Jaguar roars again
Forty-five years after the E-Type was unveiled to the world, Jaguar has returned to the scene of its greatest glory with a brand new beauty
The 2007 Jaguar XKR is a masterpiece with a mighty roar – a super-charged dream machine that does everything the much-vaunted Aston Martin does for nowhere near the price. It is the finest thoroughbred sports car the company has ever built.
But where to take it? To Italy, of course, and the ultra-stylish Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni at Bellagio on Lake Como.
From George Clooney and Brad Pitt to Sophia Loren and Cary Grant, from premiers to princes, Luciano, the concierge, has watched them unload their Louis Vuittons from a variety of eye-catching cars.
But as the XKR purred into the parking lot, even Luciano came from behind his desk in the foyer to drool over its sexy shape, while four porters jostled to drive the scarlet good-looker to the garage.
When journey’s-end is the Serbelloni, any trek is worthwhile. But do it in the XKR and you arrive as fresh as a daisy. Not cheaply, though, with its 4.2-litre V8 engine thirstily guzzling the gas at 32 kmpg.
But for sheer pleasure, with its hood down and front vents like flared nostrils, this drop-dead stunner is a real winner.
Prices for the supercharged XKR open at €100,744, with add-ons like cruise-control costing €1,400 and, vitally, a front-end parking aid for that extra long snout at €400. This ‘big cat’ will run and run.
Would you believe it
Chase sequences
In a poll to discover the most exciting chase sequence in a James Bond movie, conducted by a TV motoring show, Roger Moore topped the chart. The scene (pictured below, top) in the twelfth Bond epic For Your Eyes Only, where 007 races to safety in a battered and creaky Citroën 2CV, beat Sean Connery’s Aston Martin DB5 dash from the villains in the 1964 film Goldfinger, Pierce Brosnan’s escape in a T-55 tank in Goldeneye and Timothy Dalton’s race (pictured below, bottom) in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage in The Living Daylights.
The world according to Mercedes-Benz
They have one in Berlin, another in Stuttgart, and now there is another, even more splendid, just off the motorway between London’s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports
It is Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands, the historic home of British motor car racing for 100 years, where a family may enjoy a complete day out sampling the past, the present and the future in a vast €63 million complex that has breathed new life into the old place.
Managing Director Peter O’Halloran, the driving force behind the project that opened last October, calls it ‘autotainment’ and adds: “Every car we make will be on show, but this is not just a shopping mall for motors.
“It is the total experience. There are exhibitions, interactive attractions and kids over 1.5 metres tall can drive real A-Class cars while their mothers and fathers browse for a good buy. A heritage museum will display a fascinating array of historic Mercedes, and a 2.5-kilometre purpose-built test track for 4×4s with a skid-circle will be open for everybody to test their skills.
“There will also be top-class haute-cuisine dining for that important night out, with a café for those in more of a hurry, and then, later, a hotel built and run by the Formula One driver David Coulthard’s company, will be opened on site.
“A century of automotive innovation and Mercedes magic will be housed under one roof in truly unique style.
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