1997 JAGUAR XJR 4.0L Supercharged V8 5AT (370 HP)

Vehicle Overview

While nobody complained about the XJ sedan of being slow or underpowered, the British Company suddenly remembered that they were once glorious on the race tracks. And they brought the XJR.

In 1997, Jaguar decided that it had enough inline-six engines for its high-class vehicles, so it decided to introduce a new engine generation, the AJ-V8 units. As the name suggested, they were V8, and the company engineers thought there was room for improvement, so they added a supercharger on it!

From the outside, there were just a few clues that could tell someone that that was an XJR. Sure, there was a silver mesh-grille instead of the body-colored one. There was a specific set of light-alloy wheels on the fast, four-door British car. Also, there was a dual exhaust with each pipe on one side of the vehicle in the back. Moreover, the new generation of the XJ, introduced at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show, was sleeker and made many tall people crying due to its low-roof greenhouse. But the others didn’t care.

Inside, it was the same British luxury atmosphere as it was before garnished with leather, wood, and fine materials. The buttons were installed where they were supposed to be and not hidden behind the steering wheel. The J-shaped gear-selector was typical for Jaguar only. The room in the back was adequate for average-sized passengers. The tall ones, on the other hand, were not happy at all.

Under the hood, the XJR featured a newly developed 4.0-liter V8 supercharged engine that produced more power than the XJS V12 sports car. The gearbox was the 5G-Tronic carried-over from Mercedes-Benz. The result was a surprisingly fast luxury sedan.