MODEL PROFILE
The XFR-S Sportbrake is one of the most dramatic yet rarest Jaguars of the modern era. To celebrate its tenth anniversary we look at the car’s history and specification before driving an early example
"IT’S A blast to drive,” said Jaguar’s then design director, Ian Callum, to Road & Track magazine about the XFR-S Sportbrake following its 2014 Geneva Motor Show debut. “I just love the juxtaposition of this practical, sensible car with 550bhp.”
This mixed personality has always been the car’s raison d’etre. It might have the same supercharged 5.0-litre V8 as the F-Type R under the bonnet that results in a very supercar-like performance, but at its heart the XFR-S Sportbrake remains a practical estate with five doors, a spacious interior and a sensible boot.
Yet despite this highly desirable combination, the car was only made in tiny numbers and it remains something of a mystery. And with it never replicated with the next generation of XF, as a highperformance estate, the XFR-S Sportbrake remains a genuine one-off in the company’s long history making it even more desirable.
The idea of a superfast Jaguar estate wasn’t new. In the early 2000s the company got close to producing a supercharged 3.0- litre V6 version of the X-Type estate, even producing a handful of prototypes. A red survivor with the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust shows its potential.
“The 3.0-litre V6 is a peach of an engine at the best of times,” said our own Craig Cheetham when he tested the car for the March 2020 issue of Jaguar World, “but with an Eaton supercharger bolted to it, it’s something else altogether. Not only is it rapid – and by that we mean very rapid – it also sounds incredible.”
Unfortunately, a tendency to break gearboxes due to the extra torque of the engine plus the company concentrating on the more economical 2.0-litre diesel meant the project was canned.
When the XF Sportbrake arrived in 2012 there again wasn’t a R version despite the saloon version being on sale since 2009. Jaguar instead concentrated on the economy models, the new 2.2-litre diesel especially.
All that changed at the Geneva show in March 2014 when Jaguar revealed arguably its most dramatic car since the XJ220. Instead of the more obvious XFR
Sportbrake, Jaguar skipped straight to R-S specification giving its estate the same 550PS (542bhp) supercharged 5.0 V8 as the saloon. The result was a fabulously rebellious alternative to the more mainstream German competitors such as the Audi RS6 Avant and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG estate.
The R-S Sportbrake could be differentiated from its more sensible siblings by a new, deeper front bumper that featured larger lower central and side air intakes for improved airflow into the engine bay. Together, a front splitter at the lower e
