Wednesday 14th November 2001

Paramount XKR

We're very pleased to welcome Robert Farago to PistonHeads. Robert writes for many publications including Evo and Autocar and will be bringing us some great new content in the months to come. We kick off with the Paramount Jag.

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[tuscan_v8]

mmmm that all i can say!..it look so similar to good old Aston Martin..so in my view is that Jaguar simly ran out of style flair and thought why not copy DB7.

(I might be bias cos I grew up in Newport Pagnell, right next to the factory)

Tuscan

[PetrolTed]

There are common roots aren't there? I can't remember the story...

[tvradict]

Did JC not liken this car to Blenhim(?) palace in his Full Throttle video?? How do you a car into a big house??

[tvradict]

that should be "How do you turn a car into a big house?"

[jmorgan]

You have a comma in the link that upsets it. Do I get an hat?

[PetrolTed]

You'll have to try harder than that!

[jmorgan]

I broke me nail typing it?

[JonVickers]

There's a bloke around the corner from me that has an XK that looks like this (he runs an independent Jaguar specialist garage), haven't looked closely enough to see if its the same. Personally the front airdam extender looks like a real afterthought, sounds nice, though.

[philshort]

Common roots? They're both Fords aren't they?

[marki]

so was the GT40

[Captain Chaos]

Yes, gimme a GT40 replica with a proper yankee engine anyday. XK8 is purely for fat cats only. Svelte pussys need not bother (is that rude? Oeeerrrr?)

[marki]

xkr is a lot of fun

[eddy_hyde]

They are damn similar cause both cars share the same platform (modified XJS) and were designed by the same guy, well ian callumn did the DB7, and had a hand in the XK, but was mainly Geoff Lawson.

It may look ok, but from what i know paramount dont have the greatest reputation. For a start the car was never designed to have 450 bhp, and the reason the gearbox gives poor shift is because they havent re callibrated it for more horsepower.

Bit max power for my liking bodykit, big wheels and a big 'zorst', think i remember some people laughing at that not to long ago. If it dont work on a Nova, why should it on an XKR. The XKR 100 sorts out most of the problems (decent seets for a start) looks a lot better, and comes with a warranty, and is cheeper, but its still a luxury GT. If you still want a 400bhp RWD V8 sportscar that looks the mutts nuts, i think there is another British manufacture that got ther first!!

[robert farago]

True, the auto box doesn't handle the power (as detailed in the review). And I can understand why someone wanting 450 horses wouldn't immediately think of the XKR. But it IS a coherent package with significant advantages over the official product-- at least from a handling and acoustic point of view.

Yes, don't forget the sound. It's not a burbling TVR or a bellowing AC Cobra, but this cat really does sound grrrreat! And there are more than a few people who believe the Callum XK is the most beautiful modern design in the world, ever! (I mean, what do you think compares?) So why NOT modify the beast?

making friends wherever I go