Jaguar, the well known British marquee, unveiled its flagship model XJ Ultimate at the Beijing Motor Show. With the showcasing of this vehicle, the company has set new heights for dynamic design and re-interpreted its reputation by offering a lightweight body style using aluminium composites. The unique body style of XJ Ultimate is credited for its unmatched performance. The new XJ Ultimate concentrates on two main features of Jaguar, namely luxury and innovation, which further consolidates its appeal towards targeting customers.
XJ Ultimate is based over the long wheelbase version of XJ, wherein the designing of interiors is mainly focused over the rear seating arrangement. The length of the car is elongated to the limit of limousine, transforming it into a luxury business class, which will provide a wonderful experience to the global buyers of luxury cars. The XJ Ultimate offers a package of several arrangements parallel to a private plane, which meets with most of the requirements demanded by individuals.
The leather trimmed centre console of the car has full length, which separates the two tailored rear seats. The console of XJ Ultimate holds many world class features, including ventilation, power adjustment, massage and lumbar support functions. With a single touch of button, a chrome indulged table rises up from the centre console, which is operated using solid aluminium composites with piano-black illumination. This table acts as a working area for rear passengers, which complement the usage of two third-generations of iPads by the means of wireless keyboards, which are placed in custom-built leather finished docks in the rear part of the front seats.
Shifting the focus of passengers from business to pleasure, the XJ Ultimate is equipped with a champagne chiller, which is placed between both the rear seats. This unique arrangement reduces the temperature of bottle and makes it perfect to sooth the mood of passengers. Jaguar has also bespoke two champagne flutes in a specially made cabinet, under the centre table.
The rear seats of XJ Ultimate are also provided with an advanced infotainment system, which includes two headrest screens with wireless headphones that provides a unique appeal to the car. The audio system packed within the car is developed by Meridian, the British audio expert. Jaguar has left no space for inconvenience of its passengers in its new offering.
The display screen provided within the car supports input from various sources, such as the DVD player, USB, RCA connections and digital TV tuner or an external media player, which can be easily synced with the Rear Media Interface. The audio can be heard through wireless headphones, which allows passengers to watch individual entertainment resources. Rear seats of XJ Ultimate can be easily managed by a wireless controller, which is placed in the centre console of the car. This feature allows passenger to set their individual preferences in climate zones and heating as well as cooling functions of the seat.
The advanced Meridian sound system packed within the car is combined with pioneer technology, which delivers the most possible natural sound vibrations. The audio system packed within the car includes a 15-channel amplifier and a 20 speaker system, which represents the advanced digital sound processing technology of Meridian. With this special technology, each and every individual in XJ Ultimate can feel the pleasure of music that positions them in between the centre of sound field. Meridian delivers this output because of its Trifield technology, which develops a dynamic sound field that provides a special feel to every listener that the music played in the car is especially dedicated on them. Along with an advanced and efficient surround system, the XJ Ultimate also features a pair of third-generation iPads, which are complemented with wireless keyboards. The iPads automatically get charged every time the driver of the car starts ignition.
As far as exterior features of XJ Ultimate are concerned, Jaguar has incorporated several aspects within its designing efforts. The precisely placed lower air intakes are polished with fine chrome that remains parallel with the front grille of the car. Along with this, the features like unique dual-surfaced alloy wheels, indulged stainless steel oval exhaust pipe finishers and subtle ‘Ultimate’ badging enables the car to mark its presence over roads.
The XJ Ultimate has a ground-breaking coupe design, which maintains its standard among the rivals. However, the new offering of Jaguar is dynamically different from other cars of the same segment. Its all-aluminium manufacturing rates the car high in terms of designing elements, like muscularity, elegance, sleekness and strength. The front fascia of Jaguar XJ Ultimate contains lower front air exhausts that are polished with chrome and LED daytime-running lights, which are placed between the aggressively shaped head lights.
In order to provide an unmatched exterior design to XJ Ultimate, the company has incorporated 20 inched Maroa forged alloy wheels within the car, which are unique in this model and are featured with dual tone colour design. The outer surface of its spokes are finished with dark grey colour, whereas the inner surface of alloy wheels are precisely finished that reflects a bright polished surface over the outer edges. These technical finishes at both – the inner as well as outer portion combines together to deliver such appearance, which is glamorous and purposeful as well.
On the other hand, the first 20 units of XJ Ultimate will be offered in Celestial Black colour. However, the buyers can also demand for their car in any colour of their choice including Polaris White. The company has also offered an exclusive array of paint colours, which includes a new range of ‘chromaflare’. In this new range, the buyers are required to represent a suitable sample so that the auto maker can deliver exact shade of their choice.
Jaguar is a marquee in offering appealing cabins within the interiors of there cars. The architecture of interior carved within XJ Ultimate is unique in its class, which combines graceful and brilliant use of quality materials. As the door of the car opens, it offers a warm welcome to its passengers. The attractive wood veneer is specially deigned using straight ebony, which is designed in a Herringbone mould with the image of mirror on upper portion and a band of piano black surface on the lower end.
The Herringbone pattern runs throughout the interiors of car, following to its doors, front portion and across the bottom of windscreen. This special feature creates a dynamic look, which imitate the time of conventional wooden-hulled power boats. The clock placed in dashboard of XJ Ultimate is also quite unique, since its front portion is polished by aluminium and has a lozenge shape that delivers ‘spun’ bright finish. The interiors of XJ are incorporated with lavish leather components, which have almost covered every surface in the car. In addition, Jaguar has also used the leather headlining, such as Jet on Jet or Ivory seats and lower surfaces with either Mineral or Bordeaux uppers.
The auto maker leaves an option on the part of customers for further customizations in terms of the pattern of embroidery on headrests. The design of ‘Ultimate’, which is located in the centre of the Herringbone surface below the windscreen can be also customised as per the preference of the buyer. The main focus in XJ Ultimate is placed over the passengers occupying rear seats. Inner cabin of the car remains parallel with the demands of modern businessman, since it is incorporated with several advanced features that highlight the company’s appeal of ‘work hard, play hard’ personality.
The couch placed in the rear portion of Jaguar cars is replaced by the two individual and unique seats, which are specially designed for XJ Ultimate. All the seats of this car are tailored, elegant and are ergonomically designed, which are enclosed in semi-aniline leather basket that provides a luxurious feeling to the passengers. The efforts of hand-finished stitching are clearly depicted within the interiors of this luxurious car, which hold characteristics of look and feel.
The seats equipped within the car have powered recline, winged headrests and four way adjustable lumbar support functions, which allows passengers to attain a perfect seating posture. The comfort advancements offered by XJ Ultimate are further improved with the addition of on-demand massage and heating as well as cooling functions. The passenger sitting behind the front occupant is felicitated with a stow-away button, which automatically moves the vacant seat in front to further expand the ample legroom at the rears. Front seats trail similar exclusive design as offered in the rear portion with identical operations. In addition, it offers additional features of electronic movement that allows adjustment of 20 by 20.
Since the seats in the car are divided by a full length centre console that runs throughout the length of the car. The chrome indulged console is beautifully wrapped in fully trimmed soft grain leather coating, which has piano black surface. This cabinet is mounted with numerous features and advancements, which are exclusively designed for XJ Ultimate. The console cabinet in centre has flute holders that bespoke company’s attention towards delivering a complete pack of luxury and comforts. The champagne flute delivers the same impression of perfection, as it has a standard size bottle of champagne, which is flawlessly offered to the passengers when the door of chiller is opened. In order to keep the bottle chilled, the temperature within the chiller ranges between 7°C and 10°C.
In order to make the passengers feel confined, the car is equipped with revised air-sprung rear suspension system that improves ride comfort in the rear portion. Since the car is manufactured using aluminium constraints, it is extremely light in weight. The reduction in weight is as much as 150 kg as compared to other cars of the same segment. With savings of weight, the car offers brilliant advantages, such as, agility, braking, acceleration and driver feedback and involvement system.
With the usage of aluminium architecture, the car is also proved advantageous on the grounds of fuel economy and emissions. XJ Ultimate is considered as a perfect blend of frugality and performance, mainly because of its range of refined and efficient engines.
Jaguar has offered an option of three powertrains, which are already introduced by the company in its existing model line-up. The performance oriented engines options provided within the car includes 5.0 litre V8 supercharged petrol, 3.0 litre V6 turbocharged diesel and the latest 3.0 litre V6 supercharged petrol. All these engines runs over rear wheel drive chassis, which are mated to an eight speed transmission system. The 5.0 litre V8 supercharged petrol generates maximum power of 506 bhp, while it attains peak torque of 625 Nm. In addition to this, the efficient V6 diesel engine also has brilliant emissions and delivers a decent fuel economy 17 kmpl.
The new 3.0 litre V6 supercharged petrol engine will be provided within the model line-up of 2013. This engine will generate maximum power of 338 bhp, whereas will attain highest torque of 450 Nm. In addition, this engine will be also provided with Jaguar’s Intelligent Stop-Start system, which will be common among all the engines. This engine is based over the award winning technology, a permanent part of Jaguar’s V8 motors that delivers same performance to its naturally-aspirated engine version. However, this version of engine is not offered in XJ Ultimate.
For the Indian perspective, the Jaguar XJ Ultimate will be offered in the auto market by the end of 2012. In addition, the pricing and engine configurations of Indian models are yet to be announced.
