Words Marco Mancino / Photos Jaguar

I know, some discussions should be avoided altogether. Especially when you’re in the middle of a night out with friends, that Thursday evening when the fourth pint of lager arrives earlier than usual and someone claims that for buying a beautiful high-performance car you’d need several hundred thousand Euros. My answer, even as I’m barely upright on the sturdy wooden stool at Mister Pub, is always the same: get yourself an XJR.

When I get home – on foot – since I live twenty meters from the place and after a restorative night’s sleep, I call my friends to clear up two doubts: to find out if it ended in a brawl and to ask whether anyone has already started combing through used-car listings in search of one of the most unjustly forgotten Jaguars. With prices that have recently shown a timid but noticeable increase, an XJR from 1997 to 2003 can be found for around €15,000/18,000. You read that right: not a regular XJ, but her sharper-clawed sister, with a supercharged 4-liter V8 under the hood and the last to feature an aluminum alloy chassis, which made it 60% stiffer and 40% lighter.

Although it wasn’t the first high-performance version of the British sedan, the X308 series powered by the AJ-V8 marked a clear step forward in driving pleasure. But let’s go in order, after all the bar won’t reopen until 9 p.m. For a long time, the XJ stood as a fine alternative to the usual German suspects. Jaguar has always distinguished itself with a personality leaning more toward elegance: delicate leathers, fine wood veneers, sometimes replaced by sportier trim panels to match the character of the model or its owner. One thing has never been in doubt: you could sit blindfolded in dozens of sedans of similar class and price, but once seated in the Jaguar, your nose alone would tell you that you were aboard something truly special.

The long-distance comfort of an interior as refined as that of a limousine led Jaguar to realize that some customers would have done anything to get a few more horses. The XJR was the answer to this and many other questions. Its supercharged 4-liter V8 — still the same displacement as the previous generation — was thoroughly reworked to deliver 370 horsepower, even more than the V12-powered XJS, which at the time was the brand’s grand tourer of reference. Jaguar then paired it with a 5G-Tronic automatic transmission borrowed from Mercedes-Benz, a major leap forward in reliability, so much so that it was called “bulletproof” and responsiveness, making its power usable in virtually any situation.

Ah yes, the power. The XJR retains the elegant, timeless three-box silhouette of a classic sedan, yet adds air intakes and grilles including the front mesh that emphasize the muscularity of its five-meter-long body, capable of breaking the silence with a deep growl. The supercharger doesn’t hide its whine and when the nose lifts under hard acceleration, it delivers 525 Nm of torque at 3,600 rpm. The thrust is mighty and the sensation is even more astonishing considering you’re sitting in a rolling lounge of leather, walnut and crystal glasses, moving from 0 to 100 kph in just 5.6 seconds, an exceptional figure even by today’s standards.

But the essence of the XJR isn’t one-dimensional, it lies in the constant coexistence of two seemingly distant worlds: luxury and performance, fused together seamlessly thanks to a suspension tuning that rewards precision through corners and adaptive dampers that adjust to the driver’s pace. And I’m not saying this by hearsay: I’ve been lucky enough to cover plenty of miles behind the wheel of an XJR, immediately captivated by how it ticked every box that could make a car perfect in any condition. Elegant, unbelievably comfortable, exquisitely finished and powerful enough to make my heart race when I buried the throttle. The only real flaw of the XJR was that it was never fully understood, not even in its later X350 iteration, whose XJR version boasted an even more mighty 4.2-liter, 400-horsepower engine.

Back to the point, I almost forgot to mention that it was rear-wheel drive only, which as you know means the front wheels had the sole task of pointing the prow and perhaps the leaping cat toward some of the most unforgettable roads you could drive. Today, about twenty years later and with some tax benefits that make ownership a bit easier, finding an XJR isn’t impossible, but it’s not a walk in the park either. It’s crucial to remember that some parts of the electrical system can be temperamental. Even more important is to carefully check the suspension, steering and braking systems. This kind of holy trinity must be in perfect order, or the cost of a full overhaul could sting your wallet. The same goes for potential rust issues. Sober or several pints in, if you bring up affordable sports sedans, my answer will always be the same: XJR. Go ahead, prove me wrong.