I got invited by my local dealer to this, so after thinking about it for approximately 0.0064s, I said yes.

I arrived at the circuit shortly after 8.30AM to find that Jaguar had taken the place over. Seriously, I've never seen Knockhill looking so posh! A "light breakfast" involved cafetiere coffee and breakfast rolls. With a choice of three types of roll no less! Seriously, anybody who's been to Knockhill will understand my amazement!

A short presentation followed. It was very much "Ra Ra Jaguar", but its was brief and not too jingoistic. There were some sneaks of the F-Type, including some audio, and boy, does it sound fantastic.

After that, we were split into groups. My group started off driving XKRs and XFRs on track. We were assigned a professional instructor, who did a demo lap, then let me loose. I started off in the XKR. We had the stability control on, otherwise we were allowed to go as fast as we wanted. I got progressively quicker over my 8-10 laps, to the point where I really felt I was working the car fairly hard.

The XKR stood up to the use really well. Strong grip, and what I call "faithful" handling. It went where I pointed it, and didn't squirm on throttle or brakes. And the stability control only intervened when I was taking too much kerb. There was no fade at all from the brakes.

The XFR was surprisingly biddable, although evidently heavier than the XKR. The brakes really weren't terribly happy about the hairpin (where you're braking from somewhere north of 110 down to about 25).

The interesting difference between XFR and XKR was that the XKR was quite happy to lock itself into a gear and stay there. You can do the whole Knockhill track in 4th if you want. I started to paddleshift it, and it felt more alive for doing so. The XFR however, didn't need much manual paddle use. It behaved a lot more like a trad auto.

Next we were taken for a passenger ride in the XKR-S. The pro drivers were fairly giving them some stick, and they went really well. Noticeably faster than the XKR, and with a much stronger front end, they were pretty mental.

We did some handling work in an XF Diesel S. Fairly brief though, so few conclusions can be drawn. It was sprightly away from the line, and if you set the ABS off the hazards come on!

Then some on-road work in an XJ Supersport. We're very lucky in Scotland in that there are roads where you can give an XJ the beans and really feel it moving under you.

You can buy a place on the day if you wish for £275. I think it's pretty good value, mainly because they really let you loose in the cars. I would have liked to have driven the XJ Supersport on track, but only because I want to learn more about my own car's dynamics. I reckon it would have got in the way of the smaller cars though.

 

Sounds like a great day.

They must have had to do some serious work on Knockhill to make it anywhere near presentable for a corporate day!

Good value at £275. Even better with a dealer invitation.

Graham

 

Sounds like a great day, thanks for the write up.

It looks like it may actually have been dry up there.

Graham, I'm surprised at you, I've spent many happy hours paddling in the mud at Knockhill.

 

Dry for my time on track, but later folks got wet. You can see the wipers running on the XKR-S in my photo above.

 

We used to use the sheep on the hill as a gauge, if they were near the top it would stay dry.