2014 Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake

Vital Stats

Engine:
SC 5.0L V8
Power:
542 HP / 502 LB-FT
Transmission:
8-Speed Auto
Base Price:
$103,000 (est)


We'd consider giving up vital organs for the opportunity to drive any number of vehicles on the Nürburgring: supercars, racecars, track cars, even hot hatches... but a station wagon? That might not seem like a top choice at first blush, but this is no ordinary wagon. This is the Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake.

Now if that name leaves you scratching your head, there are several good reasons for that – not least of which is the unfortunate reality that, unlike so many performance-oriented crossovers and sport-utes, the Sportbrake is not offered in North America. But suppose it were, or that weren't a factor. You'd likely still be left wondering how the name Jaguar ended up on a station wagon in the first place, and how that machine wound up bearing the letters R-S, the suffix affixed only to Coventry's most hardcore performance models.

Our brief story goes back a little over two years to when Jaguar revealed the XF Sportbrake at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, giving its mid-level sedan an elongated roof and added cargo capacity. The Sportbrake may not be the first wagon to wear the Leaping Cat badge, but following the lamentable X-Type Sportwagon, it could be argued that the XF is the first authentic Jag estate.

In giving prospective Jaguar buyers the option of a wagon – or, conversely, wagon buyers the opportunity to drive a Jaguar – the quintessentially British automaker did not initially offer a performance version. Not until two years later when it revealed the XFR-S Sportbrake at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, skipping any conventional petrol-powered options (which it does not offer in any market save for China) and right over the XFR performance model offered on the sedan and going straight for the most improbable cross-breed it could have concocted. Having struck us from the get-go as the kind of wagon we had to get our hands on, we eagerly headed to Germany to experience it first-hand.