ROAD TRIP
The Isle of Man is petrolhead nirvana on England’s doorstep and an XKR could just be the perfect car with which to explore it
BRITAIN IS full of motoring destinations, race tracks and museums. But one location seems to have it all – stunning scenery, epic roads, many of them with no speed limits and motorsport heritage the likes of which you won’t find anywhere else. It’s been on my ‘to visit’ list for some time, so when we were invited to join Scenic Car Tours on their Festival of Motoring tour in our newly acquired XKR, I jumped at the chance.
Getting There
As its name suggests, reaching the Isle of Man requires a ferry, usually from either Liverpool or Heysham and I opted for the latter, the seven-hour drive from my home in Kent giving me a chance to get to know a car I’d never even sat in, let alone driven. I’ve got extensive experience with our X350 XJ8 though and some aspects were familiar.
Its Aston DB7 sister car is an awful example of interior packaging, lacking headroom, legroom, rear seats worth mentioning or much in the way of a boot, but the Jaguar swallowed two large suitcases, a hefty camera case, drone, tripod, breakdown kit and various detritus without issue. Granted, the rear seats are purely theoretical, but the front is roomy – particularly compared to the DB7 – and the X100 still feels special. The Birdseye maple veneer, warm charcoal and cranberry twotone leather, finished off with the accents of the alloy pack make for a lovely place to be while covering distance.
The supercharged V8 immediately cemented itself as a highlight, gently rumbling at a cruise, then whining furiously and delivering almighty shove when required, not to mention averaging 31mpg. Comfy, refined, fast and luxurious: exactly as a Jaguar should be. We wafted up to Stafford for our overnight stop, already impressed with the XKR.
The next day involved a two-hour cruise up to the port in Heysham where we joined many of the 250 cars visiting the island’s Festival of Motoring tour: a 1970s Porsche 911T, over 40 Morgans, a trio of Jensen-Healeys, F-Type SVRs, a 300bhp turbocharged Mazda MX-5 and a Panther Kallista, to name a few. The ferry crossing was sunny and smooth, but once greeted by the sight of the island, I was only too happy to settle back into the XKR for the two-mile drive to the hotel. Rolling through the pretty seaside town of Douglas, I already had a smile on my face thanks to the Jaguar which had made light work of the 330-mile drive.
The Sloc
The Isle of Man is home to endless epic mountain roads, but it’s easy to default to the ic
