Have had my '07 vert for about 4 months now. First few were just suburban driving. Last month in the southern Appalachians of western North Carolina. My first (suburban) impressions were of a relatively large GT, more luxury than sports. Part of this was getting used to it, as new to me. I have had several large, fast GTs in the past, but my last two sporting cars were BMW Z-3 and Porsche Boxster S. So this was obviously a change.

However, once I got into the mountains everything seemed to change. Yes, I'm more used to the car now, but even so the twisties (and every road here is twisty) just seemed to make the whole thing shrink in size. I have been pleasantly surprised at how well it handles. Not quite a Boxster in that regard, but much closer than I was expecting. Very fun, obviously much more so than droning along on an interstate or trolling though housing subdivisions. So, while a great GT for long jaunts, its also a surprisingly good sports car.

The only downside, and even then with a caveat, is that the paddle shifters aren't what I was hoping for. But that's for a separate post.

Mark

 

It's a heavy car, but its suspension tuning and steering setup make it handle very well. You should feel what it's like with the Dynamic Pack (lower, stiffer suspension & revised steering)

 

For hard charging the sport mode works quite well. The paddle shifters are fair. Wait until you drive it in the twisties at night. The adaptive headlights are brilliant. I've done the whole BRP and the Skyline drive in mine. Epic drive. Epic machine.

 

Has a "unique" suspension feel to it, but it really caries over what the XJ is into a GT styled car. Has a Jaguar feel to it that is not like the rivals.

 

I used to really like driving my 4.2 XF on the twisty roads. It had a real snarl in the exhaust, even though it wasn't massively quick. It wasn't as nimble as the XKR though. The 5.0 XKR is an entirely different beast. It goes like it is shot out of a cannon if you put your foot down even on a steep uphill gradient. The sound is incredible especially in sport, and either using the paddles or letting the transmission hold it in lower gears. On the twisty mountain/valley runs, I'll drive with the windows down and the stereo off.


Personally I like the paddles. They function better in the f type, I think (snappier shifts), but they work fine in the XKR and they were fine in the XFs as well. I tend to agree that for very bendy roads it would be better if they were on the column. When I tracked my car I didn't use the paddles at all, because it was too hard.

 

Welcome to the mountains. And, yes all roads are twisty, some are just more twisty than others and it is a lot of fun finding them.

When I got mine, I was coming from a manual 911 and it took several trips to get use to the paddles. Now, it's fun and then there is always sport mode for the less twisty.