1996 Jaguar Xj6 Base Sedan on 2040-cars

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Jaguar XFR-S is motor-porn on a mountain road

The 2014 Jaguar XFR-S might have only been good enough to take the runner-up spot in our Editor's Choice top five debuts at the LA Auto Show, but we'd be hard-pressed to find a car with a more exhilarating exhaust note. As proof of this, Jaguar released a video showing the XFR-S tearing up a windy, European mountain road in close to a minute of hardcore driving footage.
The big blue cat has the same great exhaust note of the XKR-S, and the driver puts all of the car's 550 horsepower to work demonstrating the handling - and drifting - abilities of the new XFR-S. If there's any disappointment to be had, it's the fact that you have to jump to the 30-second mark of the video for any of the action to start.
Scroll down to watch the video, and be sure your speakers are turned all the way up.

2014 Jaguar F-Type V8 S [w/video]

Withhold judgment on the world's greatest exhaust note until after you've heard the Jaguar F-Type V8 S (scroll down now for a sneak peek). Its cackle, boom and pop under deceleration will have you rifling through its glovebox looking for a tool to remove the stereo as an in-dash audio system.
Combining modern technology with age-old exhaust plumbing, Jaguar's British engineers have developed a way to propel spent combustion gases into the atmosphere in a manner that elevates the complete driving experience. At idle, it purrs. Under acceleration, it roars. During cruise, it soothes. Perhaps most compellingly, during deceleration, it titillates.
Thankfully, the newest two-place convertible from Jaguar isn't only defined by its mesmerizing soundtrack - the F-Type would be an impressive sports car even if the world went silent.

Jaguar may join the FWD, small-car parade

Was it right for Chevrolet to detune the 1975 Corvette's base engine to 165 horsepower? Was Aston Martin wrong to make the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet? Is BMW crazy to be testing the new 1 Series with three-cylinder engines and front-wheel drive? It seems now, just as in the 1970s and 1980s, that emissions regulations and social considerations are driving some automakers to adopt unbefitting practices to maintain acceptance in the eyes of governments and consumers. Jaguar has jumped on the bandwagon, and is considering development of small, frugal, front-wheel-drive cars to help lower Jaguar Land Rover's average vehicle CO2 levels in light of tightening European emissions regulations, Autocar reports.
By 2020, the European Union expects the model range of every manufacturer to average 95 grams per kilometer, which is a new law passed by the European Parliament in April. Manufacturers who make more than 300,000 vehicles per year must meet these targets, and JLR is expected to be producing up to 700,000 vehicles per year by then. CO2 regulations after 2020 will only get stricter, as EU politicians already are talking about lowering CO2 levels to between 68 g/km and 78 g/km. (To put that in perspective, Autocar posits that driving a fully charged electric vehicle in Europe produces about 75 g/km when factoring in the power-generation infrastructure.)
Jaguar has some choices here, but so far they all have drawbacks. It could develop a new, compact chassis architecture for a line of compact vehicles, but the investment required for such a project could be prohibitively expensive. Jaguar has been looking into using the Land Rover Evoque platform for a small SUV, Autocar reports, but Land Rover brand manager John Edwards raises issue with such a plan, saying it may not be financially feasible.