Brema
Photos by Andy Williams
With its line, the XJ has always been able to acquire class, while all the competitors could do nothing but grow old.
There are three types of cars: the elegant ones, the ones that would like to be elegant and then there is the Jaguar XJ, a true representation of luxury and grace for the past 50 years. Half a century in which the English sedan has changed its forms, while keeping intact the mood that winks at the five o’clock tea, one of the very few reasons for which you will be willing to make an exception and abandon the gigantic cockpit of this British icon. Through its generations, the XJ has been able to identify the entire brand, joining noble sports cars and purely contemporary models such as SUVs and the first fully electric model of Jaguar, the I-Pace. To celebrate a similar goal, the Coventry cat presents the XJ50, a special model that intends to put the exclamation point on the total usability of the big saloon of the company, making it available only with the 3-liter diesel engine. We had the opportunity to spend a few weeks with it, that’s how it went.
It was 1968 when Jaguar presented the first XJ, a sedan with soft lines, generous for its size as well as for the exceptional interior habitability, with an ambient made of leather, wood and that typical British flavor that gets into you as soon as you close the door and you are ready to drive. That’s right, driving, because the XJ has always been a car that didn’t require a chauffeur, indeed its strong point is just to satisfy the driver with extreme dedication and not just the passengers. Over the years and their respective decades, the XJ has been able to keep up to date while maintaining a tapered car body as its reference, with that line immediately identifiable in the midst of a thousand and able to acquire class, while all the competitors could do nothing but grow old. Think that the XJ was so strong that overcame the identity crisis of 2003, the year in which the model and the entire range seemed to turn towards a head-on collision that was distancing the most loyal customers, without being able to conquer new ones, but 2009 led to a new rebirth thanks to a reckless design that managed to mix the cards on the table to the point of allowing us to start hoping back again. Thanks Ian Callum! In 2010 the new model arrives and in 2015 it’s time for a facelift, with our XJ50 entering the scene in time to blow on 50 candles and offer us more classy miles.
As always, before getting behind the wheel I give myself a few moments checking all the bits of the exterior body. I do not deny that, just looking at its front grille, it’s not so easy to distinguish the XJ from the smaller sisters XF and XE, especially for those who are not accustomed to the style of today’s Jaguars, it is in its endless profile and in the extravagant tail that the XJ is a complete different car. You find yourself almost intimidated thinking of how difficult it will be to manage a length of over 5 meters in traffic, but take it easy ‘cause once you sit comfortably on board, you will forgive every problems while carrying around a luxurious apartment behind your back. The XJ50 is the triumph of taste, thanks to refined choices that embellish the design and enhance the anniversary version with badges scattered both all over the exterior as well as the interior. To top it all we have front and rear bumpers in Autobiography specification, 20-inch alloy wheels with 5 double spokes and the possibility of choosing between four different colors: Fuji White, Santorini Black, Rosello Red and Loire Blue, like that of our test drive. In this case, blue turns out to be the ideal choice to emphasize a greater contrast between the lines, its ribs and the numerous chrome profiles, one of the many references that connect the XJ of the 21st century with those of the past. Even in the cabin there is a lot of attention to detail, thanks to an environment embellished with beautiful seats in embossed, perforated and contrast quilted leather. In short, one of the many excuses the XJ offers you for not wanting to leave its beautiful belly.
The second good reason is represented by the engine, because the V6-cylinder – a 3-liter turbodiesel – is the only one you will have if you choose to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the model. There are 300 horsepower and 700 Nm of torque, more than enough to move the almost 1,900 kg of the XJ50 with ease. The supercharging comes into play at just 1,500 rpm and you will soon find yourself playing “cat and mouse” forgetting that you are riding an elegant lady. This happens courtesy of the excellent 8-speed automatic transmission, fast and accurate even in autonomous shift mode, while if you want to act yourself on the gears, perhaps using the car in Dynamic mode, you have the aluminum paddle behind the steering wheel. The dual nature of the XJ is constantly at hand and the fact of boasting a 0-100 kph of just 6.2 seconds is one of the many points that the engine offers to its cat. The same goes for fuel consumption, declared by the house in 5.7 l/100 km, as long as you let the appropriate driving style for a car of this caliber prevail.
With the last two generations, the XJ has maybe left that little on road understatement, no doubt it is not easy to go unnoticed when you show off a front grille the size of a parade ground, or when the taillights are still avant-garde compared to three quarters of the cars you cross on the streets, but behind all of this there is still that feeling of calm, that desire to drive a car – a huge sedan – typically designed for seemingly boring days (let’s say far from the weekend), but able to make every movement something intimate with the car itself. And so I find myself leaving the office, and taking that sudden crossroad to which I never gave attention and prefer a hot tea to the usual coffee. No hurry today, not even tomorrow or the following day, at least until Jaguar will ask for their key back. This car won’t be one of those dragging you into adventures that smell of burnt rubber, but the one you will never get tired of, because the biggest surprise is just how much it knows how to be the right car in every situation.
The XJ50 costs € 10,000 more than a standard XJ 3.0D, but with this special package you will have a complete set-up and the awareness of having been part of the fiftieth birthday of a traveling companion who does not yet seem to have lost the desire to discover new roads and new emotions, remaining at the top of the Jaguar range with an increasingly personal style. As always, this is not the most conventional choice, but one undertaken with the heart and with the awareness of what the Coventry brand has represented in the course of its illustrious history. Because even if the automobile world has changed radically compared to when Sir William Lyons was driving around on his brown XJ, nobody forbids us to breathe the air of those golden days, maybe sipping a cup of hot tea, observing our XJ parked outside the window of some surprisingly silent village. If we cannot escape from crossing certain generational bridges, let us at least make sure we do it the right way and at the wheel of an XJ you can’t really go wrong.
JAGUAR XJ50
Layout – front-engined, rear wheel drive
Engine – V6 cylinder – 2.993 cc – turbodiesel
Transmission – 8-speed automatic gearbox
Power – 300 hp @ 4.000 rpm
700 Nm @ 1.500 rpm
Weight – 1.835 kg
Acceleration – 6,2 sec.
Top Speed – 250 kph
Price – € 99.130
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