Jaguar Brings XJ Taxi to 'Ring
Taxis are, typically, quite unpleasant. Oftentimes comprised of slow, dirty, smelly Priuses, the fleets of them that ply Canadian streets are hardly the sort of thing to increase the gearhead's pulse. But the taxis that serve on the Nurburgring are an entirely different sort of animal.
An idea first broached by BMW, the idea is to provide visitors with a fast sedan piloted by a profession racing driver, and the resultant experience of lapping the fabled track at speeds most drivers could only dream of maintaining. And although BMW's M5 'ring taxi will undoubtedly remain the one that many envision when they think of the term, Jaguar's looking to one up the Bavarian marque with this: their new Jaguar XJ Supersport 'ring taxi.
Based upon a standard-issue XJ, but benefitting from both the Sport and Speed packages, the XJ Sport and Speed Taxi Service boasts, according to Jaguar, "510PS from its 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine and a top speed of 174mph, but no fare meter." Furthermore, the leather buckets have all been tossed, replaced by four race seats replete with four-point harnesses, and the entire cabin trimmed and bounded by a bespoke roll cage. Finally, although still wearing all the stock bodywork you'd find on a normal XJ, the typically lustrous paint job has been replaced by a matte grey hue. Easily chalked up to the current trend of putting flat paint on all manner of sports cars, the grey finish actually mimics that of the incredibly rare and very desirable TWR-developed XJ220S.
Said Frank Klaas, Global Head of Communications, Jaguar Land Rover: "We've been running a successful Nürburgring driving programme from our Nordschleife engineering test centre now for some time, as it's the very best place to demonstrate the dynamic abilities of the current Jaguar XF, XJ and XK models. Of these models, we found it's the XJ Supersport that most often surprises journalists with its speed simply because they perceive it to be a large luxury car. The XJ is both those things, of course, but its aluminium architecture means it's rigid and lightweight too, which make it a very good car on track. To underline that fact, our engineering team created this special Nürburgring taxi version in which our trained drivers can safely take passengers on very hot laps!"
