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New Jaguar XJR will see the end of the XJ SuperSport

The launch of the new 2013 Jaguar XJR at the New York Auto Show this week heralds the end of the line for Jaguar’s other Supercharged V8 XJ – the SuperSport. With a much more fulsome 542bhp, some very ‘Jaguar’ go-faster bits, some proper fettling to make the steering, gearbox and suspension focus more on the drive without making a mess of the ride and altogether more dynamism in prospect than the SuperSport, we’d assumed Jaguar were making the XJR the performance pinnacle of the XJ range and leaving the SuperSport in place as the ‘luxury’ alternative. With that thought in mind we’d expected to see Jaguar push the price of the new XJR up towards the XJ Ultimate (which costs £121,000), so count us gobsmacked when Jaguar revealed the new XJR will cost from £92,335 – just £500 more than the SuperSport.

Saab sale to NEVS delayed

The sale of what’s left of Saab to National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) has been delayed over funding and rights to the Saab name. We all thought, finally, that the end of the Saab saga had come when National Electric Vehicle Sweden was successful in gaining approval from the Saab administrators to acquire what was left of Saab after GM and Spyker failed to agree the sale of Saab as a going concern. The sad fact is that NEVS aren’t planning to carry on the proud tradition of Saab, with its innovative and quirky cars so loved by design professionals, but plan to put the Saab badge on a range of new electric cars.

Spied: Mercedes-Benz SLC AMG? UPDATED

LATEST UPDATE Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance car off-shoot has kicked off public road tests of its eagerly awaited new sportscar, which is planned to go on sale in North America in early 2015. Smaller and more affordable than the existing SLS AMG, which the new two door liftback will indirectly replace in the German car maker’s line-up, the new car is planned to compete directly with the Porsche 911, both on price and performance. The coupe model, caught here exiting AMG’s engineering headquarters on the outskirts of Stuttgart in Germany yesterday in the first round of durability testing, will proceed a convertible version of the front-engined, rear-wheel drive sportscar due out in 2016, with an expected price tag of around $100,000 in the US.