XKR: 19mph more awesome

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It’s always an embarrassing moment. You’re cruising along in your new Jag XKR, doing a steady, safe 155mph. Another XKR driver pulls up alongside you. Your eyes meet. You nod. You floor your respective accelerators. The other XKR launches off into the distance, but… damn! Your limiter, er, limits you to 155mph. As the other XKR disappears into the sunset, you hear a faint cackle and the words, ‘Should have ordered the Speed Pack…’

OK, so maybe not. But who are we to judge Jaguar for heading to the Geneva show with an even faster XKR. A 174mph XKR, to be precise: equip your sleek Jag with the optional new ‘Speed Pack’ and you’ll be blessed with an extra 19mph over the standard XKR.

They haven’t simply removed the limiter: the Speed Pack’d XKR gets an engine and transmission recalibration. To cope with all that extra speed, it’s fitted with a revised front splitter and a bigger spoiler at the back, plus a bunch of other nice visual bits including body-coloured sills, chromey window surrounds and something called Power Vents. We have no idea what they are, but they sound excellent.

If you need even more goodness for your eyes, you can also spec your XKR with Jag’s new ‘Black Pack’ (insert your own jokes here… actually, don’t), which adds 20-inch black gloss alloys and a host of other pretty stuff.

OK, we know we’re getting a bit excited about something that is, essentially, a tarted-up special edition but… just look at it.

The Speed Pack adds £3,500 to the XKR’s £62,000 starting price, and the Black Pack costs a further £4,000. We’ll do the adulation thing with the fasterer XKR in Geneva in a couple of weeks’ time.