Activity 1: Obstacles Ahoy!
The first driving exercise was a nice warm-up for things to follow. I started off in the XF, Jaguar's executive sedan with a 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine developing 237 BHP and rear-wheel drive, followed by the XJ-L luxury sedan, F-Pace SUV and finally the XE compact executive sedan. As things turned out, it was the perfect sequence.
The extremely well-trained and polite driving instructor in charge did the first run around the course while I sat in the passenger seat and observed. Then we swapped places. The opening run was, as expected, a little awkward and I was overcautious. But the XF handled well:
Gaining in confidence now, I moved to the XJ-L. Different car and different instructor - this one seemed especially proud of his ward and took the trouble to explain that it eclipsed competitors like the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class when it came to outright torque (700 Nm from a 3.0-litre turbocharged diesel power plant in the Portfolio variant). I was a little concerned about the long wheelbase, which made it a little scary to chuck around the corners. While I managed this without a mishap, I thought I spotted a hint of a disapproving frown at the hardness of my braking. Oh well...!
Next in line was Jaguar's latest offering in India - the 5-seater F-Pace SUV. The R Sport version, which I drove, shares its engine with the XJ-L Portfolio (lower variants get a 2.0-litre, 177 BHP, 4-cylinder diesel unit). What surprised me was how agile the F-Pace was, despite its 1.8-ton weight! Actually, I had the most fun chucking the SUV around the cones among all the vehicles on offer:
Ending the exercise was the XE - Jaguar's entry-level offering that competes with the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. After the opulence of its siblings, the XE felt underspecced and a little boring. But, it performed quite well around the cones. I tried the back seat as well, just out of curiosity (it's the only Jaguar that comes close to fitting in my budget ). It's not spacious at all:
Last edited by Aditya : 22nd April 2017 at 18:06.
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