The Spies favorite Jaguar ever-Part 2

NEW LOOKS, TOTALLY NEW CHARACTER

‘The Super V8 Portfolio is the XJ with more attitude. All the elegant proportions and contemporary detail are there, but overlaid with a totally different sporty character – a new assertiveness and muscle-tone that underline the XJ’s dynamic brilliance and build on its innovative engineering.’
Ian Callum, Design Director, Jaguar Cars

The Super V8 Portfolio’s most obvious feature is its dramatically different appearance. The whole impression is of a car that sits lower and wider and is much more overtly sporty than the standard XJ. The prominent, sculpted aluminum power vents in its front wings immediately set the Super V8 Portfolio apart from any other XJ. As do the 20-inch ‘Callisto’ alloy wheels featuring the same highly-polished five-spoke design as the 21-inch wheels of the Concept Eight but promising better everyday durability and ride comfort for the production car.
Like the Concept Eight wheels the Callisto rims have slim, elegantly curved spokes, and like the Concept Eight they feature the classic Jaguar script centre badge style – combining heritage with an ultra-modern spin. And, like all Jaguar’s highest performance models, the Super V8 Portfolio uses a classically simple mesh grille, flanked in this case by four headlights above a deep front air intake incorporating additional driving lights.

At the rear of the car, the Super V8 Portfolio is further distinguished from other XJ models by large, polished twin exhaust finishers, and by ‘Super V8 Portfolio’ badging – ‘Super V8’ on the left-hand side of the boot lid and ‘Portfolio’ on the right-hand side.
Where the Concept Eight study used a full-length fixed glass roof panel, the Super V8 Portfolio has a more conventional roof with electrically powered tinted glass sunroof – allowing the Super V8 Portfolio to retain the side-curtain airbags, deleted from the Concept Eight, and Jaguar's unique, ultrasonic-sensing, Adaptive Restraints Technology System (A.R.T.S.).

The final, unique and dramatic exterior design cue – again taken from the Concept Eight – is the Super V8 Portfolio’s standard color: metallic Black Cherry, a combination of a rich cherry and deep black which shows subtle variations of both colors under changing light conditions. The new Winter Gold metallic finish also similarly enhances the Super V8 Portfolio’s muscular silhouette.
THE INSIDE STORY – ALL CHANGE
‘The new XJ Long Wheelbase gives our customers truly excellent interior space in a full-size luxury package. Now, the Super V8 Portfolio adds yet another dimension to the XJ range.'
Bibiana Boerio, Managing Director, Jaguar Cars
As with the exterior, the Super V8 Portfolio’s interior treatment is even more contemporary and sporty, overlaying familiar XJ values of comfort and luxury with a modern spin, making extensive but carefully considered use of intelligent technology to serve both driver and passengers.
The Super V8 Portfolio delivers space and luxury with an added level of sportiness and modern design cues. Like any XJ Long Wheelbase it has front and rear leg and headroom comparable with the best in class, and it offers its own rear seat configuration, with two deep individual seats separated by a large, multi-functional center console. Each rear seat is individually power adjustable, with its own controls in the rear console, which also incorporates a range of roomy storage spaces. For maximum comfort, the rear of the center console also incorporates the individual controls for the rear-seat passengers’ part of the four-zone climate control system.

All four seats are upholstered in a unique, soft-grained, ruched, Conker colored leather, toning with the Conker color of the deep carpets and lambswool rugs. The headlining, visors and all the internal pillars from the tops of the doors up are finished in Alcantara, and the polished aluminum sill finishers each carry the ‘Portfolio’ logo. There is an electrically operated rear sunblind and manually operated rear-door sunblinds.

As is traditional, the Super V8 Portfolio uses wood trim across the dashboard and for the door cappings, produced with typical Jaguar quality and craftsmanship but with a distinctive modern twist – an elegant American black walnut veneer with a soft satin finish very much like some of the contemporary designer furniture that inspired it. This contrasts subtly with the Conker color of the leather, carpets and general trim, and is given a sportier attitude by touches such as the aluminum J-gate gearshift surround and the gearshift-knob also finished in Conker-colored leather.

The audio system has an impressive specification compared with any other car. Produced for the Super V8 Portfolio by Alpine it is substantially upgraded from the high-level systems already offered in the XJ Long Wheelbase. It has Dolby Pro-Logic II sound processing, with seven amplified channels plus a sub-woofer. The latest amplifier and speaker technologies take sound reproduction quality and overall output to new heights. There are new, upgraded door speakers, a unique ‘centre-fill’ speaker in the front instrument panel, two additional surround speakers mounted in the rear parcel shelf, and an additional amplifier for the front mid-bass range, which gives a 2x40-watt power increase over the standard Premium ICE system found in the Super V8.

In addition, the Super V8 Portfolio has a DVD-based entertainment system for the rear-seat passengers, with individual display screens in the back of each front-seat headrest. For ultimate convenience, the Super V8 Portfolio also includes Bluetooth wireless telephone connectivity, offering a high degree of integration with a variety of cell phone models – 10 phones from three manufacturers, at press time – controllable from the steering wheel, navigation touch-screen, and an available voice-activation module.

Click here to view part three