Jaguar XJ gets Sport Pack & Speed Pack options

Thu, 10 Nov 2011

With the new Jaguar XJ settling in nicely, Jaguar feel it’s time to give the bold new Jag a bit of a sporting makeover with the addition of a Sport Pack and Speed Pack to the XJ’s options.

Already perhaps the most intrinsically sporty luxury car on the road, the XJ already conspires to look more aggressive and sporty than any other offering in the sector. It also, even with the 3.0 litre diesel engine, has performance that matches its looks.

Fortunately, Jaguar doesn’t have designers who think a Halfords glitterball makeover is where the market is, so although the add-ons that come with the Sport Pack make the XJ look a bit more purposeful than it already does, they don’t make the big cat look like it belongs at a boy-racer meet in the early hours of Saturday morning on Southend seafront.

The exterior Sport pack comprises of more butch bumpers front and back with a splitter under the front bumper and an extended rear boot lip, the almost de rigueur set of red calipers to denote ‘Performance’ and a new set of ’Venom’ 20″ alloys.

The prominent XJ grill gets a gloss black mesh finish which also gets applied to the lower air opening and side vents. There is also a new set of split twin tailpipes poking out the back, although you’ll have to wait a while for those as Jaguar hasn’t got round to making them yet.

The Interior Sports Pack also aims to make drivers feel their new XJ is a cut above the rest. You get a set of Jaguar’s ‘Performance’ seats up front with bigger bolsters to keep you in place when you start chucking your sporty XJ around, and the pedals are stainless steel with Jaguar engravings.

The back seats haven’t been forgotten, and although you don’t get the bigger bolsters the seats have been trimmed to match the front. You’ll also get the choice of either Jet Black leather or Jet over Ivory, and the Piano Black trim gets embellished with carbon fibre highlights.

The Speed Pack for the XJ is only available on the 5.0 litre supercharged version, where it effectively removes the limiter to up the top speed to 174mph.

Jaguar are at pains to point out that removing the limiter also means recalibrating the ECU, reworking the digital display and tweaking the tyre pressure monitor to cope with the higher temperatures generated when running at higher speeds.

But the Speed Pack is really just about bragging rights.

Update: There was a bit of confusion from our end over what exactly you can option up on the 5.0 litre Supercahrged version of the XJ when it comes to Sport and Speed Packs. So we’ve had a chat with Jaguar’ and it seems you have to have the Sports Pack and the Speed Pack together on the S/C. Oh, and you can have the Jet Black leather with red contrast stitching too on the S/C.

But as the Speed Pack and Sports Pack together only about £200 more than the Sports Pack alone on the 3.0 litre diesel, it seems a small price to pay for the bragging rights of a 174mph top speed.

(8 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

By Cars UK