The days that a manufacturer could test a new model in relative silence are long gone. Now as soon as a camouflaged car heads out onto public roads someone with a camera or a mobile phone will capture it and the shots are spread across the internet within hours. This has brought about an interesting change in the approach of the manufacturers. Instead of hiding the upcoming cars from the general public, they now try and build anticipation by releasing pictures of the new machines wearing camo. One step further is to send out the thinly disguised vehicles to public events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed. In 2007 Nissan broke new ground by bring a 'taped up' GT-R to the Festival and in 2008 they were followed by Jaguar, who showed what we believe to be the new XF-R.
Shortly after the production version of Jaguar's new mid-sized sedan hit the streets, rumours started to float about of a more potent version to rival the S, M and AMG models of the company's German rivals. With 420 bhp on the tap the most powerful 'regular' XF certainly was no slouch, but a little bit more was needed to catch the competition, who were gradually moving into supercar power territory. So it is believed that Jaguar's engineers have enlarged the standard 4.2 litre supercharged V8 to a clean 5-litre. This would enable the XF-R to meet to break into the 500 bhp range, directly challenging the high performance versions of the BMW 5-Series and Mercedes Benz E-Class.
After months of rumours, Jaguar finally showed the general public what they were up to by showing the thinly disguised XF-R at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July of 2008. They released no further information, so we can only speculate about the car's exact specification and final release date. However we expect the car to make its debut at London later this month, or in Paris in the fall.
(source text : Ultimatecarpage.com )
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