Jaguar Cars Limited is a British based luxury car manufacturer, originally with headquarters in Browns Lane, Coventry, England but now at Whitley, Coventry. It was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922,by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley, and changed its name to Jaguar in 1945. The company has been owned by Ford since 1989.

The Jaguar logo is a Jaguar leaping across the company name. The leaping Jaguart is possibly built to represent the speed, power and quickness of the car. The Jaguar emblem is also placed on the front of the car.

Starting with the obvious, Design Director Ian Callum has managed to both underwhelm and surprise with this newest Jaguar. At first glance, it’s almost indistinguishable from the Jaguar XFR, taking much of the nose and sleek profile from the four-door coupe.

Upon further investigation the new XJ reveals a longer and more muscular profile, with a narrow greenhouse that slopes into an elongated and blacked-out C-pillar. The addition of a full panoramic glass roof adds another new dimension to the car. Whatever you’re feelings on the new design, it’s clear this is an almost complete departure from the previous XJ.

Mechanically, the Jaguar XJ isn’t quite as drastic a step forward. The platform is new, featuring a significant use of aluminum in the structure, but the first batch of engines will be a trio of the 5.0-liter Gen III direct-injection V8. The base XJ and XJL will include the naturally-aspirated version good for 385 HP and a 5.4-second 0-to-60 MPH jaunt. The XJ Supercharged and XJL Supercharged models will be fitted with the same engine supercharged for 470 HP and a 5.2-second time.

The new high performance model, perhaps a stand-in for the XJR or merely a placeholder, is the XJ and XJL Supersport models. This will feature the XFR’s supercharged V8 good for 510 HP and a 4.7-second 0-to-60 MPH time. All of these will get Jaguar’s six-speed, shift-by-wire transmission with steering wheel-mounted paddles.

The biggest upgrade on the inside, which includes the usual mix of wood, chrome and piano black surfaces, is probably the “virtual instrument” panel, which includes three round hi-def screens and no physical read-out at all. This allows the pods to adjust themselves to the driving conditions. For instance, if you switch into Dynamic mode the dials change to a red hue and bold the gear position indicator — which turns red as you approach the red line.

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