Slip into the low-slung, body-hugging front seat and you’ll reap a wide-open view of the road before you. Airy and spacious, there’s more room for head and legs than in the previous model. The necessities surround you – functionality is at a premium, allowing simple access to what matters most – like a touch-screen that rids the console of rarely touched buttons and switches. Seven inches wide, the touch-screen serves as system center for the car, allowing control of climate, audio, nav, telephone (Bluetooth based) and vehicle settings within as few pushes as possible. Weary eyes will like that icons enlarge upon touch.

Choose an interior color scheme that suits your personality – contrasting Ivory and Charcoal for a mod look; Ivory and Slate Blue speaks of fresh contemporary, Charcoal for the brooding sportster or Caramel for a warm, comfortable setting. Veneers come in one of three choices: Aluminum, Burl Walnut and the edgy Poplar wood.

Lighter
All-aluminum construction makes this XK lighter than competitor Mercedes SL and BMW 6 Series by a difference of nearly 500 lbs. which translates into better handling and performance, as well as increased fuel efficiency. Lighter, however, doesn’t mean looser. The all-aluminum body does wonders for stiffening construction, creating a coupe that is 30 percent stiffer than the previous model and a convertible that garners a hefty 50 percent increase in torsional rigidity.

Safety soars, too. The upgraded strength advantage lends a hand to lower-speed accident repair costs and the fact that there is only a single welded joint in the body (a cosmetic roof joint at that) means greater protection in impacts. Developed by aircraft industry pros, Jag coins this “Lightweight Vehicle Technology.”

Faster
There’s no need to pound on this pedal. Tap lightly and you’ll feel the XK spring into action beneath you – spurred by its naturally aspirated 4.2L V8 offering 300-hp that goes from 0-60 in 5.9 seconds. You’ll find the engine standard in both models – coming in less than a half second slower than the previous XKR, Jag’s pumped up performance version.

Accompanying pedal-to-the-metal driving is the healthy roar of the V8. Not noisy enough for discomfort, but loud enough to remind you that of the pouncing feline feist beneath the hood. You have the new Semi-Active Exhaust system to thank for that. It works to vary the flow of gases and features acoustically tuned tailpipes to musically tantalize those left in your dust.

Work the gears with the XK’s new six-speed automatic transmission that features Bosch Mechatronic shift whose adaptive properties respond to road conditions and different driving styles to shift as smoothly as possible. Playful drivers can get a feel for XK’s throttle potential by throwing the gearshift into new Sport mode and toggling steering wheel-mounted shift paddles to up- and downshift. Designed to operate with no torque interrupt, the Jag’s Sequential Shift feels smooth and steady – and completes a shift from touch to turn in approximately 600 milliseconds, making it the fastest automatic transmission available, and quite possibly the fasted Sport shift around.

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