2011 Jaguar XJL Supercharged

Cass Elliot, in the Mamas and Papas song "Words of Love", warbled “If you love her, you must send her somewhere she’s never been before.” That was Mama Cass giving advice to the lovelorn, but she might as well have been singing to the development team for the new 2011 Jaguar XJ. In almost the exact same word sang by Mama Cass, president of Jaguar Land Rover North America Gary Temple told journalists at a press conference that the new Jaguar XJ had to take Jaguar “somewhere we’ve never been before.”

With the new generation of Jaguar XJ, new from the ground up, the Jaguar design team had to resist the temptation to repeat the comfortable old design elements. While respecting Jaguar heritage, the design had to look forward rather than back. There had to be a “fundamental shift” in what the Jaguar XJ would be.

It had to be, said Temple mixing metaphors, the roar heard round the world.

Back to our metaphor, the new 2011 Jaguar XJ had to be worth longing gazes by those younger than who know Mamas and Papas lyrics. That meant a sleek front end, the cat's ears laid back with the car defined by a long, coupe-like roof to the rear of the car.

But not all Jaguar cues were abandoned with the new XJ. The grille defines Jaguar, while a shoulder line the length of the car curves down over the front wheels as if held there by a cat. At the rear, however, Jaguar joins the LED brake light revolution with three red diagonal brake/taillights and a single angled line of amber for turn signals, somewhere Jaguar buyer has never been before.

The entire body, including exterior panels, is made from pressed, cast and extruded aluminum alloy.

The interior of the 2011 Jaguar XJ is equally radical for the Jaguar traditonalist. It's defined by its materials and deliberately did not repeat the design cues of the Jaguar XF. The dash is dominated by a pair of "eyeball" ventilation nozzles. With the obligatory (and jewel-like) analog clock between them and the navigation screen just below that, the dash had us trying to remember which movie robot inspired the layout.

The controls are similar, the Jaguar XJ getting the rotating gear selector that rises from the console when the car is started, but the layout is unique. The instrument panel is "virtual," that is, the screen is a 12.3-inch digital display. Most of the time it shows the conventional array of dials: the speedometer, tachometer and minor instruments, but when special information is required, such as when the driver is tuning the radio or for a "low fuel" alert, the tach is replaced temporarily by relevant info.

A bit of instrument panel theater: when the chassis is in dynamic mode, the dials are outlined in red, apparently to coordinate with the driver's red mist, that irrational, um, over-enthusiasm. The projection, however, is flat, with little of the 3-D effect of a modern video game. If you're going digital, Jaguar, do it right.

We didn't have the opportunity to try it, but the big, eight-inch touch screen display includes Jaguar's "Interactive Voice" control system that provides a prompts for the next likely commands for fewer times when the Lady of the Dash says, "I didn't understand, dummy," when you can't remember the word she wants. We'll leave any analogies to real life to you...

Sumptuous is an appropriate word for the interior. Our tester had padded slate gray leather with distinctive white piping on the seats, but in addition to the 14 exterior colors, the 2011 Jaguar XJ can have piano black or carbon fiber or one of eight mirror-matched woods (all sustainable) as trim.

The seats are sufficiently bolstered for good lateral support--the 2011 Jaguar XJ is a sporting luxury sedan, after all--but is also comfortable enough that the Jag fairly whispers "road trip". The Jaguar XJ version of massaging seats, by the way, is horizontal bladders in the seatback, inflating and deflating. Trust us, it feels better than it sounds, and standard or optional, depending on model.

The extended-wheelbase 2011 Jaguar XJL adds five inches between the front and rear wheels. Does it make a difference? We don't know. Jaguar didn't have standard-length 2011 Jaguar XJ for us to see. The XJL doesn't look terribly long, however, and there's enough legroom in the backseat that passengers won't have to take off your clown shoes to get in.

In addition to the two wheelbases, the new Jaguar XJ comes with a choice of engines. A new 5.0-liter V-8, introduced at the beginning of 2009, is rated at 385 hp. Supercharging (mechanical, not turbo) raises output to 470 horsepower in a model designated, depending on the wheelbase, the XJ Supercharged or XJL Supercharged. The top model is the limited-production by-order-only 2011 Jaguar XJ Supersport. In addition to 510 hp from the supercharged V-8, the XJ Supersport is specially fitted out from its leather headliner on down.

Pricing ranges from $72,500 for the 2011 Jaguar XJ standard wheelbase naturally-aspirated 5.0-liter V-8 to $113,000 for the 2011 Jaguar XJL Supersport.

All of the engines have direct injection fuel delivery and the Supercharged and Supersport engines have a compact Roots-type supercharger with a "high-helix rotor design." Jaguar claims the design improves thermodynamic efficiency by sixteen percent (over what?) and makes the supercharger "virtually inaudible from the cabin." True on the latter, at least until the upper rev range at full throttle, when the hard-edged whirr of rotors can be heard over the engine. (We also drove a naturally-aspirated V-8, which to our ears had a more pleasing V-8 sound, it's intake noises not masticated by the supercharger).

six-speed automatic transmission is standard, with torque converter lock-up at relatively low rpm for a solid feel and better gas mileage. Steering wheel-mounted paddle shifting is standard on all models, though left to its own devices, it changes shift points depending on the driver's current driving, whether aggressive or more relaxed.

Driven more aggressively, the 2010 Jaguar XJL doesn't relay its size to the driver's seat, having a more agile feel than the Herr Bürgermeister BMW 7-Series even in the long-wheelbase version of the British cat.

The Jaguar XJ has three driving modes, normal, dynamic and winter. The latter sets the transmission to second gear starts while the second second-guesses the transmission shift points, holding gears longer as well as adjusting Jaguar's "Adaptive Dynamics" http://www.jaguar-enthusiasts.org.uk/jaguar-adaptive-dynamics.html variable shock absorber settings, stability control and "Active Differential Control." ADC is a complex system in the rear differential with an electric motor and "ball-and-ramp" mechanism that shifts power to the rear wheel the computer deems desirable.

If we were to fault the 2011 Jaguar it would be for rearward vision, a mere slot of rear window through the mirror, and outside mirrors that don't seem to help much. At least there's blind spot monitoring.

However, winding road performance is such that the chauffeur will take the Jaguar XJL the long way home after dropping the boss off at the airport.

We're not sure if that's exactly what Mama Cass meant about sending the Jaguar XJ where it's never been before, but as far as we're concerned we'd suggest encores with "Dancin' in the Street" and "Dedicated to the One I Love."

Illustration: 2011 Jaguar XJR Supercharged. Photo by John Matras.