TWINTEST JAGUAR XFR v BMW M5: Ironically, there have never been more 500bhp super saloons on the market. Shane O'Donoghuepitches the new Jaguar XFR up against the driver's choice, BMW's M5
SUPER SALOONS are a strange breed of car – though far from endangered if the recent flurry of launches is anything to go by. This year, we’ve driven an even sportier version of the gorgeous Maserati Quattroporte, the opinion-dividing Porsche Panamera and both saloon and Avant versions of the crazy Audi RS6.
As with any four-door purporting to be the last word in both luxury and performance, this trio will all have to face up to comparison to the mighty BMW M5, the acknowledged leader of the pack ever since its inception in 2005.
How times have changed since those heady days. The M5’s specification was nothing short of staggering at the time of its launch. It shared its V10 engine configuration with the Formula One car of the day, boasted over 500bhp and seven gears in its hugely complicated robotised manual gearbox.
Not only that, but the driver had a massive array of options to customise the driving experience, from the three damper settings, to more than 10 different gearshift strategies, with steering, traction and throttle all variable too. Yet the M5 was, for all intents and purposes, still a 5-Series saloon and despite its hardware, looked remarkably restrained.
Today, parked up alongside its latest challenger, the M5 looks a little dated – if as subtle as ever. Meanwhile, Jaguar’s XFR – cliché-like – looks ready to pounce. Love or loathe the wide-eyed look of the XF, it’s an appreciable move forward for the marque and the R model features just the right level of adornment to give it a more aggressive look in comparison to lesser XFs. Where the BMW is sharp and upright, the Jaguar is, well, feline, especially from the rear, where the sharply raked screen tapers towards unique and stylish lights, below which protrude the unmistakable quad exhausts.
THIS ISN'Ta traditional twin test as much as a reminder of just how far the super saloon has evolved in the past five years.
The Jaguar XFR undercuts the BMW by a significant €40,000 (or thereabouts), which should be sufficient to separate the buyers by a pay grade or two and hence invalidates a real world comparison of the cars.
However, look a little closer at the stats and it’s amazing how aligned these cars are. For starters, they both use 5.0-litre engines to deliver about 500bhp to the rear wheels through an automatic transmission.
The benchmark 0-100km/h sprint is despatched in less than five seconds in each and there’s plenty of room for golf bags and golf buddies.
Dig a little deeper though and you’ll notice that the Jaguar returns notably better fuel economy and emits a lot less carbon dioxide – though not enough to drop it out of tax band G.
Those aren’t the only differences. The Jaguar’s supercharged V8 eclipses the BMW’s high-revving V10 when it comes to producing torque, which, if we’re honest, is more important more of the time then a peak power figure produced at attention grabbing revs. Especially given the likely clientele of such machinery.
That’s perhaps the key to the Jaguar’s personality. Where the BMW demands you use the entire rev counter to get the most from it, the Jaguar is just as quick with less effort. That’s not to say that it’s any less exciting should you find an empty stretch of challenging road to stretch its legs on. It just gets on with it, allowing you to revel in the abilities of the chassis.
Like the BMW, the Jaguar features adaptive damping, but it’s a more advanced system that attempts to predict body movements and the overriding impression is that it’s more comfortable than the BMW in most situations, yet just as controlled. In return, the M5 is a little more engaging to drive, but not enough to win it this fight.
OVERALL, THEJaguar fulfils the dual-role of the super saloon to better effect. Hardened enthusiasts might bemoan the fact that its interior is little different to any other XF, but we'd point out that most buyers will see this as a luxury car first and foremost and it certainly lives up to that remit, with a large dose of style.
In contrast, the M5’s cabin is more overtly sporting, with myriad buttons to control the sub-systemsand the side bolsters in the front seats that move to keep you in place when cornering. Even if the prices were comparable, these cars just wouldn’t appeal to the same buyer.
With a new generation BMW 5-Series just around the corner, you can be sure there’ll be a new M5 and it looks likely that it’ll use turbocharging to increase performance even further, while reducing consumption.
However, that could be as far as five years away, so until then it looks like our favourite super saloon of the moment is the Jaguar XFR.
Saying that, a little birdie tells us that the brand new Mercedes E 63 AMG could be a worthy adversary. That’s a story for another day though.
Factfile
BMW M5
Engine: 5-litre V10 petrol
Peak power: 500bhp
Peak torque: 520Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed SMG auto
Performance (0-100km): 4.7 seconds
Emissions: 344g/km
Fuel economy per 100km: 14.4l
Price: €156,000
Jaguar XFR
Engine: 5-litre super-charged V8 petrol
Peak power: 503bhp
Peak torque: 625Nm
Transmission: Six-speed auto
Performance (0-100km):4.9 seconds
Emissions: 292g/km
Fuel economy per 100km: 12.6l
Price: €116,250