Jaguar

There are more than a few people who have been quick to jump on Kazunori Yamauchi and his company, Polyphony Digital, for the glacially-slow gestation of Gran Turismo 5, the latest installment in the Playstation-exclusive cash cow franchise. After all, trans-Pacific rival Turn 10 Studios has released a pair of Forza Motorsport titles – numbers 2 and 3 – since GT5 development began in earnest about five years ago. Surely the Tokyo-based developer couldn’t have anything up its sleeve to make its latest product worth all that waiting…right?

Well, at last year’s E3 it was announced that GT5 would feature licensed content from both NASCAR and the World Rally Championship, and this year’s E3 saw confirmation of collaboration with your favorite motoring program and ours, Top Gear, as well as damage rendering that includes rollovers and variable time-of-day. But for those of you who thought Yamauchi and Co. had run out of awesome bombs to drop, guess again. In fact, at this week’s Gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany, they brought enough awesome bombs to lay waste to a city’s worth of naysayers.

Taking delivery of a 510-bhp supercar can be a daunting experience for the novice owner. Facing the opposite direction in oncoming traffic, for example, is an all too common occurrence for the uninitiated. Light poles also seem to have a homing device for high-performance cars. Since most drivers can go ten, twenty, thirty years or more without ever bettering their skill level, handling a car with this much juice may be a stretch. As a progressive car company, Jaguar recognizes this and is doing the responsible thing by offering buyers of the 2010 and 2011 XFR and XKR hellcats formal instruction in a controlled environment with racing heavy-hitters.

The Jaguar R Academy will be making several stops this year throughout the country. The tour began at Homestead Miami Speedway and continued on to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Monticello Motor Club in New York and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, where we had the golden opportunity to participate. The facility was built relatively recently, in 1997, on a massive expanse of land formerly housing a steel mill that provides space for virtually any type of racing configuration inside a large oval track. An auxiliary road course and enough swath of pavement to rival an airfield complete this remarkable venue.

We all know a true sports car has only 2 doors. Coupes go faster, stop quicker, corner better and generally look better (unless Mansory has gotten to it). But people usually have more than one friend. I'm sure Hannibal Lecter could find a couple of people to take out on a Friday night. Whether they all got home safely is another story. So whether you have friends, a family, or lots of stuff, a 2 door sports car won't cut it.

A sedan is the next logical step, but that doesn't mean you have to drive around in a Lithium-infused, 8 ton 4 door that's more likely to be confused with a Tempur-Pedic mattress than a sports car. The battle of sports sedans has been growing each year, with car-makers giving us more choices, better looks, beter handling and of course, better engines. Selection is great, but it can also be overwhelming. Shopping for paper towels now requires 4 pre-emptive Advil, so shopping for a sports sedan should come with an emergency vial of Vicodin. To help you out, I've made a list of the Top 5 Sports Sedans Under $100,000. Make the jump to see the list...

Back in 2005, Jaguar's hottest selling model of all time ended its production run. That car was the XK. In the spring of 2006, the 2007 model emerged as a completely reworked vehicle that Jaguar hoped would continue to see record sales. The challenge for the company has been competing in a segment - Large Premium Sports Cars - that doubled from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s. Jaguar sought to blend the two major groups - grand tourers and sports cars - into a single outstanding car.  

That generation ran through 2009 offering a 4.2-liter V8 good for 300 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque as well as a supercharged variant providing 420 hp and 412 lb-ft of torque. But with everyone stepping up their game, Jaguar quickly realized that even though they had satisfied their goal, they certainly had no BMW M6 or Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG killer…

Vanilla ice cream may technically be white in color, but these days white cars are far more exciting to your eyes than the grey-of-ice-creams is to your taste buds. Black used to be the color of bad boys and speed, but these days white draws far more attention. If you happen to be driving a white 2011 Jaguar XKR Special Edition no one will mistake it for goody goody.

Making its public debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, Jaguar is hoping to root itself a little deeper in the performance GT market. Although it wears the color of purity and restraint, the 510hp supercharged 5.0 liter V8 will run with the tarmac bad boys up to 174mph.

2009 was a tough year for the auto industry to say the least. Not only did we witness massive government bailouts, epic bankruptcies and a precipitous plummet in sales, but over 1,500 dealerships shuttered their doors. When I was back in my hometown of Cleveland, OH over the holidays, I notice at least 6 large dealerships throughout the city that had closed up shop, with all of the remaining ones seemingly relegated to the ubiquitous "Auto Mile" of car lots mostly owned by large conglomerates. A sad state indeed.

Current estimates peg the total number of new cars purchased last year at just around 10.5 million, which is about 7 million shy of the high reached in 2000 and 2 million below sales in China (yes, we're no longer numero uno). The Cars Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program, aka Cash for Clunkers, dolled out $2.8 billion in $3,500 - $4,500 rebates and supposedly resulted in 700,000 new car sales.  According to several leading analysts, this was just enough to keep the industry on life support while everyone scrambled to figure out how to infuse more cash into daily operations. Even though many hailed the program as a success, it had its detractors as well, and for good reason. Edmunds concluded that really only an additional 125,000 cars were sold that wouldn't have sold otherwise, resulting in a taxpayer burden of $24,000 per vehicle.

For the last couple of years, CAR magazine has challenged designers from major auto manufacturers to come up with designs that upgrade Santa's sleigh to the toy-delivery vehicle of tomorrow. In 2008, the likes of Bentley, Ford, Nissan and Rolls-Royce all delivered spectacular creations. This year Vauxhall, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Audi and Land Rover came through with some crazy cool concepts. 

Land Rover has created transportation for Kris Kringle that follows their brand aesthetic remarkably well. The particle accelerator propulsion system is a nice touch and we dig the optional CRS (Chimney Recognition Software) technology. But we're not sure how Santa is supposed to see over the big dome of the reindeer in front of him and it looks like every time the animal swivels its head, it would skewer ole Saint Nicholas, but these are just minor quibbles.

Today, the North Coast Triumph Association hosted its 18th Annual British Car Show at Shaker Square, in Cleveland, Ohio. The event was located on the green space inside the inner quadrants of the historic district and featured a wide variety of classic, vintage and modern vehicles of UK origin. There was a nice mixture of brands such as Jaguar, Aston Martin, Austin Healey, MG, Lotus, Triumph, Rolls Royce, Morgan and DeLorean.